January 2015 issue of Classic Rock

Not a whole lot has been going on for me Queen-wise, but it's been one big thing after another in other aspects. But that's not important here! It had taken some doing, but I managed to get the January issue of Classic Rock in mid-March! I normally wait until a local-ish Barnes & Noble has what I want in stock, but I decided to order online this time just to see which is actually worth it.

I placed an order at Magazine Cafe, and I had expected it to be a fairly quick process since it's based in New York and I'm somewhere close to Boston. I wound up emailing them on the first of the month because I'd still not received any sort of confirmation or delivery estimate since placing the order on 18 February. They got back to me very quickly that they needed to get more in stock, but I still found it annoying that they couldn't explain that right away so I wouldn't keep worrying. But I did eventually get it! And I was really impressed with the article. Probably because Brian and Roger shared similar views with me on their solo careers post-Freddie and that things with Adam Lambert continue to go really well.

Adam is quoted as saying, "I'm not replacing Freddie. I'm trying to keep the memory alive, and remind people how amazing he was, without imitating him."

I cringed a little bit while reading that part because it's there in black and white that nobody's trying to replace Freddie, just as Paul Rodgers used to say he wasn't replacing Freddie, but people out there will continue to insist that that's what's happening.

Brian and Roger also touched on trying to be solo acts after Freddie died - both of them insisting that Queen, as a band, could never be. And, again, in black and white, they both made it clear that they wanted to keep Queen going (with John Deacon's blessing) it became impossible to deny that they needed to continue. From what very few videos I've seen of some of their solo concerts, it seemed to me that their fans got the most excited when they'd perform songs from Queen. And when I first started venturing on the Queenzone forums, I'd see people posting that they'd wish the rest of the band would just keep going as Queen, and maybe take turns on lead vocals, etc. "They should resurrect Queen for Freddie's sake!" and then, "Why are they doing things under the Queen name again? That's an insult to Freddie!"

It never ceases to amaze me in the worst way.

Even with the few bumps in the road over the last 20+ years - 5ive, Robbie Williams, and Paul Rodgers just because that phase is now considered by Brian and Roger to be Queen's embarrassing prom picture, I have to give them credit for at least trying to incorporate some of the latest music trends while still being true to their signature sound throughout the years (even if some of them were not great). They're not the weird older guys who cite their high school years the best of their lives, hanging out on campus trying to impress teenagers.

That said, I'm hopeful that they'll write new material with Adam. The Cosmos Rocks with Paul Rodgers was pretty one-sided, but I think Adam might be able to contribute some more dynamic bits so any album(s?) they might do together wouldn't be so blues-heavy.