God Save My Queen II: The Show Must Go On

by Daniel Nester

God Save My Queen: The Show Must Go On by Daniel Nester continues the theme from his first book--how his personality and aesthetic was shaped by Freddie Mercury and the British rock band Queen. World famous in the 1970s for such songs as "We Will Rock You," "We Are The Champions," "Another One Bites The Dust," and the mock-opera epic "Bohemian Rhapsody," the band ended its run in 1991 with the death of its flamboyant lead singer, Freddie Mercury, from AIDS. But it is a source of a deeper and more personal obsession for the author, poet and journalist Daniel Nester. As for the first volume, a short essay, or riff, accompanies, in order of album and track, of Queen's last five studio albums The "plot points" covered here would be the band's retreat from the United States -- timed almost exactly when the author proclaims Queen his "favorite band" -- as well as Queen's triumphant performance at Live Aid, European tours, and the band's retreat into secrecy as Freddie Mercury deals with HIV/AIDS, the decline of Mercury's health and his eventual death. Not quite memoir, neither prose poetry nor rock book, it will, it will nonetheless, rock you.

140 pages, Paperback

First published September 13, 2004

About the author

Daniel Nester is the author most recently of Shader: 99 Notes on Car Washes, Making Out in Church, Grief, and Other Unlearnable Subjects (99: The Press 2015). Previous books include How to Be Inappropriate (Soft Skull, 2010), God Save My Queen I and II (Soft Skull, 2003 and 2004), and The Incredible Sestina Anthology (Write Bloody, 2014), which he edited. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Morning News, The Rumpus, Best American Poetry, Third Rail: The Poetry of Rock and Roll, and Now Write! Nonfiction. He is an associate professor of English at The College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY.

Reviews

[David Macpherson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a crazy book. It's the sequel to an earlier book, but this was closer to me on the bedside table when I reached for something to read. Which is fine, because this is a track by track look at every song put out by Queen. This is the eighties and the nineties songs. Man. Everyone reviewing says this is a hybrid of liner notes, memoir and prose poem. It's mad, is what it is. The combo of memoir and band biography mostly works. THe way he writes of his love for a band that is falling off in quality is amazing and poignant. The writing is dense and hard to be invited into at times, but the humor is there and there are moments I adored. Its an original piece. I am happy to have read it. Doesn't make me want to listen to Queen albums though, I'm listening to the Talking Heads while typing this, What does that say?

[Richard]

A time-honored tradition in rock and roll, the promising debut calls for a follow-up sequel. Daniel Nester, the author of the critically acclaimed God Save My Queen: A Tribute is back with God Save My Queen II: The Show Must Go On. This second volume continues the lyrical and autobiographical noodling of the first, with riffs on all of Queen’s remaining album tracks, as well as selected solo work.

A hybrid of prose poem, memoir, and liner notes, God Save My Queen II describes one record nerd’s odyssey of obsession, awkwardness, and isolation as a superfan of the British rock band Queen, and ends with the tragic 1991 death of Queen’s frontman, Freddie Mercury, from AIDS, and a hidden-track dream of a last concert that never was.