Queen Sized
My favourite band is Queen. These days that favour is a somewhat dormant one. I listen to a lot of different stuff and find most other things (whatever the age) fresher than Queen. This is hardly surprising given that I devoured the fifteen Queen studio albums in my young adulthood (including the posthumously produced Made In Heaven in 1995). Still my interest is regularly revived and recently a documentary on the ABC (These Are The Days Of Our Lives) has provoked a re-visiting of my collection.
I was always a dag and never had a favourite band like all the cool kids. Imagine my excitement then at discovering one around the age of 18. I knew a number of Queen songs but had never known they were all by the same musicians – they were all so different. It is amusing to think that because now I can instantly detect the unique characteristics of Queen, whatever genre they may be messing with in a particular song. The vocal of Freddie Mercury is (like all vocals) unique while the guitar resonance and playing of Brian May is incredibly distinctive. And they compliment one another – warm and round and ringing.
It was a blow to me back in 1991 to have discovered this band (at the time of its last album) to then have the vocalist die as a result of HIV. It was all over except I had two decades of back-catalogue to explore. And explore I did – all those layered guitar arrangements and vocal harmony. Also the wandering bass of John Deacon and the alternately skittering or smashing drums of Roger Taylor. Also the lush piano. Also the stamping and clapping. And then there were the themes of love and life and getting employed to make scores for science fiction and fantasy films.
Naturally as a self-described fan I also consumed band biographies. The story of some British youths who formed a band and went from on-campus gigs to stadium concerts was fun to follow. The process by which albums and songs are written was likewise interesting. The personal stuff however was the most fascinating and naturally it focuses most of Farrokh Bulsara (Freddie Mercury).
I had somehow overlooked the Indian origin of Freddie as part of the Parsi ethno-religious minority. And apparently many others round the world overlooked his bisexuality despite his overtly camp stage persona. It is amazing how we can compartmentalize our perceptions of the world. I have even had conversations with Queen fans of the more bogan sort wanting to say nothing of the sexuality of its vocalist. And in some ways I do think it is fine to separate the art from the artist but this was a kind of homophobia. Did they think they would get queer germs via the stereo?
In many other cases familiarity breeds respect and I think the fact this band of mixed sexuality got on with the job of producing music that inspired millions has done something to relax prejudices. It may be a pity that such inadvertent advocacy is needed. On the other hand everything that promotes a more accepting world is worthwhile.
I have moved on somewhat from my fanaticism partly because there is only so much life force one can suck from a finite back-catalogue. Queen is frequently bombastic while I have been drawn to gentler and more introspective stuff. Queen is polished while I have gotten into more gritty rootsy music. I suppose as life is lived one wishes music to reflect its many facets more accurately and one band can only ever do so much. And yet Queen keeps the accolade of my favourite band and I have the t-shirt to prove it.
I was always a dag and never had a favourite band like all the cool kids. Imagine my excitement then at discovering one around the age of 18. I knew a number of Queen songs but had never known they were all by the same musicians – they were all so different. It is amusing to think that because now I can instantly detect the unique characteristics of Queen, whatever genre they may be messing with in a particular song. The vocal of Freddie Mercury is (like all vocals) unique while the guitar resonance and playing of Brian May is incredibly distinctive. And they compliment one another – warm and round and ringing.
It was a blow to me back in 1991 to have discovered this band (at the time of its last album) to then have the vocalist die as a result of HIV. It was all over except I had two decades of back-catalogue to explore. And explore I did – all those layered guitar arrangements and vocal harmony. Also the wandering bass of John Deacon and the alternately skittering or smashing drums of Roger Taylor. Also the lush piano. Also the stamping and clapping. And then there were the themes of love and life and getting employed to make scores for science fiction and fantasy films.
Naturally as a self-described fan I also consumed band biographies. The story of some British youths who formed a band and went from on-campus gigs to stadium concerts was fun to follow. The process by which albums and songs are written was likewise interesting. The personal stuff however was the most fascinating and naturally it focuses most of Farrokh Bulsara (Freddie Mercury).
I had somehow overlooked the Indian origin of Freddie as part of the Parsi ethno-religious minority. And apparently many others round the world overlooked his bisexuality despite his overtly camp stage persona. It is amazing how we can compartmentalize our perceptions of the world. I have even had conversations with Queen fans of the more bogan sort wanting to say nothing of the sexuality of its vocalist. And in some ways I do think it is fine to separate the art from the artist but this was a kind of homophobia. Did they think they would get queer germs via the stereo?
In many other cases familiarity breeds respect and I think the fact this band of mixed sexuality got on with the job of producing music that inspired millions has done something to relax prejudices. It may be a pity that such inadvertent advocacy is needed. On the other hand everything that promotes a more accepting world is worthwhile.
I have moved on somewhat from my fanaticism partly because there is only so much life force one can suck from a finite back-catalogue. Queen is frequently bombastic while I have been drawn to gentler and more introspective stuff. Queen is polished while I have gotten into more gritty rootsy music. I suppose as life is lived one wishes music to reflect its many facets more accurately and one band can only ever do so much. And yet Queen keeps the accolade of my favourite band and I have the t-shirt to prove it.
Labels: Images, Music Related Stuff
posted by Dan at
22.12.11
1 Comments:
I'm copying and pasting comments to this same post from LiveJournal (complete with messy formatting text). See below...
From: tigerdenbodu
Date: December 23rd, 2011 08:44 am (local)
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My memory of Queen at the time (seventies, early eighties) was that while it was never stated explicitly, everyone just assumed he was gay. I don't think there was the same awareness of bisexuality as a possibility. His ethnic origins were less well-known except by fans who consumed all available information. I remember we were quite excited to find out his real name and place of birth.
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From: originaluddite
Date: December 23rd, 2011 09:01 pm (local)
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I think there is an entrenched cultural blindness to bisexuality. Even now I have come across those who somehow think you have to be "one or the other".
I bet his origins would have been interesting. And that doco overall is the best I have seen - the interviews with Brian and Roger are so honest and heartfelt. You get a sense of who they are and how the terminal illness of Freddie affected them.
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Dan, At
09 May, 2017
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