Funny how everything is Rose's because he took ownership of Guns.

Can't believe it, I'm still thinking about Axl Rose's lack of productivity.  It's his comment about non-album B-sides that stuck out with me this time.  Bands used to do that.  Maybe they still do, I don't exactly pay attention to new singles.

But Queen has been my favorite band ever since high-school when Wayne's World came out and I noticed a long time ago that they very rarely used non-album songs on their singles.  So, with nothing else to do, I decided to look up how many songs each band has created.  It's going to get a bit weird for one band but you can probably see that coming.

I'll even try to write it like a competition, just to have more fun.  I haven't actually listened to a lot of Queen in quite a while so let's see how my memory works.  I will look up the basic facts and things like which song is on which album.  Let's go...

The first G'n'R release was the Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide EP on December 16, 1986.  It had four songs, none of them that special.  My understanding is that it was basically a record company attempt to make the band look independent and get a sense of how popular they were.  I assume the EPs are worth a lot of money on ebay now.

Queen's first release was their self-titled Queen album on June 3, 1973.  Obviously it was a more complicated work.  It had ten songs.  Queen had a more deliberate approach.  The band-members were slightly older than most newbie bands getting a recording contract and they were smart enough to save money by being available whenever there was open time at any studio they could get into.  That helped, they may have just finished a concert but if they get a call that Paul McCartney or whoever hadn't showed up that night, they'd get a cheaper rate.  The studio didn't want to waste its time so this worked out best for everyone.

Freddie was also learning how to play piano and songs like "My Fairy King" were written at the studio while recording and showed off Queen's "art rock" style which would soon go away.  I'm guessing he also started writing "Seven Seas of Rhye" during this time, the unfinished version was included on the album for some reason.  My favorite songs on the album, because I know you're curious, are "Keep Yourself Alive," [duh] "Great King Rat" and "Liar."  I'm not much of an art-rock fan but this was where Queen ruled as a hard-rock band.  Oddly, Roger's "Modern Times Rock and Roll" sounds great but it just doesn't fit the rest of the album, even though it's also hard-rock.  Go figure.

The Queen singles were all songs from the album, no extra ones.  The G'n'R release basically was a single so it all counts.  Queen:  10    G'n'R:  4

G'n'R released Appetite for Destruction which is what they're still known for and always will be.  I actually don't think many of the twelve songs are that good but I'm weird that way.  They sound amazing, isn't that all that's needed?  I... dunno.  Obviously "Welcome to the Jungle," "Sweet Child o'Mine," "Paradise City" and "Rocket Queen" are among the greatest ever while "Nightrain," "Mr. Brownstone" and "My Michelle" have high merits, "It's So Easy" would be awesome if I'd never heard the fuller version on the anniversary re-release, now I can never go back.  Even the weaker songs are clearly from a band that represented everything good or bad about rock'n'fuckin'roll.

G'n'R was also releasing more EPs around this time, mostly with live version of the album's songs if not just the album versions.  There were also live versions of "Shadow of Your Love" and covers of AC-DC's "Whole Lotta Rosie" and Bob Dylan's "Knockin' On Heaven's Door."  I won't count the last one for an obvious reason.

Queen II had eleven songs and even included a non-album track on the B-side of "Seven Seas of Rhye."  This was where their art-rock style was most obvious.  Brian wrote Side A, Roger wrote the last song on it, Freddie wrote Side B.  Roger stayed in his hard-rock style and is still good, "Nevermore" and "March of the Black Queen" are probably my favorites.  I do love "Seven Seas" but I've never liked the ending, singing a 1907 song, "I Do Like To Beside the Sea Side."  Why???  That could be where the band ends and what would that look like?

