Brancelli
If any song should go it's 2 fux. Gotta be Adam preserving his vocals since this is not the case.
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ActionThisDay
I don't really see the point of playing IWTBF in the States as it wasn't well received there in the 1st place.......be like playing Body Language which was a hit, but not a song the fans over there really liked.
cmsdrums
It's Late and Spread Your Wings gone now (probably for good?). I knew they wouldn't last to the UK, but they been ditched even earlier than I expected :-(
ggo1
Brian May just liked a tweet from some guy asking for Its Late. Hope? I'm going to try it anyway.
jabbo5150
I just tweeted him about the Detroit show and those songs so if it was that, it was my Tweet.
Krypto_98
Everyone tweet at him for it's late and syw
ggo1
[QUOTE] [b]jabbo5150 wrote:[/b]
I just tweeted him about the Detroit show and those songs so if it was that, it was my Tweet.[/QUOTE]
No it was someone tweeting about Nashville... so that makes at least 3 of us. but all asking for different shows. I think we need a bit more effort to get it going viral.
I just tweeted him about the Detroit show and those songs so if it was that, it was my Tweet.[/QUOTE]
No it was someone tweeting about Nashville... so that makes at least 3 of us. but all asking for different shows. I think we need a bit more effort to get it going viral.
Krypto_98
Everyone tweet for Toronto, i Instagram at his last post
Grantcdn1
I'm going to have to join twitter, instagram etc but agree we should let them know with whatever means we have that we want "It's Late"...before it's all too Late.... really hoping for it at the Toronto show
flash00.
Clearly Brian and Roger feel that the rock classic with the haunting lyrics Two Flux is a far more important track on this tour.....fascinating.
The Real Wizard
I was at the Montreal show last night. I'm a bit disappointed that It's Late and Spread Your Wings have been dropped. I share and empathize with a lot of the feelings that I'm reading about here. But I'm going to attempt to bring some grander perspective into the discussion:
How many successful 1970s acts survived the 1980s, commercially speaking? I think we can we count them on one hand. The LP as a medium peaked in the early to mid 70s, but was in decline by the late 70s. To survive the 1980s, it became all about the single, to get played on the radio and on MTV. Peter Gabriel stuck to albums, and coincidentally by 1982 he was flat broke, to the point that Genesis had to reunite with him for a show at the Milton Keynes bowl to bail him out.
If Queen had broken up in 1979 and did a reunion tour in the 2000s, they'd probably be doing theatres and playing mostly album tracks. But for a moment in 1980, Queen were the biggest act in the US - not because of an album, but because of two hit songs. From then onward, with occasional exceptions, earlier material was axed in their setlists in favour of new songs, but the hits more or less remained the dominant part of their show.
Here's one of those exceptions - in 1982, they played Liar for a few weeks at the beginning of the tour. It sounded fresh and exciting. But listen to the tapes - their audience had changed. Most people didn't know the song. The band clued in, and they dropped it. The only difference between then and now is there was no internet. Bootleg tapes circulated, but it usually took months or even years for that to happen. So people just went to the shows and generally had a great time without expectations. It was only a small minority who'd say "they aren't playing the old songs anymore."
For the past 40 years or so, to most people Queen have been a hits band. How do we know that? Greatest Hits has sold better than all of their studio albums combined. Let that sink in.
And a slightly more anecdotal citing - in those "guitar heroes" type books, on every guitarist's page it names three albums that best encapsulate their work. For literally every other rock player there are three studio albums, but for Brian May it's usually Sheer Heart Attack, A Night At The Opera, and Greatest Hits.
But this is the path they've chosen.
Maybe "Two Fux" is more important than two classics.
Or maybe it's as simple as the fact that they have a fuck ton of hits to pick from, and that they've willingly chosen the flock over the few.
My vote is for the latter. But let's not pretend that this sensitivity for their audience is a sudden development. It's been in their consciousness since before plenty of us reading this post were born.
To people who post on forums like this, the first six Queen albums are cherished artistic statements. Connoisseurs of music see that 73-77 period as a big deal. But to Brian and Roger who have known each other for about 50 years, that's 10% of that time. As the artists who have invested themselves into this music for so many years and in so many different ways, we can't even begin to psychoanalyze them and their choices (nor should we).
