LETTER NUMBER THIRTY

Dear Freddie,

I haven’t had the best of times the past two weeks. I’ve read a lot about you, though. I think there is a British journalist whose entire job is to write an article about you, if not everyday, most days.

This is one of the same journalists who doesn’t fact check and said you brought a piano into the bathtub for Crazy Little Thing. So apparently, on Instagram, there is an account that this same journalist deems the authority. I think it’s a fan account, but I’m not sure and I don’t know what authority they have or how they received that status. Rarely have I learned something new from them. I think I selfishly should be the authority. NO fair! LOL

So I got all turned around and interrupted the alphabet a la Mercury, for a special edition birthday post. It wasn’t the best, but it got the message across that we were happy you were born.

Some say why celebrate a person’s birthday who is gone. Well, it’s still a great day in 1946 when you were born. Whether you are here or not doesn’t change that! COVID-19 killed your birthday party this year hopefully next year it won’t.

Okay so, back to the Mercury Alphabet. I think we were still on J. I don’t think there were a lot of them, but as I say in most posts, when I get tired and don’t want to do it. I stop. So if I repeat one or two forgive me.

John Deacon

The sad part of this blog is I can’t remember if I covered some stuff already, and I have no uniform way of putting names in the alphabet list. Sometimes I use last names, sometimes first. Oh well, John Deacon is a huge topic so if I did hit him in the D’s then here we go again, there is a lot to say after all.

In 1971 after three (I think) bass players didn’t work out, one who quit because of your “stage antics, others who quit because they didn’t gel with the other personalities in the band. From what I have studied, it wasn’t you they couldn’t get along with, but maybe it was. I don’t know if there is actually a record as to why they quit? There may be, but they aren’t important so we move on.

In 1971 a very shy engineering student at the age of 19 was asked to play with the band and due to his timid and easy-going personality he fit right in. That man was John Richard Deacon. For as quiet as he was, he could play bass incredibly well, and also became one of the secret weapons of the band’s success.

He fit right in because he, like Brian and Roger, was an academic who loved what he studied. He studied electronic engineering.

One day, I don’t know the circumstances of how John came to this particular trash bin or dumpster as we like to call them in the USA. But the story goes, that one day he came across some rubbish (look at me using British words!) in that pile he found some spare parts and from it created a special amplifier, that along with his awesome bass skills, would shape the sound of Queen for their entire career.

It sounds like a scene from a movie. A dark night in London, 1972. A young man walks alone, heading home after a long night of practicing with his band. His heavy Fender bass slung over his back, he’s weary but excited about the future. As he passes a skip (dumpster for the Americans out there), a splash of color catches his attention. Wires – not building power wires, but thinner gauge electronics connection wire. A tinkerer studying for his Electrical Engineering degree, the man had to investigate. What he found would become rock and roll history, and the seed of mystery stretching over 40 years.

I found this on the internet when I put in Deaky Amp https://hackaday.com/2017/05/08/a-queen-mystery-the-legend-of-the-deacy-amp/

This amp plus Brian’s homemade guitar made guitar sounds that many thought might be synthesizers. Not to mention the meow sounds on Delilah, on the Innuendo album. Apparently this amplifier that John made became the stuff of legend.

The man was John Deacon, and he had recently signed on as bassist for a band named Queen. Reaching into the skip, he found the wires attached to a circuit board. The circuit looked to be an amplifier. Probably from a transistor radio or a tape player. Queen hadn’t made it big yet, so all the members were struggling to get by in London.

https://hackaday.com/2017/05/08/a-queen-mystery-the-legend-of-the-deacy-amp/

The Queen sound would be a huge result of this amp with random parts and a guitar with random parts too. Who would’ve thought that homemade equipment would form such a legendary and recognizable sound. Here’s the rest of the story told by what I hope, is someone who has done their homework on it.

Deacon took the board back home and examined it closer. It looked like it would make a good practice amplifier for his guitar. He fit the amp inside an old bookshelf speaker, added a ¼ “ jack for input, and closed up the case. A volume control potentiometer dangled out the back of the case. Power came from a 9-volt battery outside the amp case. No, not a tiny transistor battery; this was a rather beefy PP-9 pack, commonly used in radios back then. The amp sounded best cranked all the way up, so eventually, even the volume control was removed. John liked the knobless simplicity – just plug in the guitar and play. No controls to fiddle with.

