Description

Book Synopsis

Queen and Philosophy: Guaranteed to Blow Your Mind is a collection of cutting-edge philosophical essays on the rock group Queen, founded in 1970 and originally featuring lead vocalist Freddie Mercury. Queen’s reputation and fan following continue to grow in the twenty-first century.

These insightful and provocative chapters include:

● uncover the origins of Queen’s unique style in prog rock, vulgarity, and lower versus higher Romanticism

● examine Queen’s view of love and friendship

● draw upon three timeless Queen songs, “We Will Rock You,” “We Are the Champions,” and “Don’t Stop Me Now” and Socrates’s behavior in the Apology, to understand the “rocking” nature of philosophy

● identify the connections between ancient matriarchal religion and Queen’s love for strong female imagery

● explore how Brian May’s astrophysics brings to bear the issues of absolute versus relative spacetime and how the philosophies of Newton, Mach, and Einstein contribute to Queen’s creative output

● analyze the structure of Queen’s sound to answer the inevitable question, How can four people make all that music?

● expose what Queen’s songs tell us about the contemporary theory of mental illness and therapy

● scrutinize Roger Taylor’s stark impressions of ordinary life and death, and their alignment to the cynical musings of Diogenes of Sinope and Seneca’s blunt observations on the shortness of life

● look at the movie Highlander through the music of Queen and reveal how both song and cinema convey the philosophy of bushido, the soul of the samurai



Table of Contents
Introduction

Part I: My Fairy Kings

1. Side White: Worshiping the White Queen (As it Began)

Jared Kemling

2. Side Black: Master Stroke of a Fairy Feller

Jared Kemling

3. Queen, Prog, and Vulgar Romanticism

Jan Olof Bengtsson

Part II: A Night at the Concert

4. Be Free with Your Tempo: Freedom, Individuality, and Nonconformity in Innuendo

Douglas Rasmussen

5. Let Me Entertain You: Performance as a Tour de Force (Of Course)

Julie Kuhlken

6. Freddie’s Left Hand: Queen and the Order of Music

Randall E. Auxier

Part III: The Show Must Go On

7. Is Adam Lambert a Killer of Queen, or Somebody to Love?

Megan Volpert

8. Instrumental Instrumentalism: Is Red Special a Member of Queen?

Steven Gimbel

Part IV: Made in the Heavens

9. Hot Spacetime

Kristina Šekrst

10. Tie the Cosmos Down: Brian May’s Astrophysics and Music

Randall E. Auxier

Part V: I’m Going Slightly Mad

11. Stone Cold Crazy: Queen, Mental Disorder, and Suffering

Snita Ahir-Knight

12. Hitting Rock Bottom

Robert S. Vuckovich

Part VI: Sheer Head Attack

13. Hammer to Fall in the Shadow of Death

Robert DeVall

14. Don’t Lose Your Head: The Interconnectedness of Queen and Highlander

Kevin Taylor

15. We Want to Love Forever, Forever is Ours Today

John Shook

Part VII: Some Body to Love

16. Freddie and Mary: A Single Soul Dwelling in Two Bodies

Andrew Kaplan

17. Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy

Darci Doll

Part VIII: Supersonic Men

18. Queen and My Uncle’s Delicacy of Taste and Passion

Christopher M. Innes

19. He Will Rock You: Socrates was the Most Rock and Roll of Men

Michael F. Patton

References (I Want it All)

Bohemian Biographies

Index (Now I’m Here)

Queen and Philosophy: Guaranteed to Blow Your

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    A Paperback / softback by Jared Kemling, Randall E. Auxier

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      Publisher: Carus Books
      Publication Date: 15/06/2023
      ISBN13: 9781637700327, 978-1637700327
      ISBN10: 1637700326
      Also in:
      Entertainment Composers and songwriters Musicians, singers, bands and groups Popular music

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      Queen and Philosophy: Guaranteed to Blow Your Mind is a collection of cutting-edge philosophical essays on the rock group Queen, founded in 1970 and originally featuring lead vocalist Freddie Mercury. Queen’s reputation and fan following continue to grow in the twenty-first century.

      These insightful and provocative chapters include:

      ● uncover the origins of Queen’s unique style in prog rock, vulgarity, and lower versus higher Romanticism

      ● examine Queen’s view of love and friendship

      ● draw upon three timeless Queen songs, “We Will Rock You,” “We Are the Champions,” and “Don’t Stop Me Now” and Socrates’s behavior in the Apology, to understand the “rocking” nature of philosophy

      ● identify the connections between ancient matriarchal religion and Queen’s love for strong female imagery

      ● explore how Brian May’s astrophysics brings to bear the issues of absolute versus relative spacetime and how the philosophies of Newton, Mach, and Einstein contribute to Queen’s creative output

      ● analyze the structure of Queen’s sound to answer the inevitable question, How can four people make all that music?

      ● expose what Queen’s songs tell us about the contemporary theory of mental illness and therapy

      ● scrutinize Roger Taylor’s stark impressions of ordinary life and death, and their alignment to the cynical musings of Diogenes of Sinope and Seneca’s blunt observations on the shortness of life

      ● look at the movie Highlander through the music of Queen and reveal how both song and cinema convey the philosophy of bushido, the soul of the samurai



      Table of Contents
      Introduction

      Part I: My Fairy Kings

      1. Side White: Worshiping the White Queen (As it Began)

      Jared Kemling

      2. Side Black: Master Stroke of a Fairy Feller

      Jared Kemling

      3. Queen, Prog, and Vulgar Romanticism

      Jan Olof Bengtsson

      Part II: A Night at the Concert

      4. Be Free with Your Tempo: Freedom, Individuality, and Nonconformity in Innuendo

      Douglas Rasmussen

      5. Let Me Entertain You: Performance as a Tour de Force (Of Course)

      Julie Kuhlken

      6. Freddie’s Left Hand: Queen and the Order of Music

      Randall E. Auxier

      Part III: The Show Must Go On

      7. Is Adam Lambert a Killer of Queen, or Somebody to Love?

      Megan Volpert

      8. Instrumental Instrumentalism: Is Red Special a Member of Queen?

      Steven Gimbel

      Part IV: Made in the Heavens

      9. Hot Spacetime

      Kristina Šekrst

      10. Tie the Cosmos Down: Brian May’s Astrophysics and Music

      Randall E. Auxier

      Part V: I’m Going Slightly Mad

      11. Stone Cold Crazy: Queen, Mental Disorder, and Suffering

      Snita Ahir-Knight

      12. Hitting Rock Bottom

      Robert S. Vuckovich

      Part VI: Sheer Head Attack

      13. Hammer to Fall in the Shadow of Death

      Robert DeVall

      14. Don’t Lose Your Head: The Interconnectedness of Queen and Highlander

      Kevin Taylor

      15. We Want to Love Forever, Forever is Ours Today

      John Shook

      Part VII: Some Body to Love

      16. Freddie and Mary: A Single Soul Dwelling in Two Bodies

      Andrew Kaplan

      17. Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy

      Darci Doll

      Part VIII: Supersonic Men

      18. Queen and My Uncle’s Delicacy of Taste and Passion

      Christopher M. Innes

      19. He Will Rock You: Socrates was the Most Rock and Roll of Men

      Michael F. Patton

      References (I Want it All)

      Bohemian Biographies

      Index (Now I’m Here)

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