Sunday, May 24, 2009

God Save (the) Queen

Unreal.
Rumors continue to swirl around the Web that American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert could be Queen's top pick as their next lead singer.
It was bad enough that the surviving members of Queen hit the road with Paul Rodgers, but now possibly Adam Lambert, or somebody else?

You see, it's not like you're replacing Steve Perry or Michael Hutchence (both of whose respective bands have soldiered on with somebody else at the helm). Perry, Hutchence and others were great frontmen, but none of them could compare to the legendary Freddie Mercury, who I say is the greatest leader in the history of rock and roll.

It's not unusual for bands to move on - see Who, The for examples, as Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend have continued to perform after the deaths of both Keith Moon and John Entwistle. Even The Doors gave it a go, sort of, after the passing of Jim Morrison. Bad idea, in my opinion.

Many more called it a day. Rumors carried on for years about The Beatles getting back together, but that essentially came to an end after John Lennon's murder in 1980. No, I'm not forgetting about the re-recordings of two songs for the Anthology series in the mid-90's. At least they used Lennon's voice.

Queen had four tremendous musicians, and there wasn't a weak link in the band, but the fact is that Freddie Mercury was their personality. He was their identity. Brian May is as good a guitarist as you'll ever see or hear, and John Deacon and Roger Taylor carried the rhythm section. But replace Freddie, perhaps the best showman of them all?

They once sang "Crazy Little Thing Called Love." This is one crazy little thing that should bite the dust.

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