Me, Freddie, Brian and the Rest of Queen

When Wayne's World came out, I'll never forget, I was listening to the radio one night and someone called in and asked to hear "that song by that new band Queen." I nearly died laughing so hard. They were, of course referring to the song "Bohemian Rhapsody" which was featured prominently in the movie. For me, Queen has been a part of my life as long as I can remember.  When I was a kid, my best friend Silke, whose parents had escaped East Germany and introduced me to the wonders of Nutella (which I wouldn't see again until a few years ago) and the horrors of sauerkraut, would put the song "Another One Bites the Dust" on her record player and we wore that record out.

I remember the video for "Radio Gaga" and thinking the song was stupid because the only words I listened to were the title ones. It was only about a decade or so ago that I actually bothered to sit down and hear Freddie and realized that I was just like him in that song. While my radio didn't glow, it was always on with a tape in it ready to record something.  I loved the radio show War of the Worlds too. I had the radio on at night, and for a brief time listened to something a few of you might know called "The Southern Biscuit Flour Hour", where I began to wonder why they played so much Lynard Skynard and Almond Brothers.  And as Freddie says, "Someone still loves you", and that someone is still me.  I still listen to the radio all the time (though I no longer tape anything).

And who doesn't remember the big to-do over Ice Cube stealing "Under Pressure"? I spent some time explaining that one to my daughter showing her the differences between the two only to have her tell me that she preferred "Ice Ice Baby" just to see if she could get a rise out of me. She didn't. I'm wise to her ways now.  That song is pure magic.  "Under Pressure", people. David Bowie said he was never satisfied with his performance in that song and got angry when they put the song out. But he also admitted he would never have been satisfied. He was a bit of a perfectionist. The two men remained friends right up until the end and now we've lost them both.

My daughter loves "Bohemian Rhapsody" because I showed her the video from Wayne's World that showed her the proper way of listening to it. Now she headbangs the right way (with hands in the devil horns) and does the voices in the right spots. When I'm driving the car, she tells me she'll headbang for me since I have to watch the road.  Her second favorite is the Ahhh song, or as the rest of us know it, "Flash". I showed her the movie Flash Gordon and she agreed with me: the leader of the Hawks is really funny and the soundtrack by Queen makes the movie.  I'm afraid my daughter has inherited my love of bad movies. But it really is worth watching just to listen to. And the Hawk guy really is hilarious. It's also pretty goofy to see Timothy Dalton dressed up like Erroll Flynn in the movie Robin Hood. She's growing to love the rest. Especially "I Want it All", "Another One Bites the Dust", and "We Will Rock You". I'm working on "Fat Bottom Girls", "Crazy Little Thing", and "Somebody to Love". The hardcore stuff like "Hammer to Fall" will have to wait.

Whenever Brian starts doing something amazing on his guitar I make sure to point it out. I've told her all about Brian and how he is an astronomer and how he and his dad made his guitar from scratch when he was a teen. How smart he is.  And Freddie's incredible piano skills and soaring vocals. Yeah, I should mention Roger Taylor's drums, especially since she has an interest in them as well as guitar and piano, and sometimes my trumpet.  And let's not forget the poor bass player. My uncle is one and he'd kill me if I'd leave the bass player out. John Deacon holds it all down for the band. My ex-husband, however is a guitar player, so I know more about the guitar players then I do the drummers and bass players.  My daughter still hasn't nailed down what instrument she wants to play, which is why I point them all out in the songs I play for her, so she'll think they're all cool.

This is all a part of my evil plan. If I introduce her to all the good music early on and block out anything truly horrific, maybe when she hits her tween years and whatever Justin Beiber hell is waiting for me then, she won't be interested because she will see him for the crap that he is. Right now I'm just glad to be sharing one of my favorite bands in the world with her. It's like falling in love with them all over again.