So Bucky is gone. The "Fat Bottomed Girls" guy who took the song down to a countrypolitan dirge had to go. Personally, I'd have taken out note-ducking Elliot, but that's just me. When you have a song that's a complete Arethadivaloozian rave, and then sing it in one octave, you have to go. But then again, when it's a Brian May-penned rocker--like WWRY and FBG--and you mess that one up, then you're in for some reality TV danger.

And that leads me to another point, which is Brian May's apparent preciousness over Ace's arrangement or interpretation of We Will Rock You. Like I said, there's been many liberty-taking covers of that song, many of which Brian has either led or taken part in--the Pepsi ad with Britney, P!nk, and Beyonce, for example.



And so I suspected it was clever editing that made Brian look arch, with his "I can't do that to my own song" remark as a major part of their interaction.

Brian talks about it on his site today. I think what I'd also say is that We Will Rock You is a song that is sung as well as guitar-rocked. And so if you sing all over it--as you have to do, I guess, in a 1-minute-30-second segment on American Idol--you muss it up. See, the song is only 2:10 long in the original!

This is why I preferred RockStarINXS over American Idol--on the former show, they interacted with the band! They brought the guitarist out if there was a solo--none of that Vegas band in the background or orchestra pit crap. If there's a guitar solo, let's see the guitarist! Let's see him--or her--wince, sweat, stick his tongue out, gyrate. You don't need a performance studies PhD to understand that.


That's why I prefer AIR GUITAR over American Idol any day of the week!
(Scroll down and play with headphones.)

***
Not incidentally, last Tuesday night, the night of the first Queen on American Idol episode, I was serving as a judge in another contest: the New York State Poetry Out Loud competition. The coincidence was not left unnoticed on my part. Here I was, sitting in the back of the theater as these brilliant high school kids read everything from Edgar Allen Poe to Sterling Brown by heart, and I am judging them based on this multi-part rubric. And I'm DVRing freaking American Idol.

Labels: God Save My Queen, Queenspotting