It may well be that those album tracks just may not matter as much to them as many of us think they do. Maybe they're happy watching people enjoy themselves to the hits, because that's what most people identify with.
The arenas are full tour after tour, even if the setlist is barely different from the last time, but the production is completely different. Shows are about the events as much as the songs. Adam Lambert riding a bicycle will be far more memorable to most people than which 1977 song they played half way through the show. The fact that they're still filling arenas despite having not released an album in over 20 years probably means Brian and Roger understand the dynamics of performance art far more than many people here are giving them credit for.
How many successful 1970s acts survived the 1980s, commercially speaking? I think we can we count them on one hand. The LP as a medium peaked in the early to mid 70s, but was in decline by the late 70s. To survive the 1980s, it became all about the single, to get played on the radio and on MTV. Peter Gabriel stuck to albums, and coincidentally by 1982 he was flat broke, to the point that Genesis had to reunite with him for a show at the Milton Keynes bowl to bail him out.
If Queen had broken up in 1979 and did a reunion tour in the 2000s, they'd probably be doing theatres and playing mostly album tracks. But for a moment in 1980, Queen were the biggest act in the US - not because of an album, but because of two hit songs. From then onward, with occasional exceptions, earlier material was axed in their setlists in favour of new songs, but the hits more or less remained the dominant part of their show.
Here's one of those exceptions - in 1982, they played Liar for a few weeks at the beginning of the tour. It sounded fresh and exciting. But listen to the tapes - their audience had changed. Most people didn't know the song. The band clued in, and they dropped it. The only difference between then and now is there was no internet. Bootleg tapes circulated, but it usually took months or even years for that to happen. So people just went to the shows and generally had a great time without expectations. It was only a small minority who'd say "they aren't playing the old songs anymore."
For the past 40 years or so, to most people Queen have been a hits band. How do we know that? Greatest Hits has sold better than all of their studio albums combined. Let that sink in.
And a slightly more anecdotal citing - in those "guitar heroes" type books, on every guitarist's page it names three albums that best encapsulate their work. For literally every other rock player there are three studio albums, but for Brian May it's usually Sheer Heart Attack, A Night At The Opera, and Greatest Hits.
But this is the path they've chosen.
Maybe "Two Fux" is more important than two classics.
Or maybe it's as simple as the fact that they have a fuck ton of hits to pick from, and that they've willingly chosen the flock over the few.
My vote is for the latter. But let's not pretend that this sensitivity for their audience is a sudden development. It's been in their consciousness since before plenty of us reading this post were born.
To people who post on forums like this, the first six Queen albums are cherished artistic statements. Connoisseurs of music see that 73-77 period as a big deal. But to Brian and Roger who have known each other for about 50 years, that's 10% of that time. As the artists who have invested themselves into this music for so many years and in so many different ways, we can't even begin to psychoanalyze them and their choices (nor should we).
It may well be that those album tracks just may not matter as much to them as many of us think they do. Maybe they're happy watching people enjoy themselves to the hits, because that's what most people identify with.
The arenas are full tour after tour, even if the setlist is barely different from the last time, but the production is completely different. Shows are about the events as much as the songs. Adam Lambert riding a bicycle will be far more memorable to most people than which 1977 song they played half way through the show. The fact that they're still filling arenas despite having not released an album in over 20 years probably means Brian and Roger understand the dynamics of performance art far more than many people here are giving them credit for.
jabbo5150
Totally understand where you are coming from with your post and while it probably does make more sense to the band, it makes it no less frustrating as a fan, especially considering those songs were in the setlist as of what, two weeks ago? It's kind of like when I saw Guns N Roses in 1993, only to miss Brian May as the opener by like a week. We instead got Blind Melon (Who were awful) and Shannon Hoon tripped over his own feet and fell on stage. The Detroit show on Thursday will still be great I am sure and I am looking forward to it, but it's a what could have been thing for me at least. I am still tweeting all of them to add it back in, though I am sure it will fall on deaf ears.
How was the show?
How was the show?
The Real Wizard
Of course it was amazing, all things considered. The production is ridiculously good, and the show is very well paced. It's about as good as a nostalgia act show in an arena can get.
jabbo5150
I am looking forward to it. I suppose I should be grateful they are even outing the states again. I figured after they reconquered a few years ago it would be one and done, so I am glad they decided to come back.
jabbo5150
touring