Why?

Why, 14 years after the death of arguably one of the most charismatic and distinctive vocalists of all time, reform?

Why reform without the bassist who wrote some of your biggest hits and as a result, have only two of the four members return?

Why tour without any new material to support?

And why hire a singer if you’re only going to end up singing a lot of the songs yourself?

These are some of the questions I found myself asking upon hearing of Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor reforming for live performances this year, adding former Free/Bad Company vocalist Paul Rodgers, as well as some of May’s band, in place of the late, great Freddie Mercury and bassist John Deacon.

Perhaps May and Taylor realized that they’ve milked the compilation scene for all that they could. In the last 14 years, we’ve seen the release of Greatest Hits I, II, III, I-III together in one set, Rocks, Greatest Hits: We Will Rock You, and I’m sure I’m missing something.

So inevitably, a live disc has been issued from this tour. Return Of The Champions sees a mixture of Queen classics as well as Bad Company and Free tunes. Even though Rodgers isn’t being considered a member of Queen (it’s being billed as Queen and Paul Rodgers), I think it’s safe to say that most of the people who attended the shows and bought this release would have preferred to skip the non-Queen tunes.

That said, I think Rodgers is a solid vocalist, even though his soulful voice is showing signs of age and overuse. He also has a tendency to oversing in many places – adding vocals to instrumental sections of songs where the vocals really serve as nothing but a distraction. Songs like “The Show Must Go On” and “I Want It All” illustrate this fault perfectly.

May’s voice also isn’t exceptionally strong on this release. I’ve always found May’s voice on some of the Queen studio tracks that he sings to be exceptional, but he’s never been able to transfer that sweet voice over to a live setting.

On the other hand, Taylor’s voice is splendid as he clearly has the strongest vocals of the three, and it makes me wonder why if the band was going to insist on reforming, why not have Taylor as the frontman. Not coincidentally, the best tracks here are the Taylor sung ones – “I’m In Love With My Car,” “These Are The Days Of Our Lives” and “Radio Ga Ga.”

Taylor also shines on the drums – his drumming is extremely powerful and drives along not only the Queen tracks, but Rodgers’ Free and Bad Company ones as well. May doesn’t fare quite as well, though the guitarist is still solid. Danny Miranda’s bass, Jamie Moses’ additional guitar and Spike Edney’s keyboards round out the instrumental lineup. And Mercury even makes an appearance – no, not from beyond the grave. His taped vocals are used for the first part of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” a song so closely associated with him that it would be impossible for anyone else to do it the level of justice he did.

So why? Honestly, I don’t know – I guess to help fund the retirement for May and Taylor. But there are some enjoyable moments, especially the Taylor-sung tunes. Now if only he sang some more.