Queen had been successfully oversold before I got a chance to catch up with them. Flamboyant success, Freddie Mercury’s endless egomanic conversations printed in full in the press, records that surely bore more the hallmarks of solid calculation than inherent honest rock and roll...you could admire the manipulation but you didn’t have to like the results. By the time I became curious enough to find out what all the fuss was about I’d already made my assessment— they might impress with their live work in terms of effect, but I wasn’t going to like what they stood for.