Greykiller said:
Freddie WAS Queen. He is dead. The band is dead.
Why would people pay such crazy money to pay for a band who's lead singer sounds NOTHING like the original?
Would it not make far more sense to just pay 1/10 the money and see a queen coverband?
I agree AND I disagree with you.
To say that Freddie Mercury was an invaluable member of Queen would be a gross understatement. Freddie Mercury had the best voice in Rock-n-Roll, PERIOD, end-of-discussion. You can have Elvis, John Lennon and any of those guys -- none of them had the range or the sheer vocal bravado that Mercury had. Freddie had the voice of an angel, a god, or whatever you want to ascribe to him -- there was not anything vocally that he couldn't do.
I also am irked by the fact that the tour is being billed as QUEEN PLUS PAUL RODGERS. I would have appreciated something like The Brian May project or something like that. However, I'm sure that Brian simply did it for the sake of simplicity. Brian's solo career never really took off, Roger's didn't go anywhere either and even Freddie had very limited success outside of QUEEN. They all knew that they were much better off with the QUEEN name than without it, hence Brian's take on this tour.
However to say that Freddie Mercury "WAS QUEEN" is simply a very ignorant statement. QUEEN was very much anchored by talent on all sides. Brian was a very good song-writer and vocalist on his own (obviously not matching Freddie's voice) and anyone who has listened to '39 or Sleeping on the Sidewalk or Tie Your Mother Down (Freddie sang/Brian wrote) knows this. Not to mention that he BUILT his own guitar out of a piece of wood that he found in his father's fireplace. Likewise John Deacon wrote Another One Bites the Dust which was one of only two QUEEN songs to go #1 in the United States. (Bonus Points to whoever knows the other one!

) Roger Taylor is a very well-respected drummer and also wrote some great Queen songs, I'm in Love with My Car on the Night at the Opera album. For every project that the band ever got involved in, all the band members contributed -- the Flash Gordon soundtrack, Highlander soundtrack, etc. and this is obviously the reason why the band was so successful over the years and had no line-up changes -- it was completely unnecessary.
Is QUEEN the same without Freddie Mercury? Of course not! But Freddie has not been with us for sometime now and it's unfair to deny these guys one last go-around before retirement. With all of their many musical accomplishments, asking anything less than what they are asking for is somewhat of an insult. I think that they are worth it. 20+ years of great music and I have to pay $200 to see them? No problem. I pay $100 at ProgPower every year to see bands that I have no idea what they sound like, $200 to see Brian May rip it up? Take my money ... take it please!
