Countless rock fans miss the sixties and seventies, a burning, burning and ashes-filled crazy age. The calm after World War II is a period of healing, and it also means the vast fog of confusion. Everyone is lost in depression, and the air is sealed with dangerous factors of restlessness. Everything looks so stale and disgusting, and everything is waiting to be destroyed, destroyed and rebuilt.

A group of angry youths first dragged dirty and torn jeans and jumped into the street with a guitar that could be smashed at any time, laughing and shouting, waving powerful fists and consuming their youth. Britain, an island full of dangerous and cold substances, an ancient warship that looks gloomy and full of gunpowder in the Atlantic Ocean, has become the stage of this agitation. The Beatles' mushroom heads make girls scream-but that's not all. "Who's Band" detonated the madness of the audience with guitar fragments, the Rolling Stones roared tirelessly on the street stage with untidiness, and the sex pistol pinned the ear of the Queen of England on the album cover with a bad smile ... Everything started in anxiety and silence, and fell to the ground with a decisive attitude a few years later. At the same time, it doesn't matter whether all kinds of plants-moss or sunflowers, thorns or violets-grow wildly in the fertile land of the British Isles. They all continue the madness of that era with their own existence, and one of them is the most gorgeous and the most extravagant.

Its name is the queen.

The reason why we spend so much pen and ink to render the intertwined era of hippie movement and punk movement. Because everything is the queen, the hotbed of this gorgeous flower. It absorbs nutrients with fishy smell and heat, but it blooms with beauty and elegance different from rough punk. Queen, this is a rock band whose style cannot be defined. It has a signature gorgeous guitar solo, but it is not as noisy as a general metal band, but exudes a sense of regularity and significance in the grandeur; His early works are a little experimental, but not as empty and cold as Pink Floyd's, but stained with the warmth of human fireworks; It also has lyrics that reflect and discuss the end of the world, but it is not like a Gothic band sinking in a desolate world all day. It belongs to the world, rooted in the secular, but fragrant and beautiful, even the faces of the four members are the same. Sometimes it's hard to believe that they are powerful from their beautiful faces. Freddie Mercury, the lead singer, is of Persian descent, with a delicate skeleton and a hint of femininity in her narrow eyes. Guitarist Brian May is a standard British handsome man-with a straight nose and clear outline, showing noble melancholy; The smile of bassist John Deacon is always a mystery, and the soft facial lines shine in silence; The beauty of drummer roger taylor is beyond description. Like Barbie's impeccable face, there is always a warm smile.

Band development

Tracing back to the source, The Queen was born based on Smile. 1968, Brian May from Imperial College London, London, England, took his homemade guitar red special with medical student roger taylor and classmate Tim Staffell.

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Made a smile. The band's style is dominated by tough heavy metals. Brian's infectious guitar solo laid a solid foundation during this period, and Roger's strong and explosive drums also began to take shape. At this time, Freddie Bulsara, the later lead singer of the Queen's Soul, just graduated from Yiling University. After graduation, she met roger taylor in the clothing industry, thus becoming the first audience of Smile. However, during this period, Freddie moved around in several bands and didn't join Smile. It is worth mentioning that he had a close personal relationship with every member of the band at that time-business partner roger taylor later let Freddie move into his apartment, and Tim Staffer was his classmate for many years. Perhaps this laid the foundation for the tacit understanding of the queen in the future.

Chief keyboard player Freddie Mercury

Soon, Tim Stafford decided to leave Smiles, and Freddie, another band that left after the dissolution of Yogurt Sea, joined Smiles on the same day that Tim left. This membership change is a milestone for Queen's future. Later, Freddie decided to change the name of the band to Queen. 1971February, John Deacon, who graduated from the Department of Electronic Engineering of Chelsea College, University of London, officially joined Queen. The band was born.

