The Who (again!) and Queen



Students can be such demanding little critters...

For some unknown reason the nosey parkers are still snooping around in my blog it seems - and this despite my strictest instructions to the contrary! I thought that I had made myself abundantly clear more than a year ago when I pointed them in the direction of the great urban outdoors, of which there really is no lack of at all in this city; rather than sitting at home perched behind their screens reading the ramblings of their boring old instructors!

Alas, absolutely to no avail...They are still in here! So anyway, I was cornered by a few of them on the service shuttle coming back home into the city the other day and they wanted to know what my top 10 favorite songs by The Who are. There is, of course, no easy answer to such a question, so I begged for some time to give the response the utmost attention that it needs. And here it is  - my Top 10 The Who songs list (I think):

1) Who are you?
2) Guitar and pen
3) They're all in love
4) Slip Kid
5) Won't get fooled again
6) New Song
7) Squeeze Box
8) In a hand or a face
9) Empty glass
10) Behind blue eyes

Except here's the problem with this list: First I have had to leave out things like "Eminence Front" and "However much I booze"! Being limited to just 10 that is. Second, I love all these songs equally.

They also wanted to know the same thing with Queen. (I can hardly believe this but apparently they actually listen to these bands! Love them! These songs were written a long long long time before the oldest of them was even born!)

With Queen, the answer is somewhat simpler. I feel that Queen albums need to be listened to in their entirety. Like The Who opera albums in a way. So, it would be very tough to make a list there.

Also, with Queen I love their stage presence almost as much as the music they make and the two things are really more or less welded into one whole in my mind. And again, although when on stage they arranged the flow of the songs into different sequences than the ones of the albums, there still seems to have been a deliberately orchestrated continuity in the way the songs got seamlessly blended into one other. Also visually, I should add. When I listen to them, in my mind's eye I "see" Queen as much as I "hear" them somehow. The most money I have ever spent on a concert ticket was for a Queen concert. And nowadays I love to watch all their concert DVD's over and over again. The cockiness, the humor, the imagination, the sheer unabashed in-your-face drama of the man... But, all that said, if you still want to push me up against a wall with a gun, I will say "We will rock you" (of course), "It's a hard life", "Who wants to live for ever", "Brighton Rock" - and then finally... My all time anthem:

I want it all, I want it all, and I want it now!!!

You couldn't possibly have phrased that any better than you did Freddie... (I know he wasn't the one who wrote the song, Brian May was - but...)

:-)

2 comments:

  1. My favorite Who song is "Baba O'Riley" from the album "Who's Next".

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    1. Yes, that is a great one of course. But my favorite is "They are all in love":
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjKCsSw1K2A
      :-)

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