Why CLTCL instead of AOBTD at Live Aid?

[QUOTE] [b]Wiley wrote:[/b]
They wanted to show the world they had moved on from Hot Space, hehe :).
Ok, now what if they had played "Staying Power"?? Without the Apology of course. :)[/QUOTE]
Staying Power live, comes in inclusive of the apology - you can't have one wihtout the other :-)

AOBTD sucked in The Works tour. It improved so much in the Magic Tour. It was Ok to prefer CLTCL over AOBTD, I guess.

I'm pretty sure they chose not to as they would have been lambasted for singing AOBTD when people were literally starving to death as Live Aid was on.

I really wish they'd played Body Language rather than that pretentious overproduced HTF crap. And yes, AOBTD would have been completely inappropriate. Supported by the fact that Freddie (most likely) omitted 'build your muscles while your body decays' from HTF for the same reason.

Hammer To Fall is a highlight of The Works in my opinion. The lyrics are memorable and slightly thought provoking, and it's one of their uncommon straight rock songs from the 80's. The solo and guitar work are also fantastic. The fact that it was their current single seems to be the most logical reason they played it.

Anyone else notice the slight irony here? That is, the criticism for playing a less obvious song, and playing one song that doesn't necessarily appeal to the masses among a bunch that do. There's not a shadow of a doubt that people would be complaining even more if they'd done the opposite and just played a 'greatest hits' setlist. So I think Hammer To Fall's inclusion was a good choice. It's also a highlight on the DVD in that we see a band member other than Freddie (-GASP-)! The filming frustrated me a lot in that sense.. I'd be waiting for it to cut to John or Roger.. and it just never did. Literally all we see of Roger is in wide shots between songs. I derailed that really quickly but yeah.

I don't think it wasn't only because of the meaning of Another One Bites the Dust. I think it was also because Crazy i just an overall better song to play live... especially to please an enormous crowd.

I think 'Dust' was omitted because of a combination of factors:

* It'd have been too obvious, as it was their best-selling single.
* Freddie, Brian and Roger may have been adamant to include their own songs on the set-list, Deaks probably shouted a bit less than the others, which resulted in the others getting their way.
* Having both 'Ga Ga' and 'Dust' (or 'Ga Ga' and 'Break Free' for that matter) would've meant a large percentage of their set would've leaned towards the 'pop' side rather than the 'rock' side, and they probably wanted a different balance.

As for 'Hammer to Fall', I also think it was a combination of factors, which were already mentioned by others:

* Lyrics that were, indirectly, related to the whole 'contributing to a better world' idea, unlike the other songs which were basically entertainment, or had a different kind of thought-provoking message (e.g. 'Ga Ga').
* A rock song useful to ... well, rock, the crowd.
* It was their current single (bar Xmas).
* Brian may (no pun intended) have felt offended hadn't they included more songs of his.

Last but not least, 'Crazy' was one of their most famous songs and one that worked very well on stage. Plus, Freddie wouldn't mind if a billion people saw him playing two different instruments on an 18-minute set.

[QUOTE] [b]tomchristie22 wrote:[/b]
Supported by the fact that Freddie (most likely) omitted 'build your muscles while your body decays' from HTF for the same reason.
[/QUOTE]
I always thought he took the mic away from his face for a second there just because he was distracted by that camera guy who was getting weirdly close to him. You can clearly see that he's still singing and that time, the microphone's just not picking it up.

Then again, maybe your right. Maybe he omitted that lyric on purpose, and he just happened to be laughing at the camera guy at the same time. I never thought about that much before.

If Queen had sung AOBTD the British press would have roasted them for tastelessly singing a song about biting the dust - a phrase widely interpreted as slang for dying - before having a glug of champagne and then being whisked away in their limos. Not the right song for Live Aid and rightly left out. Hammer to Fall is a great stadium song and a nice piece of classic rock to showcase that side of Queen. It was a great setlist, showed everybody what they've done and what they could do.

would have picked under pressure as a better choice than HTF...... great song- timely and relevant for the event ....

[QUOTE] [b]flashalive wrote:[/b]
would have picked under pressure as a better choice than HTF...... great song- timely and relevant for the event ....[/QUOTE]

Agreed. HTF is a weak spot in an otherwise excellent performance. Under Pressure was a hit, it rocks, and it's excellent live. Plus Bowie was there! They could've done a duet!

Bowie & Queen singing Under Pressure was indeed a missed opportunity. Did they have some sort of creative differences or something? I don't know a lot about Bowie's personal life. It always struck me as fairly odd that Queen & Bowie never played it together live, only separately.