Beard of the Week XVI: Queen of Queens
Most of my life I have been a partisan of "classical" music. No doubt this has something to do with my starting to play 'cello when I was in the fourth grade, but still it took time. In my junior-high years (nowadays: middle-school years) I adored my parents' few recordings of popular classics, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr.'s "Tales from the Vienna Woods" — what was that zither sound really coming from? — and the Overture to Die Fledermaus, but my exposure was quite limited still. I bought my first LP — Bach, not surprisingly — when I was in high school.
There was about a year in college when, because of some friends I spent time with, my mind tuned in to modern popular music. One friend (Naomi) was particularly into women artists: Phoebe Snow, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon, and their contemporaries. They were pleasant to my ear, but not terribly satisfying musically. Other bands and albums that were popular c. 1977 I still have an emotional attachment to: Blondie and Kansas come to mind. Steely Dan I thought then, and still think, made very good music.
But the stand-out discovery for me was Queen. What a phenomenon. Quintessential Queen for me is "News of the World"; the other albums are good, but News is faaabulous. In a way, this is odd, because the songs on the album can seem quite a hodgepodge; on the other hand, it can seem a miscellany of amazing creativity and versatility. The songs mostly amaze me with their exuberance and spontaneity, plus the fact that they sounded composed to me, planned rather than improvised. Goodness, was I surprised when I noticed that John Deacon's "Spread Your Wings" was in a sonata form to rival anything of Mozart for Classical balance. Brian May's guitar playing was notable, particularly in the charming calypso number "Who Needs You", where he was joined by Deacon.
But, the thing that really turned me on to Queen was listening to Freddy Mercury sing. One could tell that he must be an electrifying performer, but what really, really caught my attention — and won't this sound snobbish! — is that Freddy Mercury could sing in tune! Just listening to him snake his way through "My Melancholy Blues" — a torch song in the finest torch-song tradition, written by Mercury — was mesmerizing: never a flat or sharp note despite all the pitch contortions that he went through. It's a breathtaking performance.
This week's beard belongs to Freddy Mercury, lead singer for Queen. His birthday was on 5 September — he would have been 60 this year. He died of AIDS-related complications in 1991, at age 45. The photograph is from late 1989.
Freddie Mercury was born Farookh Bulsara in Zanzibar. He joined the nascent band, being formed by guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor, in 1971. They packed a lot of history into the next 30 years.
I was amused to read news earlier this week that a big celebration was being planned in Zanzibar to mark his birthday, but it was being discouraged by the government, who thought that celebrating the life of a notorious homosexual might not present the right image. It suddenly seemed that homophobic reactionaries looked much more ridiculous than they ever had before, trying to keep down an unstoppable force of nature like Freddie Mercury.
Thanks Freddie.
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on Saturday, 9 September 2006 at 00.00
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This week's beard belongs to Freddy Mercury, […] His birthday was on 5 September — he would have been 60 this year. He died of AIDS-related complications in 1991, at age 45.
Freddie Mercury […] joined the nascent band, being formed by guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor, in 1971. They packed a lot of history into the next 30 years.
1991-1971=20, m'dear. even MORE densely packed history.
glad to see BotW back again.
funny you should bring Freddie up … I spent a happy hour or two less than a week ago watching him on YouTube(.com), and MY but he was a) a faaabulous performer (he had the audience at Wembley Stadium in the palm of his hand at the LiveAid concert), b) a great dancer and c) a great butt and moustache. (yes, I'm shallow)
[in other news, another thread: Lily Tomlin turned 65 this week]
on Wednesday, 11 October 2006 at 12.00
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I dearly like Steely Dan.
I like Freddy Mercury, too, and admire the way he can do the intervals and key changes and make you want more.
I have no ear for singing in tune, but I've been lead to believe the new music is digitized and run through a program that cleans up this area, so maybe it is less important to be able to sing in tune today. But then, I don't think off-key singing ever hurt groups like Iron Butterfly.