Queen, Keep Yourself Alive- A Classical Musician’s First Listen and Reaction 

Please include live performances and album tarcks, don't limit this to singles.

@@reggiestan Can't you read? "questions ONLY!"

@@79BlackRose Right: we can't have comments critical of Amy's approach to "The Beatles" of listening to anything but "The Beatles".

@@jnagarya519 I have no idea what you are talking about.

@@79BlackRose Ok, as you put it so politely. My question is, will you please do some live performances and album tracks. I await your answer Amy.

what a story!!!! thanks

Actually, they weren't booed offstage. Bands playing there that day have since said Queen finished their set. But there was a nasty DJ hosting the show, who referred to them in a derogatory way, and talked the crowd out of letting them do an encore. Mercury did say they'd be the world's biggest band when they returned though.

I fall asleep to RU-vid's "Queen Ballads" every night. Freddie's voice is just pure heaven.

Stop going on about Freddie, it's QUEEN for god's sake!

@@bigdave1302 It is Queen, I mentioned the band. Truth is, there would be no Queen if it were not for Freddie, he motivated them to carry on after Smile, Queen was about to break if Freddie's Bohemian Rhapsody hadn't become a big hit, the whole band made what was in Freddie's head to life.. The whole band was fantastic. Sorry you can't handle others opinions. We are fans, Queen considered us like family. It's ok if you disagree with my opinion, I really don't mind 🙂

@@toddmathers5075 Nothing wrong having an opinion, everyone has one. No one has to agree with my opinion. But it seems a bit odd that you or anyone else are so worked up by a person's opinion especially when that person thinks the whole band is awesome, they are a unit. I've been a fan since 1974, and I always felt Freddie was the driving force, but that doesn't take away from the entire band. Even the band members have said pretty much what I posted. Have a beautiful day.

@@deboraclark5791 your comment is so beautiful. It shows the love you have for QUEEN. I'm a Queen fan since 1974/1975 too and I love all of them. Without Freddie there would have been no Queen.

@@ulrikealtmann4655 Thank you. I think we who grew up with Queen understand Queen better than anyone. All 4 members were perfectionists and such great musicians.

Yes I agree! 12:20 best part! I know people, who don't like Freddie's voice and Freddie. Can't understand, there must be something wrong with them, maybe they should check their ears. Odd People. I never heard a better voice than Freddie's.

It actually fails constantly from 1980 onward...

@@corleth84 I am with you both. I do really like Queen from 1980 onwards but I absolutly adore their first four albums. I have always thought The Beatles improved so much as they went on, whereas, I feel Queen went backwards. But, hey with Queen there are eras for all (sa with The Beatles) so we can all be happy. But not much beats March of The Black Queen! Cheers.

@@corleth84 Not really. 1980-1986 was their best years econimically wise. They constantly sold out stadiums, had more freedom than ever etc. They might not have done the same music but thats because they were trying to be more fun and not take themselves too serious

@@RivalHades-mk1xl My reference was obviously musicwise, and from my perspective. I couldn't care less about sold out stadiums, and in your reply you just described a 'sold out' band. I can't stand their 'live aid' performance. Instead, I'll take any day the performances of 'Live killers', 'live at the rainbow '74', 'At the Beeb', 'A Night at the Odeon - Hammersmith', and a couple of others.

@@corleth84 Saying it "fails constantly" is just false though. They have amazing songs in the 80s. A little different? Yes. But nonetheless fantastic

I was thinking the same thing. Amy should watch the video and see Freddie leaping around the stage, she would love it and fall for Freddie all over again. She may also gain even more appreciation of the other group members and how well they work together. Cannot wait until she gets to Live aid. Hope Vlad has included the different genres they cover too, Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy for example. As I wrote this she's just mentioned the other members.

Amy, I have been watching many of your Queen discoveries. It reminds me of the wonder, surprise enjoyment I experienced on first listen. It was really cool when a group of my friends. They invited me for a debut of the News of the World album. The looks on our faces were priceless. Hearing We Will Rock You to start it off. WOW! We had a similar Party for Jazz as well. Thanks for the critiques and musical knowledge.

I am learning to appreciate his guitar playing and musicianship for sure!

@@VirginRock "I think he is one of the most under appreciated guitar players." What? Everybody only half knowledgable about great rock guitarists knows Brian and would proably rank him in the top 5 of his time.

