It is all over the place, but thats the beauty of it.

Perfect example how May makes the guitar fit to the mood of the song. Also, i like anhonest critic, after all music is in the eye (ear) of the beholder. There realy is no bad music, just music one doesn`t like or does like.

I think this album is the most eclectic one they ever made. I get such energy listening to it.

This one definitely gets better after a few re-listens. I think it’s fun and I love it. While I don’t always agree with you on your opinions, I enjoy the honesty of your reactions, so I hope you’ll keep going after The Game. 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

Love John again in this one. I've listened to his bass track solo, wow. When Brian's guitar kicks in, it lifts the back of your head off. The song does set the tone of the album though, great rock with tongue in cheek.

What Just Happened ?? 😂 Is what I always think when hearing Mustapha . I just love Freddie and he could do anything. Would be great fun to be able to see inside Freddie’s brain when he came up with a song idea. What a fantastic imagination ! And he would definitely throw in made up words… Why not ?… he was Freddie Fucking Mercury ✌🏼😄✨💫🔥 Great reaction Justin 😊

John sounds awesome, like those bass slides on this album! Nice song! It would be great if You will go on after The Game album!

As a ten year old. Getting this album for Christmas. My favorites were... Fat Bottom Girls, Bicycle Race, & especially, Mustapha. I must have driven my parents crazy. Playing those songs. Over, & over, for a solid week. LOL

Mustapha - by Freddie Mercury John Deacon: Bass Brian May: Electric guitar Freddie Mercury: Piano, lead and backing vocals Roger Taylor: Drums and bells

These are not made up words, it is Farsi, Hebrew and English. Freddie Mercury saw himself as being Persian, his family wasn't Muslim, but he grew up surrounded by Muslims. Freddie could only speak English he spent most of his youth in a British boarding school. He only arrived in Britain at the age of 17. His family had to fled Zanzibar due to a revolution. This is that one song that hints at heritage. This is a really fun song that grows on you, there are a lot of great metal covers of this song. This songs works very well as a metal song. These types of Arabic melodies tend to sound great in rock, one of the most famous examples is Misirlou. Another great opener is Inuendo, the title track of the album Inuendo.

Yes J.! re: "I didn't like Spread Your Wings as much as others do." Eureka!..that's honest diplomacy at work... remember, "discretion is the better part of valor." Brian's guitar! It's amazing that he was able to get it to sound like a Persian "Ney." Good description of your perception of the song and production and it's affect on your impression!

By the way, I know you're a very busy man, but if you have time in the future I hope you'll go on reacting to Queen beyond The Game, especially the Innuendo album Freddie's last one. Thank you so much for your very good reactions.

Freddie recites three different languages (maybe at least two), English & Arabic, as well as what some have described as “Persian-emulating gibbering”. Freddie’s birth name (Farrokh Bulsara) is of Parsi, ie., Persian, ie., Iranian descent. “Allah, Allah, Allah will pray for you.”

OH YES!!! The journey continues!!! Thank you!!!

I've always loved the originality of this song. Balls and courage!

You are right it did sound small and then got louder and then small. It is an interesting song, it is a lot to take in at once. Thanks for your reaction, it is a toss up for opener for me either Death On Two Legs or Brighton Rock. I do love One Vision though.

I remember the first time I listened to this song, thinking that my turntable was on the fritz when it was only playing in mono sound. That, or I had a dud copy of the LP. All became apparent when the, 'chorus', kicked in, though. Queen playing their particular brand of audio manipulating shenanigans! The last time being on the end of the last track of the Sheer Heart Attack album, where you're given the very distinct impression that your stylus had fallen off! As for the song itself; it was a bit of an eye-opener, (ear-opener?), to have what sounded like some Arabian style prayer type singing kicking the album off. But then, you quickly remember this is Queen, so you kind of expect the unexpected after a while. Their ability/bravery in trying as many different genres/styles of music is quite impressive, and does take a bit of getting used to. But, once you understand it, then it becomes something a bit special. This album was one I will always have fond memories listening to, as it was the first I actually got to listen to from start to finish, having surreptitiously listened to my older brother's newly bought copy of it with headphones on, when he wasn't at home. I look forward to the other tracks and your reactions to them.

