Is A Day at the Races by Queen a neglected classic?

I had difficulty with it at first. It irritates me when an album I otherwise like has a song I dislike on it; it sullies the album. To keep that from happening, I make aggressive attempts to find things to like about such songs. I pretend I love them, crank it up, and bask in its glory. Sometimes this works, and it did in the case of "Mustafa". Other songs I had to work to like were "Headknocker" and "Women" by Foreigner; now I can tolerate them, but it took years.

 

I don't like it very much - I find it very ponderous and rather dull, I think they did absolutely the right thing by simplifying and rocking out a bit with News of The World, which is streets ahead as an album.

Long Away and Drowse I can handle, but outside of that I don't return to it (although with the singles it's likely due to over familiarity rather than anything else).

Neglected classic? Hardly. I'd say maybe the first album is though if we're going to play that game.

 

I always thought Animal Crackers was their best!

 

lol, yea headknocker isn't too good lol
i generally put time into stuff ... maybe i haven't with that one .

 

ADATR is the first real dip in quality from Queen. It's the Brian May penned numbers that let it down. Tie Your Mother Down, Long Away, White Man and the utterly dreadful Teo Torriatte are the weakest tracks on the album, IMO. The comparisons to ANATO are lazy. Title and artwork aside, ANATO has much more in common, musically with SHA.
I'd rate the album 3/5

 

It took awhile for me to warm up to this album. At first listen Tie Tour Mother Down and White Man were the only "new" tracks that grabbed my attention (Somebody to Love had long been in my consciousness due to Greatest Hits).

A couple of years later, I'm in the Navy, working in an office (due to a broken wrist) in Bahrain, listening to a "grey market" (to be generous) Queen compilation when things started to click.

Millionaire's Waltz and Good Old Fashioned... finally made sense to me, Long Away became my touchstone track, and I became convinced that You & I was their best, and possibly a perfect, Pop-Rock song.

I think the disparity of treatment between the two albums comes from the treatment of the "album tracks" as compared to the "statement tracks" and singles. On Opera, things like Lazing and Seaside are treated as trifles. Well done, but disposable Music Hall ditties, meant to add a bit of atmosphere, but little substance. Listening to the album is a very dynamic experience because of this.

Whereas on Races, the "ditties" have much more substance to them. By the same token, I don't feel as if the "statement" tracks reach comparable highs as the previous album.

By definition, the rollercoaster can not be as much fun if the distance between peaks and valleys has been shortened.

The real problem is trying to look at Races as an inferior rollercoaster, when we should be looking at it as an excellent Dark Ride. It's really Peter Pan, or perhaps Mr Toad's Wild Ride, while Opera is Space Mountain.

 

Good but inconsistent like most of their Seventies stuff

 

Were it not for ‘Somebody To Love’, then I would say it could be an overlooked classic by the general masses (members in this firum being the exception). However because ‘STL’ is still one of their most popular, and played songs on the so called Classic Rock stations, ‘ADATR’ gets its fair share of love.

Queen’s debut album, now that’s an overlooked classic.

 

I got the early CD master of the album recently, the Toshiba-EMI CD from late 1980s.
It also contains 'The Millionaire Waltz' and 'You And I' with the said piano intro issues, so I fixed these tracks using nanoseconds of the Digital Masters Series disc's versions.^^

 

Read somewhere that the Beatles' 'A Day In The Life' was Freddie's inspiration writing the Cowboy Song ('Mama' part of his Rhapsody), swapping/changing the chord progressions a bit.
The very early version of Bo Rhap (or the Cowboy Song) possibly dates back to 1967 or 68.

 

I've seen some comments not liking White Man, but I think that's a fine track, damn good rocker.

I also like the artwork; the contrast with a Night At The Oprea.

Anyway, of course the album's a classic. It's Queen!

 

Teo Torriate is so lame and embarrassing. C'mon boys you're not Japanese and play some rock.
Long Away is a song Brian was always pushing to be a single but it's obviously not good enough. It's a filler.
You and I is a filler. The lyrics are unbelievably corny and cringe-worthy.
The Millionaire Waltz is just so awful, it would be even worse if the guitar wasn't so good.
White Man is pretentious.
Drowse is a filler and possibly Roger's worst song.

Queen often had very corny, predictable lyrics that used to embarrass me at times. This album was the first Queen album that disappointed me and is a definite departure in song quality. For many years i had all their albums, but along with The Miracle, Hot Space, and The Game, Races are no longer owned by me. I realized i just never played those albums and i also realized that i didn't need to keep all their albums just because i was a fan.
Always disliked the cover as it seemed just so lazy of the band to more or less copy the previous album's cover, it seemed like they didn't care.

Queen were my favourite band for around twenty years, i absolutely loved them so much. However as well as having some truly great records they also had some bad ones too imo.
As i always say, even Muhammad Ali lost some fights, & he was The Greatest!

 

Man, how could you like Queen so much and think that songs like Teo Torriatte and Millionaire Waltz are awful? I can't wrap my head around that.

 

It was a freedom record if anything else. They were happy that the last record sold well enough to keep them making music together.
It is classic and I do think it is overlooked as a whole. However, it spawned one (among many) of the most well known tunes from them Tie Your Mother Down.

I do think the quality of writing had gotten a lot better after A Day At The Races, again, because it was more of a celebration after A Night At The Opera.

 

I always liked the cover. Obviously, meant to be paired with ANATO, given both are Marx Bros film titles and also harks back to Queen II (Black/White sides) and that they only wore Black and white on stage, early in their career. So, a black and a white album? Day or Night? Sure, why not?

Agree about Teo, but the Japanese fans lapped it up. It really elevated them in Japan, not that they needed much help after Bohemian Rhapsody. But the fans there, saw it as an 'above and beyond' thank you from the band, which endeared them to the country and people.

 

Not neglected by me, no!

 

Absolutely. Never understood why people say they stop at A Night At The Opera.

A Day At The Races has just as much quality time on it as the previous LP.

"Millionaire Waltz," "Somebody To Love," "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy," and "Teo Torriate" are four of their best ever songs imo. And I know a lot of people rate "Tie Your Mother Down" even higher.

 

While not especially a Queen fan , this album is a good follow up after A Night at The Opera. It isn't easy to make a record after a succesful album.

I like Queen most for their (hard) rock songs , so I don't listen to that much. With Tie Your Mother Down it has one of my Top rock songs by Queen. ..great ! White Man I also like and it has a fantastic single in Somebody to Love.

There's more an it's good, but not so much my cup of tea.

 

I don't think this album is that much different to the rest of their 70s work. It is loud, it is incredibly pretentious (as any glam-rock should) and it is a lot of fun!


"Pretentious? Moi?"

 

I am not cool at all then. I consider all of the Queen albums up through The Game great but also have and enjoy the remaining albums as well.

 

There's a nice 20 track expanded edition of ADATR that's 'out there' as well.

 

While I get your use of scare quotes, can you tell us a little more?

 

The last "real" queen album imo.
Its the last album from them i have in my collection. I'm missing out on another bites the dust/radio gaga/under pressure/we are the champions/we will rock you. but they are on the radio so much I don't mind.

 

Solid album but not a classic to me.

 

A greatest hits comp should cover those. Have you heard Innuendo?