Queen in Review: Jazz

Ahhhh, that's more like it. Gone are the smoothed edges of the strangely bland News of the World and in their place are a host of eccentricities bubbling up from the fevered brains of May and Mercury. Famously decried as "fascist" in Rolling Stone upon its release by pinchfaced killjoy critic Dave Marsh I find it a wonderful trip through all of their typical tropes with a few new bizarre tricks thrown in. I highly recommend reading the entire hateful review since it's up there with the Spinal Tap-Shark Sandwich critique in the canon of greatest terrible reviews of all time but don't believe a word of it. What Mr. Marsh calls "dull pastiche" I see as a surfeit of ideas. He dubs the members of Queen "arrogant brats" when they are simply the most fascinating artists in unitards that the music world has ever seen. Mercury in particular lets it all hang out, beginning the album with the maniacally exciting "Mustapha" and never letting up. He was so exhilarated at this point in his career that he describes himself as a rocketship, a shooting star and a "tiger defying the laws of gravity" on the insane penultimate track "Don't Stop Me Now." Queen may be drunk on their own power but, oh what power!

I always thought Queen was a hugely popular band from the start but reading about them now, I see that they had to struggle a bit since they were certainly not critical darlings and I'm sure their voracious musical appetites were not easily understood at the time. I can't stress enough how truly bizarre they are. By the time they released Jazz they had clawed their way to the top and had earned the right to take a victory lap and look around from the top of the mountain, surveying where they had been and where they next wanted to venture. This is their last truly great album save for Taylor's typically horrid track, this time a painful disco funk song sadly titled "Fun It." Jazz beautifully summarizes and encapsulates everything they had done up to this point. From here on out they followed their pop muse and lost a lot of their lovability along the way.

Weirdest song - "Bicycle Race" You probably are well familiar with this song but listen to it again and enjoy how truly odd it is. Plus, the stupid/brilliant lyrics are a plus and so much fun I had to include them all below for you reading enjoyment.

Bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my bike
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride it where I like

You say black I say white
You say bark I say bite
You say shark I say hey man Jaws was never my scene
And I don't like Star Wars
You say Rolls I say Royce
You say God give me a choice
You say Lord I say Christ
I don't believe in Peter Pan
Frankenstein or Superman
All I wanna do is

Bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my bike
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my

Bicycle races are coming your way
So forget all your duties oh yeah!
Fat bottomed girls they'll be riding today
So look out for those beauties oh yeah
On your marks get set go
Bicycle race bicycle race bicycle race
Bicycle bicycle bicy
I want to ride my bicycle
Bicycle bicycle bicycle
Bicycle race

You say coke I say caine
You say John I say Wayne
Hot dog I say cool it man
I don't wanna be the President of America
You say smile I say cheese
Cartier I say please
Income tax I say Jesus
I don't wanna be a candidate For Vietnam or Watergate
Cos all I want to do is

Bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my bike
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride it where I like