Once again the band took on an unusual genre of music and to my ears, captured it well. Freddie did not speak any of the languages in it...his family spoke English, and probably some Indian dialect. I love Brian's guitar work in this. He seems to be able to adapt to anything Freddie dreams up. Thank you for the info session at the start. ❤🕌

@angelak.7365

6 ай бұрын

Freddie's family spoke Gujarati as well as Persian. Freddie had a basic understanding of these as well as some French.

Thank you, for all of your good work, solid channel

Love this album. Love this song.

Triad covered this song and did a great job, it was harder rock. I like this one a lot. The taxes were approximately 90% I would flee too. 😂

Freddie was simply brilliant. Working in a band composed of other brilliant men and musicians, was so very beneficial for genuine music appreciators such as Queen fans. Freddie's exposure to different cultures and having an Art School education made him quite a precious ingredient along with Brian, Roger and John - wanting to make new music. Variety is the spice of life.

This song is strange but listenable. If you've heard the line from Harrisons Taxman there is a line 'one for you 19 for me.' I thought that was hyperbole but I later found out the top tax rate in Great Britain was 95%. I don't see any practical reason for income tax rates above 50%.

@user-er3ri6sc3j

6 ай бұрын

Tax exiles. Rolling Stones exile on main street. Robert plant discusses that.

I bought this album the day it was released. One thing you always expected was the unexpected. So many songs spent days on a tape loop in my head. Mustapha. was one of those songs even tho I had no idea wtf Freddie was singing about. But it sounded cool. BTW, I bought this on vinyl in 78, and the "small parts" you heard did NOT sound that small. You can easily hear the remaster took away from the song instead of adding to it. But still a fun album.

Totally respect what you're doing here, Justin. I will have commented similarly before but listening to these album tracks as a brand new listen ( to the vast majority bar some singles a couple of times maybe) is awesome. First impressions are always interesting and unique by definition. No prior reference points bar the other 1st listens before that. And, unlike us who had months of listening and absorbing a new album before the next one came out, you're just banging 'em out one a day! Awesome effort fella 👏👏👏

Living in Africa in a Persian community he was influenced by the music from the area.

@LMTino

6 ай бұрын

Agree. Mercury's early years influenced his own more global interests in culture, dance and art. Those forays that criticized Queen as over reach/social high brow with songs like "White Man" etc. may be rooted more in a sort of exploration and curiosity. Likey he had a role encouraging that among the band.

@user-er3ri6sc3j

6 ай бұрын

His parents were born in Bombay India and he attended boarding school there. His heritage and ancestry was of Indian descent. His religious background was Persian zoroastrian Parsee.

@ZENOBlAmusic

6 ай бұрын

@@user-er3ri6sc3j Freddie called himself Persian, Parsi's sees themselves as Persian.

Wonderful song

One of the times I saw them they opened the show with this songs.

i was curious about that one,the begining was kind of weird, but it turn to (metal mustapha 😂🤣😂)

Yay Jazz !!! Thank you 👑

Back then, UK taxes were almost like 90% of your income if you made $$$. Celebs often moved out of country to avoid paying. But were then limited to days allowed to be in UK.

@JustinPanariello

6 ай бұрын

ridiculous

Such brilliant writers.

I like this song, as it shows Freddie's great vocal range.. I also Love John's bass here, with all those great slides, and Brian's guitar ❤And, I'm not forgetting Roger❤... Yes, the guys had to work out of the country due to huge tax gouges at the time,. this changed after Margaret Thatcher was elected...

