Ranking Quuen

Ranking: Queen

By Queen, I mean Queen. As in Freddie Mercury, not pretenders to the throne. There is / was only one Freddie Mercury. [My sister & brother in law saw “Queen” + Adam Lambert and said Adam even said basically “I’m not, never will be and not even gonna try to be Freddie.” Which was wise. And accurate.]

Excluded: Flash Gordon – the soundtrack. Two songs and bunch of soundtrack bits. 

14. Made In Heaven – it’s incomplete. It was a bad idea.

13. Hot Space – 1982’s Hot Space is a failed experiment. Queen took the success of Another One Bites the Dust as an okay to do a much more danceable, funky, synthesized 80s kind of record. This from a band that PROUDLY proclaimed on their 70’s albums No synths! Who had used them tastefully on The Game. While this the only non-collection home of the [never need to hear again] hit Under Pressure, their American fans deserted the band in droves. Dancer rewrite of the standout album track Dragon Attack from The Game. Life Is Real [Song For Lennon], Dancer and Put Out the Fire are about the only other things worth even hearing on this one.

12. The Miracle – the appearance of a new Queen album in 1989 was in itself a bit of a miracle. The lead single I Want It All stirred feelings of a return to form from the boys who had been making “good, not great” records for most of the decade. Alas, it was not. There are a few songs that flex the old muscles [Scandal, Was It All Worth It, I Want It All] and the title track is very nice. The rest of the album is completely forgettable.

11. A Day At the Races – trying to follow up monsters like A Night At the Opera and Bohemian Rhapsody are daunting tasks. Like Fleetwood Mac trying follow up Rumours. The Mac took a left turn; Queen put out the carbons the used to make Night with.  Tie Your Mother Down is bruising and Somebody To Love is brilliant. Long Away is okay.but the rest of this album just never clicked for me. 

10. Innuendo - Knowing that Freddie was working with a time limit, the band closed ranks and got to work. The alums salvo of opening songs [Innuendo, I’m Going Slightly Mad and Headlong] are very solid and the finale The Show Must Go On is amazing. The rest of the album is as hit or miss as all of their work after The Game. Less than a year after its release Freddie was gone, closing the book on of the world’s biggest bands.

9. The Works – Queen’s third album of the 80s ditches the funk and dance experiments and returns the band to the classic Queen style although closer to Jazz or News Of the World than say A Night At the Opera. The rockers Machines (Or Back To Humans) [a rare Roger Taylor – Brian May collaboration], Tear It Up and Hammer To Fall andTaylor’s Radio Gaga work. The closing track Is This the World We Created? With just Brian on guitar and Freddie’s vocals is beautiful. The rest of the album is pretty meh. The video of I Want To Break Free featuring the boys in drag [a send up of  the British soap Coronation Street] further alienated American fans.

8. A Kind Of Magic – anchored by songs from two soundtracks [One Vision appears in Iron Eagle but most of the others are in Highlander] makes this a slightly uneven affair but this also allows the band to return to some of their heaviest guitar songs since Queen II. One Vision, the title song, Who Wants To Live Forever and Gimme the Prize [Kurgan’s Theme] are absolutely essential Queen.

7. Queen – all of the elements are here – the vocal harmonies, the layered guitars, Freddie’s full range, the time jumps, the light to heavy to light touches. But it’s rough. It will be refined and polished by leaps and bounds and in a mere year and a half they will unleash A Night At the Opera.Keep Yourself Alive, Doing All Right, Liar and Great King Rat are outstanding tracks.

6. News Of the World - kicking off with the monster double A-side single We Will Rock You / We Are the Champions, Queen announced that their days of Bohemian Rhapsody / Somebody To Love level epics were behind them. They were going back to basics. Shear Heart Attack the flies out like a rocket. Then they slow down with Brian’s All Dead, All Dead and John Deacon’s wonderful [and concert favorite] Spread Your Wings. Taylor unleashes the stomper Fight From the Inside [on which he played almost everything]. The album lets down a bit on the second side after the heavy, experimental Get Down, Make Love. Two songs later is the rocking little gem It’s Late. But the final track My Melancholy Baby just doesn’t move me. 