John’s amp had a nice warm tone, slightly distorted – yet pleasant to the ear. He used it for awhile, then brought it along to a practice session with his Queen bandmates. Guitarist Brian May took an interest in the amp. Now Brian is a hacker in his own right. His guitar, the Red Special, was built as a father/son project when Brian was a teen. The Red Special deserves an article all its own, so keep your eyes peeled for that one. Brian often played through a treble booster. This is a single transistor circuit acting as a 30 db preamp. It guarantees any amplifier plugged in will have its input stage driven to distortion.

Plugging this setup into the Deacy amp changed its sound even more. The overdriven amp sounded different from anything they had heard before. Not quite the warm sound of an overdriven tube amplifier, but much smoother than the clipping sound that came from distorted transistor amps of the time. It also had a sustain to it. The Red Special suddenly sounded like a violin, a cello, or even the human voice. Brian loved the sound and kept experimenting with the amp.

Queen’s sound guys loved the amp as well. It was very consistent, which made it suitable for layering tracks in a recording studio. Guitars are typically recorded by connecting them to an amplifier and then pointing a microphone at the amp’s speaker cabinet. Exactly how to place the microphone and amplifier, as well as the settings of each is as much art an art as it is a science.

 In my humble opinion, the most interesting use of the Deacy amp would be Good Company, from Queen’s album A Night At the Opera. Brian layered track after track with the Deacy. In the end, he reproduced the sound of an entire brass band, just using his guitar.

The mystery still remained – where did the amplifier come from? Nigel postulated that it was originally part of a baby monitor or intercom of some sort, as it was a stand alone amplifier.  Surely the Internet would be able to find the origins of a common circuit board like this.

Unfortunately, the answer was no. The years went by, and curious searchers, including this article’s author, found nothing. That is, until January 2013. [Mitch, aka PBPP] on the antique radio forum dropped a bomb of a post. He had found the origin of the Deacy amp board. It was the amplifier section of a transistor radio after all, specifically the Supersonic PR80. He took it a step further and found documentation on the beast, in SAMS Photofact Transistor Radio Series TSM-60, published October 1965.

https://hackaday.com/2017/05/08/a-queen-mystery-the-legend-of-the-deacy-amp/

It would take until 2008 when Brian May would hand over the amp he adopted to someone to analyze. What they found in non-guitarist terms, was an amp made out of rare and hard to find parts. An amp that would be very hard to replicate. It was truly another stroke of genius from a man that, though quiet, would have many moments of true inspiration that would lead to huge success both for himself and his legendary band. This amp was no different.

John was the youngest of the Queen members and Freddie being the oldest would take him under his wing like a big brother and help him navigate the crazy world of fame. A common quote about John is that he was a regular guy, that just happened to be in one of the world’s most popular bands. He liked to dance and on stage, the only one who danced more than Deaky was Freddie. John came to rely heavily on Freddie when troubles would arise. In the beginning, Freddie celebrated John’s successes and encouraged him to marry the woman that would stick with him through the 20 years of Queen and is still with him today.

John Deacon played bass like it was just something any human was able to do, but his bass lines were inspired and often one of the most important parts of Queen hits. Freddie had input on just about every song at the mixing board, but John had all the input on his bass lines. John was a problem solver and after a while when John Reid left the band, John took over the finances and accounting for the corporation of Queen. He essentially became the CFO of the multi-million dollar Queen empire. He still continues in that roll now, even though he retired from the entire music scene in 1997 and barely talks to his other band mates.

John had lost the one male authority figure in his life, his father, at age 11 and then Freddie came along as a big brother type figure in John’s life. Freddie with his generous and kind nature became as important to him as if he was his older brother. In 1987, when Freddie and Jim had taken a vacation to Ibiza, which would become another infamous Freddie birthday party. John was the first to notice spots on Freddie’s legs. Spots that weren’t completely obvious to others. Freddie still looked relatively healthy at this point and hadn’t told anyone in the band about his diagnosis. John noticed and asked his partner Jim Hutton what those spots were, and Jim lied to him on Freddie’s wishes, and told him sun spots.

Many think that because John didn’t visit Freddie in the last days that he wasn’t as close to him as the other two. In fact it was the opposite. Freddie had done so much for John, when he found out that Freddie was sick and there was nothing he could do to help, it devastated John deeply. Freddie and John and others knew that seeing him deteriorate would just make things a whole lot worse. As far as we know, John didn’t visit Freddie when he became a prisoner in his own house those last weeks.

