I needed to listen to something fresh and young, something that would alleviate that sickening feeling from not-so-happy news from around the world and from the cold breath of the pandemic winter. While revisiting my “tiny essays” format, I thought of Queen’s first album – again, a memorable item in my cassette collection, often played in my youth, and then somehow left out of my … Continue reading Queen
Writing about Queen II makes me extremely happy – along with A Day At the Races, this is an album that I can always listen to without getting tired. I take a deep breath at the beginning, synchronizing my heartbeat with the rhythm of “Procession”, breathing out only at the end, after the jolly singing of “I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside” is … Continue reading Queen II
As I was putting Christmas lights on our porch today, I caught myself murmuring “Las Palabras de Amor,” a song that matches this holiday season so well, with cold weather raging outside, and us huddling together in the safety of our houses and apartments, close to our family and pets, grateful for this warmth, in both literal and figurative sense of word. I feel this … Continue reading Hot Space
As we move more and more into winter, with the news being a mix of hope and desperation, and the days growing darker and shorter, I am trying to think of Christmas and New Year – that in a couple of weeks I will bring a tree into our house, and we at least have a bit of a holiday spirit in a tiny circle … Continue reading One Beautiful Christmas Day
“Innuendo” is one of the few Queen albums I knew for my entire life. I first heard this record in 1991, and it became inseparable from my coming of age. When I decided to dedicate this Tiny Essay to Freddie’s memory, I found out that my perception of “Innuendo” is split into two levels: I see these songs through the prism of my current knowledge … Continue reading Innuendo
Queen’s “A Day At The Races” (1976) was probably my greatest discovery as I plunged into the world of this magnificent band three years ago. I think that in part it happened due to the fact that I missed this album as a teenager, when I fell in love with Queen songs for the first time. And so, besides the hits, I knew nothing, and … Continue reading A Day At The Races
I thought of a project that would give me a relief from bad news and anxiety, and hopefully would entertain my friends, fellow Queen fans. It has been three years since the doors to this colorful and joyful world of Queen music opened for me, and I thought that now it is a perfect moment to write a series of essays, each of them dedicated … Continue reading Let Us Cling Together
Three years ago, somewhere around your birthday, you came into my life through the young voices, through your greatest song. I do not believe in accidents, it probably was meant to happen. Two months later I opened my first (Russian) blog page and started writing about your music – because I just needed to verbalize this overwhelming feeling. Six months later I became a follower … Continue reading For Freddie
The mini-essay experiment continues… This one turned out a bit gloomy. V. You laugh at every joke, drag your blanket blindly, fill your heart with smoke…and the first thing that you want will be the last thing you’ll ever need. That’s how you fight it – Wilco, ‘How to Fight Loneliness’ Rock music constitutes an essential part of my personality, and because of that, I … Continue reading Tiny Essays – Part 2
I asked my friends to send me the lines from their favorite songs so that I could write mini-essays about each of them. And here is the result. I. I don’t know how / You were inverted Being an old Beatles fan I knew this song all my life. And yet, this version, played by great late Jeff Healey, gave me a different insight into … Continue reading Tiny Essays – Part 1
Desperate Writers 