Poll: Favourite song from The Works album?

[QUOTE] [b]matt z wrote:[/b]
Radio
I go crazy (not even on the album.... horrible decision)
Hard life
Open Windows[/QUOTE]
Wow, same here.

Also, thanks for the input GF. Should it be for the debut album again, or should I try something a bit different?

[QUOTE] [b]waunakonor wrote:[/b]

Also, thanks for the input GF. Should it be for the debut album again, or should I try something a bit different?[/QUOTE]

I'm sure any approach you decide on will be fine, but one thought is that this is kind of a different process and way of thinking to arrive at favourite songs. It might be good to be more practiced and discerning for high quality albums with less crap material. Starting with some of the 80's albums might give us a bit of a chance to get good at it before other albums where the decisions will be harder and the gaps narrower.

I don't think Radio Gaga is overplayed at, the studio version is alright, but i much prefer the live versions

in fact i just saw radio gaga played on tv just a few minutes ago lol, but thats a first.

The singles on The Works are pretty much my favourites, with the exception of Hammer to Fall:
1. Radio Ga Ga
2. Its A Hard Life
3. I Want To Breat Free
4. Keep Passing The Open Windows
5. Machines (Back to Humans)

Nothing in unusual in that based on the current polling I guess.

1. Radio Gaga
2. I want to break free
3. Keep Passing the open windows
4. Hammer to fall

1 - Hard Life
2 - Open Windows
3 - Hammer To Fall - I feel that it's better live in an instrumental sense, particularly on the Magic Tour, but as far as tempo and vocal harmony goes, I take the studio version. But of course the vocal harmonies are going to be better in studio than live, considering they're so beefed up.

I do really enjoy Radio Ga Ga too, and I Go Crazy would be on there if part of the album.

Machines

The Works contains what is possibly my ever fave Queen post- Hot Space track and that's It's a Hard Life. I simply LOVE that song.  I can listen to it on loop indefinitely :D

I also really dig KPTOW.

I really like that album, I would say:
1) Machines
2) Radio Ga Ga
3) It's a Hard Life

Hands down, It's A Hard Life.

It is the closest Queen ever came in the 80s to recapturing the compositional greatness of their glory era, 1974-77.

While there are plenty of good tracks on the album (particularly the singles), it comes nowhere near great records like Queen II and ANATO. They were long past their creative peak by this point, but they were still creating great material. Always did.

Strangely enough I once read a book on guitarists that recommended The Works as one of the three "essential" Brian May albums.

The instrumental interlude of "It's a Hard Life" to me is one of Queen's best music during the 80's. The piano, then the guitar building up into a seminal Brian May solo, with a deceptive ending and then the solo continues until every fiber in your body is satisfied.
You know that PR quote saying Queen's music turns left when you thought it was going to go right? This solo is a fine example. Any normal pop song would have returned to the final triumphal chorus after the first part of the solo but not here. The second part arrives a bit surprisingly and -in my book- takes the song to another level. This "extra mile" which was missing from -say- The Cosmos Rocks, is what makes a good song GREAT.

About The Works being an "essential" Brian May album, that's weird. He shines on Hard Life, I love Machines, you have two great rockers and a lovely acoustic number... mmm, but I wouldn't call it essential. If anything, it's "Queen by numbers"... Hard Life is BoRhap revisited under an 80's filter, Tear it Up's music is an obvious nod to We Will Rock You and ITTWWC is reminiscent of Love of my Life (live). Hardly their most inovative period.
This kinda reminds me when I saw this Music Website doing a feature on Roger Taylor and adding a clip to the intro of We Will Rock You as "essential listening". He doesn't even play drums in it!

I definitely agree Wiley. The Works has some great melodies and is pretty great as far as commercial music goes. But it still really is Queen by Numbers.

As I recall at the time, Roger Taylor said that The Works was Queen pausing and taking a look back at what they had done up to that point. So there's definitely an element of rehash about it. Yet it still is incredibly well put together and can be enjoyed, provided you can stomach the lack of relative creativity in the album.

I mean for whatever Hot Space was, it was a new direction for the band and had lots of innovation in it, at least as far as Queen was concerned. They got burnt! And I guess that made them pull their creative horns in, and the next thing we got was The Works. Nevertheless in hindsight I think it was pretty much brilliant in achieving what it was designed to do. Whether the goals that were set for it were ideal is another question of course.

i kinda liked Keep Passing....but it was very very Joe Jackson in style
in fact id' go as far as to say there's a heavy influence from "Steppin' Out"

Joe Jackson - now there was a talent