Queen:  22      G'n'R:  18

As a way to help the band's still-increasing popularity, the record company released G N' R Lies.  Side A was the four songs from the original EP, Side B were four new songs written and played on acoustic guitar.  It was a very different sound than you'd expect from the previous album.  "Used to Love Her" is just a fun song and "Patience" is of course "Patience."  "You're Crazy" is just an acoustic version of the song from Appetite but I'm counting it as a new song.  I did that with "Seven Seas of Rhye," that's fair.  The B-side to "Patience" included an interview with Axl which I'm also counting as a song, that might not be quite as fair.

Queen radically changed on their third album, Sheer Heart Attack.  The thirteen songs were a mind-boggling variety of different styles across hard rock, art rock, ballads, music hall, a full feast for the ear.  "Killer Queen" was an even bigger hit than "Seven Seas" and they would play "Now I'm Here" and the "Brighton Rock" guitar solo for the rest of their career.  "Tenement Funster," "Flick of the Wrist," "Lilly of the Valley," "Stone Cold Crazy," "Bring Back That Leroy Brown" and the revised "Lap of the Gods" are all delightful.  I don't like "She Makes Me" but I've known people who do, it's like there's something for everyone here.

Of course Queen didn't have any non-album B-sides.  Queen:  35     G'n'R:  23

After three years of work, G'n'R finally released their next album, or two albums actually. The first was Use Your Illusion I with sixteen songs.  Some were not new, they had been left over from the previous album but they were now such megastars that nothing could be done about that.  Izzy's songs are generally fun, "Don't Cry" and "November Rain" stand out as power ballads and the last several songs are wholesome hard-rock building up to the epic "Coma."  Despite Axl's claims that there would be extra tracks on the B-sides, enough to put together another EP, these singles only had live-versions of earlier songs or, in "Don't Cry"s case, the alternate version of the song.

A Night at the Opera was basically Queen doing more of the same for another album but I mean that in a good way.  Obviously "Bohemian Rhapsody" is what made them the legends they still are but each of the twelve songs probably has fans somewhere.  I'm basically so tired of listening to the album that this is the first time in years that I've given much thought to its various tracks, "You're My Best Friend" was basically the only song available to release as a follow-up single but I've never liked it much - until the instrumental version was included on the anniversary re-release a few years ago - or "Sweet Lady."  The overlapped vocal middle of "The Prophet's Song" has annoyed me for quite a while but I like the rest of the song as well as all the others on the album.  It's not remotely my favorite Queen album but a lot of people disagree.

Queen:  47     G'n'R:  39

Use Your Illusion II finished the G'n'R as we know it.  Most of the songs are good and even the ones that aren't have something going for them, it's just the question of why they're doing this?  This is as far as the band gets in playing different types of music and it's mostly good but confusing and not helped by Axl's addition of lengthy self-absorbed lyrics.  This album had fourteen tracks and the B-sides were all live versions, album versions and one interview with Slash.  Yes, I'm counting that as a song again.

A Day at the Races had ten songs and no bonus tracks even though Queen followed it up with an EP of their own, one song from each of their previous albums except the first one.  That actually sounds clever as a promotion for the styles they'd demonstrated.  I am totally sick of "Tie Your Mother Down."  It's a great song but I won't mind if I never it again.  They probably played it when I saw Brian and Roger in concert in 2018 and I obviously would have loved that but you get my point.  There's also "Somebody to Love," "The Millionaire Waltz," "Good Old Fashioned Lover-Boy" and "Teo Torriatte"  I think I've always gone back and forth on Roger's "Drowse," make of that what you will.

Queen:  57     G'n'R:  54

Six years and eleven months since their first release, G'n'R put out The Spaghetti Incident, thirteen cover songs.  Technically there were more, I think one or two were a mixture of two or three songs but it's not interesting enough to check.  The album did get me to start listening to Iggy Pop and the New York Dolls so I can't totally criticize it but even the songs I like aren't remotely interesting once you've heard the originals.

