My sister is having a grand time teasing me about being obsessed, with my renewed interest in Queen, and I must admit I would have had more sleep the last two nights had I not been interested in them, most likely. Actually, no. The thing keeping me up is the new laptop, not the stuff I do with it. When the novelty- the faster computer with Internet, a laptop I can take into my room, and with this lovely small keypad- wears out, then I shall sleep more. I love the keypad. I am sure my typing speed is up a bit already. Now if only my drums widget was working all would be grand.
I was up last night learning about playing electric guitar, watching the 4 sections of guitar instruction by Brian May on YouTube. I may never be able to play guitar well without thumbs, but it was still an interesting thing to watch. Now I have a much better idea which sounds in these songs are Brian and which are John, which having never played or been around their instruments I was not so sure of. I can also hear now what Brian is doing much better. Yes, some of this was about as basic an understanding as knowing the difference between a slide trombone and a a tenor sax, but I usually just listen to the end results of rock music, and indeed of any music, except choirs, which my brain, after so many years singing in choirs, picks apart into the individual parts as easy as breathing.
I also was looking up other videos by the members of Queen, of course, to even stumble across those instruction videos. I am glad that Brian, and probably all three remaining Queen musicians, are comfortable with the idea of YouTube, because it is always a bit uneasy enjoying free media when the artists involved resent it. (Metallica and Napster come to mind right away, and the fact that most of Brad Paisley's videos are no longer on YouTube.) I was particularly interested in stuff I had read about but not heard, so I was watching videos of The Cross, and Brian's solo work, and the new Queen stuff, all songs I do not know, and tat I would really have to digest before I could say what I really think. I can say that I rather liked The Cross from what I heard, better perhaps than the Queen + Paul Rodgers sound. (This is a great argument in favor of free media. I am not at all inclined to buy music I don't already like, and if I can't hear a band without buying an album or accidentally hearing them on the radio, I won't buy their music, ever. I did order a used copy of the Cosmos Rocks album online when I bought the others this week, but only because it was cheap and I already trust Brian and Roger to make good music. Frankly, if either of them puts music out into the world, I have good cause to trust that it is good, whether it will be a favorite of mine or not. But there are never albums from bands like The Cross at my local chain music store, so I had not ever heard them before. I really liked Roger's version of Heaven for Everyone, better overall than the one on the Queen album. Ths song is a good fit for Roger's voice, and seemed a bit awkward for Freddie's style, though I have no idea what would have canged had he lived long enough to polish the tracks for that album himself.
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