# David Bowie vs Queen **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 4, 2013, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-vs-queen/646092 "2013-01-04T18:49:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2013, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-vs-queen/646092/41 "2013-01-05T00:38:44Z")
I dug Queen back in the day. They were the first rock concert I went to, if you don’t count the Fifth Dimension as “rock.” I was a big Bowie fan in the '70s too, though I never made it to a Bowie concert. But Bowie’s art just went so much deeper and more meaningful for me. Throughout the '70s, each new Bowie album was a complete accomplishment in a radically new direction from before, _Low_ and _Heroes_ being the ultimate reaches for me, though I’ll always remain a Ziggy fan. _Lodger_ was full of great music that stands up well against anything else released the same year (1979), but seems like a decline only in comparison to the rest of Bowie’s '70s oeuvre, because it for once did not take a radical new direction. I actually did not care for _Let’s Dance_—its sound was too cold and off-putting for me; even the abstract watercolory sound-sketches on side 2 of _Heroes_ sounded warm and inviting by comparison— and from the mid-1980s onward, I tuned out of new developments in contemporary rock music and lost interest in the '80s versions of pretty much all my rock faves from the '70s, and followed Peter Gabriel’s lead to world music instead—but 1980’s _Scary Monsters_ is just amazing in its scope and execution, one of the most outstanding rock albums ever. If it were just _Queen 2_ compared to any single album of Bowie’s, well I think _Queen 2_ beats most albums ever made. But Bowie’s entire output stacked up against Queen’s entire output, up to say 1984 after which I quit paying attention to both of them, gives Bowie the clear edge. That, plus Bowie had John Lennon singing along on the _Young Americans_ album. John Fucking Lennon! 🆒 Queen never did that. And Bowie incidentally showed up in my favorite movie ever: _Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me_. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2013, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-vs-queen/646092/42 "2013-01-05T00:42:03Z")
I voted for Queen, even if David Bowie IS “[The Sovereign](http://venturefans.org/vbwiki/David_Bowie)”. ---
**Author:** ![dada2fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ccd318/32.png) [@dada2fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dada2fish)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2013, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-vs-queen/646092/43 "2013-01-05T00:42:08Z")
Bowie by a mile. Most casual Bowie fans only know his stuff that played on the radio. All his radio hits are the ones I usually skip while listening to a Bowie album. Sit down with a good pair of headphones, close your eyes and listen to the song Station to Station. The layers of that song are just phenomenal. His glam era, the Berlin trilogy of albums, all the way up until the 1.Outside album. After that, it goes downhill, but he had twenty-something great years. Any musician worth a crap in my opinion usually states Bowie as a major influence. I would take Roxy Music as a close second. I do like Queen though. Some of their songs are beautiful. But I’m not a big fan of their hard rock stuff and they have a handful of cutsie types of songs I don’t care for. Also, Freddie was a great singer and frontman, but that high falsetto you hear is not Freddie, it’s the drummer Roger Taylor. (“Beelzebub has a devil put aside for meeee, for meee, for MEEEEEEEE!!!” That MEEEEEE is Roger. He’s an underrated singer for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Carmady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f04885/32.png) [@Carmady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carmady)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2013, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-vs-queen/646092/44 "2013-01-05T00:49:27Z")
Bowie by a light year. They’re not even comparable. The only person above Bowie in the pantheon of modern music gods is Tom Waits. ---
**Author:** ![MadTheSwine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MadTheSwine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadTheSwine)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2013, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-vs-queen/646092/45 "2013-01-05T00:53:36Z")
> [@Carmady](#): > > Bowie by a light year. They’re not even comparable. This is a joke,right??? The Beatles are almost comparable to Queen.No other act comes close. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2013, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-vs-queen/646092/46 "2013-01-05T00:53:45Z")
Purely personal preferences, I’d pick Queen. I never warmed to Bowie, and though I do like some of his work, I was never moved to buy any of his albums; I have three Queen albums, and I think “A Night at the Opera” is one of the greatest rock albums ever. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2013, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-vs-queen/646092/47 "2013-01-05T00:55:20Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > No worries. I didn’t take it that way. But I think “Broadway musical” does describe a little closer to the feeling I’m trying to convey. Their music had a certain unique bombast to it, and gorgeous orchestration that was more reminiscent of opera and Broadway musicals to me than your average rock music. Part of that is the piano in the music; part of it is Freddie Mercury’s voice and vocal range; part of it is the song writing structure itself. I think this is entirely correct, and a connection I hadn’t made before, and perhaps a subliminal reason I don’t like Queen very much. I just _hate_ musical theater – the idea that whole communities will burst into song and dance is so utterly absurd to me that… well, it’s just too bizarre for me to comprehend. The only musical movie I ever enjoyed was _All That Jazz_, which made a kind of sense because the subject matter was making musicals, plus it had so many smoking hot scantily clad women. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2013, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-vs-queen/646092/48 "2013-01-05T01:09:37Z")
> [@MadTheSwine](#): > > This is a joke,right??? > > The Beatles are almost comparable to Queen.No other act comes close. Now you’re just being ridiculous. I get that they’re your favorite band, but The Beatles were leagues beyond Queen by just about any metric you’d care to use. I have my favorite bands, too, but I don’t con myself into believing they compare to The Beatles. Also, for influence and depth of material, I’d say Bowie’s easily got Queen beat. And I voted Queen in this poll. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2013, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-vs-queen/646092/49 "2013-01-05T01:20:16Z")
