Overrated: Brian May

I bet you weren’t expecting this one.

Dr Brian Harold May CBE was the lead guitarist with the acclaimed rock band, Queen. Brian’s achievements in the world of music and outside music are too numerous to mention here. Suffice to say the university educated astrophysicist has hoovered up lots of honours. Principally, I would imagine because he is dynamite with a guitar in his hands.

It is well-known and not just in Queenland that Brian with his dad’s help created his own guitar before he was famous, the axe is affectionately known as the Red Special. The unique sounding guitar was played on all the albums and made Queen’s music distinctive from the rest. So far, so good.

Queen can do no wrong for me as you probably know. I always believed there were two geniuses at play in the world of Queen. Latterly, I have been downgrading that rating. There was only one.

When Freddie the One died in 1991 I fully expected the gifted long-haired one with the guitar to come into his own. This did not happen. The much anticipated guitar driven solo albums did not materialise. Instead, mediocre fare was offered up in two solo LP outings that barely dented the charts; full of poor song writing, lacklustre vocals, clichéd lyrics. After the much-maligned miss called Brian May and friends Star Fleet Project mini-album in 1983 (recorded during a Queen lull) I should have known that the weak voiced May would not cut it as a solo performer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j2oUB3ICNY

Musically in the Queen context Brian has played superbly and written many fine tunes. There’s still a doubt though. The song writing policy of Queen was that whoever brought the original idea for a song to the table received the song writing credit no matter how many changes during the recording process occurred. I wonder how much input Freddie had on those “Brian” songs? Footage reveals that Freddie completely changed the tempo of the Roger Taylor inspired A Kind of Magic making it a huge hit. And John Deacon is on record as saying Freddie helped enormously in his self-penned ditties. So much so that on one track Pain is so Close to Pleasure -a hidden treasure on the A Kind of Magic LP- that John gave Freddie a co-credit. Did Freddie influence those famous Brian songs in any way? Brian’s not for saying.

Right now let’s get to personality. Brian’s is as damp as old wallpaper about to be stripped. There’s no jokes, no irony, no self-deprecation, bluntly speaking, he’s boring. Having watched hundreds of interviews with this man, over and over again on VHS as a star struck devotee, I really have had a misspent youth.

Then there’s his badger tendencies. Dr May is forthright in defence of badger culling. Using his name as a figurehead the pro-badger movement has many followers. They petitioned Downing Street last week with Brian at the vanguard. No doubt a lot of the signatures are by Queen Stepford fans that trail the guitarists comet. Most of them have more than likely never seen a badger. As an urbanite reared on the streets I have no interest in the pro’s or con’s of the badger debate.

Brian is a great guitar player but is living on past glories and should have made better career choices post-Queen.
Anita May nee Dobson also peaked with Eastenders and her career has been on the slide (heh, heh) as well.