Is A Night At The Opera In the shadow of other great bands albums Of the 7

agreed, mine's second place is The Manic Street Preachers followed by the Beatles followed by Green Day followed by Led Zeppelin... I'm all over the place. I have many tastes - Mahler is my favorite composer :-)

br5946 wrote:

And if you want a list of best guitarists ever...

#5 - Frank Infante
#4 - Suzanne Vega
#3 - Tony Peluso

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I know Prince is the man, but these other three are very interesting selections.  Can you provide some musical examples?

Sir GH wrote: I do know ELO, but mainly the hits... haven't dug deep into the records.  Methinks I should change that..
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You really should! They're a hell of a great band.

Jimmy Dean wrote: agreed, mine's second place is The Manic Street Preachers followed by the Beatles followed by Green Day followed by Led Zeppelin... I'm all over the place. I have many tastes - Mahler is my favorite composer :-)

Manic strret preacher's?....interesting name.  what type of music do they play?.....sounds like gospel.  I'm also all over the place aside from classic rock, I like all types of Metal.  Heavy/thrash/hardore.   I like a little opera,  love the piano style blues like Dr. John and Professor longhair, howlin holf.   Singer songwrit'er's Carole king/jame talyor,  sarah mclachlan.  The list goes on.

Basically this is a cover version I did :) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OthkQe_p-jw

Sir GH wrote: I do know ELO, but mainly the hits... haven't dug deep into the records.  Methinks I should change that.. ----------
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You know how it is... if it wasn't for Bo Rhap, which kinda sums up what Queen "was"... the rest of the hits, doesn't say much about the band. You know: "another one bites the dust", "crazy little thing called love", "under pressure", "i want to break free".

I like them songs, I'm guessing we all do... but I'm also guessing that they're very far from being our favourites. And they're clearly not their best songs.

And with ELO, it's the same thing.

I don't know which hits you may know, as here in Argentina they had incredibly successful hits that didn't chart anywhere else.
But you know, I'm guessing it's Evil Woman, Showdown, Can't Get It Out of My Head. Perhaps there's also Rockaria!, Telephone Line and Strange Magic... but I'm only guessing.

Funny thing is what usually happens... many of them songs are nice, sure. I wouldn't say any of those is a bad song but their best? not even close!

Specially from ELDORADO, which is their most "orchestral" album. There are songs with lots of things going on like Poor Boy, Nobody's Child, Eldorado... and pretty much all the album YET the hit single was "Can't Get It Out of my Head" which is kinda weak compared to almost every other song.

What I like about the band is that they have a clearly different approach. There's always something going on, they have LOTS of vocals (which I may say, all of them are perfectly crafted and so accurate, always 100% in tune), and the whole string ensemble. They also include a brass section but it's not always there and there are many interesting keyboard lines. Many things going on at the same time and if anyone ever tried to write or play in a band with lots of instruments, they sure know it's not easy to write or play with so many things doing different stuff.

Of course it's not the typical rock band but that's exactly what I like about them. And there is so much more to the songs than you may hear. I specially like their 74-77 period. The later days (81-86)... don't do much for me, actually. I don't even listen to those albums, they are indeed pretty lame, and the early days has lots of good stuff and original ideas.

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mike hunt wrote: Jimmy Dean wrote: agreed, mine's second place is The Manic Street Preachers followed by the Beatles followed by Green Day followed by Led Zeppelin... I'm all over the place. I have many tastes - Mahler is my favorite composer :-)

Manic strret preacher's?....interesting name.  what type of music do they play?.....sounds like gospel.  I'm also all over the place aside from classic rock, I like all types of Metal.  Heavy/thrash/hardore.   I like a little opera,  love the piano style blues like Dr. John and Professor longhair, howlin holf.   Singer songwrit'er's Carole king/jame talyor,  sarah mclachlan.  The list goes on. *******************************************************

Funny you should mention Gospel... lol... it's ironic they have an album called "The Holy Bible" which is their classic album - usually rated on top 100 lists - it's a very angst-fused record which most people have a hard time digesting - mainly written by their former lyricist Richey Edwards who is presumed dead after going missing (lead a life of self abuse and was severely anorexic) - includes topics such as self-mutilation, anorexia, genocide, drug culture, prostitution, american propaganda, etc... basically an album of truths - hence the name "holy bible".

