Music Review: Queen - Queen 40 Limited Edition Collector's Box Set 3

The 40th anniversary celebration of Queen’s career comes to an end with the recent release of this third five-CD box set. The project has been a massive one. Each of their 15 studio albums was meticulously remastered, with the participation of band members Brian May and Roger Taylor. In addition, each selection features a second CD, with numerous rarities, live versions, and B-sides.

Like many of their contemporaries, Queen found it to be something of a challenge to stay relevant in the eighties. Conventional wisdom had it that guitar bands were out, and colorful keyboard-oriented groups were in. Even with the world-class guitar player May in the band, Queen succumbed to this theory for a while.

The Works was released in 1984. The album leads off with the hit single “Radio Ga Ga” which, iin typical Queen style, sought to bite the hand that fed them. The song must have had a profound effect on the embryonic Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, for she would one day christen herself Lady Gaga in honor of it.

The Works also contains “I Want To Break Free,” which rose to number three in the UK, and enjoyed enormous radio play in the US. Fans of May’s unique guitar technique were offered a couple of great showcases for him in “Tear It Up,” and “Hammer To Fall.”

The six-song EP includes some interesting material from this period. The first has to be the Christmas single that never really caught on, “Thank God It’s Christmas.” The group’s appearance at the gigantic Rock In Rio in January 1985 is also celebrated here, with both “Is This The World We Created…?” and “It’s A Hard Life” which were recorded there. There is also the non-LP B-side “I Go Crazy” and a couple of remixes included.

Queen’s widely-praised performance at Live Aid on July 13, 1985 seemed to greatly inform their next album, A Kind Of Magic. From the initial single “One Vision” on, they seemed far more engaged in the world around them than they had ever before. “Friends Will Be Friends,” and “One Year Of Love” seem to deepen this focus. The title track would prove to be a world wide hit, and was used in the film Highlander as well.

Article Author: Greg Barbrick

Greg Barbrick is an old time "music biz" groupie/writer. He thinks that nothing good has been recorded since 1978.

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