John saw him though, when he was recording in Montreaux towards the end. Freddie told everyone who came to visit that crying or sympathy was not allowed. In my opinion, it wasn’t something John was capable of giving him if he visited. When Freddie, the man John had looked up to died, John was probably the most devastated.

He would only continue to work with Queen as long as the vocals on any song were Queens or it was a benefit for Freddie. He once famously said, “No Freddie, No Queen.” He became virtually a recluse unable to handle the job anymore without his friend, and went home to raise his kids and be with his wife. The only thing he would have to do with the band over the years until even now, was the accounting. He has six children, all who are extremely proud to be associated with Queen, but John just can’t be in the public eye anymore. The speculation as to why and what happened to him lasted for a very long time, and still if he ventures out he is photographed. Deaky just couldn’t play anymore without Freddie, and many Freddie fans admire him for it. He would never play with Queen again and become a virtual recluse.

Joe

Do you know Joe? Well, let me tell you a little about a man named Joe Fanelli. On a tour of the USA in the late 70’s, Freddie met a cute blonde named Joe Fanelli who lived near Boston. I’m not sure about where exactly they met. I imagine it was a club after a show. I don’t really know. Anyway, Joe would be the lover and successor and at first overlapper, to David Minns, Freddie’s first male lover. He uprooted Joe and took him on tour. In that time, in the USA being a gay man was becoming more acceptable and Joe’s family knew of his status. Joe had been in relationships before, though he was very young, around 23, and had never had to hide it from anyone. Now, he was the lover of the most recognizable rock star in the world. He couldn’t be Freddie’s lover in public and never could get used to the world of fame. He could never get used to sharing his boyfriend with the public. To cope Joe started to drink heavily and after a few months it became a problem. Joe was one of those rare people who early into his addiction to alcohol, admitted his problem, and got away from what was causing it. Unfortunately, the cause was Freddie’s fame. In order to recover and get well he had to separate himself from that world and ultimately, Freddie.

Freddie would always take care of people he knew, though for many years Joe had no real contact with Freddie. Freddie knew he had uprooted this young man from the country he knew and his family there. Freddie would always make sure that Joe’s visa to stay in England was up to date and when Joe expressed an interest in being a chef, he was given a prized job at a very exclusive restaurant in London. I’m not sure exactly, if Freddie had anything to do with Joe getting that job, but Joe was an extremely talented chef, so regardless he would probably have gotten the job whether Freddie helped or not.

In 1984, Freddie and the rest of the band flew to California to record an album. An album that would become The Works. At a party Freddie threw there, the question of a caterer came up and Freddie knew someone who he trusted would make the best food. He called Joe and asked him to come to California and cater for him, and from then on Joe became the other assistant to Freddie, his second “shadow” if you will. Joe being there could give Peter Freestone a break from time to time. He always knew where Freddie was and was a very close confidant to Freddie. He was always ready to rescue Freddie if he needed it, or he would go with him.

He was there at Live Aid when Freddie came off the stage and he ripped the sweat-soaked clothes off of him and dressed him in one of the four outfits Freddie would change into throughout that day. Jim Hutton lived in the house with Joe and Peter and Joe was there at the end of Freddie’s life as much as Peter and Jim. A job that was made even harder than it was for the other two, because, Joe too had contracted the AIDS virus at that time. Joe was Freddie’s trusted chef for all events at Garden Lodge along with Phoebe. Joe and Freddie were both suffering from the same disease, but Joe’s diagnosis came about a year after Freddie’s.

Joe would succumb to his illness only a year after Freddie died, though he wouldn’t suffer a long time. He died of a blood clot in his brain in 1992.

Jer Bulsara

Perhaps the most important person in Freddie’s life. Without this amazing woman we wouldn’t have Freddie Mercury.

Jer was Freddie’s mom and he loved her dearly. She was one of the first to figure out he was sick and missed him terribly when he died. She supported her son no matter what happened in his life and supported his career from the start. She was extremely proud of him his entire life, though she didn’t really get to see him grow up, because he was sent to boarding school at seven. She said once that she didn’t really want him to go, but that was what was done back then to give a boy a good education in their culture. By all indications, she missed him as much as he did her.

She lived into her nineties and died, just four years ago in 2016 at 94 years old.

