A Crazy Little Thing..

Mercurial rhapsodist ... - Pic courtesy of Wikipedia

by Trebor Snillor
When I was in my teens, it was the wild and wacky decade of the 1970’s. The “Me” decade was characterized by silly excess, particularly in the arena of Rock ‘n Roll. We saw Elton in giant platform heels, David Bowie with blue thunderbolts on his face and Ozzie Ozborn biting the heads off of bats. Edgar Winter creeped us out with his “only coming out at night” album and KISS requested that someone lick it up. It would be hard to stand out in this era of glam-rock showmanship and yet Freddie Mercury of Queen did just that.

Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara and spent much of his youth growing up in India. He attended elite English boarding schools, learning to play piano at age 7. His family fled to Middlesex, England when it looked like the Zanzibar Revolution would threaten their safety. Mercury completed an Art degree at a Polytechnic school, but music was his passion. He sang for two groups, Ibex and Smile, before forming his own band -- a little group called Queen. He changed his name to Freddie Mercury about this time; he claims no intended second meanings of the group’s name, Queen. He just thought it was dramatic.

Dramatic is the word for Mercury. If I had to categorize his music I would say: rock, rockabilly, classical, opera and then Spanish soap opera. He delivered his music in 4 octaves and crossed every conceivable genre imaginable. In one interview he said he liked to keep inventing new sounds. I remember hearing the lyrics:

“Mama, I just killed a man -- put a gun up to his head…pulled the trigger now he's dead.”

I was shocked, a little bit outraged and then busted out laughing. This was pretty much a universal reaction. His songs were campy and outrageous across the board. It’s interesting that a gay man in tights scripted the lyrics, "We will rock you" and “We are the champions”, still today sung by macho sports enthusiasts around the world.

Mercury died from AIDS in 1991 at age 45. He had been in a 6 year relationship with an HIV positive man named Jim Hutton at the time. For such a flamboyant man fronting a group called Queen, Mercury was coy about his sexuality when talking to reporters or biographers. He claimed Mary Austin, a woman he lived with early on, was the love of his life. He described sex between men (early on in his life) as “schoolboy pranks”. The reticence surrounding that might be understandable given the judgmental nastiness that was still being heaped on AIDS victims in 1991.

Regardless of HIV, sex preference or genre-defying music, Freddie Mercury was a musical force of nature. Rolling Stone rated him the 18th greatest singer of all time, and BBC placed him in their top 100. His music plays constantly now around the world. Even in death, he brings energy to the planet -- and smiles everywhere. Mercury was indeed a champion and we’re enriched by his outrageous sense of fun.

© 2014 Snillor Productions