Product Description Amazon.com What once seemed Queen's greatest liabilities--a preening flamboyance
and pompous, overwrought theatricality--have ironically become their most
enduring charms in a gray, postmodern pop-music landscape. While it eschews the
glammy, pre-punk hard rock of live faves like "Stone Cold Crazy" and "Tie Your
Mother Down" for the band's more quirky club-beat string of latter-day hits,
this 51-track triple-CD anthology goes a long way toward documenting the true
dimensions of the band's music and fame. Some songs may not be instantly
familiar to American fans because of yet another irony: just as their U.S.
fortunes waned during the punk and new wave era, the band was exploding into
true international superstars. Thus, there may be a sense of discovery here,
whether of latter-day Queen material or solo work by Brian May and Freddie
Mercury, whose duet on "Barcelona" with diva Montserrat Caballé transcends
boundaries of both time and genre. A previously unreleased live performance of
"The Show Must Go On" featuring
Elton John on vocals is also included. --Jerry McCulley
