Brian May, Queen’s band guitarist
Photo: WireImage, Don Arnold. All rights reserved.
The usual busy Queen guitarist is worried about the legacy of popular music. “Today’s kids no longer know the Beatles as well as they should,” he said, not only for the British offspring. “They are the pinnacle of the songwriting, performance and ethos of rock music,” Brian May told The Express. He observes a rapidly declining interest in the Fab Four among the younger generation.
“The Beatles should be much intertwined with the lives of people today, much like Queen is these days”; he said. Brian May is not concerned with nostalgia or the preservation of sixties melodies, but also with attitude and career. About what it means to be a rock star. Or how to redefine the boundaries of popular music with each new album.
He regrets never having met John Lennon. He would have met Paul and Ringo a couple of times, if only because Freddie Mercury and Ringo Starr were pretty close artist buddies for a while.
In a previous tweet, May had come out as a big fan of George Harrison, whose composition for the Beatles “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” he admires immensely. He would also have a lot in common with Harrison’s first solo album and its meaningful title “All Things Must Past”. “It was 1970, the Beatles had disbanded and Queen formed in the same year,” he recalls of the changing times of the past.
May and Harrison shared the stage only once, at the Water Rats Charity Ball in 1992. “He played one of my guitars, which I consider a great honor. I love George and appreciate his approach to music. For me he remains – to this day. underestimated. A wonderful character!”
