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Freddie Mercury was a British Asian songwriter and singer, best known as the frontman for the British rock band Queen. He was noted for his powerful vocal abilities and his charisma as a live performer. As a songwriter, he composed many international hits such as "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "We Are The Champions". Mercury died from complications of AIDS, greatly increasing awareness of the disease.
Freddie Mercury was born Farroukh Bulsara on the African island of Zanzibar (which at the time was a British colony, now part of Tanzania) to Indian Parsi parents, Bomi and Jer Bulsara. The family had emigrated to Zanzibar from India in order for Bomi to continue his job as a middle-ranking cashier at the British Colonial Office. Mercury had one younger sister; Kashmira.
Mercury was educated at St. Peter's boarding school in Panchgani (Satara) near Bombay (now Mumbai) in India, where he gave his first onstage performances in a five-member school band called The Hectics. Mercury completed his education in India at St. Mary's High School in Mazagon, Mumbai and was 17 when he and his family fled to England as a result of a 1964 revolution in Zanzibar. In England, he pursued a Diploma in Art and Graphic Design at Ealing Art College, following in the footsteps of Pete Townshend. He later used these skills in order to design the famous Queen crest. Mercury remained a British citizen for the rest of his life.
According to a November 17, 1996 Sunday Times article, Freddie Mercury was born "Farok Bulsara". However, while in boarding school, friends began calling him "Freddie", a name that he and his family eventually adopted. When Queen was first formed, he was initially using the name Freddie Bulsara. However, according to bandmate Brian May in the "Freddie Mercury: The Untold Story" video, his decision to change his name to Mercury occurred while he was writing a song called "My Fairy King", which contains a cryptic reference to "Mother Mercury." May also suggested that Mercury may have changed his name in part to distance himself from his ethnic background. Interestingly, profiles of Mercury before his death (e.g. a September 1980 interview in Circus) erroneously claim his real name to have been "Frederick Bulsara".
Considered one of the most versatile male vocalists in popular music, Freddie Mercury possessed a very distinctive voice. Although his speaking voice naturally fell in the baritone range, he also maintained tone in the tenor range. His recorded vocal range spanned nearly four octaves (falsetto included), with his lowest recorded note being the F2 and his highest recorded note being the D6. His highest recorded head voice note was the F5. In addition to vocal range, Mercury often delivered technically difficult songs in a forceful and powerful manner. However, due in part to the fact that he suffered from vocal nodules (for which he declined surgery), he would often lower the highest notes during many concerts.
With his vocal versatility, Freddie Mercury was one of the most technically accomplished singers to work in the pop idiom. In a list of the greatest English language singers of the 20th century compiled by BBC Radio, Mercury was ranked #10. He also came in second in MTV's list of the 22 greatest singers of the past 25 years, having been beaten by Mariah Carey for the top spot.
Freddie Mercury's performance at Live Aid has recently been voted by various artists, journalists and music industry executives as the greatest live performance of all time in rock music. The results of the poll were televised on a Channel 4 television programme in the UK called "The World's Greatest Gigs". Of all the artists present at the Live Aid concert, Queen was widely regarded as having stolen the show, largely as a result of Mercury's incredible talent and charisma.
One of Mercury's trademarks throughout the years involved the use of a microphone and stand minus the bottom section. In his early years of singing he made the decision to pick up his microphone, still attached to the stand. At one particular event, the bottom fell off by accident and, from that point on, he decided to use a bottomless microphone stand. When asked why, he replied, "Everyone has to have a gimmick, dear."
Songwriting
Mercury composed ten of the songs on Queen's original Greatest Hits album, including many of the band's most creative pieces, such as "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Killer Queen", "We Are the Champions", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Somebody to Love".
Although all four members of the band Queen were songwriters, producer Gary Langhan, who worked in the studio with Queen on many of their early albums, notes in the book Freddie Mercury: The Real Life that "Freddie was always intensely supportive of other people's songwriting and would give as much attention to one of the other's as he would to his own. It was so unlike other bands I've worked with where there is an acknowledged songwriter and anyone else who writes one really has to hassle to get it anywhere".
Perhaps the most distinctive characteristic of Mercury's songwriting was the number of long (typically five and a half minutes or longer) songs that utilized several different styles of music. Examples include My Fairy King, Liar, The Millionaire Waltz, The March Of The Black Queen, Innuendo and, of course, Bohemian Rhapsody. Compared to most popular songwriters, Freddie Mercury wrote very musically complex songs. As an example, while the average top 10 pop song contains 3 to 7 chords, Bohemian Rhapsody contains 60 different chords . Bicycle Race contains over 20 chords as well as complex metre changes (the bridge is in 3/4 while verses and choruses are in 4/4).
On the Freddie Mercury box set, opera singer Montserrat Caballe commented that, "He was not only a popular singer, he was a musician, that could sit at the piano and compose. He discovered a new way to bring different music styles together. He is the first and only person to have done this."
