Freddie Mercury, 22 Years After His Death, and the Legacy of a Legend

[William769]

When rock legend Freddie Mercury passed away due to complications from AIDS in 1991, rumors circled his illness as the paparazzi circled his home. Though shocking and difficult to accept for millions of fans worldwide, Mercury’s passing was no surprise. His lifestyle was legendarily promiscuous and his sexuality was ill defined. It was also widely assumed he had contracted HIV in a time when those three simple letters sadly meant that time was running out.

As the lead singer and lyricist for Queen, Mercury reportedly lived as hard and fast as his music, often changing tempos with the same brilliance and ease. He rarely spoke about his personal life, and was intentionally ambiguous about his partners. And though it was accepted that he slept with men, he never let his sexuality define him, in fact he avoided it. His friends and band mates knew and adored him for his strength and his character, ironically the very same traits still haunting his legacy today.

Mercury’s fierce grip on privacy undoubtedly granted him a finite measure of peace in his final years, but it was that same decision that outraged many, hoping he’d use his celebrity to shed light on a disease that was devastating the gay community. Only on the eve of his passing did the gaunt singer publicly acknowledge what the world already assumed. Finally admitting he had AIDS, he said he “felt it correct to keep this information private…in order to protect the privacy of those around me." But in protecting those around him, many privately wondered if he failed to provide support for millions suffering worldwide.

Today is 22 years since the death of Freddie Mercury, one of AIDS’s most famous victims. It’s easy to look back upon the brilliant career and secretive life of music’s most entertaining, talented, and flamboyant showman only to get lost in the music and drown in sold-out stadiums of nostalgia. But also, has enough time passed that we can finally answer the question The Advocate posed back in 1991: “Will the singer do more to battle ignorance and prejudice in death than he managed to in his lifetime?”

http://www.hivplusmag.com/stigma/2013/11/24/watch-freddie-mercury-22-years-after-his-death-and-legacy-legend

Video at link.

[DesertFlower]

1. a talented performer -- gone too soon.

[William769]

2. Agreed.

He was my idol as a teenager.

[seabeyond]

7. thank you. watching this, after reading the article and watching video in the article,

had me listening to the song totally different. i love music. love this song. but i do not know artists or their history

thank you for putting up this video

[dipsydoodle]

30. Couldn't have put that better.

[seabeyond]

3. what an awesomely beautiful video. thank you. nt

[William769]

5. I'm glad you liked it.

[wendylaroux]

9. Best voice ever!!!

I listened to his records until they wore out.

I watch his videos all the time(live ones are the best) and am amazed at his range,and never did he lip sync.

Love Of My Life is my fave.

[passiveporcupine]

29. that is just beautiful

I had not heard that one before. Thank you.

[wendylaroux]

76. You are very welcome.--nt

[DesertFlower]

12. here's another.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xarur_queen-bohemian-rhapsody_music

wish i understood the lyrics.

[wendylaroux]

13. Awwwww I love him.

could listen all day--

here is live version of Love Of My Life--

[dickthegrouch]

33. I'd never heard that version

Thank you.

Love of My Life, Find Me Somebody to Love and Bohemian Rhapsody were my favorites, but I know every note of most of his songs.

[wendylaroux]

57. You're very welcome!

I have yet to find anything by Queen I don't love.

[TeeYiYi]

43. Wow. Thank you so much for that...

I went to youtube and you can watch the whole concert if you search for this: "queen rock montreal 1981 full concert"

Thanks again. That song; Freddy's passionate voice/soul and the amazingly beautiful guitar work gave me goosebumps.

TYY

[wendylaroux]

55. You are welcome!

going to look or that concert now.Thanks!

[William769]

14. His performance at Live Aide was spectacular!

[dickthegrouch]

38. The story was from a Reader's Digest article

I don't know where it first published, but I read it in Reader's Digest and a few years later I was stunned to hear it made into some of the most beautiful music I'd ever heard from a rock band.

Freddy got me listening to rock music again (after several years of Baroque and Renaissance choral (at 14 years old)). Then came the glam rock from OMD and Erasure, Yaz, Visage, Ultravox, and others, and I had found a new passion.

For sheer sexiness, Andy McCluskey's (OMD) voice is my all time favorite and he wakes me up every morning, but Freddy is the one I sing along to in the car.

[TorchTheWitch]

69. here's the lyrics...

