Day 35 – I Want To Ride My Bicycle
The continuing adventures of “Eric’s Trip Around the Sun”. One final trip with the iPod.
My apologies for the slight vacation in my posting schedule. A slew of events including baseball and a sore back was preventing me from sitting around and typing about rock and roll. The back is better, just requiring a little R&R. The baseball is almost over, with the local Cubs getting eliminated from contention last night.
Regarding the baseball: While my fandom lies with the White Sox on the South Side, there have been several factors which have prevented me from being a north side hater. While I realize that they are not my team, they put together an admirable season and have a young nucleus to build around. I think that for the most part the asshole quotient is very low.
As you grow older, have a Cub fan for a wife and have already experienced a championship on the South Side, bitterness is just selfishness and I would not want to wish that a north side fan not experience that emotion. So congratulations for a wonderful season.
Queen.
Is there a band on the planet that exhibits more rock and roll than queen? Theatrical, bombastic, over-the-top. They’ve created a very unique niche for themselves within their music and presentation and have been considered parts of heavy metal, progressive, glam among other genres.
The song ‘Bicycle Race’, inspired by the Tour de France is featured on their album Jazz. Lyrically it’s simplistic and even a little comical in parts. The official video below features 65 nude girls riding bikes in a fictitious bicycle race.
Musically, the song changes tempo along the way and takes several twists and turns, pops a tire, gets replaced and finishes strong.
There has always been a healthy level of respect for Queen from yours truly, specifically because I think that it’s been difficult to pigeonhole them into one style of music. I think that they have also been hard to replicate. You can make comparisons to the multitude of bands that sound like the Beach Boys, Beatles or Led Zeppelin but how many can bring it musically like Queen?
• The Minders – Better Things
• Luna – Bewitched
• Belle & Sebastian – Beyond the Sunrise
• Guided By Voices – Big Chinese Restaurant