Bohemian Rhapsody
Although similarly sophisticated songs can be found on earlier Queen albums such as Queen II and Sheer Heart Attack, Bohemian Rhapsody is nonetheless widely considered to be the band's greatest achievement . When Mercury played his early drafts in the studio, producer Roy Thomas Baker remembers being shocked when, after hearing the ballad section of the song, he was told, "Now dear, this is where the opera section comes in . When the band wanted to release the song as a single in 1975, it had been suggested that, at 5 minutes and 55 seconds, it was far too long and would thus never be a hit. But Mercury gave a copy of the single to friend and London DJ, Kenny Everett, informing him that it was for him personally, and that he must never broadcast it on the radio. Ultimately, Everett ended up playing the song on the air, up to fourteen times in the same day. It generated a huge fan response; eventually, every major radio station played the song in full and it became one of the biggest hits of all time in the UK, remaining at the #1 position for nine weeks. Although a great deal of speculation has arisen over the song's lyrics, Mercury always insisted that the song did not have any specific meaning.
Musical Influences
As a child, Freddie Mercury's parents listened to a great deal of Indian music, and one of his early influences was the Bollywood playback singer, Lata Mangeshkar . According to a March 1996 edition of Record Collector magazine , after moving to England, Mercury became a huge fan of Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, The Jackson 5 and Led Zeppelin. His inspiration for writing long, acyclic songs such as Bohemian Rhapsody reportedly came from the song A Day In The Life by The Beatles. In a television interview (Queen For An Hour, BBC, early 1989), Mercury commented that his two favourite male rock vocalists were Robert Plant and George Michael. He also admired many singers outside of rock music, such as Aretha Franklin, Liza Minnelli, Luciano Pavarotti and Montserrat Caballe.
Personal life
Although he had a very close girlfriend named Mary Austin, Freddie Mercury was also fairly open about his homosexuality. In a March 12, 1974 interview for New Musical Express he told the interviewer: "I am as gay as a daffodil, my dear!" Although his relationship with Mary Austin eventually ended, the two remained close friends, with Austin often fronting as his girlfriend for the press. At one point Mercury said about Austin: "All my lovers asked me why they couldn't replace Mary (Austin) but it's simply impossible. The only friend I've got is Mary and I don't want anybody else. To me, she was my common-law wife. To me, it was a marriage. We believe in each other, thats enough for me. I couldn't fall in love with a man the same way as I have with Mary."
While Mercury had previously been promiscuous, his last boyfriend, Jim Hutton, lived with him for the last six years of his life, cared for him when he was ill and was present with him at his bedside when he died . According to Hutton, Mercury referred to him as his husband and died while wearing a wedding band that Hutton had given him .
Mercury was well known for his extravagance. As a penniless student, friends recall the aspiring musician as having exclaimed at one point, "I'm not just going to be a star, I'm going to be a legend!" When asked how he would live without fame or money, he replied, "I'll always walk around like a Persian popinjay and no one's going to stop me." On the other hand, he was also known for his kindness and generosity, showering friends and casual lovers with expensive gifts, apparently including cars and jewelry. While he was charming and outgoing at his own parties, he often appeared to be shy at other events.
Death
According to the book Mercury and Me by partner Jim Hutton, Mercury was diagnosed with AIDS in the spring of 1987. Despite the fact that he claimed to have tested negative for HIV in a 1987 interview, the British press nonetheless stalked the singer during the final years of his life. Although rumours about his health were rampant, he continued to deny that he had AIDS. From the video for These Are the Days of Our Lives, which represents Mercury's last appearance on film, it was clear that he was suffering from severe wasting. On November 22, 1991 Mercury called Queen's manager Jim Beach over to his Kensington home to discuss a public statement. On November 23, the following announcement was made to the press:
"Following the enormous conjecture in the press over the last two weeks, I wish to confirm that I have been tested HIV positive and have AIDS. I felt it correct to keep this information private to date to protect the privacy of those around me. However, the time has come now for my friends and fans around the world to know the truth and I hope that everyone will join with my doctors and all those worldwide in the fight against this terrible disease. My privacy has always been very special to me and I am famous for my lack of interviews. Please understand this policy will continue."
The next day, Mercury died at home in the presence of close friends at the age of 45. The official cause of death was bronchial pneumonia resulting from AIDS. Although he had not attended religious services in years, Mercury's funeral was conducted by a Zoroastrian priest. He was cremated at Kensal Green Cemetery and the whereabouts of his ashes are unknown, although some believe them to have been dispersed into Lake Geneva. The remaining members of Queen founded The Mercury Phoenix Trust and organized The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. He left £500,000 to his chef and £500,000 to his partner, Jim Hutton. Mary Austin inherited the estate and now lives there with her family. According to the book "The Show Must Go On" by Rick Sky, although Mercury was thought to have earned around £42 million, his thirteen page will revealed only £12 million. It apparently was not clear exactly what had happened to the fortune he had earned.
Legacy
Solo
- Mr. Bad Guy (1985)
- Barcelona (1988, with Montserrat Caballe)
Posthumous releases:
- The Freddie Mercury Album / The Great Pretender [US version] (1992)
- The Solo Collection (10 CDs and 2 DVDs) (2000)
Queen
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