Bohemian Rhapsody Lyrics - Queen

Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide (no escape from reality)
Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see
I'm just a poor boy, (poor boy) I need no sympathy
Because I'm easy come, easy go, little high, little low
Any way the wind blows, doesn't really matter to me, to me

Mama, I just killed a man
Put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger now he's dead
Mama, life had just begun... But now I've gone and thrown it all away
Mama, oooooooh
Didn't mean to make you cry, if I'm not back again this time tomorrow,
Carry on, carry on, as if nothing really matters

Too late, my time has come, sent shivers down my spine, body's aching all the time
Goodbye everybody, I've got to go. Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth.
Mama, ooooooh. (Way the wind blows)
I don't wanna die, I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all.


I see a little silhouetto of a man,
Scaramouche , Scaramouche will you do the fandango?
Thunderbolts and lightning, very very frightening , me
Galileo, (Galileo), Galileo, (Galileo), Galileo, figaro
Magnifico-o-o-o-o-o
I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
He's just a poor boy from a poor family
Spare him his life from this monstrosity

Easy come, easy go, will you let me go?
Bismillah, no! We will not let you go.
Let him go!
Bismillah, no! We will not let you go.
Let me go!
Will not let you go.
Never never never let you go-o-o-o-o
No no no no no no no!
Oh mama Mia mama Mia
Mama Mia let me go
Beezlebub has a devil aside for me, for me, for me

So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye?
So you can love me then leave me to die?
Oh, baby. Can't do this to me baby? Just gotta get out, just gotta get right out of here.

Oooooh. Oh yeah Oh yeah

Nothing really matters.
Anyone can see.
Nothing really matters...... Nothing really matters....
To me.
(Any way the wind blows)

[Skittles]

4. I believe Freddie was the number one rock singer of all time

his death broke my heart

I never did question his motives for not being more open about his illness because to me that is like questioning grief - people handle things in different ways

[William769]

6. I never questioned it either. Given the times we were living in.

[Skittles]

8. yup

I remember Rock Hudson

[William769]

10. Me too.

I also remember his crucification in the media.

[polly7]

11. It broke mine, too.

I still end up in tears watching some of his videos.

[crim son]

35. I agree on all counts.

And FWIW, I worked with his live-in lover's mother, who was also devastated by his death and thankful for his determination to keep the details of his suffering private. It was a different time; he owed nobody anything.

[DesertFlower]

41. exactly. nt

[Lizzie Poppet]

75. Wholeheartedly agree.

The finest rock singer ever...

I've also never questioned his decisions about the level of openness he decided was best. For one thing, he lived most of his life in an era when to be openly gay (or bisexual), to say nothing of being HIV+, was a difficult and dangerous thing to do. It was one thing to be so flamboyant that most folks assumed it, another thing entirely to explicitly state one's orientation. Only in the latter years of his life was that beginning to change.

[Go Vols]

15. RIP Freddie

[William769]

16. He was somebody to love.

[PeaceNikki]

17. Watching now. Meanwhile - have you heard these?

I went on an isolated vocals kick a few weeks ago. So fascinating. Freddy's voice is so moving.

ugh, I could listen to him sing all day.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=freddy+mercury+isolated+vocals&sm=3

[DesertFlower]

18. he also had a long time girlfriend.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2301718/Freddie-Mercury-Queen-stars-lover-Mary-Austin-cursed-fortune.html


In the days before his death, his once lithe body now rendered extremely frail by Aids, Freddie Mercury made one final request of the woman he described as ‘the love of my life’. That she, and she alone, should collect his ashes after his cremation and dispose of them at a private location never to be disclosed.

For more than two decades Mary Austin has abided by Mercury’s wishes and kept the whereabouts of his ashes a secret. Not even his elderly parents were told.

-snip-

[unblock]

19. "under pressure" isolated vocal track (link):

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/05/under-pressure-vocal-track_n_3390223.html

[PeaceNikki]

20. lol, look a couple posts up...

[unblock]

22. dang, beat me by the length of the song, lol!

[PeaceNikki]

23. They're beautiful and wouldn't hurt to post them 100 times.

[TorchTheWitch]

21. makes me cringe what kids listen to these days

They have sludge like Miley Whatshername, but we had REAL musicians like Freddie Mercury and gone or not we still got him.

#t=179

[polly7]

24. I agree,

but he and Queen have an amazing number of young people hooked on their music today. So many of his songs are timeless and transcend all genres. My young niece knows everything about him there is to know, she adores him. I wonder if he ever guessed at just how popular and loved he would be all these years later. I hope so.

