Kevin's Watch

For those of you who haven't heard, Queen's coming back with Paul Rodgers (Free, Bad Company, The Firm) on vocals. www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,15534,00.html

I'm torn. I love Queen. Paul Rodgers has a great voice. But what made Queen Queen was Freddie Mercury. The voice. The theatrics. The sense of humor. I just can't see Paul Rodgers pulling this off.

But it would be cool to hear more performances.
I thought the Fredie Mercury tribute concert, where most of the bands played with Queen was pulled off very well.

Queen will never be the same without Freddie Mercury.

I agree with what Q, The End, Bee Sting said...

Paul Rodgers was great in Free though.

Oh yeah, Rodgers has got great pipes, but Freddie was, well, Freddie. No one can match his intensity.

There can only be one Freddy Mercury. I would have used David Lee Roth to replace Freddy, at least those two dress the same. Need I even say it? Okay. Chaps, chaps, chaps.......

Long live Freddie Mercury

I personally think they shouldn't do it and I'm glad John Deacon hasn't signed on (yet). The band is Freddie Mercury, just like it is Brian May. I don't think its necessarily Roger Taylor and John Deacon though. I think its along the lines of Robert Plant billing himself as Led Zeppelin, Mick Jagger saying he and a back-up band were the Rolling Stones or a myriad of other what ifs.

I do think its equivalent to Pink Floyd, still saying they are Pink Floyd without Roger Waters. I still like the albums they put out and still think David Gilmore is extremely talented, but it just isn't Pink Floyd without Waters.

Anyway, I'm a big Queen fan but I just wish Brian may would put together a band and call it something else, rather than using the Queen name. And for God's sake, don't even try to bill it as Queen without Deacon. It would really borderline pathetic to just have May and Taylor.

I'm sorry, Queen is just not Queen without all four of those guys - Freddie Mercury above all. He was the drive behind so much of what that band did. I resent that they would bill themselves as Queen with a replacement (petty, petty me); I'd rather just May, Deacon and Taylor get together without anyone else, if they must, but I'd prefer they not do it at all.

Yeah; don't underestimate Deacon's bass lines.

If you want to see Queen at its best, watch the 2nd Live Aid DVD. Freddie Mercury had the crowd into the music and the show like no other band that performed that day. Truly awesome to behold.

Hell, watch any Queen performance. Hands down one of the best concerts you could have seen.

I'm glad that Queen's coming back again but I stand by what I said when I first heard of this.

It's not so much Queen as Queenish.

Queen isn't Queen without Freddy Mercury.

Paul Rodgers had a great voice thirty years ago. These days he has a fairly good voice. I saw some footage of him playing with Brian May and Roger Taylor recently, and hearing him slaughter Freddy Mercury's vocal parts was pretty bloody sad really.

How do you replace a frontman like that ? You can't. The tribute gig at Wembley Stadium following his death proved that. With the exception of George Michael (much as it sticks in my throat to say it, his performance of "Somebody to Love" was absolutely incredible) an awful lot of the leading vocalists in rock music delivered some extremely lame sounding performances. It wasn't their fault, the only guy who could sing those songs properly was Freddie Mercury.

Freddie Mercury was totally unique. Kudos for John Deacon for not wanting anything more to do with it. I just wish Brian may and Roger Taylor would have the good grace to let it rest. Sure, make more music with Paul Rodgers, but for the love of God don't go calling it Queen !

I just picked up the 2 Queen DVDs that have all their music videos, as well as some live stuff. I can actually see Rodgers doing some of the older stuff, but there's no way I cap hear him doing anything off of "Works", "A Kind of Magic", or "The Miracle".

Rodgers has a great, smokey, blues voice. Queen was never smokey or bluesey.

Lytton's right, the tribute concert showcased what a void Freddie's passing left, though I do think Robert Plant did a great job with "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", and Roger Daltrey crushed "I Want it All".

Blasphemy I equate this to if The Stones tried to replace Mick.