This is one AMAZING album but perhaps over looked; this song is really super cool and unusual - you gotta love it for its exuberence expressionism and a kind of micro-view of things not readily seen. Go Fred!

I love this song

The top rate of tax in the UK under the Labour government in the 70's was 90%. So it was a no brainer to leave

A Kind of Magic is actually a very good album, despite being a soundtrack for the Highlander movie.

I hope you will also do Live Killers, a smashing live album, and Innuendo, Queen's last album. I would also be curious to see how you like Brian's solo album Back to the Light, from 1992. especially, Driven by you, Resurrection and Back to the light, are great songs. great vocals, guitar and song writing. Love your reactions!

In an interview once Freddie called himself a "Persian popinjay". I read somewhere that the daughter of one of the crew in Montreux spoke Arabic and helped Freddie with the lyric. He only spoke English. It sounds like he had a lot of fun composing this. It seems like most musicians in the UK fled in the late 70s. They ended up recording in the Caribbean or Switzerland or France to keep from giving the taxman 90% of their income. Who can blame them? Queen purchased Mountain studios in Montreux and when they weren't recording they rented it out. Smart! 👑

Remember how in 1977 Yes recorded Going for the One in Montreaux? Same deal. But I liked this one! 😃 I feel like it's a return to the dramatic rock of the earlier albums. I can't believe they released this as a single in Germany of all places.

compare the middle-8 with 'great king rat'

Always liked this one but felt the difference in dynamics did not add anything but confusion. But it's a great move for them to do something a bit different especially with those more arabic sound lines.... I remember Extreme opening with the intro of this on the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. Jazz is a bit of a hotch potch of experiments... when they work it sounds fantastic... when it doesn't they don't even register as anything you can remember the next day. I've heard this album since 1979 and a lot of it doesn't stick at all... But overall I do like this album and consider it the last very good LP from them without being great.

Yeah, this one's not a huge favorite but after listening to it a couple times I really liked it.

Nice one. Nothing negative to say. Weirdly, from the dynamics point of view reminded me of "Flash Gordon". On a jazz score (suggested by the album title) I give this 4/10. Little bit jazzy.

If they have Tie Your Mother Down as an opener, that one wins, hands down. OK maybe Brighton Rock. I guess this song is for the Muslim in all of us.

The only Jazz will be on "Dreamers ball".let's go..great record.IMO Freddies best vocals are on Jazz.Mustapha is Freddies ode to his Parsi background( his real roots are Iranian). He is Zoroastrian,a ancient Muslim religion, although he was born in Zanzibar.Complex cat

@user-er3ri6sc3j

6 ай бұрын

To the best of our knowledge his family never step foot in ancient Persia or today Iran. His parents were born in Bombay India where he also attended boarding school. Possibly religion and heritage and ancestry could be different. A person of European ancestry and heritage can follow Islam and become Muslim.

@JohnnyLaps

6 ай бұрын

@@user-er3ri6sc3j i didn't say his parents.his heritage is Persian.I was born in America,but my bloodlines trace to Italy.His family roots trace back to Persia(Iran) whether he was ever there or not.Both Bomi and Jer,his parents are from the same lineage,regardless of them being forced from Zanzibar or his great grandparents being forced from Persia into India.He may have been born in India,but that's is NOT his heritage.

@user-er3ri6sc3j

6 ай бұрын

​@@JohnnyLapsThere have been rumors Farookh Bulsara tried to hide his Indian heritage because it is ridicule globally. He sure liked his curry Kashimira stated.

@ZENOBlAmusic

6 ай бұрын

@@user-er3ri6sc3j He saw himself as Persian, he called himself Persian. Parsi's are like a Persian community within India. It is like having Chinese community within a country. Some have integrated through the years, but also not that much, that is basically why the Parsi community is going extinct in India, they have not integrated that much.

@JohnnyLaps

6 ай бұрын

@@user-er3ri6sc3j I think he has clearly hid the fact he was born in India, but his lineage is Persian.And I love a nice curry too! Are you going to the IMAX screening?