I’m wondering if Bowie had the support of his record company when he tried to bring out a record that was a different style to the previous one. I think in today’s industry he’d encounter quite a bit of resistance, but how did it work back then? ---
**Author:** ![MadTheSwine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MadTheSwine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadTheSwine)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2013, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-vs-queen/646092/50 "2013-01-05T01:32:39Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > Now you’re just being ridiculous. > > Also, for influence and depth of material, I’d say Bowie’s easily got Queen beat. And I voted Queen in this poll. LMAO..and you are calling me ridiculous? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2013, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-vs-queen/646092/51 "2013-01-05T01:46:39Z")
> [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](#): > > I’m wondering if Bowie had the support of his record company when he tried to bring out a record that was a different style to the previous one. I think in today’s industry he’d encounter quite a bit of resistance, but how did it work back then? A coupe weeks back I was reading obits of Dave Brubeck. His record company didn’t want to release his album “Time Out” because they thought it was too… strange or something. It became one of the best selling jazz albums in history, and the single “Take Five” broke onto the pop charts and became perhaps the most recognizable jazz tune in history. I’d bet you’ve heard it, there’s a bunch of versions on Youtube if you want to check it out. Anyway, this was in 1959. (On edit) And by 1959, Brubeck was already arguably the best known jazz musician in America, having been on the cover of Time magazine several years previously. ---
**Author:** ![Chicken\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Chicken\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicken_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2013, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-vs-queen/646092/52 "2013-01-05T01:51:44Z")
Bowie by a billion miles. I’ve always liked Queen. They were my first rock concert experience, too. But Bowie is brilliant. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2013, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-vs-queen/646092/53 "2013-01-05T02:18:41Z")
Definitely Queen. If David Bowie were all he was trumped up to be, then he would have come out on top at the Alamo. Queen, however, has surpassed even Victoria’s time on the throne. You go, girl! ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2013, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-vs-queen/646092/54 "2013-01-05T02:35:53Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Definitely Queen. If David Bowie were all he was trumped up to be, then he would have come out on top at the Alamo. Queen, however, has surpassed even Victoria’s time on the throne. You go, girl! Talk to me when Queen has [a knife as wicked looking as this](http://www.knife-depot.com/knife-314126.html) named after it. ---
**Author:** ![Tapiotar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2013, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-vs-queen/646092/55 "2013-01-05T02:42:55Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Bowie. I certainly did not like everything he did, but some of it was excellent, always original and inventive, and often really pushing the envelope. Queen was just another rock band: a very good one, but not all that original or outstanding. This, precisely. Queen is fun and all, but David Bowie also gave me a lot to think about, comfort during hard times, and the surprises that come with creativity. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2013, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-vs-queen/646092/56 "2013-01-05T02:48:23Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Talk to me when Queen has [a knife as wicked looking as this](http://www.knife-depot.com/knife-314126.html) named after it. You have a point (heh). All I can counter that with is [Queen-brand freeze-dried royal jelly capsules](http://www.healthshop.in.th/product-en-593753-3210860-Freeze+Dried+Royal+Jelly+Capsule+333+Queen+Brand+30+cap.html). ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2013, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-vs-queen/646092/57 "2013-01-05T02:49:25Z")
> [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](#): > > I’m wondering if Bowie had the support of his record company when he tried to bring out a record that was a different style to the previous one. I think in today’s industry he’d encounter quite a bit of resistance, but how did it work back then? I think it was something he had to fight for, and paid for with several periods in the wilderness at points in his career. Not all Bowie’s experiments were commercial successes, but I guess eventually he was a big enough star, and it became apparent that he was Bowie and he would be back. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2013, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-vs-queen/646092/58 "2013-01-05T02:52:12Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Talk to me when Queen has [a knife as wicked looking as this](http://www.knife-depot.com/knife-314126.html) named after it. I give you [Queen Elizabeth’s Pocket Pistol](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Elizabeth%27s_Pocket_Pistol). Coming back around, I can’t help but ask: what if one group’s music were never to have been? I honestly can’t bring myself to wish Queen out of existence. ---
**Author:** ![catnoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@catnoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catnoe)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2013, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-vs-queen/646092/59 "2013-01-05T03:32:39Z")
Can’t choose. Love them both. Bowie - the Chameleon, always interesting. Queen - Fronted by the ultimate showman. Damn but I never got to see them live. Okay, I’ve chosen, Queen. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2013, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-vs-queen/646092/60 "2013-01-05T03:35:19Z")
Bowie’s cooler; Queen’s better. Voted Queen. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-vs-queen/646092.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-bowie-vs-queen/646092.md?page=4)