I don’t have any specific or pivotable memories of me listening to Queen. In the last several years, I have many memories. The lack of nostalgia probably played a huge factor in the early ranks.
Queen of Hockey
Towards the end (might even be the end credits) of The Mighty Ducks, the team sang the famous “We are the Champions”. This could have been my first time hearing a Queen song.
I was a sporty kid. I’m not sure what pushed me in that direction, but by grade school, I was playing baseball, basketball, football, and hockey. In fact, hockey was my favorite sport around 4th grade. The Mighty Ducks was a huge hit and a favorite of mine. Add to the mix that I had an NHL Sega game, I was all in on hockey.
There were no local hockey teams in Martins Ferry. The best thing I could do is rally the troops in my neighborhood and try to make our own District 5. We created the Martins Ferry Phantoms Roller Hockey team.
We were just as dysfunctional as the Mighty Ducks in the movie. We were of all ages and skills. I organized practices and even a game. We faced off, on several occasions, against some older guys from the north side of town. We didn’t win – but we had fun.
This was probably one of my first times ‘managing’ others. Queen might have not been on my mind or on my radar, but by proxy, they had a slight influence and helped mold me as a leader.
Subliminal Hell
Thanks to the wonders of my mother’s church and the Hell’s Bells documentary, I thought Queen was an evil band singing about marijuana. See, “Another One Bites the Dust” played backward says ‘Go Smoke Marijuana’. Yes, the adult me finds it just as silly as you do. But the 10-year-old year fell for it.
Years later, I decided to embrace most of these ‘backward track’ songs. In fact, I made a CD with only these types of songs. Most of the songs had backward messages and/or had the vibe of ‘trippy’ songs. When finished, I put the CD in my car and enjoyed.
I had a Dodge Neon (pink) that I purchased from my then-girlfriend (now – wife). This car had an aftermarket CD player. One day the CD player stopped ejected discs. Guess what CD was stuck in the car?
It was months and months of listening to the same album. Needless to say, I heard “Another One Bites the Dust” over 100 times. I also have stories of me going ‘mad’ – but we will talk about this when I cover Nine Inch Nails. Maybe Eric Holmberg was right.
