02-10-1991 – The Orange County Register

Queen isn’t willing to call it quits in the US

Queen is dead. Long live Queen.

Such sentiments probably are heard these days in the hallways of Hollywood Records, Disney’s new pop music label. The company’s first big-name music release, “Innuendo,” is from the veteran British rock band Queen, a quartet that still has a large following internationally but hasn’t enjoyed a high profile in the United States in recent years.

In the ’70s, the foursome — vocalist Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, bassist John Deacon and drummer Roger Taylor — had five Top 10 albums and such major hit singles as “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Somebody to Love,” and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.” “It’s a Kind of Magic,” and “The Miracle” fared far less well.

Hollywood threw a big Queen bash, with fire-eaters and fireworks, at the Queen Mary in Long Beach last weekend, the first volley in what Hollywood hopes will be a successful attempt to revive Queen’s US career.

“It’s very bizarre. We never thought we’d be associated with anything like (Disney),” May said. “Our first reaction was, `What do they have to do with rock ‘n’ roll?’ But you’ve got a lot of people there who are committed. They’ve got great imagination.”

Of course, there are many who would contend that Queen — known for heavily produced music, semi-classical flourishes and Mercury’s theatrical inclinations — has little to do with rock ‘n’ roll. May concedes that it might be the love-it-or-hate-it showbiz aspects of Mercury’s personality that turned off Americans to Queen.

“It could be the small things,” he said. “As soon as he cut his hair, that alienated people. People sometimes don’t know where we’re coming from.”

In addition, May said, the element of humor gets past some critics. “There’s a strong undercurrent of humor in what we do, a kind of dry humor that runs through it,” he said.

As for the critical griping that Queen’s music is pompous and pretentious, that’s the whole point, May said.

“We’re quite aware of going over the top quite deliberately and that’s what we do,” he said. “To say it’s pompous is not saying anything. That’s one of the ingredients in the arsenal we use. A lot of this over the topness, the grandeur that gets up some people’s noses . . . is, in fact, how some people feel. When you hear it at a gig, it’s not overstating it. It gives people a chance to vent their anguish.”

While Queen dabbled with dance music on some of its ’80s material, the style is missing on “Innuendo.”

“We’ve been in and out of that stuff,” May said. “We were into it a bit too early. `Another One Bites the Dust’ was R&B and we did (the album) `Hot Space,’ which didn’t connect that well. Maybe, if we’d waited a year or two later, it would have done very well. But I think we’ve realized some of our best stuff is rock ‘n’ roll.”

In addition to charges of overdoing it, Queen took a drubbing from the music press for playing in South Africa, despite an international boycott.

“We made our feelings clear about apartheid,” May said. “We’re very much against it. By going down there, we were able to voice those opinions, which were quoted in the South African press,” he said. “If you’re going to stay away from every country whose politics you disagree with, you’d end up not playing anywhere.”

However, Queen won’t be playing anywhere soon. The band has not been on the road since a 1986 world tour.

“Freddie decided he didn’t want to do it for a while, and the feeling has stuck,” May said. “It’s a little frustrating for me and Roger particularly. We’re very much a live act. Freddie being the figurehead and the vocalist, it’s harder for him to maintain himself. He can’t go out, drink, smoke or even talk too much. He has to be prepared mentally and physically.”

While May is hard-pressed to come up with exactly why Queen hasn’t done well in the United States in recent years — though he said it might have had something to do with the whims of radio and record-company politics of the band’s previous labels — he knows he would rather spend more time here than in England.

“I find it depressing,” he said. “There isn’t a good attitude about professionalism. There’s no incentive and there’s no enjoying doing a good job, unlike in America. I would live here if it weren’t for so many ties at home.”