Customer Reviews

The Complete Guide to the Music of Queen

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A warning to potential buyers: this book does not offer track-by-track commentary, like other titles on the "Complete Guide to The Music of..." series. The author simply uses each Queen album as a book chapter and re-tells the group's story for the upteenth time. Also, he states in no uncertain terms that what Queen did best was "disposable pop". So much for the band's heavier songs - powerful rockers such as "The Prophet Song", "Sheer Heart Attack", "Brighton Rock" and "Son and Daughter", to name a few. I wonder how this book was approved for this series. It should have been written by someone who really appreciated Queen's whole body of work and not just the singles.

It's a nice book and nothing more than that. All the anecdotes are well-known to Queen fans and they're found in every good Queen biography. But if you're looking for just another Queen booklet that helps you through the night, then buy it! Better books on Queen can be found anywhere...

The book on Queen should have been part of "The Complete Idiot's Guide" series. Hogan seems more interested in doing a biography of the group, instead of covering their "music" (which is supposed to be the series' aim). This book is recommended only to people who are unfamiliar with Queen and their story.

The Complete Guide to the Music of Queen is a small but interesting booklet that contains many dates and facts regarding Queen as well as a discography. The booklet goes through each of the band's albums one by one through Innuendo and relates basic information about the recording of their albums and a few interesting stories. It contains eight color pages with photos all of which I am sure you have already seen. In addition it is "cd-sized," and I obtain my personal copy with an interview disc that is supposed to be a "Collectors' Edition" and is put out by Mastertone. (It is readily available and is the one with Freddie in the white undershirt and plain, circular arm bracelet on the left arm.) This guide is by no means any sort of definitive work, but it is good start for any new fan to become familiar with the band. It is about the same as Mick St. Michael's booklet in another package containing an interview disc (which by the way contains an infinitely better interview disc). But in the end if your are a true Queen fan that owns every albums and knows without a doubt that they are the best band that the world has ever known (by far), then you knew you were going to buy it before you read this little review despite anything I said. Didn't you?