Jer once said that Freddie did more in his short life than most do in 100 years.” As usual, she was right. She would continue to stay close to the band and especially Brian May until the end of her life. She would also continue to celebrate her son’s accomplishments. She sometimes accepted awards on his behalf and even once went on a London talk show to talk about her beloved son. Freddie spoiled his mom and on every tour bought her something and tried to be home for every birthday. In 2012 when the London Olympics opening ceremony celebrated English culture through the years, soon it was time for music. A big likeness of John Lennon was displayed to much audience applause and then on a screen and randomly disappearing and reappearing as if from another world, Freddie sang Ah Oh! Jer Bulsara sitting at her TV, cried oh my sweet son where are you? I miss you! Then she took special notice of what happened when Freddie appeared on stage (or screen). She said her son got much more excitement and love from the audience that night than John Lennon and in what must have looked like Freddie’s, had a slightly mischievous smile and a little bit of pride about that. By that time Freddie had been gone for a long time, but he may not be physically there but he had hundreds of countries’ Olympic athletes eating out of his hand on that screen just like he did when he was alive.

I remember watching it and thinking wow this is great. Then Jessie J came on and butchered We Will Rock You, but still seeing Freddie on that screen in his yellow jacket and hearing the entire world sing back to him made your jaw drop with awe at the power that man still held over anyone who could see or hear him. Jer was right to be proud. I remember the part of that ceremony that Freddie was in, but I don’t remember the part John Lennon was in? I didn’t even before I was obsessed with Freddie. Jer Bulsara….thank you for giving us this wonderful man who brought a smile to so many when they thought they couldn’t possibly smile. He continues to do that today, and it’s a safe bet, he always will. Freddie Mercury doesn’t just mean a lot to England, he means a lot to the world. I can’t imagine a sports game without We Are the Champions or whatever Queen song they play. Just like your son, you were a small woman with a huge presence and we all noticed! Thank you so much for him. There are no words to adequately convey how grateful we are.

Jimi Hendrix

If you ever feel guilty about your obsession with Freddie or feel you are over zealous, think back to the obsession Freddie had for Jimi Hendrix. Freddie would rather buy a ticket to see him play and travel everywhere to see him, than eat.

Freddie was a die-hard Jimi Hendrix fan and his stage presence would inspire Freddie’s later in his career. Freddie may have been private even at the start of his time in London, but the fact that he loved and adored Jimi Hendrix was absolutely no secret at all. Later in 1988 with the release of the album, The Miracle, in the song of the same name, Jimi Hendrix would be listed in the verses and their list of miracles. Don’t feel bad about your obsession with a rock star, even the object of our obsession was once obsessed with his own rock god.

He drew a lot of art of Jimi and was said by his college art classmates to have been Freddie’s favorite and nearly exclusive subject. Jimi was, like the man who adored him, one of those truly rare people who have so much charisma it just glows from them. I’m sure a young and poor Freddie in the audience back then didn’t realize he was a part of that rare group as well. It’s not a whole lot of people that possess the kind of charisma and stage presence that Jimi had and then later, Freddie. Both of them lit up rooms or stadiums and both were virtuosos at their respective musical talents.

I read somewhere that Peter Freestone said that part of the reason Freddie was so good to his fans, was because as a fan of Jimi and following his career around and in being a spectator in many live concerts, he could easily put himself into that fan’s shoes. Jimi’s greatness did what all musicians hope to do, it inspired true greatness in another. Jimi showed Freddie that what you did on a stage was equally as important as the songs you played. Jimi much like his biggest fan was taken from us way too soon and with so much potential ahead. In his 27 years, if all he had done was help to create the performer Freddie would become he would be legendary, but Jimi did a whole lot more than that. Freddie mourned Jimi’s death as deeply as we mourn his and I think it was something, much like us, he never really completely got over. To us Freddie is a miracle, to Freddie Jimi was. So thanks Jimi, we can’t thank you enough for inspiring him. We owe you big!

Jeans

After the 70’s androgynous look fell away, and Freddie got past his YMCA time, his favorite item of clothing was jeans. I always say they were magic jeans because he did moves in them on stage that jeans should not be able to do. Somehow no matter what acrobatics Freddie did on stage the jeans seemed to move with him.. Who can forget the jeans he wore at Live Aid.

Even when not performing jeans were Freddie’s clothing of choice. He liked Levi’s and should have had them sponsor him at Live Aid, those jeans would be coveted by everyone after that show. As I said before, when performing with Queen he did things in a pair of white jeans that no one should be able to, such was the magic of Freddie and his jeans.