[DesertFlower]

25. i agree. i'm 72 and i don't listen to today's music.

i listen to classic rock.

[dipsydoodle]

34. Only a bit younger than you

and I don't either - mainly jazz/swing and old time American traditional music.

[RebelOne]

51. Same here. I am 74 and love the '70s music. n/t

[Skittles]

26. I don't think all of today's music is bad

but pop-tartism is WAY overused, and really quite sickening

[countryjake]

44. That video is one of my favorites!

All time greatest performance ever (and much of the music world agrees with me)!

[montanacowboy]

27. The Greatest Voice of the 20th Century

Born in Zanzibar and educated in India and UK

He was the best, no one will ever touch his range

[napkinz]

28. love Queen ... and who doesn't love that scene from Wayne's World

[Tikki]

31. I saw where Katy Perry has a cologne called Killer Queen, I guess it's a tribute...

I'd rather have Freddy back…I miss him...

Tikki

[0rganism]

62. thanks for posting my favorite Queen song

those rhymes... those vocal harmonies... that bass line... that sweet guitar...

THAT ATTITUDE!

So good.

[JNelson6563]

32. He was absolutely brilliant.

And I still love & admire him. I can't imagine questioning how anyone chooses to spend the end of their lives. Everyone deserves the right to die in private.

Was great to see all the videos everyone posted. Splendid thread.

Julie

[DesertFlower]

36. there are several documentaries about

freddie available. i saw a few on tv -- not sure which channel -- probably history, but you can get them through netflix.

[nolabear]

37. What a lovely video. Freddie was one of a wonderful kind.

I imagine he'd do differently today re AIDS. It was so different then.

[DesertFlower]

45. yes. it was. i knew more people who died of AIDS

than natural causes. i worked at NY telephone's legal department from '79 to '88 and 4 people who worked there died of AIDS. one was a AVP in the legal department. he got sick in the early 80s and no one knew what it was. when he passed a few years later his sister mentioned his long time companion in the obituary. the company was not happy with that.

this was 4 that i knew -- wonder how many others in the company also had it.

[zappaman]

39. First concert I ever saw!

November 6, 1978
Capitol Center, Landover MD

setlist online


We Will Rock You(Fast)
Let Me Entertain You
Somebody to Love
If You Can't Beat Them
Death on Two Legs
Killer Queen
Bicycle Race
I'm in Love with My Car
Get Down, Make Love
You're My Best Friend
Now I'm Here
Spread Your Wings
Acoustic
Dreamer's Ball
Love of My Life
'39
It's Late
Brighton Rock
Fat Bottomed Girls
Keep Yourself Alive
Bohemian Rhapsody
Tie Your Mother Down
Encore:
Sheer Heart Attack
We Will Rock You
We Are the Champions
God Save the Queen

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/queen/1978/capital-centre-landover-md-2bdcace6.html

[DissidentVoice]

49. Were Thin Lizzy on that tour too?

I know they toured together, and I would dearly like to take a TARDIS back in time to one of those gigs!

[nolabear]

40. This is one of my favorites, a very different Freddie.

[countryjake]

42. The Golden Boy

Freddie Mercury & Montserrat Caballé
Filmed at La Nit festival at Montjurich Castle in Barcelona on 8th October 1988, by Gavin Taylor.

[Mnemosyne]

46. He had an 8 octave range, iirc. 8 octaves! Amazing man gone too soon. nt

[Hippo_Tron]

59. Mmmm, he likely had about a 4 octave range

Your typical piano doesn't even have 8 octaves, it's usually somewhere between 7 and 8. 4 octaves is basically the maximum singable range. Above that you're just producing squeaks on pitches.

This guy, Adam Lopez who holds the world record for highest note sung by a male has a 5+ octave range but the extremes are mostly good for a neat party trick and bragging rights to holding a Guinness Record.

Freddie didn't sing this high. But it's probably a good thing he didn't, because his time was better spent making amazing music rather than trying to learn how to squeak out the world record highest note.

[Mnemosyne]

74. I read it in an article many, many moons ago, don't recall where. It just stuck in my head.

Either way, he had such an amazing voice!

[Hestia]

47. Must admit I wasn't into Queen back at the time, but I wasn't a fan of *any* stadium rock

but the more I have listened to Queen, the more I respect them as artists. That being said, how absolute crappy to anyone to say out loud "many privately wondered if he failed to provide support for millions suffering worldwide." Just because someone buys his music, he is supposed to open a vein too? What about his suffering? People pile on because he's didn't die the way they expected him to? Man...

