The year 1986 was a big milestone in Queen's history at the time. It is the 15th anniversary of the format of the original line up, and now history shows the last Queen tour with original front man Freddie Mercury. Queen celebrated the event with items for sale, this live CD, the studio album A Kind of Magic, and the three part VHS Queen documentary called The Magic Years. Unfortunately, in America, Queen were forgotten and dismissed at this time, so the US was virtually left out of the 15 year anniversary celebration, but in the rest of the world Queen enjoyed a level of success they had never had before and the world celebrated with the band almost as if they knew this would be the last time Queen would play live.
Unfortunately for Queen fans Live Magic does not truly represent what Queen is like "live" and it is perhaps the opposite of "magic." This CD is the live follow-up to Queen's first live album Live Killers, a double album which summed up very nicely Queen's body of work in the 70s. Live Magic is mostly made up of songs with the hits of Queen from 1980s.
This Cd is made up of only fifteen songs released on a single CD. Most of the songs have been edited down even if it's just one verse removed, and the length of the whole CD is just under fifty minutes. The recording sounds a little muffled, it's not up to par with the other three live albums Queen have released.
The 1985 single One Vision opens the show and as the CD fades in the song's intro is already in progress. Freddie sounds energetic and it top form vocally, the band perform the song faithful to the studio version. The song segues into a sped up version of the 1976 classic Tie Your Mother Down, which is no big surprise - the song has always been a part of the Queen show since the 1976 tour. The audience sounds very pleased and on their feet pumping their fists into the air. The second verse is omitted, but you wouldn't notice unless you're one of those meticulous Queen fans.
Listing Seven Seas of Rhye is sort of a tease as they only perform a minute's worth from the hard rocking song, but no matter the audience is delighted. A Kind of Magic is unedited and left at almost six minutes in length. The song has a very British pop feel to it, and in my opinion one of their worst songs. It makes no sense to leave A Kind of Magic alone and unedited - and then with Bohemian Rhapsody they edit out the whole operatic middle section of the song. But having said this, we can hear a complete concert from the same tour on CD with the release of the double disc Queen Live at Wembley '86.
When Queen play live, most of the songs have more of a hard rock edge even when the songs weren't written that way. Even so, it's nice to hear live renditions of songs that were previously unavailable commercially such as Another One Bites the Dust, the huge disco hit from 1980 and Under Pressure, which began life as a studio duet with Queen and David Bowie, now a classic rock radio staple.
The worst travesty here is the classic line up of We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions was broken up with one of their brand new songs in between them called Friends Will Be Friends. Rock You and Champions are more like one song really than two separate songs for Queen fans, and to throw in a new schmaltzy meager attempt at a new anthemic track like Friends Will Be Friends is sacrilege.
The one aspect that sets this CD apart is that is includes a couple of tracks from their very last show taped at Knebworth Park in August of 1986. The shows at Wembley and Knebworth were performed so close together anyway so this would only matter to the most fastidious Queen fans. Pass up this chopped up sorry 15 song set and opt for Queen Live at Wembley '86 for a more complete experience. The Hollywood Records remastered 2003 edition of Wembley has 28 songs with a bonus four songs including the Budapest national anthem Tavaszi szel vizet araszt performed by Freddie Mercury and Brian May on July 27, 1986. Live Magic is kind of pointless if you ask me.
the songs
1. One Vision
2. Tie Your Mother Down
3. Seven Seas of Rhye
4. A Kind of Magic*
5. Under Pressure
6. Another One Bites the Dust*
7. I Want To Break Free
8. Is This The World We Created?
9. Bohemian Rhapsody
10. Hammer To Fall*
11. Radio Ga Ga
12. We Will Rock You
13. Friends Will Be Friends
14. We Are The Champions
15. God Save the Queen
*full live version
~~~~~~~~~~~For more Queen CD Epinions from Scapp70~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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