I think you get the picture? Need I really explain more? This is a self explanatory one. I will if needed, but I will say this. The only man who can pull of high waisted jeans is Freddie Mercury. He’s also the only man who can pull them off with a jacket with shoulder pads.

In case you don’t believe me, have you ever tried to lunge in jeans? Try it, see how you do. Cause it’s not easy make sure you do as deep of one as Freddie did if you manage at all. They say he works out off stage, he has to, but everyone who knew him disagrees. Freddie didn’t need a gym he had a extremely strenuous two hour workout almost every day, try to do his moves in one concert. You’d be in damn good shape too. No one believes that he doesn’t work out. The man was gifted in so many ways. His metabolism was one. We will talk about that in another letter of the Mercury alphabet

Okay I just found out they are REMAKING HIGHLANDER! They need to use the Queen music or I’m not going. Boycott or Queen! Dear movie people, pick well! Don’t fuck with a classic soundtrack. That’s like remaking Flash Gordon without the music! Seriously???

Wait UPDATE, they are remaking that too. WTF? If they have anyone else sing the song I’ll be so mad. You have no clue how mad if I don’t hear Freddie saying FLASH—AHHHHH…ahhhhhh

I googled it and there is no word yet, but since the movies haven’t begun shooting, we shall see.

Okay back to our regularly scheduled alphabet. So except for mentioning Jailhouse Rock being a cover they performed in just about every concert, but it didn’t warrant it’s whole letter. I have wracked my brain and in classic “me” I will most likely remember a bunch more J words once I have posted this. It’s basically how my life works. I’m almost used to it.

Now, the next letter in the Mercury alphabet, K.

Kind of Magic

Okay, don’t be mad if I’ve already covered this in the A’s. That’s sort of cheating to be honest. The song and album is technically, A Kind of Magic.

This was the first album that Queen made after that triumph of true magic that was Live Aid the year before.

This 1986 tour would also be their best and biggest concert tour with historic events and record crowds. The tickets for just about every single show in the world that year, sold out in minutes, and when you remember there was no internet back then, it was done by phone or mail, that’s even more crazy. The only Queen tickets that would sell faster than this tours’ would be the Tribute concert in 1992. I don’t want to talk about that though. Trying to write about Freddie and not have my denial glasses fail is nearly impossible……MOVING ON!

This song was written by Roger Taylor who ripped it off from the famous MLK speech. Well Roger went on vacation after introducing the song to the band and Freddie took it and reworked it. It would become a pretty big hit for Queen. As usual with Freddie’s input most things are better. The version Roger Taylor envisioned went into the movie Highlander, and the one that Freddie had….um….improved….(rewritten) became a pretty big hit single and another killer music video.

That album was kind of a cheat anyway, because they used it as a soundtrack to Highlander, and a new Queen album. Once again, the soundtrack was a bigger hit than the movie.

So many people here in the USA count Queen out starting in the mid 80’s.

Many forget the hits they had in the later 80’s and again I think The Miracle and Innuendo are very underrated albums. Except for the Freddie part of Mother Love, I could honestly do without Made In Heaven. I mean there is a “song” on there that is a 22 minute Brian May guitar solo with drums, but the very end of that 22 minutes is Freddie, for just a minute in the background, which, why? That was supposed to be a Freddie tribute album so why do you think we care about a 22 minute guitar solo? Come on Brian, get the picture. No matter how much you try you will never be as good as Freddie Mercury. You are good, you are legendary, but you are no Freddie and he’s on a whole other level. TANGENT AND RANT OVER

The video was animated and balloons of the animated version of the band members were released when Freddie sang the song on tour. At the Wembley show one of the balloons famously rebelled and decided it was going to leave the stadium in a hilarious typically Queen escape.

There were 28 shows, which is a lot to most bands, a standard tour is about 15 shows, and the stage was freaking enormous and at times you have Freddie running across the whole thing while singing in a jacket in the summer. I can’t run, much less, run then have the breath to sing, and wear a jacket in the summer. I’m sorry that’s superhuman, no matter what Freddie says. At least on a stage he wasn’t completely human. He may have been when he was not on one, but on a stage, he didn’t need to ride on Superman. On a stage in front of a live audience, Freddie became Superman. It’s true don’t fight me.

