Everyone knows Queen.

One thing Matt and I realized is that we can't point to the first time we heard any of their music. Was it Wayne's World? Probably. They were a force of pop culture that transcended media -- from their world-wide hit singles, to soundtracks, to hockey arenas everywhere (stomp stomp clap! stomp stomp clap!) there was no escaping Queen. Which made this second episode a bit of a challenge in the sense that, due to their ubiquity, Queen is a tough sell as a blindspot. But thinking about it now, weeks after recording the episode, there are two Queens:

1) Queen the pop culture force of nature.
2) Queen the band.

That second Queen is what this episode is all about. Getting to know who these four musicians were, what they were pouring their hearts into, and, most importantly, what was going on on the tracks between the We Will Rock Yous and Under Pressures. What we found in the albums Sheer Heart Attack (1974), A Night at the Opera (1975), News of the World (1977), and Hot Space (1982), was evidence of a band even wilder, weirder, and sexier than even their eclectic singles suggest.