5. Jazz – most notable for Fat Bottomed Girls and the poster of the nude bicycle race [my friend Mark who introduced me to Kiss and Queen was allowed to hang this in his room], Jazz continues Queen’s return to basics. Released a few months before In Through the Out Door, Queen really out Zeppelin Led Zeppelin themselves at this time. Although Zeppelin never approached the real campiness of Bicycle Race or Dreamer’s Ball.  If You Can’t Beat Them and Dead On Time feature some outstanding rocking by the  whole band but even the quieter numbers like John Deacon’s In Only Seven Days, Brian May’s Leaving Home Ain’t Easy and Freddie’s Jealousy are wonderful counterpoints.  Roger Taylor contributed the hard but funky Fun It. 

4. Shear Heart Attack – the third album in 16 months is the breakthrough album for the band. Queen was unusual having all four members writing and three of them singing. This allowed them to incorporate many different styles – one play through of the Shear Heart Attack album will run you through most of them. There’s the progressive but accessible Killer Queen with Freddie’s piano, Brian’s tasteful guitar and those tight, tight harmonies, the straight ahead rock of Brighton Rock and Now I’m Here, the hyper aggressive Stone Cold Crazy, light pop of Misfire, Dixieland in Bring Back That Leroy Brown and the melancholy and wistful in Dear Friends.

3. Queen II – Queen have been at times called a progressive rock band and Queen II may be the closest thing to prog they did. To look at the titles, they seem like something you’d see on a Uriah Heep or Genesis album.  But it’s not prog. And because there’s no real hit to drive people to this record, it seems to fall into the cracks and that’s a shame. This album sets the stage for all of the records to come. It is one of the heaviest Queen records but that’s just part of it. The fanfare that is Procession leads into the ultimateness that is Father To Son. [Father To Son is the direct father to Night’s The Prophet Song and elements of Sweet Lady. The mother is the acoustic into an electric blast back into acoustic (light/heavy/light} White Queen [As It Began]. Roger Taylor’s Loser In the End is as heavy a slab as the band ever put to vinyl. Ogre Battle and March Of the Black Queen are the continuation or cousins to Queen’s Great King Rat which feeds into the claustrophobic Fairy Feller’s Master Stroke and into the gentleness of Nevermore. Funny How Love Is is just a beautiful track, lots of layered vocals. 

2. A Night At the Opera – another one of the great albums of rock and roll. Yes, Bohemian Rhapsody and You’re My Best Friend [I’ve always wanted to ask Roger Taylor about that drum pattern starting on the low toms then back up the kit to the snare. Perhaps a nod to Ringo / Come Together?]. But with that you get the anger of Death On Two Legs, the tongue in cheek of I’m In Love With My Car, the under rated acoustic ’39, Sweet Lady, the apocalyptic The Prophet Song, the gorgeous Love Of My Life [a perennial favorite, live it was just Brian on 12 string guitar and Freddie and they would often let the audience sing part of the song] and the Brian May guitar orchestra miming bells and all sorts of brass on Good Company. 

1. The Game –Ditching Roy Thomas Baker once and for all, the band retreated to Munich‘s Musicland Studio [famous for Led Zeppelin’s Presence, the Rolling Stones Black And Blue, ELO’s work 1975-1981] and worked with [Reinhold] Mack. Mack’s different approach broke the band out of some habits and this album has a completely different air than any other Queen record. There is nothing especially “heavy” on the record at all although there is some rocking going on in Dragon Attack and Rock It [Prime Jive]. Freddie famously thought up Crazy Little Thing Called Love while having a bubble bath in the hotel. Deacon contributed Another One Bites the Dust with its insistent funky bass line. The rest of the album is middle of the road mainstream early 80s pop rock but as a whole the album has a timeless, fresh feel to it.

Rating the Beatles

Using the British / CD editions for pre Sgt. Pepper albums. Not Included: Yellow Submarine – Why? The four original songs are basically throw away songs. TWO of them are George songs. In full disclosure, I am a John Lennon guy. If my takes seem slanted a bit towards J.L. you can add whatever pinch of salt to that you deem necessary.

13. Please Please Me – There’s no denying the title track, I Saw Her Standing There and Twist And Shout – and I like Ringo’s number Boys. The rest is easily forgotten – except Paul singing flat on Love Me Do. *cringe* - isn’t a producer supposed to notice things like that?

