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  1. Hi,

    A few days ago, a friend and I were having a beer (or two) and we talked about music.

    At some point, we were talking about U2 (of course) and I said: “The Edge is somehow the Brian May of U2”. My friend fully agreed with me.
    So I chose to refresh my memory about Queen and when I was viewing the wiki-page for Queen, some aspects caught my attention because of the similarities between them and U2:

    1. Queen’s Brian May placed an add in high school to form a band. Same did Larry Mullen.
    And although songs are mostly written by one or two band members, they rather chose to credit the songs as a collective.

    2. The band was first called “Smile” (U2 was called Feedback and The Hype). Later they chose the name “Queen”.

    Freddie Mercury has stated about this: “I thought up the name Queen. It's just a name………and it sounds splendid. It's a strong name, very universal and immediate. It had a lot of visual potential and was open to all sorts of interpretations.”

    Very similar to why Larry, Bono, Adam and The Edge chose the name “U2”.

    3. “In 1973, after a series of delays, Queen released their eponymous debut album, an effort influenced by the heavy metal and progressive rock of the day. The album was received well by critics; Gordon Fletcher of Rolling Stone said "their debut album is superb", and Chicago's Daily Herald called it an "above average debut".

    This is also similar to U2’s debut “Boy” which had very good reviews from some prominent music magazines.

    4. “Sheer Heart Attack”, the band’s 3rd album sold pretty well (same with U2’s “War”), after the sales of their 2nd album were okay, but not very noteworthy (same with U2’s “October”).

    5. Although “A Night At The Opera” is Queens 4th album, it has similarities to U2’s “The Joshua Tree” (although it’s not U2’s 4th album) in terms of its epic format and the fact that it meant their establishment at the top of the rock music business.

    6. The album “A Night At The Opera” spawned their stadium anthem “Bohemian Rhapsody” and was the fans’ favorite during their live shows.

    Reminds me of U2’s “Where The Streets Have No Name”.

    7. As U2, Queen had a slight problem with the use of synthesizers and pre-recorded samples, but decided to do so in the end.

    8. Queen’s album “Hot Space” is similar to U2’s “Pop” in terms of a deviation to different musical styles and the poor reception by fans and critics at the time of release.


    9. July 13th, 1985: both Queen and U2 perform at Live Aid and both were critically acclaimed for their strong performances of that day.

    10. Freddie Mercury teams up with opera singer Montserrat Caballe.

    U2/Passengers and Luciano Pavarotti?


    As I said before at the beginning, I see a sort of resemblance between Brian May and The Edge: both have a very recognizable, distinctive sound. Hundreds of guitarists have a distinctive sound of course, but there is more. Brian May is a modest, friendly man and quite well-read. The Edge gives me the exact same impression, apart from the fact that both guitarists are skilled in terms of musical try-outs and creating new sounds for their bands.


    If you dig deeper, there are always similarities in different bands of course, but I found the ones above very striking.

  2. That's interesting. There's really some similarities. Sometimes I fantasise what could happen to Queen now if Freddie don't die.
    But really, what is the relation between the two bands? Queen's last album (The Cosmos Rocks) has a title called "Time To Shine" which was a little copy of U2 harmonies and sound, but U2 had never wanted to be similar to Queen in the music but maybe we could count Get On Your Boots because the chorus and if I listen to Unknown Caller and I hear those choruses and Edge's guitar I think it's Brian May who's playing it.
    Anyway I love Queen. Really, really love them.
  3. Originally posted by 17s:That's interesting. There's really some similarities. Sometimes I fantasise what could happen to Queen now if Freddie don't die.
    But really, what is the relation between the two bands? Queen's last album (The Cosmos Rocks) has a title called "Time To Shine" which was a little copy of U2 harmonies and sound, but U2 had never wanted to be similar to Queen in the music but maybe we could count Get On Your Boots because the chorus and if I listen to Unknown Caller and I hear those choruses and Edge's guitar I think it's Brian May who's playing it.
    Anyway I love Queen. Really, really love them.


    No way these two icons can be compared, apples and pears
  4. That's true too but everybody has a taste and everybody sees the things in his/her way.
    There aren't too much similarity in their music but there are some parallel in their history.


  5. That's right, that was exactly what I was talking about: the similarity between their history and approach in some matters. Not about any similarity in their music, simply because there is none. At least not where I can see it.
    Sorry if it came across that way, BTW....
  6. Originally posted by Rob1965:
    1. And although songs are mostly written by one or two band members, they rather chose to credit the songs as a collective.

    This isn't true, Queen always credited their songs to only one person (or sometimes two), only on their last 3 albums they decided to credit the whole band for each song.

    Originally posted by Rob1965:8. Queen’s album “Hot Space” is similar to U2’s “Pop” in terms of a deviation to different musical styles and the poor reception by fans and critics at the time of release.

    Very good point, this is also noticeable in the very similar album covers.


  7. Wow, I hadn't even noticed until now. You're right indeed. Cool trivia.

  8. Some good points and some bad ones but all in all an interesting read Anything talking about Queen gets me happy. I really wish I coulda seen them but I was too young. A Night at the Opera is #2 on my all time albums list right after the immovable #1 : Achtung Baby. Really strong point about Pop and Hot Space
  9. Yeah....but in that case there are also huge similarities with REM and Depeche Mode...

    I see where you're getting at, but I dont find the similarities that striking tbh...
  10. I know what you mean and there's thousands of similarities to be found between all kinds of bands, but when I was reading the article about Queen, I couldn't help myself thinking about U2 on several levels.
  11. Originally posted by RDB92:[..]
    This isn't true, Queen always credited their songs to only one person (or sometimes two), only on their last 3 albums they decided to credit the whole band for each song.

    [..]


    I know, but I hoped I could get away with some cheating in my article......too bad, you're a attentive reader.



    On another note: I was just thinking if there any more pop bands that teamed up with opera singers, but I can't think of any other band than Queen and U2. (please note: someone like Andrea Bocelli is not an opera singer. However very skilled and maybe able to sing in a classical way, he is no opera singer)
  12. Originally posted by Rob1965:[..]

    On another note: I was just thinking if there any more pop bands that teamed up with opera singers, but I can't think of any other band than Queen and U2. (please note: someone like Andrea Bocelli is not an opera singer. However very skilled and maybe able to sing in a classical way, he is no opera singer)


    I don't know any other band who did that but I do know that Freddie Mercury was a great Pavarotti fan and the first time he saw Montserrat Caballé was in London in 1981. He went there to see Pavarotti in Verdi's "Un ballo in maschera" but didn't know that Montserrat will be there and didn't know her name but after he left the house he was in love with her and in her voice.
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