This album would become a huge hit for Queen mostly because the legendary concerts raised their ranks on the charts even more than Live Aid already had a year before.

On this tour they went to Budapest, Hungary when it was still a communist country. It was the first time a band as big as Queen would play in a communist country, behind the “iron curtain. That is a phrase that many who weren’t alive when Freddie was, don’t even understand. It was the nickname for a communist country during the decades long cold war. A war where our biggest enemy was tyrannical communist governments and their leaders. The USSR as Russia was called back then was the leader of all the others and Hungary was pretty much under their wing. When they played, security was tight and the taping of the show didn’t come off as was planned, but it still packed full of fun scenes.

The audience is basically impossible to see on the video, but apparently were wild. Jim Hutton finds out later that the tickets were more than a month’s pay of most of the workers in the country. An amount they were willing to pay to see Queen and Freddie. This was not something that escaped Freddie’s notice and that could be argued to be one of the best concerts on that tour. Though, Wembley and Knebworth are probably in that spot, but of all the 28 shows, Hungary was the historic and ground-breaking one.

The fact that so many people showed up and it’s rumored some were even standing outside the stadium to listen making the crowd even bigger than was counted. Freddie was a sensation there even more than he was in Japan and to show his appreciation in typical Freddie fashion, he learned a hard but beloved Hungarian folk song he sang on stage much to the delight of everyone in the audience. Even the Hungarian people could sing every word of the Queen songs and most didn’t speak any English except for the words in the songs. Freddie Mercury showed his appreciation to all his fans especially these rare ones! He as usual says his I love you and blows a kiss and in that concert especially, you really feel it. It was a concert that Freddie wanted to be perfect. He wanted every concert to be perfect but that one, was super important, and it pretty much was, though I’m sure Freddie could have found some little teeny mistakes that no one else saw.

A funny interview would come out of this song in particular, due to Freddie’s antics, where when asked what happened to the original version of the song Roger said. ” I went on vacation and they rewrote my words.” Interviewer: “Who did”

Knee Pads

In typical Freddie fashion, literally, Freddie would inexplicably wear knee pads over his tight PVC material concert outfits. He never was seen on stage with tight pants and no knee pads. When the jeans came into play the knee pads went away. But all through the early to mid 80’s if Freddie was wearing anything but jeans he was wearing knee pads.

Freddie also had white knee pads to go over his leather outfit in the video for Crazy Little Thing. We know the hijinks Freddie does on stage, maybe he needed them for his knees? Didn’t seem to bother him with jeans, but who knows. That’s the wonderful thing about Freddie, he did things no one can explain and we loved him all the more for it. He always left us wanting more. We still do! If anyone knows about the why of the knee pads let me know. I’m super curious.

Keep Yourself Alive

The first single Queen ever released. It wasn’t super popular when it was released, but it would become popular enough to get the record companies to allow them to try more music and cut another album, and the rest is history.

That song was the foundation that Queen was built on, and became a fun sight in a lot of concerts with Freddie on the tambourine. A tambourine he would often throw into the audience, with just about everything else that made it into his hands. Including the famous maracas that Roger Taylor never really forgave him for. lol

It would become a song that they would sing in just about every concert they ever played. It always seemed to me to be a song that Freddie really liked. Maybe, musically it was easy to sing? I have no clue because I know just about nothing about music theory.

This song was written by Brian May and was very much an example of things to come. It was the precursor to the band’s hit songwriting career. It was also the first indication of the hall of fame song writing and innovative music that would become their brand through the years. It wasn’t as daring as Freddie’s songs, but it was a catchy song that would prove popular to Queen fans.

Recently to promote his newest solo song, Roger gave an interview to a lot of the music press, and naturally, as did most interviews back then and most even now, Freddie was the main subject of what the press was interested in. I will put the link here:

https://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/music/1333282/Freddie-Mercury-singing-Queen-drummer-Roger-Taylor-interview-Brian-May

He says in the article that at first he, Brian, and Freddie would all sing their own songs in the very start of their career but that Freddie’s voice got better and better over time and it just became his job to sing everything because his vocals became unmatched. Which we all say to Roger…..DUH!

