The Concert for Life chapters 1-4

In 1991, Freddie Mercury died of Aids. My brother and I spent a long time on the phone discussing the hidden meanings in songs on their last album, "Innuendo". Songs like "Innuendo" and "The Hitman" seemed to say, guess what?" I have Aids.
At the time I remember thinking, wow, Queen totally fucked Disney. The mouse had paid a boatload of cash for the back catalog and future records and then, blam, no future records. (Except for live albums, and although they were one of the greatest live acts of the rock era, they kinda sucked live on CD)
For me the Mouse fucking brings up a question: John Deacon was, legend has it, the accountant for the band. Did he construct this deal? Was he really the evil, corporate masterming behind the Queen Machine??
In 1992, Brian May, Roger Taylor and Mr. Deacon put on a huge concert with proceeds going to Aids research to celebrate the life and music of Farookh Bulsara. The concert was held at Wembley Stadium. And broadcast on a Saturday afternoon. I spent the day at home caring for pigs (another story) and recording the concert on a pair of VHS tapes. Fox ran a truncated version of it a few nights later, but MTV ran pretty much the whole thing.
It was recently released on DVD, but rather than buy it, I spent the better part of last night transferring it from VHS to DVD on my new recorder. (DVD recorders are a whole nother story. Which discs are better? DVD +R? DVD -R? DVD +RW? DVD -RW? ugh.......)
I figured now might be a good time to play the show, in it's entirety, watch it and simultaneously review it here.

Time gives great perspective. Beth and I watched a broadcast of Green Day's new live concert DVD on Fuse recently and it gave us a headache. So did Live 8. It was almost impossible to watch. Unless you get off on sweeping shots of the audience, because 21st century live concert directors seem to think that's what the audience wants to see. When the singer is singing, for some reason directors are generally cutting away furiously.
It's kind of crazy. I imagine the director in the booth just shouting out, willy nilly, "1! 4! 3! 2! 1!" without even watching. Maybe they are on speed. Maybe they think we are on speed.
Nevertheless, it is very hard to watch concerts on TV. And forget Saturday Night Live. Beth McCarthy should be arrested for what she does to musicians on that show. The mix is always bad. The lead vocals sound like they are blasting through the one good PA and the rest of the band is just hoping to be heard. Add to that that these bands have little or no experience playing to live audiences, or they have no stage presence or no sense of HOW to put on a show, that they have become almost unwatchable.
It's possible that the Concert For Life was the last time music on television was entertaining.
Before we begin I also need to say that the biggest obstacle that I had in editing this was trying to eliminate as much of John Norris as humanly possible. We used to call him "Poodle Boy". Just how and why is he still on MTV after all these years?

Let's begin.

Chapter 1.

Brian, Roger and John intro the festivities.

It really looks like everyone was having a great time. Brian seems to really want to put on a show for his dead good friend. So does Roger. And then they even let John Deacon speak. Now, not only is it the first time I have ever heard John Deacon speak onstage, but thankfully it is the last. But, see, this is something that Queen understood. Not just the drama of it, but the sheer irony and brilliance. We KNOW that John doesn't speak. So, of COURSE give him the first intro of the day. Bloody brilliant. For the rest of the concert, Brian would be a star, mingling with the Slashes, Elliots, Iommis and Ronsons like the "Guv'nor" Jeff Beck once referred to him as. Roger would be seen smashing his drums, with the enthusiasm of a teenager and the season of a professional. But for all we know, Deacon might be out buying donuts; he is virtually invisible. But they knew that. Smart guys.

Chapter 2.

Metallica - Enter Sandman

This was one of the, if not THE, biggest albums of that year. Remember the Black Album? And this was one of the biggest songs. It's STILL the theme song to the Tom Leykis Show and it still sounds fresh. Remember when Metallica was huge? I was never a Metallica fan. But I had that album. I loved it for a lot of reasons but mainly cause there was a lead guitar pass of a Leonard Bernstein riff from West Side Story on a track deep into the album.

What a great way to get they crowd pumped.