They were Clash inspired in their early days, but in their latter days they've become more melodic and actually very Queen-inspired. Besides melody, their forte are their lyrics. 

If you're from the UK, which I'd find hard to believe if you are and have never heard of them, you'd know some of their classic singles - Motorcycle Emptiness, A Design For Life, and If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next. Their latest album is very 80s Queen a-la Radio Ga Ga or A Kind Of Magic. But in general they're a very moody band - lots of minor keys and gloomy lyrics - not very hidden by the titles of their hits either!

GratefulFan wrote: "The early similarities can likely at least in part be chalked up to the shared influence of the musical Zeitgeist. A lot of the early Queen stuff sounded Zeppelin-y and Uriah Heep-y etc."


Indeed. Plus I also think the fact that I listened to a lot of Zeppelin before I ever heard Doing All Right also plays a role.

Not sure where or how you would rank ANATO compared to other great albums, but I would say that It is one of the most successfully executed creatively ambitious albums of all time.  All the other albums which are classics are classic in a framework.  There are so many musically diverse things happening on ANATO, and they are pulled off by four guys, no orchestras, no backing musicians.  Hard to top this release from a creative POV.

Not sure where or how you would rank ANATO compared to other great albums, but I would say that It is one of the most successfully executed creatively ambitious albums of all time.  All the other albums which are classics are classic in a framework.  There are so many musically diverse things happening on ANATO, and they are pulled off by four guys, no orchestras, no backing musicians.  Hard to top this release from a creative POV.

Sir GH wrote: I do know ELO, but mainly the hits... haven't dug deep into the records.  Methinks I should change that..
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you should, i think. upto and including discovery (1979) they (ELO) were a force in music. their 70s concept album Out o the Blue is an amazing work.
then, face the music, on the third day, eldorado and A New World Record are all very good albums of a band on form

Well then I think it's fair to say that Queen is the greatest band of all time, period!!!
Goodnight everybody!!!

Sir GH - I reasonably surprised you don't know the guitarists' names, but I guess you wouldn't if you don't know their bands, so I will give examples.

Suzanne Vega did guitar on her own records since she's a solo artist. Her most awesome songs in my honest opinion include Luka (which reached #23 in the UK and #3 on the US Hot 100), Marlene on the Wall (failed to chart in the States - surprise, really - but reached #85 with a UK release in 1985, and a reissue the next year reached #21). And of course, her most famous hit Tom's Diner.

As for Frank Infante, he did some moderate guitar work for Blondie. He and Chris Stein shared axe duties, but I think Infante's contributions did more for the Blondie sound. I can't name any Infante-led work off the top of my head, though... just look through the instrument personnel through Blondie's hits and listen.

And last, but definitely not least in any regard, Tony Peluso. The man behind the masterpiece solo on the Carpenters' Goodbye to Love and all the guitar parts on their records from 1972 to 1983. I could ramble, but I'm not going to that much. Let me just say on Goodbye to Love I can feel the power of that guitar on my veins!!!! Of course its part in the song's coda is a contributing factor - the way Peluso makes it sweep under Karen Carpenter's harmonies... MY GOD!!!!

Before you lash out at my drama there, as I explained in a post on another thread (the 'do you get tired of Queen' thread, I think...), I am a self-confessed Carpenters fan, and have proudly been all my life. R.I.P both Karen Carpenter and Tony Peluso. I can guess Tony is jamming with Jimi Hendrix at this moment, and Karen of course, as the finest female vocalist in the history of the universe, is duetting with Freddie.

Ouch!

If you don't explore 1981's "Time" from ELO, then you are missing their greatest album, imo!

please say you didnt mean that?
how is Time better than OUt of the Blue?