Who's the superior songwriter?

I was looking through my iPod, as I very often do, and so far, the majority of my Queen cover versions are all originally written by Brian May. It's making me wonder who, out of Freddie, Brian, Roger and John, is the better songwriter?

Forgetting for two seconds that my favorite band member is Freddie, I'll have to really think about it. My answer will probably change depending on my mood, but I think right now I'd have to say John is my favorite - and not just because he deserves to be recognized for his talents and contributions to the band. I think what seals the deal is Spread Your Wings. Yes, Brian has Leaving Home Ain't Easy, but Spread Your Wings seemed to capture how I felt growing up and feeling trapped in the Midwest.

I wonder who your favorite writer is and why? Wait, before you answer, I want to level the playing field a little and completely remove Bohemian Rhapsody from the list of reasons you might pick Freddie. Freddie may have written most of the hits, but that doesn't necessarily make him the better songwriter. Maybe the most commercially successful... but that doesn't really hold much weight in the world of pop music. [Note: I'm not one of those, "Bieber must die!" people. I just find his music insufferable.]

Aaaaaand go!

David Martel and other stuff

So I was asked to write a post about David Martel's Queen Extravaganza audition (hi, Jonathan!). I'm really not sure what to say other than I think I prefer Marc's voice over David's. I mean, he's talented and all, but that's not where my preference is.

Honestly, I've not been paying that much attention to Queen stuff in the last couple weeks, so this post is short. I mean, yeah, Queen have won yet another award and Freddie's Asian heritage is coming to light (seriously, great article). That's all great, but there's not much there for me to comment on.

Marc Martel on Ellen

For reals. Marc is pretty amazing!

More pictures from Queen For A Day

OMG YOU GUYS!! Gunpowder Gelatine are mentioned on the FFAD site! AND!! There are pictures of me in the gallery!





My heart is so broken that I can't make their next gig on the 29th (both because I don't have a car and can't get to Worcester and I have plans that have nothing to do with Queen). But! I should get in touch with them the next time they want to do a Freddie tribute to see if I can be involved in some way that wouldn't be just answering the shit out of trivia questions :-P

Saturday Night Live

Today in 1982, Queen performed on Saturday Night Live. As far as I know, this particular episode is not freely available on the internet, but the ever-amazing Gregsynthbootlegs has posted both Crazy Little Thing Called Love and Under Pressure! Yay!

Queen Extravaganza Auditions

I was super stoked to see that auditions are being posted on the Queen Extravaganza site! And then I watched some of the auditions. So far I'm not terribly impressed beyond disgusted and horrified (I go Simon Cowell on everyone's ass when it comes to Queen covers). But!!!



*swoon*

I mean, some of what Roger's said in this article has left a bitter taste in my mouth*, but I'm choosing to be cautiously optimistic and hang in there for as long as I can.

As stated in the comments on my last post (all two of them!), tribute bands are formed out of love. And yeah, in accordance with the rules of music, some bands suck more than others. But it seems really micromanaging to me for Roger to rip a tribute band apart just because they're trying and then say, "Fuck it! I'm picking people for the next tribute band!"

--
*Queen drummer Roger Taylor was recently in his hometown when he saw a poster that caught his attention. "It said, 'Queen on stage,'" Taylor tells Rolling Stone. "I saw in the very hall where we used to play and there's just the quite bad picture of a band. There are so many of these tribute bands and then there are like orchestral concerts going on featuring music. A lot of these things are not up to scratch and so we want to do it properly."

"...but there are an awful lot of tribute bands, some of them good, some of them not good... It's a big hurdle, [but] this is a way of keeping our music alive and doing it to our standards."

"So we'd like really great looking guys to be in this band." (I'm hoping this has been said in general and he's enthusiastic about auditions from people who don't identify as guys)

Queen Extravaganza!

OMG OMG OMG!!!!

Okay, got enough of my excitement out of my system to post this gem from Queenpedia's Facebook page:

Apparently this is official, even though the site now only pulls up a blank page. Queenonline has said "Lots more to come on this...".

http://www.queenextravaganza.com/

Also from the site earlier today "The highly anticipated Live Final, held in Los Angeles, will be judged by the official Queen Extravaganza panel, fronted by Roger Taylor. The 10 final contestants, and possible 'wild-cards', will perform LIVE as part of the band in front of Roger and the panel"