Why is A Night At The Opera so good?

Another reason why ANATO is arguably a superior album to ADATR (which isn't in my top 3) is Death on Two Legs. A vicious, biting masterpiece, it must surely be one of the boldest and greatest opening songs of all time. :D

Good point. Gong + White Man's Riff + Tie Your Mother Down make an excellent intro, but Death on Two Legs takes it to another level IMO.

Quite simply because there is nothing else like ANATO.

[QUOTE] [b]mooghead wrote:[/b]
Quite simply because there is nothing else like ANATO.[/QUOTE]
Same goes for Queen II or, for that matter, George Harrison's All Things Must Pass, Bob Dylan's Blood On The Tracks, David Bowie's Hunky Dory, Jackson Browne's Running On Empty, Frank Zappa's We're Only In It For The Money etc. etc.
We were talking about what sets ANATO apart.

I see what you are saying but when ANATO came out a lot of lights were shining in Queen's direction. It was make or break... 'carry on the momentum or show us it was all a fluke'. They came up with a masterpiece that shut everyone's mouths. Unlike the albums previously quoted.

i accept that anato was good...very good in fact, and i accept that this kind of thing is subjective, but i don't even think anato is in queen's top 3 albums.
II, far and away, followed by races, followed by queen I

ANATO itself is a very good album. Though Bo Rhap is the only thing that made the album so successful, IMO.

If Bo Rhap hadn't been written, the album wouldn't have sold that much.

Perhaps whichever album Bo Rhap would appear on, a lucky album would be as successful as ANATO.

Lostman wrote: "ANATO itself is a very good album. Though Bo Rhap is the only thing that made the album so successful, IMO.
If Bo Rhap hadn't been written, the album wouldn't have sold that much."

What about YMBF?

What bizarre conments. "If you remove Bo Rap it wouldn't be as good." "If you remove BoRap it wouldn't have sold as well." BUT YOU CAN'T DO THAT! lol You can of course stack any argument in your favour if you're allowed to change reality. Take away Pearl Harbor and it was the Americans who struck first against the Japanese. But of course you can't take away Pearl Harbor! lol

@Holly:

I agree that there is no basis for the remark "if you remove BoRap it wouldn't have sold as well" - there is no way of knowing that. However, the comment "if you remove Bo Rap it wouldn't be as good" is a perfectly acceptable claim - you may agree or disagree with it, but it is not a metaphysical postulate - you can listen to the album without Bo Rap, and decide what you think of the album that way, resulting in either a less- or more favorable opinion, or (unlikely but possible) an unchanged opinion on the album.

Hmm...the title of this thread is "Why is ANATO so good?" One of the reasons for that is that it includes one of the biggest selling singles and most well known and best songs in modern rock/pop history.

The simple answer that ANATO is so good? Because it's A Night At The Opera, with Bo Rhap leading into GSTQ as its finale, with a hell of a lot of awesome tracks before it. I've seen a few ANATO vs. ADATR debates in this topic - this is quite interesting. Personally both of them are brilliant, with Races being my favourite next to Opera, but only because I can listen Opera all the way through. I do love ADATR (Tie Your Mother Down, Long Away, Somebody to Love, Teo Torriatte, etc.) but I always have to skip Drowse when listening to that album. Apologies to any Roger fans, but it's his weakest moment.

[QUOTE] [b]Holly2003 wrote:[/b]
Take away Pearl Harbor and it was the Americans who struck first against the Japanese.[/QUOTE]
Yes, but not the atom bombs. The reason why the Japanese were upset was because the US was shipping weapons to China throughout the 30s.

Despite what they teach American kids in the school system - Pearl Harbour was not unprovoked.

Carry on :-)

so Japan are ok to attack the US because they had been helping China
but China are not allowed that help despite Japan's decade of attacks previously?
so the "empire" had fierce double-standards then?

Japan, Atom Bomb, Pearl Harbor, A Night At the Opera...

Fukushima at the Races was better.
ANATO sold more hence preceived as better.