It took John Deacon some time to join Queen, and his joining was a mistake. Zhaobeisi

Guitarist Brian May

Freddie's friend Chris also took part in the competition. Chris is also skilled and has a good relationship with Freddie. Seeing the right time and place was messed up by Chris' abnormal play. Guitarist Bi Ran May finally chose a more stable and rigorous John, and Freddie himself was naturally disappointed. John's "outsider" status has become very subtle. But soon, John won the trust with his strength. His steady bass line gave Quinn a bold and unrestrained ruler, which made her works tortuous and not messy. In addition, high flyers knows how to manage money. After successfully firing two pig-headed agents who only care about squeezing the interests of the band, he began to take care of Queen's internal and external affairs.

When it comes to science high flyers, I have to mention another member, guitarist Brian May. The cornerstone of this band is a great source of the Queen's "noble blood". Brian later became a doctoral student in astrophysics at Imperial College London, but his precise rational thinking did not hinder the development of perceptual inspiration. His guitar solo is no longer just an ornament of songs-if Quinn is compared to a person, Roger's drum and John's bass line are bones and muscles, and Brian's guitar solo is the flesh and blood between them.

Lead singer Freddie and bassist John Deacon.

Speaking of which, it's time to explain why his name was Freddie bursa. In fact, Freddie Mercury is an out-and-out stage name. Freddie was originally named Falco Bursala, and was nicknamed "Freddie" when he was a teenager. When he 17 years old arrived in England, he claimed to be Freddie. Later, when Freddy wrote the song My Fairy King, he was inspired by a lyric and decided to change his surname to Mercury (which also hit it off with the Queen's brand Mercury), so he got the name Freddie Mercury, which was later known.

In the first novel Queen I published by 1973. You can clearly hear led zeppelin's influence on the Queen's genre (led zeppelin and jimi hendrix are the idols of the Queen). Although this genre began to show signs of its gorgeous style, Freddie's high-pitched cry has some traces of imitating Led Zeppelin's lead singer robert plant. However, this debut is finally a good start. Queen I gave birth to the queen's first hit single "Song of the Seven Seas".

1974, Queen released her second album "Queen II". In this album, Queen took a very valuable step, and they found their own style. Freddie's slightly thin voice is transforming wildly, becoming richer and more explosive. The progress is more obvious. Queen's overall arrangement is full of fantastic opera colors, among which guitarist Brian May's solo personally thinks that it has begun to mature in this period. Of course, the arrangement and production of this period felt a little flashy and impetuous-like a young writer who just entered the literary world, trying to express his words in his writing.

There is a song worth mentioning in Queen II. It is not a popular song, but it laid the foundation for Queen's later classic Bohemian Rhapsody, that is, March of the Black Queen. To use an inappropriate metaphor, Bohemian Rhapsody is like an evolutionary version of March of the Black Queen. Surrealist lyrics, strange, dark and exquisite music style, gorgeous and slightly playful guitar solo and bassoon-perhaps the biggest difference is interpretation. The opera in the middle part of Bohemian Rhapsody is more colorful, and the lead singer Freddie's control is more wonderful (it can even be said that Freddie's singing skills in Bohemian Rhapsody overshadowed his equally excellent arrangement. )。

Then, Queen released her third album Pure Heart Disease, which was the real beginning of Queen's glory. A very obvious sign is that Freddie's voice has broken into a butterfly. Whether it's a killer queen, a blind fire or a stone-cold maniac with a strong metal style, he can control it freely. What really achieves perfection is arrangement and production. At this time, Queen has learned how to choose in the process of tempering, not in the excessive superposition of fancy paragraphs, but in the pursuit of a sense of harmony and integrity in the United States and China. In the hit single "Killer Queen", Freddie's bright and mischievous voice skillfully shuttled through Brian May's agile guitar solo, and with humorous harmony, the song was full of black humor at the same time. Killer Queen has reached the peak level of the Queen to a certain extent, and its popularity seems to indicate the arrival of a gorgeous dynasty.

