Queen Rotterdam 1977 description

We move along with the A Day at The Races Tour! This is the band's concert at the Ahoy Sports Palace in Rotterdam. The quality is pretty good (I also loudened the volume, EQed it to remove hiss, and fixed pitch, as it ran slightly slow), and it's almost complete (some cuts on "Sweet Lady".).


The performances have some sloppy parts, but are mostly solid. Freddie's voice isn't as strong as the earlier shows on this leg of the tour, but is in good shape overall.

"Tie Your Mother Down" sounds great with Freddie hitting most of the key A4s, "Ogre Battle" has some rough spots (a few intonation issues, Brian drops out after the bridge), but goes decently overall with Freddie hitting a great A4 at the end, "White Queen" is pretty good, though Freddie rushes the phrasing in spots, "Somebody to Love" is conservative (Freddie doesn't go for any of the Bb4s, though he adds one during the breakdown), but sounds good with him doing good alternate phrasing, "Killer Queen" is great with Freddie singing it very playfully (as well, he sings "Perfume came naturally from Rotterdam), "Good-Old Fashioned Lover Boy" sounds good, "The Millionaire Waltz" is great with Freddie acing the "Talk back to ME" Bb4, "You're My Best Friend" sounds great, and "Bring Back That Leroy Brown" is good.

"Death on Two Legs" is somewhat mixed as Freddie falls flat on the "ALL my money" Bb4 and messes up the words in the second chorus (sings "You never had a heart" twice), but mostly goes well with Freddie acing the "overgrown schoolboy" Bb4s, "Sweet Lady" is decent, though Freddie does some odd phrasing and cracks the "WAITING on a shelf" A4, "Brighton Rock" sounds good, plus the guitar solo is excellent, "'39" is good with Freddie doing nice embellishments, though Roger fails his falsetto part, "You Take My Breath Away" is a lovely performance, "White Man" sounds good with Freddie going for a good amount of the A4s, "The Prophet's Song" has a scary improv and is good overall, "Bohemian Rhapsody" is a pretty good conservative version, though Freddie cracks on "Born AT all", and Brian screws up the solo, plus Freddie dodges the "can't do this to me baby" line, "Keep Yourself Alive" is good, Freddie has some intonation issues but makes up for it with some good embellishments in the choruses and Roger's drum solo is cool, with a phaser effect put on to give it a "swirling" sound, "Stone Cold Crazy" is great vocally, with Freddie acing the ending D5, but the second guitar solo is messed up, "In the Lap of the Gods...Revisited" is good, "Now I'm Here" sounds very good with Freddie hitting the first A4, "Liar" is very good with Freddie doing nice embellishments (including a great sustained A4 on one the last "All day long") and the band on top form, doing great improvisations throughout, and then we have a change in the setlist! After Copenhagen 5/12, "Big Spender" was dropped, and replaced with a cover of Bo Diddley's "I'm a Man". It sounds great, with great vocals from Freddie, and "Jailhouse Rock" sounds good.

ENJOY!