After I posted yesterday about Green Day playing Queen, I started to look for similar performances and I found videos from that concert for Freddie Mercury from 1992.
I have watched it a lot of times and it still manages to surprise me every time, as a great exercise of how to match (or not to match?!) a voice to a particular song, given the fact that a lot of singers joined the show that night.
The fact is that all the guys singing there were professionals and I guess we can not argue their professionalism, value or voice but still, some of them were not from that movie. I mean, I love Guns, but Axl should have picked other songs, seriously…Or just other stage, I don’t know…
But that’s not the point of this post (I wonder how many times I said this already on this blog!!).
The fact is that I have started to think about Queen and Paul Rodgers project. I remember when it all started, it created a bit of a buzz here, as I guess it did the same all around the world.
However, I can not stop myself thinking that Paul Rodgers is not the best match for Queen’s music. I don’t know why, but he didn’t move me in any way. If you would ask me about ONE ARTIST that really impressed me when playing Queen’s music, well, that’s George Michael…
When I listened George Michael singing Somebody to love, I had the impression that he is 100% there! Perfect match (you know, like in Terminator, with Arnold’s bionic eyes scanning around). I had the impression that George Michael is like THE VOICE for Queen, or what is left after Freddie died.
It may be also because George Michael has an educated voice, maybe more than other singers there, he controlled it every step of the way, never missing a damn note, never losing breath, giving me the impression of a work extremely well done, by the book.
I don’t know, but the fact is that Somebody to love, for me, is the image of that show and George Michael is “the voice that should have been” after Freedie passed away, not Paul Rodgers, for any “Queen plus” project.
Or…if you don’t see George Michael there, who would you see?
By the way, does anybody see Paul Rodgers in there?
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10 Responses to “The Perfect Voice For A Queen Plus Project”
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Ovidiu OprescuRomania, 31 years
Playing the guitar since 17 and enjoying every moment of it!
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durrow
November 7th, 2008 at 3:22 am
Your right - George Michael would be WAY better then Paul Rodgers
Stratoblogster
November 7th, 2008 at 5:33 am
I’m sure there’s a Freddie Mercury clone somewhere in the Philippines that Brian May is currently searching for on Youtube.
Emon
November 7th, 2008 at 6:29 am
I don’t see Paul Rodgers in there and yes, GM would be perfect. However he has so much negative press that it would be hard to have him in the band and not have those dragged in.
I could be wrong, of course. Most musica fans could care less about one member of the band’s private affairs.
Re: Stratoblogster’s comment - read a story recently about how Arnel Pineda (the YouTube discovery for Journey) has not been enjoying touring with the band as much.
Ovidiu
November 7th, 2008 at 8:51 am
I don’t think a clone would do the trick, not at that level. George Michael has another type of voice, another type of stage presence, but he would have been the perfect match without hurting the image of Freddie. However, I don’t think it is an easy thing to do for a musician of his fame and visibility to join forces with another famous band, it would be difficult, everybody would need to cut down something and a lot of fans would have been “disturbed”, I guess.
Indeed, there are press attacks, but here in Romania they were not that visible in the last period of time, so I thought everything was over now. Still messing around with the same subjects?
J.T.
November 7th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Yep. You’re right. Not only does he have the voice to pull it off, but possibly the stage presence as well. I can’t even bring myself to hear Paul Rodgers with Queen, and I did like his work with Bad Co. I don’t see how anyone could hurt the image of Freddie though. He was unique and engaging performer. His legacy is untarnishable.
Ovidiu
November 7th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
I didn’t mean to sound this bad, indeed, Freddie’s image won’t ever be touched by no matter who’s going to sing with the rest of the band, but I have the impression that George Michael here, even if sounds like a perfect match to me, has his own presence, his own stage personality, he feels at home in the middle of the band and in the middle of the stage in the position he is now (now-in the video) as the lead singer of Queen
J
November 8th, 2008 at 3:44 am
I was going to say Elton John or David Bowie, but that would be silly. Say…I heard Tony Blair’s looking for a gig…
Stratoblogster
November 9th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Ok, so a clone wouldn’t do.
Then how about TOM WAITS? Imagine Tom singing Bohemian Rhapsody!
Oh well, this comment had just begun… And now I’ve gone and blown it all away.
Anne
November 9th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Freddies shoes would be really hard to fill, though GM is doing quite a good job here…
I do like the Tom waits Idea though - Could be a blast, and that way Freddies shoes would be left standing, as empty as ever…
ZUrlocker
November 11th, 2008 at 2:29 am
I think George Michaels would be a natural with Queen. The combination with Paul Rodgers is not obvious and it doesn’t work for all the material. But it works well for the rock and bluesier numbers. I saw them live in Riga, Latvia and it was a very good show. Especially if you like Paul Rodgers.
There’s some photo and videos here:
http://www.guitarvibe.com/2008/09/queen-paul-ro-1.html
–Zack