Can Anybody Find Me…?

Queen are one of those bands where my memory and nostalgia rendered them unlistenable for years; it’s not that they were particularly bad in my head, nor even that that I had bad memories of them, but they were such strong memories that it made it impossible for the music to really be heard; I’d hear the first couple of notes, enough to recognize what I was listening to, and suddenly I was a kid again, and we would be in the car, going on a long journey with my family and we’d be listening to Queen’s Greatest Hits, singing along with gusto and that would be what Queen would mean to me for years.

The strange thing is, even then, I don’t think I really heard the music; there was something about the communal nature of the whole thing that overwhelmed the music itself, just as the nostalgia would do years later. By the time I was ready and able to actually listen to Queen as a band, with their songs and their distinctive lyrics and guitar sound – Oh, Brian May, I’m sorry for underestimating you for so long! – and divorce them from being The Band We Listened To In The Car (One of two bands, actually; the other was Huey Lewis and The News, who my dad loved for “Hip To Be Square”; I’m not sure any of the other songs even needed to exist after that one, for him), there were songs I was sure I knew inside out that sounded as if I’d never heard them before in my life. Queen are a band that I love, now, for their particular collective sense of humor and drama, their showmanship, and most of all, their ability to make pop music that still seems ridiculous, exciting and necessary.

Oh, and their ability to make music that is perfect for a family to listen to and sing along with on long car journeys. I can’t forget that, not even now.