12. Beatles For Sale – Their fourth album in 21 months finds the boys digging deep into covers to fill the album out. A medley of Kansas City-Hey Hey Hey Hey gives Paul a showcase, while John Belting out Chuck Berry’s Rock And Roll Music is an instant classic. But the real deal here is the influence of Bob Dylan [A Parisian DJ had given them The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan – said Paul, “We were ALL potty on Dylan.”] which will blossom in the next two records. Two of John’s songs, I’m A Loser and Baby’s In Black are among the most important in the Beatles catalog. But this is a pretty forgettable record.

11. Magical Mystery Tour – While this “album” is helped by Capitol’s decision to add Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane, All You Need Is Love, Baby You’re A Rich Man, the crapitudity of 4 of the other 6 songs from the actual movie are so hard to overcome. Having said that, John’s I Am the Walrus is amazing and I like Paul’s Fool On the Hill.

10. Help! – Straddling the line of rock and folk [not unlike Dylan’s Bringing It All Back Home released five months earlier], this album contains three Lennon classics [title cut, You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, Ticket To Ride] and McCartney’s Yesterday. I personally always liked You’re Gonna Lose That Girl and Dizzy Miss Lizzy is just another barn burning cover with a Lennon lead. There are also a few less memorable bits which keep this from being one you reach for often.

9. Let It Be – There are not any real stinkers here but there isn’t a whole lot of enthusiasm here either. One After 909, I’ve Got A Feeling and Dig A Pony are cool. Two Of Us is kinda fun. George’s I Me Mine and For You Blue are okay.  What would George Martin have done with The Long And Winding Road? We will never know. It just feels so final it’s ahrd to listen to for pleasure.

[Hmm, I just noticed that 3 of my bottom five are associated with films.]

8. With the Beatles – the first real feel of what turned the Beatles into household names after that appearance on TV. Tight harmonies and arrangements that fulfill the promise of [the song] Please Please Me. The 7 Lennon/McCarney originals all just smoke with immediacy and even George’s Don’t Bother Me is enjoyable. It’s actually the covers that drag this down. Taken with the two singles that book end this period, She Loves You and I Want To Hold Your Hand… well you know the rest of the story.

7. The Beatles [aka “The White Album”] – 28 songs [plus the gawdawful mess of Revolution 9] sprawling across four sides, there’s bound to be some less than great moments. IMHO, most provided by Paul although he did contribute Helter Skelter. Dear Prudence is one of my top 5 Beatles songs. Side 2 used to be what I’d go to sleep to in my late teen years so that is burned into my brain. Really, it’s only the turnaround from side 3 [Long, Long, Long] to side 4 [Revolution 1, Honey Pie] that drags. Savoy Truffle is brilliant.

6. Past Masters – because this set contains all of the non-album singles: She Loves You, I Want To Hold Your Hand, This Boy, I Feel Fine, Day Tripper, We Can Work It Out, Paperback Writer, Rain, Lady Madonna, Hey Jude, Revolution, Don’t Let Me Down, Get Back, The Ballad Of John and Yoko plus I Call Your Name, Long Tall Sally, Matchbox, and Bad Boy. Are there some clunky B-sides. Oh for sure. But that list of hit singles – holy cow! Personally, I find The Mono Masters even more rewarding.

5. Abbey Road – the most polished of the bands releases, it’s hard to argue with that track line up – except Maxwell’s Silver Hammer of course. George unleashed Something and Here Comes the Sun here and Ringo contributes Octopus’ Garden. Paul does contribute the great Oh! Darling, which John liked but stated “He should have let me sing it. It’s more my style.”  The Medley. Great editing. Features some fine moments.

4. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – As important as this album is to the history of rock and roll and music in general, I just don’t think it’s the Beatles best record. But without any doubt A Day In the Life is the best thing they ever accomplished. George Martin has lamented not including Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane [the first two songs cut in the sessions] – can you imagine those two leading into Good Morning / Sgt Pepper Reprise and A Day In the Life? But in keeping with British tradition, any songs used for singles were NOT included on albums. Anyway, there’s no denying its place as one of the greatest achievements in music.

3. A Hard Day’s Night – the first collection of songs written exclusively by the band it’s the most solid of the “early” period Beatles albums. With the two hit singles [title track, Can’t Buy Me Love], this may be the first record where the “filler’ holds up as well as the singles, with the exception of I’ll Cry Instead. You Can’t Do That remains one of my all time favorite Beatles riffs [and features a great cowbell!].

