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Hot Space

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To what extent do you think the success of Another One Bites the Dust influenced the sound of the Hot Space album? I mean, even Roger Taylor on the Greatest Video Hits 2 DVD moans in one of the videos (i think it's Back Chat) that they were just 'getting carried away with the success of AOBTD', turning pretty much the whole of Hot Space into a funk/disco orientated album.

I feel that the Hot Space album would have sounded quite different if Another One Bites the Dust hadn't been as successful, because the total success of that single gave Queen the false impression that they were good at writing songs of that nature. Maybe if the song didn't do as well as it did, Queen would have produced a more rock album.

Do you feel Hot Space would have sounded different if AOBTD wasn't as successful or do you think that Queen would have gone down the Disco/Funk road anyway.

I'm kinda between both opinions.
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Queen were good writing songs in that genre, if you ask me. But the fans didn't appreciate it.

I think the succes of ABTD was a big inspiration for the Hot Space album.
I recently listened to it many times trying to write a review... I think the songs aren't actually that bad and it ISN'T the worst album of theirs- but what let's the compositions down is extremely crappy production. Listen to Staying Power or Life Is Real live and they sound GREAT. Back Chat is another example... And I was listening to the album and kept thinking that "Dancer" COULD have been a great track...
Excluding "Body language" (which is just pile of shite)- the songs aren't bad but the sound is. The album is dated, sounds just awful, too many synthesizers- Red Special was always for me THE sound of Queen- this album is exactly what I hate about 80s in general- crappy production. Bring on live drums, guitar, get rid of half of the keyboards and you'll have pretty all right album... How come demos sound better than finished product? Why there's such a huge difference (in quality!!!) between live versions and studio cuts?

But the fact is- that's the LAST album where they actually experimented... After that they just played safe... Maybe excluding Innuendo- but that's for different reasons...
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Hi yes i agree 'DANCER' would have been a great track live it's just a shame they didn't try it out and put it on a setlist in 82.

I Think if you took 'body language' and cool cat off the album and replace it with soul brother and another track then hot space would have had a much better sounding "queen" album with the RS.
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[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]Fenderek wrote: [/QUOTENAME]
Excluding "Body language" (which is just pile of shite)[/QUOTE]

You got that right!!!
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Although I realize that I am in the minority on this, I think everything about the album is great (even the production, seems to fit the songs well, at least to me). Not my favorite album by Queen, but definitely one of the ones I listen to pretty regularly. Only fault I find with it is Body Language. I just don't think its a very well-written song and its a terrible choice for a single.
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[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]<font color=black>Andy<font color=red>38 wrote: [/QUOTENAME]To what extent do you think the success of Another One Bites the Dust influenced the sound of the Hot Space album? I mean, even Roger Taylor on the Greatest Video Hits 2 DVD moans in one of the videos (i think it's Back Chat) that they were just 'getting carried away with the success of AOBTD', turning pretty much the whole of Hot Space into a funk/disco orientated album.

I feel that the Hot Space album would have sounded quite different if Another One Bites the Dust hadn't been as successful, because the total success of that single gave Queen the false impression that they were good at writing songs of that nature. Maybe if the song didn't do as well as it did, Queen would have produced a more rock album.

Do you feel Hot Space would have sounded different if AOBTD wasn't as successful or do you think that Queen would have gone down the Disco/Funk road anyway.

I'm kinda between both opinions.[/QUOTE]

You make it sound as if, whatever they were going to do, in 1981 they were going to release a disco album. If ANATO had flopped, they wouldnt have made a disco album, they'd have made a follow up to The Game.
I'm not sure why most everyone gets their panties all in a bunch over the Hot Space album. At the time it was released it obviuously was a departure from earlier Queen material. But as stated above ABTD was such a large hit, I think the band pretty much discarded material that was not in that disco/funk vein intentionaly - as a true follow up to the success of ABTD. I agree that this album was intentionally released as Freddie convinced the rest of the band that this was good direction to go in at the time. (i think Freddie's solo works expanded on this theme).

Tha album is actually a pretty good listen in my opinion, its just not what Queen fans wanted or expected from the Band. I'm not sure how "expiremental" I would consider this release, but at the time I thought it was a brilliant marketing move that was unfortunatley just not appreciated.

The band went back to their roots on the follow up album The Works, and I believe there are similarities with the timing of HotSpace/The Works compared with The Miracle followed by Innuendo to some extent.