Queen needed a break after their hard work on the last few albums.  They deliberately limited recording sessions for News of the World before they would tour in promotion of it so they spent less time on the songs and production.  It's also said that this was a reaction, consciously or otherwise, to punk rock.  Either way it worked and arguably this is where Queen really came into what we know them as, having already produced so much by this point.  Obviously they added "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions," "Spread Your Wings" and "It's Late" are other great works.  "Sleeping on the Sidewalk" is just goofy fun, I absolutely do not like "Get Down, Make Love" and find "My Melancholy Blues" more boring than you'd expect from this band.  You either like Roger's songs or you don't, I could go either way depending on what mood I'm in.  John's "Who Needs You" is almost dorky but that's part of its charm.

Queen did eleven songs and no bonus tracks.  The anniversary re-release did include "Feelings, Feelings" which I've always liked but I will not count it because they waited so many years before we could hear it.  Shame on them.

Queen:  68     G'n'R:  67

G'n'R released a cover of "Sympathy for the Devil" on a movie soundtrack.  The B-side was another song from the soundtrack that they had nothing to do with.  Slash has said this recording shows why the band broke up.  I've seen different dates given for its release, either mid-December 1994 or early January 1995.  To this day, it's the last new work we have heard from Slash, Duff and Axl.

Queen kept going on their simplistic mode on Jazz with exceptions like "Mustapha" which is popular in Muslim countries.  There's "Fat Bottomed Girls" which is, of all things, an Eagles parody, "Bicycle Race" which is delightfully goofy, "Jealousy," "Don't Stop Me Now."  John's "If You Can't Beat Them" is good rock'n'roll, Brian's "Dreamer's Ball" is indescribably lovely, Roger gives the album a good ending with "More of That Jazz" even if the song itself isn't that good.  Still no non-album B-sides.

Queen:  81  G'n'R:  68

On November 2, 1999, G'n'R released "Oh My God."  I've written about it before, it's totally horrible.  It was on a soundtrack to an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie and I assume Axl only permitted its release to bizarrely distinguish from the upcoming live album made by a bunch of people he wanted nothing to do with.  It wasn't a single.

Queen released Live Killers, a live album (duh) which I've never liked.  I doubt that I've heard it in over half-my-life but I have no interest in hearing it again.  With few exceptions, I'm not that interested in live albums anyway.  I almost always prefer the studio versions of songs and Queen didn't include covers, at least not on this record.  Live versions of albums with a lot of studio repairs, boring.

Queen:  81     G'n'r:  69

On November 23, 1999, G'n'R released Live Era '87-'93.  It's basically the same thing I just said about Queen, the sole exception is that there's a brief cover of Black Sabbath's "It's Alright."  I actually liked it and I really don't like the original so there's something, I guess, if you care.

Queen was having a hard time and I think it shows from The Game.  They had actually started releasing singles before the album was finished and the songs that weren't singles are not good.  They started using synthesizers on this album and had their biggest hits in the United States before or since.  "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Another One Bites the Dust" yet again went in directions you don't expect from this band.  Weren't they just doing opera a few years ago?  And gospel?  And blues, waltzes and rap?  [Face it, "We Will Rock You" is rap music.]  Now they're doing Elvis and disco.  "Save Me" is one of their best songs, "Sail Away Sweet Sister" is really the only other one on the album I like and that's mostly because Brian sings lead except for the bridge where Freddie intervenes.  "Play the Game" is all right.  Their biggest hit and one of my least favorites.

The album had ten tracks but "Play the Game" had a non-album B-side, "A Human Body," only the second time in their career they'd done this.  I'm definitely too lazy to look it up right now, but around this point Queen was fully forming their co-owned company that ran the band's business and made them the highest-paid executives of any company in Britain.

Queen:  92     G'n'R:  70

On November 23, 2008, G'n'R released Chinese Democracy.  14 songs, nothing else.  I've just gotten Queen out of the 1970s, the most productive part of their career but still less than half of it.  With these albums, they put together their first greatest hits albums which is one of the biggest selling albums in history.  It might not have sold as much as Appetite for Destruction - Wikipedia says Appetite has sold 30 million copies, Queen's Greatest Hits 25 million - but which band had more going for it after seven years of work?

