Take A Little Trip Back...to High School - Redux

Previously I wrote about some of the music I listened to in high school and remarked that there were two albums that I associated with my senior year quite strongly. The first is Robert Plant's Manic Nirvana and now it's time for the second: The Miracle by Queen.

While I enjoyed Queen's older material and a smattering of their 80s stuff, I honestly cannot remember what inspired me to buy, what was at the time, their latest effort. My best guess is that I'd heard "I Want It All" on Rockline or some such similar program and was suitably impressed. Either that or I just decided to hear what they were up to those days. Regardless, it was one of those albums that was 80s enough to appeal to my friends who listened to Top 40 and 70s enough for me. Or something like that. Consequently it was played as we cruised down the road or were goofing off at someone's house and it became a big part of the soundtrack of my senior year of high school.

What does The Miracle sound like to my now much older ears?

As with Manic Nirvana, listening to The Miracle for the first time in years was like reuniting with an old friend. It may sound hokey but hearing the opening drum beat of "Party" brought back memories. And that beat is pure 80s. But there's also the trademark chorus of Freddie Mercury's multitracked vocals. The Bacchanalia continues on "Khashoggi's Ship", albeit in a more guitar-heavy form. The title track brings a bit of drama to the proceedings with synthesized strings and Mercury's operatic vocals. However, there is a jamming interlude with May soloing over something of a boogie beat courtesy of John Deacon. If Queen can be said to have followed up "We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions", it would be with "I Want It All" with its slashing guitars and anthemic chorus.

The first side closes out with "The Invisible Man". It is one of the most 80s sounding song on the album with its steady drum beat and frenetic bass line. While it features one of my favorite Brian May solos, it also has lots of synthesizer bits tucked in between the words and hovering in the background. Despite the nods to 80s dance music, this is one of my favorite songs on the album and was one that my friends immediately took to.

The second side leans towards the pop music of the day more than does the first. Or, at the very least, seems more derivative. "Breakthru" has a (mostly) great a cappella opening but quickly turns into a very generic 80s pop song with a beat that doesn't like to deviate very much from its computer precision. Oddly enough, the song's chorus is curiously similar to "Boys of Summer" by Don Henley, another observation made only recently instead of 30 years ago when I listened to the album frequently. "Rain Must Fall" is also rather disappointing as it sounds as if Denise Williams' "Let's Hear It For the Boy" was retooled with a Cuban touch. "Scandal" and "My Baby Does Me" are afflicted with 80s synth/drum box mania. On the bright side, "Was It All Worth It" closes the proceedings with trademark Queen pomp and bombast.

I liked side 1 better than side 2 back in high school and my opinion hasn't changed. Back in the day, I was more indifferent towards the likes of "Scandal" and "Rain Must Fall" whereas these songs sound dreadful to my ears today. These should have been b-sides where they can at least be appreciated as fun throwaway instead of the meat of the album. As I recall, Mercury was by 1989 rather thin and gaunt. The rumor was that he had AIDS but he'd not yet publicly admitted so. Despite his ill health, he is in great form here. While some songs are musically of little interest to me, Mercury's singing is always a pleasure to hear.

Both The Miracle and Manic Nirvana have bonus tracks on them, most of which were released as b-sides. Seeing this brought back memories of the bad old days of tracking down singles to get at the non-LP tracks. When in the Chicago area, I frequented Hip Cat Records, which had a large selection of singles, imports, and bootlegs. (It used to be in Wheeling, if memory serves, but has since moved.) I recall their enormous selection of Pink Floyd boots well but it always seemed like they carried relatively few Genesis boots. I think that they usually had multiple copies of From the Mouth of the Monster, though, as it was a recording of a show they did in Chicago. Most of the time, though, I shuffled through Goldmine magazine in search of elusive non-LP tracks. The store that advertised on the back cover always had lots of singles and prominently noted the b-sides. I want to say it was in Louisville, but I can't recall.

This obsession with collecting singles with b-sides eventually became a very expensive one a few years later when it became the norm to issue multiple versions of a single each containing different b-sides. This was a ploy to climb the charts since each copy sold regardless of version contributed to the tallies for the song and was one of the biggest rip-offs ever devised. Don't have enough non-LP material? Throw on a worthless and virtually unlistenable remix. How things have changed. A couple of the major record labels which perpetuated this scam used to send me unsolicited e-mail in an attempt to get me to do their PR work for them.

So there you have it. My little trip back to my senior year of high school. Since Queen stopped touring in 1986, I grabbed a Bob Plant show from 1990 that a couple friends of mine went to. Neither can recall why a third ticket was not obtained for me.

So confess, dear reader. What music were you listening to in 1989-90? Or, if you're too young to have been a music fan at that time, what was the soundtrack to your senior year of high school?