The Freddie Mercury Memorial Concert For Aids Awareness held at the Wembley Stadium and broadcast on April 20th, 1992, featured performances by an amazing line up of luminaries, including David Bowie, George Michael, Elizabeth Taylor, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Metallica, Elton John, and Annie Lennox. It was watched by more than a billion people worldwide, about 25 percent of the population of the planet at the time, including me.
Most music fans and critics agree that Queen‘s Live Aid gig in 1985 was the best live performance by anyone in Rock ‘n’ Roll history. Queen spent more weeks on the UK charts than any other band, including The Beatles and Rolling Stones.
I think Freddie Mercury‘s voice is probably the finest instrument ever to sing Rock Music; it is truly operatic and astonishing in its range and power. The songs Bohemian Rhapsody and We Are The Champions are two of the greatest Rock compositions of all time. Queen has sold more than 500 million albums. They remain campy, theatrical, and electrifying.
Mercury could be tender and reaching, aching and pained, upbeat and confident. The discography of his time with Queen (1971-1991) features songs with elements of each: You’re My Best Friend, Spread Your Wings, Under Pressure, Who Wants To Live Forever?, Another One Bites The Dust, Bicycle Race, I’m Going Slightly Mad.
When little Farrokh Bulsara was growing up, he liked singing Blues, but his influences were broader: Frédéric Chopin, Noël Coward, Wolfgang Amadeus and His Amazing Mozarts, Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler, Robert Plant, Aretha Franklin, they all had a huge impact on the young lad, plus there were the over-the-top emotionalism of his two favorite stars, Jimi Hendrix and Liza Minnelli, and they loomed large in his own style.
It was Mercury who insisted on the name “Queen” when the band first formed. Mercury:
“It’s ever so regal. It was a strong name, very universal and very immediate. It had a lot of visual potential and was open to all sorts of interpretations, but that was just one facet of it.”
Even more importantly, the band’s lead singer also got a new name. He was no longer Fred Bulsara; he became Freddie Mercury, a sly reference to the Roman messenger of the Gods. Queen guitarist Brian May later said:
“I think changing his name was part of him assuming this different skin. I think it helped him to be this person that he wanted to be. The Bulsara person was still there, but for the public he was going to be this different character, this god.”
Although nearly everything about Queen was gay, including the band’s name, Mercury never admitted to being gay and he hid his HIV status. He really was The Great Pretender. He even denied his ethnicity. Mercury’s parents were Parsi Zoroastrian, Persians who immigrated from Iran to India in order to escape persecution by Muslims.
Mercury was a curious man. His was a brash and brazen personality even before he accepted that he was gay. He had a girlfriend when he was a youth. He continued to call her the great love of his life, even after he was in a longtime relationship with another man. He left his estate and his ashes to her. When Mercury told her he was bisexual, she replied: “No Freddie, you’re gay”.
You have to remember, Mercury became famous in the 1970s and 1980s, two decades when Britain and the USA were not welcoming to gay people, and with the new plague emboldening the religious right-wing crazies. After he was diagnosed with HIV in 1987, Mercury hid the results from nearly everyone and went into seclusion. When pressed by the press, he denied that he was sick. In November 1991, Mercury finally issued a statement admitting his condition:
“Following enormous conjecture in the press, I wish to confirm that I have been tested HIV-positive and I have AIDS. I felt it correct to keep this information private in order to protect the privacy of those around me. However, the time has now come for my friends and fans around the world to know the truth, and I hope everyone will join with me, my doctors and all those worldwide in the fight against this terrible disease.”
Mercury was just 45 years old when he was taken by the plague. At his funeral, Aretha Franklin sang, and Mercury’s favortie soprano Montserrat Caballé performed a Verdi aria. He was cremated; the location of his ashes has never been disclosed. Today would have been, should have been, his 77th birthday celebration. I really miss him.
