Freddie Mercury vs Om Kalthoum

Also am I the only one who thinks side 1 of 'Hot Space' is the bidness? Well 3/5 of it anyway. "Staying Power" and "Back Chat" = classic!

rockist scientist to thread?!!

I'm afraid I know Om Kalthoum a lot better than I know Queen (and even though I've obviously heard some Queen, it's been, I would have heard more 20 or so years ago than I do now), but actually I think I know what you're getting at. In fact, [dave q] you're hitting on one of the reasons that I think a lot of prog. fans might enjoy at least some Arabic music: "The ebbs and flows and stops and bits where all the voices come in. . ." It's true that a lot of Oum Kalthoum and other Arabic music (especially from the 60's and 70's, though you can hear this sort of thing in Arabic music from much earlier than that) has unexpected changes in mood and time signature, etc. Of course, since all the composers who wrote for Oum Kalthoum also studied European classical music to some degree, it could be coming from that direction. I don't think that Queen's use of choral singing is very close to what goes on in Arabic music (which tends to make fairly narrow use of choirs, and no harmonizing).

I am maybe being too serious about this, but that's because it's more interesting to me that way.

Robert Plant's favorite (well, maybe not absolute favorite), Abdel Halim Hafez, might be a better comparison to Freddie Mercury. ("Qari'at al-Fingan" is particularly bizarre.) Anyway, though, hMercury's vocal technique is definitely westen, though that's not what you were talking about.

I like this discussion.

'Queen as Qawwali'.

Better than the query I once saw in Q: 'What does 'Bismillah' mean in Bohemian Rhapsody? Is it just nonsense language?'.

Felt like replying 'What is this 'Our father who art in heaven'? Is it just a nursery rhyme?

Though perhaps for the average devottee of Zoraster, that's what they both are!

I hate Freddie Mercury so much that I'm scared this might mean I'm going to end up liking him at some point. I know this is off-point, but was "Fat Bottomed Girls" and "Bicycle Race" a double-sided single, as I seem to recall it was?? Both of those songs are so preposterous, so over the top, so rediculous... that it's almost brilliant or something. Those harmonies are a joke, right? And the lyrics... I mean they actually make me laugh out loud. I think "Fat Bottomed Girls" is funnier, just because I find the concept of little Freddie being shown the ropes by his "naughty nanny" and discovering fat bottomed girls "make the rockin' world go 'round" more hysterical than Freddie riding his bicycle where he likes. Although way back then, and to a sixth-grader, it did sound gutsy to admit to not liking Star Wars. I'd buy the single (ok IS IT a double A side?) if I had the patience to fool around with those fiddly things (45rpm adapter tattoo notwithstanding), and I'd buy the LP if I'd actually play it, which I never would. But once in a while I'll be in a car, and the radio will play those two songs back-to-back, and I'll crank it and laugh. In a really good way.

btw, I hate Freddie Mercury. Those words don't sound as convincing as I'm wanting them too anymore for some reason.