Perhaps Hot Space is not my favorite Queen album but in 1982 it was a "timely" release and really no different than the Rolling Stones "experimenting" with the album Some Girls.
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WOW i really dont understand why so many fans cant appreciate hot space...Queen wants to be diverse!!! they want to have a little change here and there!! godd some people are so picky :)
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[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]Fenderek wrote: [/QUOTENAME]I recently listened to it many times trying to write a review... I think the songs aren't actually that bad and it ISN'T the worst album of theirs- but what let's the compositions down is extremely crappy production. Listen to Staying Power or Life Is Real live and they sound GREAT. Back Chat is another example... And I was listening to the album and kept thinking that "Dancer" COULD have been a great track...
Excluding "Body language" (which is just pile of shite)- the songs aren't bad but the sound is. The album is dated, sounds just awful, too many synthesizers- Red Special was always for me THE sound of Queen- this album is exactly what I hate about 80s in general- crappy production. Bring on live drums, guitar, get rid of half of the keyboards and you'll have pretty all right album... How come demos sound better than finished product? Why there's such a huge difference (in quality!!!) between live versions and studio cuts?

But the fact is- that's the LAST album where they actually experimented... After that they just played safe... Maybe excluding Innuendo- but that's for different reasons...[/QUOTE]

Hot Space: crappy production? No way. I think this album has one of the best production ever! Compare it with The Works for example, which has a bad drum sound (too flat), bad guitarsound (not really Brian-like) and the bass-sound is too thin.

Hot Space sounds really full, nice bass, synths and some very nice guitarwork (for example: Back Chat, Dancer, Put Out The Fire).

Some very good synths in Staying Power, Dancer, Action This Day.

Nice bass in Back Chat, Cool Cat, Las Palabras De Amor.

Hot Space is in my top 5 for sure!
John: "It's the one thing I wish I could do - sing."
[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]it was electric7 wrote: [/QUOTENAME]WOW i really dont understand why so many fans cant appreciate hot space...Queen wants to be diverse!!! they want to have a little change here and there!! godd some people are so picky :)[/QUOTE]

I agree with you there!!
I actually think this would be an interesting experiment.

Take a few tunes off Hot Space....hand them to a young upcoming DJ....release them under a little-heard-of label....see how the youngsters in the clubs react to them.

I think with a little tweaking and re-mastering, some interesting work could be done here. For all your opinions about Queen+Vanguard, when that tune kicked off in the clubs, people went bananas....really enjoyed it.

Anyway, as per usual, that's my tuppence worth.
"Just tryin' to have a little fun, folks..."
[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]ok.computer wrote: [/QUOTENAME]I actually think this would be an interesting experiment.

Take a few tunes off Hot Space....hand them to a young upcoming DJ....release them under a little-heard-of label....see how the youngsters in the clubs react to them.

I think with a little tweaking and re-mastering, some interesting work could be done here. For all your opinions about Queen+Vanguard, when that tune kicked off in the clubs, people went bananas....really enjoyed it.

Anyway, as per usual, that's my tuppence worth.[/QUOTE]

Um, youngsters? By youngsters do you mean old queens in their 40's who were young in the early 80's?
I think all Queen albums are equal. If I had to take all my Queen albums and throw one away, I could never pick which one to throw away, and it sure would NOT be HOT SPACE!! I think COOL CAT and BACK CHAT are one hundred times better than the bubble gum song AOBTD. Sorry John, I love all the rest of your songs. And maybe you're right about the quality of the sound, and all that technical stuff, maybe they had some dust on the microphone.
Mad.the.Swine
[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]GreatKingSam wrote: [/QUOTENAME][QUOTE][QUOTENAME]<font color=black>Andy<font color=red>38 wrote: [/QUOTENAME]To what extent do you think the success of Another One Bites the Dust influenced the sound of the Hot Space album? I mean, even Roger Taylor on the Greatest Video Hits 2 DVD moans in one of the videos (i think it's Back Chat) that they were just 'getting carried away with the success of AOBTD', turning pretty much the whole of Hot Space into a funk/disco orientated album.

I feel that the Hot Space album would have sounded quite different if Another One Bites the Dust hadn't been as successful, because the total success of that single gave Queen the false impression that they were good at writing songs of that nature. Maybe if the song didn't do as well as it did, Queen would have produced a more rock album.

Do you feel Hot Space would have sounded different if AOBTD wasn't as successful or do you think that Queen would have gone down the Disco/Funk road anyway.

I'm kinda between both opinions.[/QUOTE]

You make it sound as if, whatever they were going to do, in 1981 they were going to release a disco album. If ANATO had flopped, they wouldnt have made a disco album, they'd have made a follow up to The Game.[/QUOTE]

If you read my post carefully, you'll see that wasn't my point at all, i'm questioning exactly what you just said, if AOBTD (you said ANATO, but i assume you mean AOBTD) had not been a success at all, would they have made a Disco/Funk album anyway just because they wanted to go down a road which was for them unchartered territory, or would they have played safe with a more rock album, like you said 'a follow up to The Game.'
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