Go to the top

1975, the queen was crowned with her masterpiece The Night of the Opera. This album is not only a classic handed down by all Queen fans, but also a dazzling milestone in the history of rock and roll (if you know Queen's friends for the first time, you might as well start with this.

Drummer roger taylor

This album sounds, because it represents the highest level of the queen from any angle. )

In this album, lyrical ditties, famous metal works and opera chapters are patchy and relaxed as a whole, which truly presents a colorful queen. The album begins with the ironic and explosive style of Death of Two Legs, and ends with the guitar cadence of the British national anthem "God Save the Queen" after several emotional ups and downs and dynamic and static changes. Harmony between songs can be described by nature. And just looking at each song is perfect. Drummer roger taylor's "I Love My Car" is full of power. Roger's hoarse and grainy voice made the song very hormonal, but then "39" made a 180 degree turn. Brian May, a guitarist with literary temperament, picked up an acoustic guitar and gently sang a sad story. The accompaniment of pure acoustic guitar is full of country flavor, which is very rare in Queen's works.

As for Freddie Mercury's performance in this album, it goes without saying. How to describe his voice? Gorgeous? Too shallow; Sexy? It seems too frivolous. Sometimes he sings softly, sometimes he shouts loudly, and every detail of his voice is blooming with exotic flowers and plants. This is the queen's magic. They can easily build a palace. They can pluck the strings with a guitar and make the palace disappear instantly. At this time, you have been led by Freddie to the bright moonlight. When you are about to fall asleep in that tenderness, everything is desolate again, and the whispering a moment ago has turned into a series of painful cries. ...

A perfect masterpiece will naturally attract people's attention. The sales of "Opera Night" have just reached 5 million copies.

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Bohemian Rhapsody, the main single, swept the major charts in a whirlwind way, and the record-breaking nine weeks topped the British charts! Even more than ten years later, 1992, Bohemian Rhapsody was the runner-up in the American singles charts for several weeks. The famous bird's crown pattern on the album cover was designed by lead singer Freddy, in which cancer, girl and lion respectively represent the constellations of band members. Variants of this model were also used in the Queen's later albums "A Day's Competition" and "The Greatest II".

However, the peak is often a kind of death penalty, which is often the case, just like Raphael's unprecedented style doomed the classical and delicate painting style. After staying in the opera house for one night, no matter how hard the queen tried, she couldn't surpass this peak-it was so perfect that everything later was called a "replica". Jumped out, and later released "Horse Racing Day", "World News" and "Jazz" are masterpieces, but in people's minds, they can only exist in the shadow of "Night at the Opera House".

Nevertheless, these three albums have produced many classics, among which "We are champions" and "We will rock you" are undoubtedly Queen's most popular works (I believe many China fans know Queen from them). They have appeared in countless sports events and advertisements, and have become the symbol of the queen in most people's eyes.

The queen's early works are famous for not using synthesizers, but how are those colorful opera effects made?

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And then what? This brings us back to two scientific geniuses-guitarist Brian May and bassist John Deacon. These two people not only have extraordinary talent in music, but also are first-class in mechanical production. Brian's decades-old red and black guitar, Red Special, was made by himself (it is said that the original material was the door panel at home). The tone of the red special is very special, and Brian handled it easily. It not only became the symbol of Brian May, but also established a guitar brand. In addition, he also made a treble reinforcement pedal (treble reinforcement pedal, used to improve the timbre of treble). John Deacon, who was born in the Department of Electronic Engineering, is even better. He used a bunch of discarded transistors to assemble a magical power amplifier Deacy Amp, which made a great contribution to the sound effect of the Queen's music art. The treble booster pedal and Deacy Amp were improved to give birth to Vox Brian May Special, which was later sold as an independent product. This set, together with Vox AC30 (Acoustic Simulator) and three rock works, is the material of the Queen's gorgeous sound effects.

