Dude...

I'd like to think I'm very open-minded about Queen covers, despite being a bit of a snob. I poked around on Brian's Soapbox because, well, yeah. He posted a really interesting link to Secret Sessions where this week(?) people are taking Queen songs and making them their own. I haven't heard them all yet, but I'm listening to I Am A Camera's take on White Queen for the second time because I'm in love.

For real, I am swooning here. And at the same time I'm really sad. No doubt this will hit Queenzone and some of the members will be frothing with rage for no real reason. There are some really awesome cover versions out there (and some that are not so much. ... YMMV) and as long as the singer sounds nothing like Freddie, or the guitar sounds nothing like the Red Special, or - G-d for-fucking-bid - it sounds different in some other way, it's going to get brushed off because it's WRONG! Doesn't matter if it's actually good, it's just fucking WRONG!

I've posted about this before, as it's obviously something that gets under my skin, but I think as long as this whole, "Queen is the only band allowed to do Queen!" bullshit is still going, I'm allowed to complain.

In other news, I'm currently reading Is This The Real Life? The Untold Story Of Queen by Mark Blake, and I'm pretty impressed so far. Kids, support your local, independent book stores!



I also ordered a copy of the second edition of Queen Live: A Concert Documentary by Greg Brooks. At this point I'm not entirely sure why. I have the first edition, which is full of errors, but it's in fairly okay condition (the tears on the cover caused by my brother notwithstanding). Who knows? Maybe some day (one day. DID YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE?!?!) I'll be glad to have both editions.

And finally, since Japan is in dire need, consider donating any money you can spare. Japan was where Queen got their jump-start in 1974, and it's always been one of Freddie's favorite places in the world. So there!