2. Revolver – sigh, yes it has fucking Yellow Submarine. But it has Taxman, Elanor Rigby, Got To Get You Into My Life, She Said, She Said, I’m Only Sleeping, And Your Bird Can Sing, For No One [maybe my favorite Paul song] and Tomorrow Never Knows. This is an album where the good is SO GOOD that it allows one to overlook the ‘merely okay.’

1. Rubber Soul – [Note: this is an amazing reversal of 30 years of claiming Revolver as my favorite Beatles album – and on certain days it might still be!] This is the near perfect Beatles album. The harmonies all over this album are superior. George’s songs – If I Needed Someone, Think For Yourself  are okay. Ringo’s [+ John & Paul] country / rockabilly number What Goes On is also a great toe tapper. Paul’s Michelle is another one of my favorites of his. But of course it’s John Lennon leading the way here – Norwegian Wood, Nowhere Man, The Word, Girl and In My Life. If asked where to start seriously looking into the Beatles beyond the hits [meaning that the 1962-1966 and 1967-1970 collections are still great and enough for any good rock and roll music collection], then this is the one I say to start with.

Just for fun – The AMERICAN albums rated:

1. Yesterday And Today – containing Drive My Car, Nowhere Man, If I Needed Someone and What Goes On from Rubber Soul, Yesterday, and Act Naturally From Help! [making it a rare Beatles album to feature two tracks with Ringo on lead vocals!!], the double-A side single We Can Work It Out / Day Tripper AND three of John’s Revolver tracks: I’m Only Sleeping, And Your Bird Can Sing and Dr. Robert. As a collection of tracks, this is a damn fine snapshot of the Beatles progress in one measly year!

2. Meet the Beatles – Kicking off with the mighty, mighty single I Want To Hold Your Hand, Capitol surrounded that [and the beautiful harmonious B-side This Boy] with 9 of the best tracks from With the Beatles plus I Saw Her Standing There.

3. Revolver – even stripped of three of the best songs, this is an AMAZING album.

4. Rubber Soul – so diluted as the 14 songs of the UK release are pared down to just 10 songs from that mighty, mighty album plus two tracks peeled off of Help!. Somehow it starts off with I’ve Just Seen A Face [one of the tracks peeled off of Help!, the other being It’s Only Love]. A mighty strange decision from Capitol when Drive My Car AND Nowhere Man were there and either would have been a great kick off track! But then again Capitol doesn’t strike me as one of the brightest labels in the world, either.*

5. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

6. Abbey Road

7. The Beatles

8. Something New – since the soundtrack to A Hard Day’s Night [released on Untied Artists records in the US] was padded out with orchestral arrangement of four tunes, Capitol was happy to take the back And I Love Her, If I Fell, I’ll Cry Instead and I’m Happy Just To Dance With You, add a couple of covers from the British Long Tall Sally EP, 3 more songs from the UK A Hard Day’s Night and  I Want To Hold Your Hand sung IN GERMAN [because that’s what the English speaking world was really waiting for! See what I man about Capitol being “geniuses” yet? On the other hand, they just got people to pay twice for four songs they already had if they bought UA’s A Hard Day’s Night, so…]

9. Let It Be

10. Hey Jude – the 1970 collection is the only place other than A Hard Day’s Night soundtrack to find Can’t Buy Me Love [until Capitol began endlessly repackaging Beatles product in the ‘70s. Perversely other than same said soundtrack and the single, the song A Hard Day’s Night would not appear on an album until Capitol released the 1962-1966 anthology in 1973.] I also collects the single Paperback Writer / Rain [1966], Lady Madonna, Hey Jude / Revolution [1968], and 1969’s The Ballad Of John and Yoko / Old Brown Shoe and Don’t Let Me Down [b-side of Get Back]. With this package Capitol only leaves only a few scraps on the floor until the CD age – the George penned Indian flavored B-side to Lady Madonna, The Inner Light and the B-side to the Let It Be single, the very odd You Know My Name [Look Up the Number].** Having heard these two tracks, I would just comment that they are definitely NOT worth seeking out.

11. Magical Mystery Tour

12. Beatles ’65 – a mish-mash of tracks from the UK A Hard Day’s Night, the I Feel Fine / She’s A Woman single and 8 tracks [including the key tracks I’m A Loser and Baby’s In Black] from Beatles For Sale.