Queen released the Flash Gordon soundtrack right after The Game.  Eighteen songs, all but two of them instrumental and mostly on synthesizers.  You have to buy it if you're a total fanboy, otherwise you don't miss anything.

Queen:  110     G'n'R:  84

In 2014, G'n'R released a live album from their November 21, 2012 concert in Las Vegas, Appettie For Democracy.  It had 25 songs, two of which were covers - "Another Brick in the Wall Part 2" and "The Seeker" - and two were songs from the then-members solo albums.  I have no interest in hearing it.

In 1982, Queen made what is widely considered to be their biggest mistake in an album, the mostly-disco Hot Space.  "Staying Power," "Back Chat" and "Body Language" actually work in that style, hard as it may be to admit it, even if disco was already out of style.  "Action This Day" is just a weird track of whatever Roger was into those days but I quite like it.  There's Freddie's tribute to John Lennon, "Life Is Real," Brian's ballad "Las Palabras De Amor" and, of course, "Under Pressure" which even had a non-album B-side, the utterly worthless "Soul Brother" which must be one of Queen's worst songs ever.  They probably just cranked that one out quickly because they hadn't started the album yet but needed something for the B-side and it's not like they would just use an interview.  Who does that?

Queen:  122     G'n'R:  88

In 2018, G'n'R released the 30th anniversary version of Appetite For Destruction (a year late) with a bunch of bonus tracks.  Most of them are live or alternate versions of songs they've already released and no matter how much I like some of them, they won't count here.  But there are two covers, "Heartbreak Hotel" and "Jumping Jack Flash" as well as three tracks that never became finished songs, whatever their worth.

In 1984, Queen released The Works.  Every single song was released as an A-side or a B-side and they even had non-album tracks involved.  There were nine songs, "Radio Gaga," "It's a Hard Life," "Keep Passing the Open Windows," "Hammer to Fall" and ""Is This The World We Created" being the best.  I love the bridge to "I Want To Break Free" but not the rest of the song.  "I Go Crazy" was the non-album B-side to "Radio Gaga" and "Thank God It's Christmas" was a non-album A-side released the same year.  This album even included the first co-writing credits, Freddie and Brian wrote "Is This The World...", Brian and Roger wrote "Thank God It's Christmas" and "Machines (Back to Humans.)"  Talk about the works!

Queen:  133     G'n'R:  93

In 1986, Queen released A Kind of Magic, the soundtrack for the first Highlander movie.  Again there were weak songs and no non-album B-sides but as usual, the best songs made everything ok.  "One Vision," "A Kind of Magic," "Friends Will Be Friends," "Who Wants to Live Forever" and "Princes of the Universe" stand out.  I love it so much that I will not include "Forever" as a separate song since it's obviously just Brian playing the song on piano.  That's how much I care.  Why are you looking at me that way?

Queen:  142     G'n'R:  93

Live at Wembley '86 wasn't released until 1992 but I'll just include it here.  This is a live album I liked although it was the second Queen album I'd ever heard after Classic Queen [the US version of their second greatest hits album] so I was still young and gullible.  I don't remember if the original version had all five cover songs but they're usually fun and even after all these years since I've heard it, "Big Spender" still comes into my head.  Ew, that doesn't sound right...

Queen:  147     G'n'R:  93

It's not clear if Freddie knew he was dying of AIDS yet but he was entering middle age and tired of the concert scene.  Queen had taken a break on their solo careers - and you notice I'm not counting those in their totals! - but now they got back together where they'd stay for the rest of his life.  The Miracle was the result.  Ten songs with four more as non-album B-sides which, now that CDs were a thing, were just added to the album anyway.  Who cares, it's Queen.