[DissidentVoice]

48. Queen were SUCH a big part of my formative musical years

They lost me after The Game, "Another One Bites The Dust," "Body Language," etc - I did not like their move into disco/funk.

However, their earlier, hard rock - "Keep Yourself Alive," "Liar," "The Seven Seas Of Rhye," "Death On Two Legs"...all of that was (and is) very inspirational to me. My favourite album is Live Killers and I still love cranking that one to foundation-shaking volume, both at home and in the car. That is one of my Desert Island Discs.

As a guitarist, Brian May is one of my heroes. I put him up with Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore, Michael Schenker and Alex Lifeson. John Deacon and Roger Taylor were a very under-rated rhythm section.

Fred...what can you say except he could SING. OK, he could play the piano VERY well, and his songwriting skills were among the best...but that VOICE...

Not to mention that whatever stage he stepped onto, he owned, whether it was in a small club in Britain or Wembley Stadium, it was his domain. Live Aid was Queen's show.

I was saddened but not surprised by his death, as his promiscuity was legendary. He had such incredible gifts and it was so unfortunate that he felt he had to live so hedonistically (homosexual OR heterosexual, and he was certainly not the only one), because it robbed the world of such a great talent and unique man.

RIP, Farroukh Bulsara, 1946-1991

[Texasgal]

50. Just finished watching a bio

on him and his career.

There will NEVER be another Freddie, he was amazing and one of a kind.

[DesertFlower]

54. was it on tv? if so what channel?

[Texasgal]

56. It was on A&E

They have been running off and on all day.

[DesertFlower]

60. i just checked. there running duck dynasty for the

next few hours. sorry i missed it.

[Texasgal]

61. They may run it later

I saw it was on twice today.

On Edit, it looks like it is on the A&E Biography channel. Sorry to confuse!

[DesertFlower]

65. thanks. i'll check it out.

[ismnotwasm]

52. Loved Queen

One of the greatest voices rock and roll ever produced.

[madrchsod]

53. the best singer in that genre of music.

i was shocked that he died then finding out it was aids. i guess it never dawned on me that he was gay.

i think the advocate was right..

[Prophet 451]

71. Freddie wasn't gay

He was bisexual.

[TeeYiYi]

58. William769, here's a tribute video I think you'll like...

TYY

[Upward]

63. Freddie Didn't Owe His Medical Records to Anyone

It’s easy to look back upon the brilliant career and secretive life of music’s most entertaining, talented, and flamboyant showman only to get lost in the music and drown in sold-out stadiums of nostalgia.

WTF? Getting lost in the music was the whole point.

[TorchTheWitch]

67. I know! Just another thing I hated about the article

It also pissed me off that just because he got AIDS that he was somehow obligated to become the AIDS poster child or something. Just because a person is talented and famous doesn't make their health records subject to the public nor obligate them to a damn thing other than trying to cope one day at a time before death. Selfish git whoever wrote this article. He had every right to keep his private life private especially his personal health concerns just like everyone else.

[GreenEyedLefty]

64. I adored Freddie Mercury

I find myself thinking about him every once in a while. Such an enormous talent, and yet he seemed like a genuinely kind person. I loved how he described himself as a "Persian popinjay." RIP

[PATXgirl]

66. Didn't realize today was the anniversary. Was just listening to him today and

His voice was so freaking amazing. The theme from Highlander came on and had chills from those first few lines..."Who wants to live forever?"

[TorchTheWitch]

68. Barcelona (Live) - Freddie Mercury & Montserrat Caballé - 1988

[Prophet 451]

70. Greatest rock band ever

Thing is, Freddie didn't owe anyone his medical records. He wanted to keep his private life private. He wasn't and didn't want to be a role model for anyone ("I'm just a singer with a song&quot , he just wanted to entertain people.

[dchill]

72. Who did more damage by not talking about aids?

Freddy Mercury or Ronald Reagan?

[cbdo2007]

73. It isn't his responsibility to battle ignorance and prejudice or give support....

to anybody, just because he is a celebrity. Sure, easy for us non-celebrities to are still alive to point the finger and say "he didn't do enough for this or that...."

He was a very brave man and I'm happy for him to be able to go through his illness and death however he wanted. His public persona and his music will live on forever.