LIVE KILLERS

In 1976-77 I listened for the first time to the "Queen II" album. I didn`t like Queen`s music very much then. It was until 1980 when a cousin lent me this double live album that I started to appreciate Queen`s music better. The recording and mixing of this album is not very good: the band sounds "distant". But the performances of the songs are very good.

This album has a bit of everything: straight rockers ("We Will Rock You" in two versions, "Let Me Entertain You", "Brighton Rock", "Keep Yourself Alive", "Sheer Heart Attack", "Tie Your Mother Down", "Now I`m Here", "I`m in Love with my Car"), more Pop Rock oriented songs ("You`re my best friend", "Spread Your Wings", "Don`t Stop Me Now", "We Are the Champions"), "oldie style songs" ("`39", "Dreamer`s Ball"), more Progressive Rock oriented songs ("Death on Two Legs", "Bohemian Rhapsody") and love songs ("Love of my Life"). Among my favourites are the two John Deacon`s compositions: "Spread Your Wings", in a very good version sung with feeling by Mercury along with the audience, with an excellent lead guitar solo by May, and "You are my Best Friend". I really like all the songs of this album. "Bohemian Rhapsody" is also very good. "Dreamer`s Ball" has "wind instruments" arrangements "imitated" by the members of the band with their mouths.

In conclusion, I can say that this is a very good live album despite the quality of the recording and mixing. Freddie Mercury particularly shines, singing and playing the piano with great energy and feeling, showing how he was a very talented musician. Brian May shows his very particular guitar playing technique, his very original style. The underrated John Deacon plays very good bass guitar and also contributes two very good compositions. Drummer Roger Taylor plays with his very original style and sound and also contributes some good compositions, singing with May the majority of the backing vocals and sometimes also singing lead vocals in his own songs ("I`m in Love with my Car", "Sheer Heart Attack").

I still can`t believe the "rumours" that I read in a website dedicated to Queen, http://www.geocities.com/qzboots/pages/lkanalysis.htm , about how this album was made. The author of this article wrote that the tracks included in this album were made using editions of several concert peformances of the song, so a song could have several parts recorded in different concerts. If this is true, it is not really apparent in the sound of the tracks. Anyway, the performances are very good. This was, IMO, the last album of "the old Queen`s style of the 70s". After this album, their style changed to more simple songs and arrangements in "The Game" album.