In recording, Brian May usually uses multi-track superposition recording, and they are also very good at recording effects. Bohemian Rhapsody's creative time only takes Freddie Mercury 15 minutes, but post-production takes several weeks! In that era when there was no advanced recording technology, Queen rejected the fast but unrealistic synthesizer with a rigorous attitude, and made music that will last forever in history with her own inventions and efforts, which is worth learning from many varied but impetuous bands.

Fall into a low tide

The 1980s was a watershed for the Queen's music. First, Freddie cut his curly hair short and grew a dark beard. The dresses at the concert changed from tights that looked like ballerinas to men's coats and even vests. In addition, drummer roger taylor and bassist John Deakin also cut off their long hair to change their femininity. The only guitarist who hasn't changed much is Brian May, whose Mushroom Cloud remains the same today.

More than the image change is the queen's style. Quinn has always hated punk, and two songs "We will rock you" and "Pure Heart Attack" both have the flavor of satirical pistols. However, they didn't resist the trend of pop dance music in the 1980s.

Generally speaking, the queen was divided into two camps during this period. Brian and Roger stick to the metal style, but John is interested in pop music and funk music. Freddie is on John's side-he is a big fan of aretha franklin after Soul Song, and he also appreciates Michael Jackson. Under this circumstance, the band released seven albums in 1980s, including Game, Flash Gordon, Hot Space, Works, A Kind of Magic, Live Magic and Miracle.

These albums are wrapped in a strong dance atmosphere, the original clear drums are blurred, and the melody of the songs is becoming more and more catchy. Freddie's voice is not as good as before. Alcohol and cigarettes (including a small amount of cocaine) have made his original clear and fluent voice hoarse, and the tension inherent in his voice has worn away a lot. In short, it is not as good as those works of Queen70 in the 1970s. However, the media's bad comments on this are actually exaggerated. These albums are not as useless as reviews in any case. Looking closely, they not only produced excellent works such as Another fiasco, Radio Gaga and I want to break free, but also produced some new things-several works by guitarist Brian May were unexpectedly pleasing to the ear, but unfortunately, they were criticized in bad reviews.

However, some criticisms are not unreasonable, at least for Flash Gordon, criticism is not excessive. 1980, the famous British director Mike Hodges asked Quinn to make music for the sci-fi movie The Flash Gordon, and Quinn decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, the result of this attempt is an album that can be called the worst work of the Queen. In order to cooperate with the movie sci-fi entertainment, Queen, who is famous for not using synthesizers, actually began to use synthesizers, and obviously, they released a bunch of music that did not meet Queen's standards at all. Science fiction war simulates an empty terminal with poor sound, which is extremely disappointing. The album sales also suffered an unprecedented waterloo.

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Flash Gordon was just the beginning of the Queen's low tide, and then album sales declined.

After 10 years of long-term and stable cooperation, Queen decided not to perform any live performances during the whole period of 1983. But during this time, Quinn still recorded a new album in the studios in Los Angeles and Munich.

1984, they released 1 1 The Works, including Radio Ga Ga, Hammer Falling and I Want to Break Free. The Queen also started her tour that year.

In the live performance from 65438 to 0985, Freddie overtook everyone and was a classic.

Throughout the Queen's 80s, we can appreciate the appropriateness of the old saying, "If you lose the corner, you will reap the mulberry.". Despite the poor performance of the album, the Queen concert series shines brilliantly, proving that it is one of the few live invincible bands. Queen70 didn't have many concerts in the 1970s, but it's worth mentioning the rainbow concert of 1974. Weird dim lighting, exquisite costumes and the exuberant vitality of four young people all make this concert extremely beautiful. Queen80' s concert was even more brilliant in the 1980s.

