CD Odyssey Disc 80: Queen

A third entry from Queen ties them for the lead right now with Judas Priest, KISS, and Townes Van Zandt. Who will win the title of "most albums on the CD Odyssey"? - tune in in 2014 to find out.

For now it is enough to know that I know. You may know as well, if you know me. But if you know, then there is a good chance that I know that you know...Anyway,

Disc 80 is...Jazz

Artist: Queen

Year of Release: 1978

How I Came To Know It: I've covered how I know Queen in previous posts. "Jazz" is just me drilling through their incredible catalogue. I've probably had this album a relatively short time - maybe 7 or 8 years, but that's a guess.

How It Stacks Up: I have 13 of Queen's albums. Much as I enjoyed this listen to "Jazz", I'm going to put it in the bottom 3, depending on how much I am enjoying "Hot Space".

Rating: 3 stars.

It is worth noting that I just said this is one of my least favourite Queen albums, and then I gave it 3 stars. Pretty much even lesser (to me) Queen I've got still qualifies as 'just plain good'.

"Jazz" is the answer to the question, "What if one of the world's greatest hard rock bands decided to reinterpret a bunch of show tunes?"

Obviously, this isn't the case - these songs are all written by Queen, but Freddie worked overtime on themes that make you think of Liza Minelli doing jazz hands. In particular, I can see "Bicycle Race", "Let Me Entertain You" and "Don't Stop Me Now" as broadway hits.

Nowhere is this more in evidence than in "Don't Stop Me Now":

"I'm burnin' through the sky Yeah!
Two hundred degrees
That's why they call me Mister Farenheit
I'm trav'ling at the speed of light
I wanna make a supersonic man out of you."

Don't get me wrong, though - I like these songs, and frankly - every Queen album has a bit of this stuff (let's not forget this band's frontman is Freddie Mercury).

The musicianship is brilliant on this album - with some great vocals from Mercury and I also really noticed Roger Taylor's drumming as well.

As always, just when Freddie is turning everything into "Singing In the Rain", Brian May steps in and delivers a hard rock guitar lick, perfectly timed.

The songs on "Jazz" are musically quite interesting, and are a bit transitional from the harder rock sounds of "News of the World" that preceded it, and "The Game" which follows. At times I feel it is a little disjointed, even though the tracks themselves are great. Maybe it's just that I love the two albums that book-end it, and I want it to sound the same as one of them. I can't put my finger on it - I really enjoy it, but it is a little all over the place - even for them.

Of course, whatever faint praise I may dish out, this album has the five star anthem "Fat Bottomed Girls". This is hands down the best (and most famous) track on this album, this song accomplishes the seemingly impossible task of titling a song "Fat Bottomed Girls" and then not insulting anyone. Instead, this song has caused at least two generations of boys fall in love with big fat Fanny, the Naughty Nanny.

The secret? Freddie sings it like he means it. Every word. In the process, he challenges all our traditional sense of what is beautiful and (just as importantly) rocks out one of the greatest rock songs ever written.

"Fat Bottomed Girls" is actually written by Brian May, which makes Freddie's delivery even more impressive - in this way it reminds me a lot of The Who's "Behind Blue Eyes", written by Pete Townsend, but owned by Roger Daltrey. Unlike "Behind Blue Eyes", "Fat Bottomed Girls" is about having a good time, rather than whatever screwed up psychological problems Townsend has to solve through his music.

Not enough to pull this album up to 4 stars, but it comes close. It probably single-handedly keeps it ahead of "Hot Space" and "Flash Gordon" on my list. But I'll talk about those when I roll 'em (favourably, I'll warrant).

Best tracks:Fat Bottomed Girls, Jealousy, If You Can't Beat Them, Don't Stop Me Now