Requiem for Freddy

(Edit: I tried to post this last night, but our Internet connection crashed. I'm posting it on the 13^th but I'm back dating it to the 12^th.)

I was going to do the second part of my occult reading post, but our web connection is a little flakey tonight so I thought I'd do a short post in case I lose connection again.

I watched American Idol last night for only one reason: the contestants were singing songs by the rock group Queen. This is the first Idol episode I've seen this season. Last season I watched the first couple of episodes (the ones with the bad singers) then stopped. It's an understatement to say that I'm not a huge fan of "pop" music.

However, I was a huge fan of Queen back in the 70s and early 80s. The very early 80s. I saw Queen live in Toronto in 1980. Okay, I saw 3/4 of Queen; our seats were so bad we only saw the stage obliquely. I could see Freddy Mercury, Brian May and Richard Deacon okay, but I only ever saw Roger Taylor (the drummer) at the beginning and end of the concert. Even still, it was one of the best concerts I ever attended. They put on an awesome show, part of their The Game tour.

I pretty much stopped listening to Queen after that. I didn't like the pseudo-disco "Body Language", and I absolutely detested "Radio Ga-Ga". The stuff they released in the 70s, though, is still excellent. Last night, after Idol, I created a Queen mix CD. Their music holds up very well.

Which brings us to the Idol episode. The singers were okay. A couple of the song selections were... questionable. The guy who did, "We Will Rock You" was all over the map, though the guy who sang, "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" was awful. You could tell that most of the singers weren't long out of diapers when Freddy Mercury died. One contestant did pick an obscure song (too obscure, in my opinion) and another picked "Bicycle Race", but other than that the songs were well known, leaving out a lot of the older — and better — classics.

Listening to Queen after hearing the Idol contestants only reinforced the fact that the contestants are over rated. Not one of them could hold a candle to Freddy Mercury.

(Well, so much for posting a short message before we lost our Internet connection. It died about five minutes ago...)