Freddie's voice is not as good as before, and all the high notes in the concert have dropped (drummer roger taylor's high notes are unbridled), but this does not detract from his elegance. Freddie Mercury, who is shy in private, seems to find another self on the stage-crazy, enchanting, expressive and full of vitality, which can set off the frenzy of the audience again and again-which is reflected in several famous concerts of Queen, Live at Wembley and Live in Budapest. During this period, they also conducted large-scale tours in Asia and South America, such as Magic Tour and We Will Rock You. It can be said that the symbol of the Queen in the 1980s was that Freddie Mercury held up the microphone.

1988, Freddie Mercury and the famous Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé performed the classic Barcelona at the Ranit Music Festival in Barcelona. This song, composed by Freddie and Mike Moran, perfectly combines the passion of rock and roll with the noble beauty of Bel Canto. The flamboyant rock singer put on a dress for the first time and sang with Caballe. 1992 this song was played at the beginning of the opening ceremony of the live broadcast of the Barcelona Olympic Games (as the background music for the introduction of Barcelona scenery).

Gradually disappear

However, at this time, Freddie has received the death sentence, and he is suffering from AIDS, and his time is running out.

Many people describe the album Inscription released by Queen 199 1 as "coming back to life". Instinct, irony. This album, which gives people hope for the revival of the Queen's gorgeous dynasty, is a suicide note. It has the splendor and brilliance of the opera house at night, and also has its own deep and dark core. The psychedelic feeling of the song of the same name "innuendo" makes people feel suddenly enlightened-after listening to this song, you will forget your environment and drown in a dreamland. Freddie sings as an apocalyptic prophet; The song "The performance must go on" seems to be Freddie's attempt to leave this world with his last strength and perfection. However, I'm going to be frivolous, which is said to be Freddie's last work, reveals a heartbreaking message-he seems to be detached from the world, and the whole song is saturated with strangeness and madness, while I'm going to be frivolous and gradually become crazy.

The double harvest of word-of-mouth and innuendo sales did not slow down the pace of death approaching. 1October 24th, Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury died of pneumonia caused by AIDS at the age of 45.

Freddie's funeral was presided over by Zoroastrian clergy. Thirty-five relatives and friends, including elton john, the godfather of English music, attended the funeral.

Queen, a unique master band of art and metal, a band with countless fans all over the world (its influence in Asia and America has surpassed that of the Beatles), a band that witnessed the rise and fall of rock and roll, made countless creations and gave us countless surprises.

Closing remarks

1992, the "Concert in Memory of Freddie Mercury" sponsored by three other members of Queen was held at Wembley Stadium in London, and returned to Wembley, where Freddy sang in a classic yellow coat in 1986. Everything has changed. The people of Sri Lanka have passed away. On the contrary, it has been interpreted by many friends in the circle, and rock music plays an important role in many places. That atmosphere, sadness and passion are intertwined.

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The cheers of the crowd can't be described in any words. The fans still held high the banner with Freddie's name on it and shouted his name. Brian sobbed and sang "Too much love will kill you", and robert plant, the lead singer of Led Zeppelin, was present. Led Zeppelin was Freddie's idol before his death, but robert plant sang Freddie's songs at this time to commemorate his death ... (The complete video and list of tracks of Concert in Memory of Freddie Mercury are in the extended reading, thanks to the friends who uploaded Good Night. )

After Freddie's death, bassist John Deacon quit Queen and decided to wash his hands of it. Although he tried several times later, he basically quit the music circle. Guitarist Brian May went to solo, drummer roger taylor and Cross continued to develop.

From 65438 to 0996, Queen's last album "A Match Made in Heaven" was released according to Freddie's wishes. This album was recorded by Freddie in his hospital bed, soaked in his last wail. The album was snapped up as soon as it came out.

1998, guitarist Brian May and drummer roger taylor released a single "Nobody but You" to commemorate Freddie.

In the new century, Brian May once again cooperated with roger taylor, toured with Paul Rodgers, the former lead singer of Bad Company, under the name of "Queen+Paul Rodgers", and released his new album Cosmos Rock in 2008. This album is a new chapter in the musical career of Bryan May and roger taylor, but it has nothing to do with the familiar Queen.