Killer Opening Songs to Listen to During the Lockdown (Queen’s Mustapha)
The British Band’s Knack for Strong Album Openers
Some artists manage just one Killer Opening Song in their whole musical career. Some others get to release just a handful. But there are performers for whom KOSs are part of their DNA. Step forward, Queen.
Queen fans come mainly under two guises, those who are enamoured of the band’s Greatest Hits Volumes (and can quote most of their hits by heart) and those who listen to their albums in their entirety and really understand the group’s ethos. I count myself in the latter group.
What always attracted me to this British band was their unbridled creative energy. From their debut album, “Queen”, with its nod to Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones, May, Mercury, Taylor and Deacon embarked on a never-ending experimental tour that brought them a huge following but also derision. It’s not strange that Queen never courted favour with British rock critics. In a country where self-effacement is the lifestyle of choice, captions like “No Synthesizers” (plastered across the band’s first seven albums) did not attract praise but mockery. And Freddie’s artistic vision (like for instance in the Richard Dadd-inspired song “The Fairy Feller’s Master Stroke” from their second album, “Queen II”) did not find an enthusiastic audience amongst rock’s…