Seems like instead of promoting his new song like intended Roger instead gave us a rare look into his perception of his band mate and friend that we have all been longing for, for a long time. It’s about time they talked a bit about him. I know some thought his post on Instagram about missing Freddie on his birthday seemed heart warming, but it didn’t seem to be enough to me. They are too busy talking about Adam Lambert that Freddie falls to the wayside. Needs to be more often than once a year or twice a year. We know you miss him. You have to, we all do and we never even met him. Let us know a bit more often, we might not resent the insane amount of media coverage then or despise your remarks claiming Adam “Lambo” Lambert can do everything and more as Freddie. I THINK NOT! He doesn’t sing the same, he can’t play an instrument and the music he writes is not even close to being in the same league as Freddies and Queen’s. Roger and Brian don’t take this the wrong way but, if you want to Keep Yourself Alive, quit with the Adam worship or you might find a lot of empty seats when your tour resumes!

Killer Queen

The first big hit that put Queen on the map all over the world. Killer Queen is insanely clever and beloved by many Queen fans all over the world. Not the first example of Freddie’s lyrical genius, but the first that had a whole lot of people taking notice. When they sang it on Top of the Pops later the iconic image of Freddie in the fur would last every time they sang it, that image would automatically pop into people’s heads. It was typical of Freddie’s quotes about his early behavior before he was rich. This was a minor hit and made Queen semi-famous and helped them headline their first tour of the USA, but they wouldn’t truly dominate the music world until a few years later when their fourth album came out with Freddie’s masterpiece.

Freddie’s lyrics in this song are amazingly inspired. The song is about a high class prostitute so he said, but could it really be about him? I’ve always wondered. One of the rare songs that Freddie told us what it was about. Something he would not do very much as time went on, but maybe it had something to do with the critics. John Deacon would be tasked with the triangle in that song and it was an important part of it.

She keeps her Moet et Chandon
In her pretty cabinet
“Let them eat cake”, she says
Just like Marie Antoinette
A built-in remedy
For Khrushchev and Kennedy
At anytime an invitation
You can’t decline.

Caviar and cigarettes
Well versed in etiquette
Extraordinarily nice

She’s a Killer Queen
Gunpowder, gelatine
Dynamite with a laser beam
Guaranteed to blow your mind
Anytime

Recommended at the price
Insatiable an appetite
Wanna try?

To avoid complications
She never kept the same address
In conversation
She spoke just like a baroness
Met a man from China
Went down to Geisha Minah
Then again incidentally
If you’re that way inclined

Perfume came naturally from Paris (naturally)
For cars she couldn’t care less
Fastidious and precise

She’s a Killer Queen
Gunpowder, gelatine
Dynamite…

Killer Queen lyrics by Freddie Mercury

It was the first time that Queen would use layered harmonies in a song. It was a technique they favored their entire career and would make them and keep them innovative.

Killer Queen showed the world and the music business that Queen were headed for success, and the were going to be huge. At one stop on touring the world with Killer Queen in Australia, Queen was booed by fans and Freddie said the next time he came back they would be the biggest band in the world. In 1975 after the release of Bohemian Rhapsody and at one of the moments they did dominate the world in music he went back and no one was booing this time. Freddie was right as usual! They had come back to Australia as the biggest band in the world. Freddie was usually pretty honest and didn’t make false promises. He came back the most famous rock star in the biggest band. In your face….trolls!

King of Queen

Today in my google news feed, where I follow everything Freddie Mercury, I saw an article about this exact thing. It was talking about the picture that is black and white of Freddie in his cape and cloak by himself. Apparently, unbeknownst to me until now, that picture was taken by Peter Hince. Freddie had called him and asked him to come over and take a picture. Peter went not knowing what exactly he was going to be shooting, but lo and behold, there was Freddie in his royal garb ready to get his picture taken in it.

This picture would become one of the most iconic Freddie Mercury images and the main cover art for the documentary The Great Pretender. This is a reliable documentary, but doesn’t cover any of Freddie’s personal life, it’s more about his solo career. This would become Freddie’s most iconic picture. A man with boat loads of iconic pictures, this one outfit that he had made a couple dates into the Magic Tour in 1986 and would come out after singing We Are the Champions and during God Save the Queen, much to the delight of his audiences. This would give him another nickname other than the ones he already had, The King of Queen. It was a very tongue-in-cheek joke back then, but now it just seems to be super fitting, there is no joke about it. One of the main reasons people get so mad at Adam is that he dares to don a crown on his head and a cloak as well. NO one crowned you King….take it off your head!

