As today is the first anniversary of Queen Elizabeth the second's death.....and someone asked for more from the 9 Clowns of thee Apocalypse series of fancy tribute singles by The Melvins. Appropriately enough here's todays off kilter Tribute to the very fashionable to like if you're an ex-grunger, and the UK's only Progressive Glam Hard rocking baroque'n' roll Disco metal merchants, Queen.Y'know, them wot done Bohemian Rhapsody, the song that broke them in the USA after the moron's saw it featured in that famous scene from Wayne's World.......did anyone really think this was funny?
Yeah, after Dave Grohl singled them out as the rockingest live band on the planet its OK to say that Queen were very very good. Of course your author got there long before The Grohl(and left as the moustache arrived).....like most people did.....as my first vinyl album ever bought, was indeed, "A Night At The Opera" featuring the aforementioned "Bohemian Rhapsody"; and yes, I know all the words and have done exactly the same as Wayne and his buddies did in the film. This over-familiarity with said Baroque'n'Roll (Yes I thought i'd use the same tag twice) classic ,once had its tolerance stretched when working in some council funded work units in the 80's,one of my government funded neighbours, whom happened to be a bunch of comic drawing Skatecore kids, decided to play a C-90 that had but one track repeated for the whole 90 minute duration of the tape.....you guessed it.These baseball capped worn at a jaunty angled buffoons Had this monolithic Queen offering on an infinite loop. This led to threats of violence after a very patient half an hour,and some polite requests,which were ignored.Locked in their unit, the door had to be sledgehammered open,and the offending tape ritually cremated by oxy-acetylene set to cutting mode measures. Of course these sartorial disaster area types thought this highly amusing as was their favourite Wayne's World scene. I won't tell you what happened when they made a "We Will Rock You" cassette in the case that I may incriminate myself. As for the Skate-core Kids,they had the right to remain silent or we would silence them.....they were booted out by local officials eventually...as was I!?
Perversely,as always , King Buzzo and erstwhile chums steered clear of any Freddie Mercury compositions,settling on the other one's, John Deacon's sweet "You're My Best Friend",whom ,being the only Queen member from my home town of Leicester,deserves such a deserving accolade such as this.And this version by The Melvins avoids doing the obvious sludge version,and strays not too far from the original feel of first single from the "Opera". A casiotone provides the melody and chord changes,suggesting a slight ironic tilt,with gentle vocals by someone called caleb Benjamin? Never liked the original, and I don't like this, but the second track, "Now I'm Here", was made for a Melvin's cover, it being one of Queen's most Rifftastic rockingest numbers from the pre-mega fame year of 1974.
As a kid,having seen it performed on Top Of The Pops,(an alt-mix with Bri playing a Gibson!?) i couldn't get the fucking tune out of my head.....couldn't sleep all night. So, had to get the single at the weeknd, at the local suburban electrical supplier ,opposite the Co-Op......,it was sold out!
Tracklist:
A "Best Friend"
Written-By – John Deacon
B "Now I'm Here"
Written-By – Brian May
6 comments:
Wayne's World was a comedy? Sheesh!
Grohl and Fatxl Rose of G'nR said the same thing - must be related to one of them, my money's on Brian May.
@ bob......Grohl is obviously of non-anglo saxon stock,so he can't be related to Bri,and Axl is follically challenged in the hair dept....where as Slash, was born in Doncaster,and has Brian's curly thatch,albeit attached to a comedy top hat. Brian wouldn't be seen dead with any chapeau device glued to his precious ringlets.
Lesser known fact is that Melvins wanted to re-record A Night At The Opera with Kurt Cobain on vocals. Grohl was involved in undisclosed capacity. Cobain was supposed to cut hair and grow mustaches. He was ok with mustaches, but declined to cut hair. Buzz got angry. Word is he once drove armed to Kurt's house. No cooperation was mentioned after that day.
You know i think that's all largely true. I think i saw a you tube interview with Buzz moaning about Cobain....i suppose Buzz was gonna be Brian May? Maybe GG Allin would have made a good Freddie?
all of Queen's music sounds like it belongs in a Broadway musical.
You obviously haven't...thankfully....been exposed to the west end 'jukebox' musical "We Will Rock You",as written by the terminally awful Ben Elton?
I often think the same for Van Der Graaf Generator,except their musical is more Les Miserables rather than Queens Cats, or Starlight Express.
Still waiting for the Joy Division musical.
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