It’s a weird song. I love Queen … I know the song exists. I leave it alone.

Farookh Bulsara was born in Zanzibar but attended boarding school in India where his parents were born in Bombay. His family follows an ancient Persian zoroastrian Parsee religion but they are from Indian ancestral heritage. There are negative connotations.

@ZENOBlAmusic

6 ай бұрын

Freddie called himself Persian.

The album version of Fat Bottomed Girls is longer than the single version, is much better, more heavy...

Don’t end after the Game, give it a break if needs be…….

not a big fan of this album but Dreamers ball is my favourite queen song oat

@Owlstretchingtime78

6 ай бұрын

It's hardly worth saying that it was Queen's worst 70s effort!

@LucTonnerre2000

6 ай бұрын

@@Owlstretchingtime78 Absolutely disagree. Queen I was for me. JAZZ is a great album. After all, Queen never released a bad album, really. I do not count "Made in Heaven" as an official album tho...

@Owlstretchingtime78

6 ай бұрын

@@LucTonnerre2000 I won't argue the topic, i just don't feel the same way!

Long comment coming, but you’ll understand why… I read a review a while back - it was for this album written in early ‘79 so I thought it was time to relay it. It’s of the hundreds of reasons that I can’t respect the rolling stone magazine - Dave Marsh, a famous curmudgeon of a critic that was super critical of Queen, (and John Bonham oddly enough) wrote this: “There’s no Jazz on Queen‘s new record, in case fans of either were worried about the defilement of an icon. Queen hasn’t the imagination to play jazz - Queen hasn’t the imagination, for that matter, to play rock & roll. Jazz is just more of the same dull pastiche that’s dominated all of this British supergroup’s work: tight guitar/bass/drums heavy-metal clichés, light-classical pianistics, four-part harmonies that make the Four Freshmen sound funky and Freddie Mercury’s throat-scratching lead vocals. Anyway, it shouldn’t be surprising that Queen calls its album “jazz.” The guiding principle of these arrogant brats seems to be that anything Freddie & Company want, Freddie & Company get. What’s most disconcerting about their arrogance is that it’s so unfounded: Led Zeppelin may be as ruthless as medieval aristocrats, but at least Jimmy Page has an original electronic approach that earns his band some of its elitist notions. The only thing Queen does better than anyone else is express contempt. Take the LP’s opening song, “Mustapha.” It begins with a parody of a muezzin’s shriek and dissolves into an approximation of Arabic music. This is part of Queen’s grand design. Freddie Mercury is worldly and sophisticated, a man who knows what the muezzin sounds like. More to the point, you don’t. What trips the group up, as usual, is the music. “Mustapha” is merely a clumsy and pretentious rewrite of “Hernando’s Hideaway,” which has about as much to do with Middle Eastern culture as street-corner souvlaki. But it’s easy to ascribe too much ambition to Queen. “Fat Bottomed Girls” isn’t sexist - it regards women not as sex objects but as objects, period (the way the band regards people in general). When Mercury chants, in “Let Me Entertain You,” about selling his body and his willingness to use any device to thrill an audience, he isn’t talking about a sacrifice for his art. He’s just confessing his shamelessness, mostly because he’s too much of a boor to feel stupid about it. Whatever its claims, Queen isn’t here just to entertain. This group has come to make it clear exactly who is superior and who is inferior. Its anthem, “We Will Rock You,” is a marching order: you will not rock us, we will rock you. Indeed, Queen may be the first truly fascist rock band. The whole thing makes me wonder why anyone would indulge these creeps and their polluting ideas.” It’s such a scathing review but it’s also just wrong lol. Anyway, hope you at least were entertained by that.

Is this your first Freddie written song you don't like?

