As It Began...

How and when did you become a Queen fan?
What did you hear first?


For me it was 30 years ago. My dad's friend was a big fan, and with his purposely grown tasche, was a fair likeness of Fred! He gave my dad a video featuring The Works video EP, Greatest Flix and the WWRY video (now Rock Montreal), and a cassette with AKOM album on one side and Mr. Bad Guy on t'other.
It only took one viewing of that video to stir in me feelings that nothing else provides and I was hooked.


What about you?

I came along late. It was early 1992, pre-Freddie tribute @ Wembley, and a friend of mine wanted me to get the song 'We Will Rock You' for our sports league we played in at the time, so we could play it at the appropriate times. I asked him who sang that song, and he said Queen, and I simply said, ok, I will look for it. I knew nothing at all about the band. I honestly and very naively thought they were a "One hit wonder". Later that same night, I made a plan to go to a record shop to find the cd that had the song, but never got around to it.

Fast forward a few weeks and suddenly BOOM Bohemian Rhapsody was all over the place and getting ALOT of video and radio airplay. Too much in fact. I hated it. I took note that it was sung by Queen on the video channel, and that reminded me about the whole WWRY song that I never got around to getting. So, that night I finally went looking. They did not have anything but 'Classic Queen' and a couple of their albums; none of which had WWRY on it. I was aggravated. So, since I was there I picked up a 'Firehouse' cd, and then decided..."Fuck it, I will get Classic Queen, because I knew of Bohemian Rhapsody, even though I hated it.

Fortunately enough for me, I did. I did not pop the cd in the machine until after said friend of mine told me about the tv coverage of the Freddie tribute concert. He was not a big Queen fan, but liked some of their songs, so we watched it at my house. I found that I did in fact know some of their other songs, but just never knew who sang them. That inspired me to put on Classic Queen the next afternoon.

The listen started off slow, because I had never heard the songs. I was immediately in love with Freddie's voice, but I was not too keen yet on the songs I was listening too. Half way through my first listen, and skipping Bohemian Rhapsody still, I started liking some of what I was hearing, but still was not sold. Who Wants to Live Forever was the first track that started to really warm me to them, but then came The Show Must Go On. The fucking Holy Grail of songs in my world now...and BOOM! Awestruck. I sat up after it was over and said out loud..."WTF was THAT!" and I replayed the track for another hour at least in succession. That was it! I needed everything Queen. By the end of the year, I had all of the cd's, and album vinyl's and was collecting 45's in the city and just started getting some imports via my mom and pop shop record store in the city I visited.

The rest was history. =)

Smashing post, thanks Broooklyn (I got a firmer grip on those o's now!).
Do you like the songs now that you didn't like then?

Smashing post, thanks Broooklyn (I got a firmer grip on those o's now!).
Do you like the songs now that you didn't like then?

about the o's.

Thanks, man. Regarding the songs I initially did not care for, I now absolutely adore. In fact, I always choose 'Classic Queen' (which is still playing just as good as day 1, 22 years later. That cd is my baby) over their original 'Greatest Hits'. Not because GH-1 is any lesser of an album, but simply because it contains a greater mixture of sounds to my ears. (*Whispers*...I can be a mooody bitch at times. ) I enjoy the poppier side of Queen it seems, (which was the total opposite of my taste 22 years ago) then others, but the classic 70's to early 80's stuff up to and including 'The Game' album, will always remain untouchable, and rightly so.

I know what you mean. I started out loving the heavier side, went thru a pop stage and now prefer the light and balladic side.

Some tunes are perennials while others come and go.

Little prezzie for ya. Use it, keep as a spare, chuck it away as you please...

Its wrapped up in here:

Spoiler! :

o

Enjoy.

Queen GH 2, as far as I know! AKOM got me immediately!

Queen GH 2, as far as I know! AKOM got me immediately!

Apparently AKOM was massive next door in Spain. Every Spaniard I've known cites AKOM as their starting point, describing it as though the album and tour literally worked magic on the Spanish youth.

I had kind of a long weird trip to Queen. I didn't really become a solid solid fan til around the time of Freddie's passing and the Tribute.

I never realized how much I had had contact with them throughout my youth.

My father owned a few bars and one of the extra jukeboxes he had he put in our basement. On that jukebox was AOBTD which I loved. Never cared who it was by. There were other tracks I liked to but I'll not name them for my own sake

At the same time one of my favorite movies of the time was Flash Gordon and that was partially due to the music but again I didn't know who did the music.

There were a few other songs I heard and enjoyed (WWRY, WATC, Don't Stop Me Now, Save Me, Bicycle Race).

I grew up and in jr. high I was getting into the hair bands a bit and I discovered Extreme. I loved Extreme and they became my favorite band at the time.

I went to high school and was in a musical and one of the seniors had Queen's Greatest Hits. I discovered all the songs I had heard and loved but wasn't quite convinced.

I then heard Extreme was going to be at the Freddie tribute so I watched and fell in love with The Show Must Go On. I got Classic Queen and fell in love and the rest was history. Extreme slid down a notch to #2

I think its quite familiar in some ways, in that a lot of people grow up with music around them, and not caring about who it is, how old it is etc. Until a point comes when you do care about a band or some bands and things begin to click.
Happened to me with The Beatles. I'm not a particular fan, but they were present while I was a kid, but none of it made sense till I knew who they were and their body of work.
Incidentally it was my obsession with Queen which led me to discover The Beatles like that, as I kept seeing comparisons to them in Queen biographies.

Until I discovered Queen, age 9, I honestly had no concept of modern or old music. I didn't know that Dexy's Midnight Runners' Come On Eileen was only a couple of years old. I thought all music had always been there and just was.

I know what you mean. I started out loving the heavier side, went thru a pop stage and now prefer the light and balladic side.

Some tunes are perennials while others come and go.

Little prezzie for ya. Use it, keep as a spare, chuck it away as you please...

Its wrapped up in here:

Spoiler! :

o

Enjoy.

Love ya, man.

Aww.
Thanks man, right backatcha.
You been entertaining me for years, and man, if you EVER need any more of those Os, you know I've always got your back man.
F*kin least I can do maaaan.

Don't look at me man.

*faces opposite way to wipe tear away*

Champions of the world my friends! Champions. of. the. world!

Well, as a kid, I mostly heard pop/rap/dance crap my sister put on. I hated it, and thought music wasn't for me. At least, until I got on the internet and discovered Bohemian Rhapsody in 2008 or 2009 (I was 14, I'm 21 now). Since then, I became a fan. I first listened to the Queen hits, got into other bands too (Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple first, later Pearl Jam and Nirvana), but Queen always remained my favourite band. Then, I found out about album tracks and listened to YouTube playlists of all the albums in order.

I remember listening to my father's copy of The Miracle on cassette tape growing up. I also remember seeing the Bo Rhap video on tv a lot. When I really became a fan though was when I started high school (early 2000's). A fellow student was a huge Queen fan, which inspired me to listen to more of them. I went out and bought the greatest hits Platinum Collection, and upon first listen I was hooked. Save Me and Play the Game particularly stand out in my memory; I thought they were the most beautiful songs I'd ever heard. It wasn't long after that I'd collected all the studio albums.