Half of Hot Space + half of The Game = a great album ?

david28 wrote:It's difficult to compare when context are so different. By the time of HS they were an well established band, they knew they had to find a new sound in order to keep things "fresh". Freddie and John's interest in "funk-black" music seems rather authentic. So, to me it was not only a matter of money. In terms of authenticity and creativity, The Works and AKOM are worse IMO.

I think it depends upon how you look at it. By the early 80s, the funk/black sound had gone full circle and was only really "authentic" when black/actual funk bands were doing it. Also, I always saw Queen as pioneers, not re-hash merchants. The Game was pioneering, HS wasn't really.

Rock bands doing it had had its day - the Game (just about) managing to get in there at the death.
Most of the established rock acts had ploughed the funk/dance field during the mid/late 70s:
Purple, ELO, Doobies, Zep, Stones, Eagles, Chicago, War, Steve Macca, Exile, Clash, Winwood, Rush, Bad Co, Styx, Bowie, Roxy Music...fuck - even Kiss did it

This term “ funk/black “ sounds seriously archaic and a bit embarrassing now. HS sounds more like euro cheese disco than anything. I actually still quite like Back Chat and Dancer but it’s pop, that’s all.

AlbaNo1 wrote:

This term “ funk/black “ sounds seriously archaic and a bit embarrassing now. HS sounds more like euro cheese disco than anything. I actually still quite like Back Chat and Dancer but it’s pop, that’s all.

yep. i used it at the beginning as a direct reference to the post above. You'll notice that my next references were to

black/actual funk bands and funk/dance. I think the Backchat feel is somewhere very funk/dance...while dancer just feels (well) funk. Backchat has its moments with me - but I have to be in the right mood.

There's so much dross on that album though. Body Language / Staying Power / Put Out The Fire / Dancer / Action This Day and well, I just don't get on with Life Is Real - don't know why - perhaps the thing feels a little plastic, what with the very pretentious lyric.

PrimeJiveUSA wrote:Yeah...there doesn't seem to be a lot of love for Sail Away Sweet Sister but I've always thought it was a great track.

It is a great track, but I just don't like it. When Brian does the balladeer stuff, I don't get it - leave me cold. Same applies to Leaving Home Ain't Easy, Someday One Day, Teo Torriate and a couple of others

PrimeJiveUSA wrote:Also, my favorite track from Hot Space is Staying Power and rank it alongside Don't Stop Me Now as one of Freddie's greatest feel good/party tracks.

Make it move make it move
You know how to shake that thing
We'll work it work it work it
You and I can play ball baby

that's lazy writing ^

Life is Real at least has a different feel , an attempt to be a bit more introspective/poetic lyric wise but they just don’t quite have it. I always wondered did someone outside the band help or hinder the words. They are so out of character.

Sorry, I only used "funk/black" because I was thinking of Freddie introducing the "new songs" with this word in Milton Keynes (if my memory is correct). I didn't want to upset anybody.
In terms of dross, I think AKOM or The Miracle really come close to HS (let's talk about "Pain is so close to pleasure", "Party" or "Khashoggi's ship"...) I guess it's just a matter of taste.

Yeah I know everyone is paraphrasing . Freddie did use that and it seems to have stuck.

Funk/black had never been so cold and flat save for the solo career of Lionel Richie.

It's a disservice regardless of how applied


Anyways, totally agree with the assessment prior. They thought it was the next thing happening but it all didn't unfold that way.

Even the rock tracks/ESPECIALLY the rock tracks (can be used interchangeably) stunk.

An experiment in cocaine madness that didn't pull much unique other than COOL CAT and UP

And those conveniently all date from a year + before.

When i think of the good in HS it's usually Brian's "spicy bits" akin to his solos on far better stuff like Jeffrey Osborne.

Without those tri-part Brian embellishments the album is damn near a complete write off.

brENsKi wrote:

MisterCosmicc wrote:Hot Space is more authentic emotionally than Queen’s first two albums.

sorry, no.
"I" was recorded in studio downtime - it was the culmination of everything the band had been working on - to that point. everything they produced was relevant, circumstantial and representative of the band's timeline/events.
= pure emotional authenticity.

"II" was the band being "let loose" with proper time and equipment, being free to experiment and be genuinely creative. not quite 100%, but certainly large scale emotional authenticity.

HS = no, it was a fairly cynical attempt to shoehorn themselves into a "what they thought was" the next big thing. for the band (as evidenced by the album disagreements) this was mainly perceived as a cash cow, so it's anything but emotionally authentic.

Disagree 100%

The songs on Queen and Queen II had very little to do with their personal lives.

That’s why I said “emotionally”

Take Body Language for example. You don’t think it emotionally represented Freddie’s sex life at the time?

The first two Queen albums represent a band that’s inexperienced with life. The songs were them trying to be sophisticated. Great songs, but most not based on anything of importance.

MisterCosmicc wrote:Disagree 100%

The songs on Queen and Queen II had very little to do with their personal lives.

That’s why I said “emotionally”

Take Body Language for example. You don’t think it emotionally represented Freddie’s sex life at the time?

The first two Queen albums represent a band that’s inexperienced with life. The songs were them trying to be sophisticated. Great songs, but most not based on anything of importance.

Freddie's songs on hot space were just autobiographical. I don't think there was anything emotionally authentic about "shagging your way around Europe" and then writing songs boasting about it.

On balance your're probably right about I & II though as those albums are more strategically authentic. however, when you consider that many of the songs on those first two LPs had been the fruition of each band member's ideas/embryos that they'd carried around since they first formed bands, then there is a lot of emotional authenticity in there too.