Nice to see Al Stewart and Roger Taylor giving a nod to Steve Harley/Cockney Rebel in the latest issues of Mojo and Record Collector.Al quotes Steve's show at Birmingham Symphony Hall in 2012 as being a major factor in him deciding to play The Year Of The Cat in full at The Royal Albert Hall shortly. :)Whilst Roger states that Cockney Rebel were one of the Bands that Queen used to keep an eye on!

Arguably, being the top 2 acts signed to EMI at the time, it's no wonder Queen were keeping an eye on Cockney Rebel! Bohemian Rhapsody followed in the footsteps of Sebastian as an epic single. Which of these acts were the true innovators of the 'epic' single? Freddie kept a pretty good eye imho.

PeterJH wrote:
Cheers Peter, important point. Looking through Queen's early history, according to Joop Visser Queen didn't really get their act together until late '73 (on tour supporting Mott the Hoople); around the same time that The Human Menagerie was released. The only other 'epic' single from that time that I could think of was (the wonderful) Kiki Dee's 'Amoureuse' - even that was some two/three minutes shorter than 'Sebastian' - when it also came out in November '73.

By the time Freddie and the boys weighed in with Bohemian Rhapsody in late '75 they were already a massive name and it was the first single taken from their 4th album.

By contrast the young tyro Harley released 'Sebastian' as the first single from his first album!.... and (on the album at least) it was a minute longer than Bohemian Rhapsody. Some nerve eh?!

Comparing Bohemian Rhapsody to Sebastian along the 'epic singles' line is valid, but don't you think comparison with Death Trip is more relevant? It's just that I've always harboured a suspicion that Bohemian Rhapsody was inspired by Death Trip - for 2 such unusual songs, the similarities are marked.

Roger Taylor's comment only strengthens my theory, in my head anyway!

Hello.
You all know of Steve's respect for Bob Dylan (who is almost his peer!!), so look out for Classic Rock in the shops soon.
Steve was asked to write a 1200 word review/précis of the new Dylan release of out-takes, covers etc - Another Self Portrait. Once read, perhaps someone will start a new Forum thread to discuss the piece. RACHEL

I know this was posted 10 year's ago, but a year after, The Human Menagerie was realised, Queen did a song called The March Of The Black Queen, it's in my opinion similar to Sebastian, Death Trip and Bohemian Rhapsody, because of how long the song is, The March Of The Black Queen can be found on Queen's second album, Queen II.