@@Quotenwagnerianer I agree, he should be up there, and he appears on about every list of the best guitarists. Still, when you see people mention their favorite guitar players, they usually mention Vai, Van Halen, Hendrix, Satriani, etc. May doesn’t get mentioned much unless it’s someone making a list of the greatest guitar players. Maybe if he was in another band where he could stand out more, because it’s real easy to get overshadowed by Freddie Mercury, especially to your average music listener.

That is exactly my thoughts too - and John and Roger also plays to serve the melody - and not to shine themselves. .

Exactly. And dont forget The march of the Black Queen.

100%

@@miroslavgolian5409I hope she does that one. It my favorite song by them

She’s only got 50 of these. Of course if this channel and still thriving and there is still meat on the bone, she’ll get to all of the things eventually.

Amy will prefer the song "White Queen" over "Black Queen". It's less rock oriented and more atmospheric, it's one to definitely not to miss out

This is not from Amy, but I can explain the vocal change to you. A lot of it has to do with Freddie's voice type. Freddie had a dramatic voice. But it takes time for a male dramatic voice to develop. A dramatic tenor voice, is a tenor with more lower sounding frequencies in the voice then a regular lyric tenor voice. The low frequencies in the voice takes the longest to develop, because it takes more time for the voice to gain weight. The weight adds power, lower frequencies and colour to the voice. As a result, dramatic voices are never really dramatic in their 20's, and often in their early 30's. But there are usually still a few signs that the voice is dramatic, even for a younger voice. In the 70's Freddie's voice had a far more lyrical quality. His voice was light and sweet, and extremely flexible, these are typical lyrical qualities. Most tenors, as in 98% of all tenors, are lyrical tenors. That is the sound that people are used to hearing from tenors. But there were some signs that Freddie actually had a dramatic voice in the 70's. His low notes were quite good, having resonate low notes is a quality that you will find in young dramatic voices. Even though his voice was lyrical you could sometimes hear that there was power in his voice as well. Most notably Freddie's voice had a sharp, laser beam, metallic quality on middle to high notes. That sharp sound in the voice is the main or most prominent characteristic of a spinto voice. As an example of a young dramatic voice you can search on youtube for, Mario Del Monaco "Che gelida manina". Mario Del Monaco was a very prominent Dramatic tenor. This is an early example of his voice, when he was still a lyric tenor. You can hear that there is the potential for powerful vocals within his voice even at an early stage, and he did have some metallic sounds in the voice. Through the years Freddie's voice started to gain weight, his voice had only reached it's full maturity by the middle 80's. This was a very different type of voice then from his early years. There is a lot of power and depth within his voice, from the 80's especially the middle 80's. The voice is far less flexible, it is difficult for him to sing early hits such as Killer Queen, not because of the notes but because of the size of the voice and the flexibly that is required. It is simple physics, if something gains more weight it is more difficult to move around, but is also becomes more robust. That is the trade off between these different voice types, lyrical voices are very flexible but they lack power. Dramatic voices are very powerful but they are less flexible. A dramatic tenor voice is also much stronger in the middle tenor register then the lyric tenor. It is interesting to note that Freddie with the heavier voice actually sang higher in the 80's then in the 70's. It often happens that it takes a bit longer for dramatic tenor voices to develop their high notes. Now for the next example listen to, Mario Del Monaco Meco all'altar di venere 1967 (Norma) (from 2:30), listen to how strong and powerful his voice is here at an older age, especially in the middle register. (This is one of the strongest tenor voices of all time). It is a strong and very noble sound. But Freddie Mercury was not a full dramatic tenor, like the Mario Del Monaco example. I mentioned that he had a spinto sound in his voice. Freddie's voice dramatic but he was a spinto dramatic or they called lyrical dramatic tenors. These are fundamentally dramatic voices, but there is still a little bit of finesse within the voice. There is still a very small amount of flexibility left, this is often known as a heroic sound. Freddie's voice did gain a lot of power and weight, but his voice always had spinto qualities, most notably the sharp, laser beam sound. I suggest as an example, Franco Corelli Meco all'altar di venere. He was a dramatic spinto or a lyric dramatic tenor. It is a very strong and powerful voice, but there is more nuance and colours in the voice then within the example of the full dramatic tenor on the same song (aria), his high notes are also very sharp and metallic. I am giving opera examples, because these are extremely rare voice types, I have never heard anyone else in contemporary music with a similar voice type to Freddie. Michael Bolton has a lyric spinto voice, and there are some dramatic tenors, especially in metal, such as Bruce Dickinson. These voices are even extremely rare within opera, there hasn't been any true dramatic tenor voices in the last 30 years or so within opera. As the symptoms of Freddie's illness became more severe, he started to lose weight and power within his voice, which you can hear on Queen's last album. His voice once again had a more lyrical quality but it was still powerful as well, he basically became a lyric spinto tenor at the end of his life.