Kash

Kashmira Cooke is a woman who was very important to Freddie. She also goes by Kash Bulsara and is very involved in a lot of charity work and events that have to do with Freddie. Kash was Freddie’s baby sister.

Freddie was very good at compartmentalizing his life. He kept his work and private life as separate as possible, and he kept his family life and his life with his friends separate as well.

Freddie left Kash when she was 2, to go to boarding school in India and in letters that have been uncovered from him to his parents, he would often inquire about her, or mention her in some way. He may not have had a ton of time with her, but Freddie’s loving heart never forgot his baby sister.

Since the death of their mother in 2016 at the age of 94, Kash is the official family representative at all tributes and honors for her legendary brother.

Kash has made it a point to stay as much out of the media spotlight as she can. She will make the occasional public appearance as she did in 2016 for the dedication of their home in Feltham-Middlesex, England, where she and Freddie and her parents moved when Kash was 12 and Freddie was 18 after the Zanzibar revolution in the late 60’s.

Most recently Freddie has been honored with a London street named for him Freddie Mercury Close is very near the house and is next to the World Zoroastrian Organization’s head office, which is fitting considering that is the religion his parents practiced. The address is 1 Freddie Mercury Close. This was unveiled in February of this year.

Kash married Roger Cooke around 1972 and has 2 children with him, Samuel and Nathalie. The two were little when Freddie was alive if Nathalie was even born and didn’t see their famous uncle often, but when it was a special occasion his presence was always known. Samuel talks about an Easter basket with a stuffed animal as big as he was for one Easter.

As we know Freddie was a very generous man, so it makes a lot of sense he would spoil his niece and nephew. Kash was married to Roger Cooke for a few decades but has currently separated from him and gone back to her maiden name Bulsara.

Freddie’s mom went on record saying that when Freddie did come home for holidays he and his sister were inseparable. He didn’t get to come home often, though.

Kash has said that she didn’t go out much with her brother, but instead he would visit their home and they would stay in and spend time together. She says that going out with Freddie had to be planned far in advance for security reasons, which makes a lot of sense. He didn’t get to visit his family as much as he would like because he was constantly touring, but when he did he made the most of it.

Kash apparently likes to spend money as much as her brother did. She listed her London flat for 4.75 Million pounds, about 6.5 million dollars, much like Freddie Kash has great taste and the almost 2500 square foot penthouse apartment in London’s Hyde Park area. The picture on the listing shows a beautiful living room with a big picture of Freddie hanging on the wall. Can’t hurt you know?

Living well was what Freddie did and due to his generosity in his life and death now he can give his sister the resources to do it as well. The listing says that she was selling it to downsize. I imagine that flat is a little bit big for one person since she has separated from her husband and her kids are grown. Samuel was only a toddler when Freddie was alive and I don’t think Nathalie was even born before her uncle died.

Samuel says in a video on YouTube that despite not really knowing him his grandmother always made sure that they knew how much he loved them. The timeline on ages of these kids in relation to Freddie’s life and death is murky to me. They aren’t in the public eye so there isn’t a ton known about them. Samuel and Kash attended the London premiere of the movie in 2018 together. Kash does a great job carrying on Freddie’s legacy and I know Freddie’s proud of his baby sister.

Okay, for several days I have worked on this blog and I think it’s plenty long enough for now. I can’t really think of anymore K words right now and I think all of the letters in this letter, are explained enough….. so with that I’m saying sayonara on another letter to Freddie.

His birthday has come and gone once again and he is no less missed than he always has been. Next year is 75 and hopefully they can do a birthday party worthy of a milestone birthday in Montreaux, bigger and better than the one they had to cancel this year. That’s okay it is never cancelled to us. That day isn’t hard for me. November 24th is the hard one for me. It’s a day the world got a little darker back in 1991, 29 years ago.

We all miss you like crazy Freddie. We wish you were here with us, but we are happy you were with us for the time you were. Your music will live on forever and you will in our hearts. They say a person isn’t truly dead until no one remembers them, well if that’s the case. I think you will never die, cause I can’t imagine you ever being forgotten. Never Boring and Always Missed.

I hope your mailbox isn’t full with all these letters. I type fast so it’s not the same as writing them like you did, but they still take a lot of time and energy and you know what, I love doing it! They will keep coming so if you need a bigger mailbox you just let me know. Love you Freddie, always and forever. *blows kiss* More of the Mercury alphabet to come we will finish one day.

Love Always,

Me