Justin I just wanna say if you stop at the Game you’re gonna to shortchange yourself on how this amazing band finished off with Freddie at the end. After The Game album (which put them on top in America) the next album Hot Space (pass up the Flash Gordon soundtrack right by) they lost a lot of fans because they got too experimental with Hot Space album because of the huge success of Another One Bites the Dust. So they tried too heavy on the disco side of things in an effort to top the R&B charts. Yes there’s a few good rockers on the album but they did lose America over this album. After a 2 year break they returned to form with the album The Works but still couldn’t get America back. Then Live Aid came which reenergized the band and they felt relevant again. Next came it’s a kind of Magic which was good but THEN once they all knew Freddie was sick the next 2 albums The Miracle and Innuendo, they all decided to share the writing credits for every song which resulted in 2 amazing albums! Please try to get to the end even if you take a break for a while. Those last 2 albums you will enjoy!! It was a monster comeback and return to old school Queen form! Their final studio album Made In Heaven was released in 1995 4 years after Freddie passed away and while it was a fine album it imo couldn’t compare with The Miracle and Innuendo albums!! Dig in deep brother!!

Been a fan of Queen almost from the very beginning and this is my least favourite album of theirs. I hated this album the first time I heard it (which was the day it was released) and how I view it has never changed. At one point, I replaced all of my vinyl recordings with CD's....except for ths one. It might not be their worst album but I think I had such a visceral reaction to it because it is so inferior to everything they released before it. It's just a mess. But you'll find lots of people who love this album. Other than Fat Bottomed Girls and Don't Stop Me Now, I think you're going to find you feel about most of these songs like the 3 you didn't like on NOTW.

@jeffhauf5598

6 ай бұрын

I love how much difference people can have in what they like especially with Queen. This is my favorite and I can’t really explain why. I totally can understand why it’s not for someone else. Which are your top albums of theirs?

@toddmathers5075

6 ай бұрын

@@jeffhauf5598 Glad to hear you really like it and yes, that's what's great about music. I've gone back and forth on the order of my faves over the years because I think Queen II through NOTW are all superb albums (their first album would be on this list too if it had better production). At this point I'd say Sheer Heart Attack is tops on my list, followed by Night at the Opera, Day at the Races, Queen II and then NOTW. Other than The Game and The Works (which to me are both inferior to any of their first six albums but leaps better than Jazz), there isn't another album of theirs after NOTW that I can listen to all the way through without skipping multiple tracks.

I understand that you don’t like ‘Spread Your Wings’. I get it. But… how dare you not.

I love Freddie but why it feel a tad bit racist

As a Queen fan from the get go, i believe i can say with some confidence that those who swore by the bands seventies output were not so enamoured with 'Jazz and what constituted the eighties. Obviously it contains its share of decent material, but to the fanatics ear, there was a definite sense that the rot may be setting in. To begin with there are too many ballads, and the rockier numbers could not exist in the rarefied air of a 'Stone Cold Crazy' or 'Brighton Rock to name but two. The cover is also the worst since the amateur attempt of their debut. You may disagree with all this, but for myself it was the first Queen album to merit less than a 4 out of 5. It will be interesting to see 'your' reaction! 🤔

@Owlstretchingtime78

6 ай бұрын

'Hot Space' is lame beyond words, and thankfully their worst album.

@user-er3ri6sc3j

6 ай бұрын

I think they didn't want to repeat themselves and venture into other popular genres which upset their diehard rock fans. I think this Farookh Bulsara had severe ADHD.

@user-er3ri6sc3j

6 ай бұрын

​@@Owlstretchingtime78It's not rock oriented. Others liked it who are not rock oriented. It's the old you win some you lose some. I like it for early 80's.

@Owlstretchingtime78

6 ай бұрын

@@user-er3ri6sc3j It was released in 1978.

@Owlstretchingtime78

6 ай бұрын

@@user-er3ri6sc3j Whatever the reasons, i've always found it a very tough listen.

Mustapha is kind of a love it/hate it song from Queen. Not my fave.

Hot Space is a garbage album hahaha