@@ZENOBlAmusic Thank you. Very informative and interesting, however, everything I’ve ever read about Freddie’s voice was that he was really a baritone and not a tenor, that he “strained” his voice to sing tenor, and that the opera singer Montserrat Caballe (who Freddie sang with on the collaborated album/CD, “Barcelona”) convinced Freddie to sing most of that album in his baritone voice. I’m not a vocalist or a musician, so I’m only saying what I’ve read by other people. 🤷🏼‍♀️ But it’s very interesting to read how a person’s voice can change. Question: you don’t think his smoking and drinking affected his voice? I also read that he had vocal cord nodules that caused him considerable problems, and that he didn’t want them removed because there was no guarantee at that time that the surgery would be successful? Again, who knows 🤷🏼‍♀️. Many books and articles have been written about Freddie Mercury, and I don’t trust any of what has been said about him to be completely factual. IMO, ppl made $ writing books about their alleged “close, personal” relationships with him. Just my feelings. But, the world of music certainly lost a very talented songwriter, composer, and singer. “Lover of life. Singer of songs…never boring.” ♥️

It’s either a different take or mix than the original. It’s definitely different, more spare, clean and separated. The original is imprinted on my brain. Is it possibly from the BBC sessions?

I thought the same thing and was distracted by the remastered version.

It breathes through all it's influences: The Gospel choir, the Blues call and response patterns, the Beatles use of the studio, sound and stereo effects as another instrument, the Hendrix q use of guitar distortion, the Black Sabbathy heavy hard rock sound, Led Zeppelin's build up technique in the song writing, the folksy violin-like frenzy in the intro and groove, the operaic theatrics, the highly caffeinated approach typical of much of later Queen songs, taking things up onto another level - this song wears it's influences on its sleeve, yet pummels along at a velocity and with such a broad richness in sound and unique overall tone to it that it is hard to miss any particular source of inspiration within this overwhelming mix. Plus, they make it all sound so fresh, organic, effortless, ver much in the moment, almost like a spontaneous eruption straight from the heart. But in fact it is very meticulously composed and crafted. Sprezzatura!

@@elevenseven-yq4vu That’s nice and everything but if you’re a virgin of rock you’re more likely to hear they’re bigger hits which is how you would naturally Learn about queen or any other band. But I’m willing to let this one go. Because she made clear that She In the video that she wanted to compare and contrast queens first release, which is this song, And compare it to his later work like Barcelona. Cool Also the song was played on the radio a bit back in the day. Obviously not as much as Bohemian Rhapsody or you’re my best friend, etc etc. But it was played and it was a possibility you could’ve heard this song in a natural way (On the radio)

Respect! 💫 I saw Queen three times live. (Liverpool, Stafford, Wembley). My favourite Queen concert was in Liverpool. (1973?) They rocked for 2 hours.

Yeah, synths from 1980.

No they didn't, the last time they performed it was on The Works tour in 1985.

@@schmoosmith They played it at Knebworth '86 it was the fourth track.

@@schmoosmith Apologies I got it mixed up with the seven seas of rhye video

I bought this first album in the spring of 1974. Still have it.

My rock journey started with Queen...now I'm obsessed and satisfied with the Music of BAND-MAID. Rock lives on and the quality from Japan is compelling 👌👍

He has a PhD and is therefore Doctor May but professor is a job. Anyone appointed as professor at a UK university is said to "have a chair". AFAIK he doesn't have a chair at any university. He also didn't have his PhD yet when he wrote "Fat Bottomed Girls". The Wikipedia article on him lays out his timeline in astrophysics.

I think she did say of his work rather than Queen

Glad to see I'm not the only one who notice this !