Growing Up Thinking Paul Stanley Of Kiss Was Freddie Mercury Of Queen

I spent much of my teenage boy childhood laying on an ancient brass bed my grandfather brought over from Germany. The lie: I was on that bed with some dirty minded teenage girl that loved to explore beer kegs and the bad affects caused by Mad Dog 20/20. The truth: I was addicted to unmasking KISS! Without pictures the imagination was forced into overtime. Who were the Rocker's behind all that damn paint? Late, past midnight...the parental figures were tucked away which gave way to me slowly climbing down the stairs to spend some valuable "Me" time in front of the tube watching Don Kirsherner's Rock Concert. No HD stereo or hidden away speakers. No remote control or brilliantly perfect picture. Just me with a teenage face pressed up against a screen hoping to feel what it was like to be at a real concert. Then...out popped some guy named Freddie Mercury. Holy crap! I grabbed the latest Tiger Beat with KISS plastered on the centerfold. I had finally located Paul Stanley without makeup. This group called Queen was rocking two machines! With and without makeup. I was passionately convinced I had uncovered the greatest mystery of a 1970's teenage boys life: Who was KISS? Forty chapters into the book...I'm here to tell you that I've never seen web photos, You Tube video and or any live concert of them being in the same place at the same time. Draw your own conclusion. That's what I love about Rock music! It has the ability at any stage in your life to rip from the scorned corners of your soul every ounce of juice that could've been wasted on a career but chose a reason to believe in fantasy instead. Nothing satisfies a middle mans craving more than knowing his favorite Rock God could have actually been Clark Kent. It doesn't matter if Paul isn't Freddie. You can never take away that single moment when your heart screamed, "WTF!" Soooooo...back to Queen. Classic Rock Magazine reports Brian May has given Classic Rock a demonstration of the new multi-touch electronic edition of Queen’s career-encompassing book 40 Years Of Queen. The affable guitarist hosted a media session at London’s Groucho Club to introduce a wide array of functions of the digital edition of the tome, written by Classic Rock contributor Harry Doherty. “I’m a bit of a technophobe but this version does an incredible job of telling the life that Queen led,” May informed the mass of reporters, adding proudly: “This is the best book ever.” Many of the new features were culled from May’s own collection of band memorabilia. “I was the guy that tried to hold onto these moments as they passed. If we played Madison Square Garden, I’d keep a ticket. I also kept hold of clothes and posters, an amazing cornucopia of artefacts. Instead of leaving them to gather dust in some air conditioned storage room I wanted people to see these things and be able to play with them.” Brian revealed that his father had drawn a map charting the route of one of the band’s early continental tours. “Click on the city names and you can even see the set-list that was played while we were there,” he smiled. “I love seeing this stuff and it’s great to be able to share it.” May is especially proud that the interactive edition allows readers to listen to the band’s music and even purchase songs from iTunes as they progress from page to page. “It takes you as deeply into the Queen legacy as you can get,” he claimed. “Touch an album and a replica of the vinyl comes out of the page. You can see the track listing. Our first album, for instance, now has all of our original demos. This version of the book leads you directly to all of those different extras; it’s as state-of-the-art as you can get.” In the future, however, May believes that a wealth of extra features can be built into the format. “We will be updating the content as we go along. It already has a Live section which is already extremely good, but over the coming months we will be adding material from Live At The Rainbow which can be fed into this product… you’ll be able to see it and click on it as an update. The fact that it can continue to evolve is what makes it so exciting.” Published by Carlton Digital, the web version of 40 Years Of Queen can be bought for £9.99 from the iBookstore. Find out more.