Hail to the Queen!!!!

I noticed that this blog was being neglected, so I decided to lay down a small holistic band review. Queen is one of those bands that while growing up, I never really got into. I think some of this just has to with being a kid and wanting to listen to heavy metal and country all day long. It also has to do with the fact that if you didn't dig deep, all you knew of the band was Bohemian Rhapsody and We Are the Champions. But, recently, listening to their catalog through the 70's, I realize that this was a great band. Mercury had the kind of range that most singers would just love to have and Brian May could rip the guitar to shreds with the best of them. Listening to Queen I, II and Night at the Opera (widely considered their best effort) and all the rest of the 70's catalog...you realize just how good this band was. Taking of tour of Night at the Opera, I can find influences ranging from shanty bands that you would find at local pubs in Scotland or England, Led Zeppelin, the Beatles and the harmonies of the Beach Boys and probably many more that I have yet to discover... yet, everything they have has their signature on it. They are the type of albums that can be played to hundreds of thousands of people in an arena....or can be quietly listened to on a set of headphones in your cubicle at work. The following is a playlist I have devised to represent some of their best through this time period, I am hardly qualified to give an expert opinion...but these are some of the songs that will get you started on the journey:

Doing All Right - Queen I
Great King Rat - Queen I
Liar - Queen I
Prophet Song - Queen I
Ogre Battle - Queen II
The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke - Queen II
Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon - Opera
I'm in Love With My Car - Opera
You're My Best Friend - Opera
'39 - Opera
Somebody to Love - A Day At the Races
Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy - A Day at the Races
Fat Bottomed Girls - Jazz
Bicycle Race - Jazz
Don't Stop Me Now - Jazz
Killer Queen - Sheer Heart Attack