Metallica was a logical heir to the Stadium Rock throne. Even though they mined that "We are evil, listen to my growly voice" idiom extremely well, they knew how to put on a show. Ulrich is just punishing the drums and Hammet is flying all over the stage playing those tasty licks.

But, how is it possible that I am looking at James Hetfield sing with no cutaway for at least 28 seconds? Oh, that's right, it's the Bruce Lee school of filmmaking. For those of you who don't know, Bruce always made sure he was shown in full body shots. Like Fred Astaire before him. He knew the power of showing the performance. Show the performance, not the closeup.

Metallica rocked that show and it still holds up.

Chapter 3.

Extreme - Queen Medley

Gary Cherone. Oy. Is he a rocker or a auditioning for the chorus of Guys and Dolls? Tight wife beater black t-shirt, billowy zoot suit slacks and saddle shoes. Saddle shoes???

Kudos for opening with "Mustapaha", though, that way they could open the show by saying, "yeah, we're real Queen fans." What better way than to open than with the obscure opening track from 1979's "Jazz", a song which is sung in Arabic? (The only song in another language to which I know all the words.)

I look over and watch Gary sing for a while. The camera follows him and we get to see the bassist for more than 2 seconds. When the camera pans the audience, it's obvious they have a crane, but it's for flavor, it doesn't determine the choice of shots.

"Keep Yourself Alive" into "I want to Break Free". Queen's first hit and the track whose video knocked them out of American TV forever. Four guys dress up as female characters in a British TV Show, Amercians don't get the joke, assume it's a tranny theme, raise their pre-brokeback anti-gay hackles and turn their back on the band forever. They use the break in the song to go into beautiful 4 part harmony of "Fat Bottomed Girls" then right into a verse from "Bicycle Race". Watching this it's apparent. Gary Cherone could have been the heir to Freddie's throne. He learned (copped) everything from him, obviously, but, he just doesn't have the voice. He can't really sing. There is some growling but he doesn't have a voice that fits into any rock genre AND he can't hold a note. Into "Another One Bites the Dust". Gary shouts a few "alrights" and "Do it!"s which are right out of the Mercury-live-performance catalog.

I never listened to all of "Pornograffiti", but I remember 2 things; 1. "More than Words" was huge. And 2. That song sunk the band since that was anomolous to everything else they ever did.

The drummer, would go on to manage bands like Staind.......

A lead riff I recognize but can't place. It's a showcase for Nuno Bettencourt. Nuno is a good looking man. What happened here? This band should have been huger.

"Stone Cold Crazy". Gary's thunder would be stolen later when Hetfield did with Brian and the boys. Then just a "Hey Yo!" section. I actually tried this in concert once. It's hard. Not the notes. It's just hard to get the audience to sing back to you and not sound like an idiot. Freddie was a genius at this. Gary does adequate justice to Fred's memory. It reminds everyone why we were there in the first place. Into "Radio Gaga." I am struck by how few songs of Freddie's they are actually busting out. They're not just doing hits. They must be trying to spread the joy.

As good as they are, it's a weird and indulgent thing to come out second and spew an 9+ minute Queen Medley. But, the boys seem to love being there and most importantly they are having a ton of fun. Playing to a crowd of 100,000 can't be easy and they are doing it like pros. Nice to end it with the Coda from BoRhap.

Chapter 4

Gary Cherone/Nuno Bettencourt

Love of my Life/More than Words

The girl I was dating at the time of this wanted to put Nuno on her "list". It's hard for me to watch it for that reason.

Of course, Extreme had to do their hit. "More than Words" was a monster in '91. And what a nice tribute to incorporate it into a Queen song and make it a suite.

This is also the first time we see the Freddie Lookalike in the audience, who will pop up over and over. Because he's way up front AND he is sitting on someone's shoulders.

My question is....HOW???? He is always in the air. It seems like the whole show.

I put my 60 pound daughter on my shoulders and I want to pass out after 5 minutes.

So, what do we learn from this? Gary Cherone, besides having a face like a horse, a huge forehead and is wearing Saddle shoes really isn't that great a singer, but could play that crowd and Nuno was as great a guitarist as he was hot.

And he was hot.

Dammit.