Freddie Mercury was a very talented singer and performer. He is ranked 18th on Rolling Stone’s roster of great rock singers.
Seriously: 18th. Behind Bob Dylan. Behind John Lennon. Robert Plant?
(Ahead of Van Morrison??? Way ahead of Art Garfunkel and Tom Waits??? It’s a strange list. I love Bob Dylan, but number 7 on this list? And if Dylan is 7th, why is Bono 32nd and Neil Young 37th? What really is the criteria here? It appears to be a mix-up and random blend of “greatest vocalist” and “greatest artist”. Is Mick Jagger really a better singer than Janis Joplin or Nina Simone?)
All right– he did have a good voice.
A research team undertook a study in 2016 to understand the appeal behind Mercury’s voice.[39] Led by Professor Christian Herbst, the team identified his notably faster vibrato and use of subharmonics as unique characteristics of Mercury’s voice, particularly in comparison to opera singers, and confirmed a vocal range from F#2 to G5 (just over 3 octaves) but were unable to confirm claims of a 4-octave range. (Wikipedia)
So it must be conceded that technically he had a terrific voice, a terrific instrument at his command. What did he do with it?
So, quick, name one of his songs that really mattered.
Me neither.
Let’s be clear here: people who regard Queen as a great band will cite “We Are the Champions” as one of the greatest rock recordings of all time. If you are in that camp, I am talking a foreign language to you. How can “Bohemian Rhapsody” not be one of the great songs of all time? It’s epic. No, it’s not even a great song. It’s not even in the same league as “Anchorage” by Michelle Shocked, or “Homeward Bound” or “The Boxer” or “Like a Rolling Stone” or “Tangled up in Blue” or “Thunder Road”.
Gosh, Elizabeth Taylor and Liza Minnelli both attended his 20th April 1992 tribute concert. Both of them!
What he did do was kill several people by refusing to accept the diagnoses of AIDS, and refusing to disclose to his numerous sexual partners that he probably had it.
When asked whether he altered his behavior, Freddie responds, “Darling, fuck it, I’m doing everything with everybody.” Poz
He also refused to “come out”. Not that anyone has a duty of any sort to “come out”, but it would have been honorable for him to do it at the time of the AIDS epidemic, to do what he could to increase public awareness of the issue and help those lobbying for more funding for research and treatment. Unfortunately, he appears to have been more concerned about selling records and tv appearances and not offending his family than about the lives of other gay men.
Was that his worst sin? Or was inflicting “we will, we will, rock you” upon millions of sports fans even worse. Or “we are the champions”. Or– please– “Another One Bites the Dust”. And another one. And another one. And another one. Seriously, folks, it’s a insecticide commercial gone bad. Really bad.
Or, worst of all, “Bohemian Rhapsody”, an absolute marvel of inane kitch which they never could perform live, because that would have really required musical gifts beyond Freddie Mercury’s grasp (they cheated with tapes of the choral and other parts). I mean, obviously it could have been performed live, but it would have required a choir and more musicians and– here is the crucial part– that would have diluted the attention paid to Freddie.
NME rightly called it “a masterful, if ludicrous, six-minute suite of operatic cock-rock about a lad who’s killed someone, sold his soul to Beelzebub and wants to know if Scaramouche can do the Fandango”. Well, I’m not sure about “masterful”. It was really produced by a bunch of engineers in a studio. It’s not hard, apparently, to convince people that there is something brilliant about that but surely a lot of those people were disappointed when they saw Queen live and they couldn’t do their most famous opera.