13. The Beatles Second Album – whomever picked the tracks from With the Beatles to go on the US LP Meet the Beatles picked all of the gems [well, the cover of Roll Over Beethoven that opens the album is pretty hot]. Also featuring She Loves You, Long Tall Sally and I Call Your Name form the UK Long Tall Sally EP and She Loves You’s dreadful B-side I’ll Get You. Somehow they also got You Can’t Do That from the forthcoming [UK] A Hard Day’s Night, too.

14. Beatles VI – 6 tracks from Beatles For Sale, 3 the from the upcoming [UK] Help! LP, a cover of Larry Williams’ Bad Boy sung by John [a favorite!] and the very awful B-side of Ticket To Ride, Yes It Is.

15. Help! – the seven original songs that appear in the movie padded out with 5 orchestral arrangements

16. A Hard Day’s Night – as noted, Capitol would sell you four of these songs again in a month on the deceptively titled Something New.

17. The Early Beatles – since Capitol had first rights to the Beatles in America and PASSED in 1963 [and given most of the material on Please Please Me, I probably would have, too], those songs were licensed in the US to the Vee-Jay label, most notable for being the home of the Four Seasons featuring Franki Valli. Eventually agreements were made and Capitol pushed this out in March of 1965. While it has Twist And Shout, Boys and Please Please Me, the rest is pretty forgettable.

* In the 1990s and so far in the 2000s while other labels have cashed in [ and re-cashed and even in some cases re-recashed] on re-mastering their artists catalongs, Capitol has been most stingy with re-releases. I half-jokingly state “If you were signed to Capitol and your band name did not start with a ‘B,’ you’re not shit to Capitol.” They have focused on baby boomer cash cows the Band, the Beach Boys and the Beatles [and Beatles solo albums] – and if those bands keep making you tons of cash on stuff you paid for 60 year ago, why not? And while some bands have gotten a little love [Grand Funk Railroad, Duran Duran] one wonders why albums like Bob Seger’s Night Moves, Stanger In Town and /or Against the Wind have never been given the FULL treatment while loads of “greatest hits” collections keep pouring out. Ditto for the Steve Miller Band other than the 30^th anniversary Fly Like An Eagle and oh, those hits! [In this case, I believe Steve owns the masters to everything after The Joker, including FLAE, so that may be his own fault – but I think the Book Of Dreams is LONG overdue, Stevie Guitar! Someone all ready did 6 songs for that last “hits” collection!] Even some second tier artists like April Wine could use a fresh coat of paint!

** Capitol left very, very little on the floor of the Beatles. From my very unofficial count, there was the single From Me To You [showed up on 1962-1966] / Thank You Girl, the B-side to Help!, I’m Down, the single version of Get Back [the take on Let It Be is a truncated live take from the Apple rooftop . the single would not appear on an LP until 1973’s 1967-1970 collection]  and She Loves You in German, Sie Lebt Dich. Plus the two b-sides mentioned earlier.

*** As I noted on my Rating the Rolling Stones, it may be worth your while to seek out the MONO mixes of Help! and Rubber Soul [and if you’re going hard core Revolver – but if you’re going hard core you probably all ready bought The Beatles In Mono box]. Originally the first four were all in mono [they may still be – I’m not 100% sure, but any stereo mixes would be some artificial stereo]. But Sir George Martin attempted to “fix” the stereo mixes of those albums with the 1987 original CD re-issues and while I lived with them for 20 years, very shortly after I got the mono box, I ditched the stereo versions completely. The separation of music into on channel and voices into the other is just no longer satisfying to me. As for the mono Revolver, the mixes are fascinatingly different on Tomorrow Never Knows and I’m Only Sleeping. There a differences on Sgt. Pepper as well.

Having said all that, not only have I got the Stones in mono, I have gone back through Motown’s catalog SPECIFICALLY seeking out mono mixes up to 1967/68 when stereo became the norm for singles and LPs. Motown’s The Ultimate collections of the Miracles, the Supremes, the Four Tops, etc. DO use the mono singles in most cases and are worth seeking out. One has to CAREFULLY go through The Complete Motown Singles on Amazon – though they usually document different mixes. I don’t believe Stax has a separate and distinct mono even on their Complete Singles collection, but I am still looking.