Queen's last few 80's albums had made a point of going in all directions and this was no exception.  "Party" is rap, "Khashoggi's Ship" is hard-rock named after one of the most infamous people in the world, "The Miracle" was one of Freddie's ballads, "I Want It All" was Brian's taking on the Who, "Breakthru" and "Scandal" were just fun pop songs and "Was It All Worth It?" was Freddie's epic conclusion.  Only he wasn't done yet.

Queen:  161     G'n'R:  93

Innuendo was Freddie's final release.  "Delilah" is the only bad song, Freddie's ballad about his cat.  The rest, some numbers are weaker than others but wow, this is magnificent.  "Innuendo," "These Are the Days of our Lives," "The Show Must Go On" are all different types of music that the worst you can say is that Queen's already done opera and soft ballads and rock songs.  "Bijou" is a lovely guitar/synthesizer song with Freddie only doing vocals on the bridge, "All God's People" was an outtake from his Barcelona album duet with Montserrat Caballe, "Innuendo" was an epic Led Zeppelin-style opera, "Headlong," "I Can't Live With You," "Ride the Wild Wind" and "The Hitman" were great rockers, "Don't Try So Hard" was a gorgeously touching ballad, "I'm Going Slightly Mad" was just goofy fun.  And there was even a non-album B-side, "Lost Opportunity."

Queen had gotten to a high level early on and basically stayed there for the rest of their career.  They were nearing their twentieth anniversary for forming as a band, a little bit before John joined.  The album came out in February 1991.  Freddie would die in November but he at least tried to get more work done to leave for his bandmates.  I'm rather skeptical on how much he actually finished but there was still more.

Queen:  173     G'n'R:  93

After Brian and Roger did some solo work, they got back together with John to make the final Queen album, Made In Heaven.  It's still Queen, don't get me wrong, but it's definitely a step-down.  With few exceptions, the remaining members just added their instruments to things Freddie had recorded for various solo projects - singing lead on one of Roger's solo tracks for instance - or short clips he had recorded years earlier.  One track, "You Don't Fool Me," was literally created by the producer putting together a bunch of small clips, and even though it's not remotely my favorite, it sure sounds like a straightforward Queen disco track.  But they're all basic mid-tempo songs with a lot of synthesizer, the very thing Queen was famous for not using for so long.  Oh well, if that's the best they can do, it's still Queen.

One track is literally just Freddie going "Yeah" and isn't even the entire word which is spread out over the former and latter tracks.  I'm counting it anyway.  There was a non-album B-side, "Rock in Rio Blues" but I'm not counting it because I cannot remember which of the live guitar solos it was.  There weren't many but it was the same as one of them, just a different name.  So there are eight songs that, for all intents and purposes, were created for this album.  "It's a Beautiful Day" is quite nice as is Freddie's last complete song, "A Winter's Tale."  "My Life Has Been Saved" sounds better than the original version as the non-album B-side of "Scandal."  I generally like the versions of the tracks taken from solo albums except for "Too Much Love Will Kill You" which I can't stand.  Brian's version is one of my favorite songs ever and this track adds drums, too much synthesizer and Freddie sings it too happily for such a downbeat song.  I can understand why they added it but if Queen had asked for my advice, I'd have said "don't do it."  Maybe that's why they didn't ask.  What other reason could there be?

Queen:  181     G'n'R:  93

So by the end of their eighth year as recording artists, Queen had already released as many songs as Guns'n'Roses has ever released and they were only halfway through their career which still took less time than Axl has spent promising us a trilogy.  I'm not even saying this to insult G'n'R, I'm sure they'd be the first to admit that they'd never reached Queen's level.  But I am saying that there is no productivity.  There is whatever zeitgeist they managed to get through with Appetite and then everything went straight downhill.

A band can start out with their biggest hit and then never reach that level again, it isn't unheard of, but there's never been one as successful as G'n'R and so far away from reality as Axl has been for most of his life and he just gets away with it.