The best / worst LP side

mike hunt wrote:

no offense,  GDML has never been an all time favorite of mine,  but the way you made it sound as if it's one of queen's worst,  it's a cool song as far as i'm concerned.....   It was a part of queens set list for years, and is played on the radio to this day more often than most non hit songs.  The foo fighter's have mentioned it.  when brian played on one of their songs (could be solo) I believe either hawkins or Dave said they wanted some GDML styled licks from him.  Just  Recently I heard it on the radio (Eddie trunk).  not bad for a horrible song.  still played on the radio 30+ years after it's release.   I'm not a NIN fan,  but plenty of people are.

No offence taken. It just doesn't float my boat. The guitar noise in the middle is a Zeppelin rip off and the suggestive lyrics are unoriginal. The only time it rises above average is the line "you make love, you make love etc" with Brian playing along with the vocal. Aside from that, it doesn;t match up to the great quality of the rest of the album. IMO of course.

I like some of the musical elements of GDML well enough, some quite well really, but sections of the lyrics are frank to the point of being distracting.  It's hard not to be pretty keenly aware you're in the middle of a sonic version of gay male sex, and that does somehow get in the way a bit.  Nine Inch Nails' cover and video tried to repurpose it as a sexy hetero grind, but it didn't really work.  The tone of the lyrics is just subtly off for that.

o please with that gay bullshit........Those lryics could have been written by a straight man.   "I give you meat"  "you blow my Head"   i don't hear how the lryics are gay at all,  it's just the homophobia in straight people that makes them think about such things.  what are you afraid of?.....that you might like it?......Again,   if a straight man wrote those same lryics you wouldn't think nothing about it.    Freddie was writing these kind of sexual lryics way before Madonna was even thought of.

I can't resist posting this:

Everybody get down make peace :-)

mike hunt wrote: o please with that gay bullshit........Those lryics could have been written by a straight man.   "I give you meat"  "you blow my Head"   i don't hear how the lryics are gay at all,  it's just the homophobia in straight people that makes them think about such things.  what are you afraid of?.....that you might like it?......Again,   if a straight man wrote those same lryics you wouldn't think nothing about it.    Freddie was writing these kind of sexual lryics way before Madonna was even thought of.
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Ohforgodsake.  It's got nothing to do with homophobia in any way.  My point is, though the differences are subtle, a straight man in unlikely to have written precisely those lyrics.  Does the word "meat" rank highly in the seduction toolkit of your average heterosexual male?  I would hazard to say no.  Typically straight men do not structure innuendo around the phrases "I suck" and "You blow".  They don't generally say things like "when you take me".  I didn't say it made me uncomfortable, I said it gets in the way of me connecting lyrically with the song because I'm pretty much 100% sure he's not talking to me.

Freddie's love songs though certainly almost exclusively inspired by romantic longing for other men pose no such problem because love is love is love.  They're wonderful and universal.

I agree with grateful fan, Freddie knew exactly what he was writing & I've always thought the same, its not homophobic the world is way too politically correct

I always saw "Get Down, Make Love" as primal and animalistic (is that a word?). Rather than being a clean, if naughty, tribute, like some other later songs ("Flesh For Fantasy" for example), it was a down and dirty (and fun) exploration. The "I suck" and "I blow" are cleverly turning the mental process ("I suck your mind, you blow my head") not into a wondrous, dreamy state of bliss, but into a base, carnal experience.

"Gay" never crossed my mind at all. Besides, in 1977, wasn't Freddie still closeted and with Mary. I know that doesn't mean he couldn't write about "gay" themes, but the audience of the time would have thought "Hm, a song about sex," not "a song about *gay* sex" per se. It's not until it became widely known later in his career that he was gay that everyone would turn to his lyrics for clues that probably weren't there.

Freddie and Mary split in 1975.

There's a whole lot of "everybodys" in GDML, and I'm sure Freddie was trying to write a sex song that worked universally.  But Freddie was a gay man, and sex as apprehended through the mind and senses of a gay man has it's hallmarks.

rhyeking wrote: I always saw "Get Down, Make Love" as primal and animalistic (is that a word?). Rather than being a clean, if naughty, tribute, like some other later songs ("Flesh For Fantasy" for example), it was a down and dirty (and fun) exploration. The "I suck" and "I blow" are cleverly turning the mental process ("I suck your mind, you blow my head") not into a wondrous, dreamy state of bliss, but into a base, carnal experience.

"Gay" never crossed my mind at all. Besides, in 1977, wasn't Freddie still closeted and with Mary. I know that doesn't mean he couldn't write about "gay" themes, but the audience of the time would have thought "Hm, a song about sex," not "a song about *gay* sex" per se. It's not until it became widely known later in his career that he was gay that everyone would turn to his lyrics for clues that probably weren't there.

Very true,  in 1977 most people didn't really think of the gay thing with freddie.....kids were very niave in those days.... GDML was just a song about sex,  and for me personally I don't give a rats ass who freddie was writing about in his songs......  when most people listen to songs they think about their own personal experiences.  'love of my life'  i would think of someone in my own life that i feel like that about,   not about freddie's love for mary.....  Get down make love i might put on when i Lust after a woman or when I'm in a fiesty mood.....I'm straight, so naturally I would think of women.... ........how about Don't stop me now?....same theme in that song.....how .about My fairy king?...does it get any more gay than that?  but the song rules.   Being  animalistic is a part of everyone at one time or another....straight or gay.

kozlorf wrote: It's quite common that people point out their favourite or most hated albums, but I think that choosing the best / worst LP side is somehow different. Actually, when most of the Queen albums came out, people used to listen and play separate LP sides rather than whole LPs - and it might have been, that they played one side many many times while never listening to the other.

My picks are (even if I don't consider these two albums as the best / the worst (Queen II and A King Of Magic are the respective ones)):
The best: Side B of Sheer Heart Attack - all the songs are different, but work well together, the opening and closing track have a common theme, so there's a feeling of a beginning and end of a whole; it somehow reminds me of Side B of Abbey Road; and no Roger Taylor song ;)
The worst: Side B of The Game: even if I consider Save Me and Sail Away as one of my personal favourites, the remaining songs are for me the biggest set of junk Queen ever produced; two of them are Roger Taylor songs ;)

Best side -

Side B of Queen 2

Worst side -

Side B of The Miracle / A Kind Of Magic

The worst side for me has to be Side B of The Game - despite the fact I have that album on CD, I still can see a 'side-y' aspect to it (if such a word exists). The Game is the real low point for the band anyway (like I said in a previous post, it's their worst album for me), but the second side, i.e. CD tracks 6 to 10, is a ticking time-bomb which explodes on the last track. One impressive song (Don't Try Suicide), three songs that get a 'Meh...' rating (Coming Soon, Sail Away, Rock It) and one unspeakable load of rubbish (Save Me) - all in all, its the worst side on any Queen album.

The best side has to be without a doubt, side one of ANATO. Flawless. As far as vinyl sides go, this can take its place alongside side four of Sandinista! and the second side of Purple Rain in the 'ultra-classic sides' department. The genre-hopping on the first side alone is incredible - metal twice (DoTL and Sweet Lady), vaudeville twice (Sunday Afternoon and Seaside Rendezvous), a blast of pop-rock (YMBF), spacey folk-rock ('39) and a shred through down-and-out good ol' fashioned rock with rebel attitude (I'm In Love With My Car). One of my favourite ways to kill time is to clear all the records in my record player, get ANATO out, drop the needle, and get lost in the music. Guilty pleasure? I'm sure its one for many of us on Queenzone.