Lets remember the genius of Freddie Mercury

[Vanhalen 0]

Lets remember the genius of Freddie Mercury, who died 16 years ago this week, can remember it like yesterday. Look at the way this man has the crowd in his fucking hand, many so called music "stars" would kill for even a tenth of the stage presence Mercury had.

 

 

 

 

 

[Copper Feel 0]

I recently purchased Sheer Heart Attack, great collection of songs, I like the way they are all linked thematically.

[PLAGIARISM! 0]

Decent for a shirt lifter

[k thx 0]

Mr Bad Guy, his electro-pop solo album, is my top guilty pleasure.

 

Although you could put together a decent album with songs he wrote, that's not that much to show for a near 20 year career.

 

Plus he wrote a song about his cat pissing on his furniture, but he was dying of AIDS so it'd be cruel to stop him.

[Copper Feel 0]

A Night at the Opera is a great album's worth of songs all by itself.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

I like Queen, but this thread is an example of the word genius being thrown around far too much.

[snuffbox 0]

Stage presence, brilliant as it may have been, does not equal genius.

[luke-o 0]

Queen gargle my balls.

[Nighthawk 0]

Icon is a better word than genius.

[King Kamala 0]

My favorite band when I was 8. Ya! Oddly enough I discovered them via The Mighty Ducks when they sing "We Are The Champions" at the end and my dad said "Hey they're singing Queen."

 

 

Still like them to this day, I saw the Mercury-less Queen last year with Paul Rodgers. It was actually pretty damn good but Paul Rodgers sounded way out of place on their 80s synth driven stuff.

 

I agree with Milky. Mercury's definitely an icon but not a genius. He's influential but how many good Queen ripoffs have there been? I don't know how to really explain it but I think a band's genius lies in how good its ripoffs are

[k thx 0]

A Night at the Opera is a great album's worth of songs all by itself.

This is not true.

[Annabelle 0]

Queen gargle my balls.

i dont know whats worse

 

your taste in music

 

or

 

your taste in women

 

queen > luko's fat girlfriends

[Copper Feel 0]

If only all comeback posts could speak such undeniable truth.

[The Buzz 0]

They made Princes of the Universe, Bohemian Rhapsody, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, and that right there is genius. To each their own. In all seriousness thought, I think there was an artistic genius to the BAND, not just Freddie. I'm not well versed in Queen's catalogue, but what I've heard of their music has been good stuff.

[Copper Feel 0]

We Will Rock You is a terrible song.

[k thx 0]

queen > luko's fat girlfriends

To be fair, they do make the rockin' world go round.

[luke-o 0]

queen > luko's fat girlfriends

To be fair, they do make the rockin' world go round.

 

Now THAT is genius.

 

Queen have only ever written two good songs. Bohemion Rhapsody (sp?) and, ironically enough, Fat Bottomed Girls. I don't get the hype over them. And don't give me the "catchy songs" argument.

 

Don't Stop me now is awful. Under Pressure is awful. I want to Break Free is awful. We are The Champions is really awful. Queen would be the most overrated band in the world if Metallica didn't exist.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

Thank God for Metallica!

[Ripper 0]

He could sing. Thats...yeah...thats him in a nutshell.

[PLAGIARISM! 0]

Not bad for a shit stabber.

[PUT THAT DICK IN MY MOUTH! 0]

Under Pressure is awful.

 

No.

[Coffin Surfer 0]

The man wrote and composed "Bohemian Rhapsody!" I'm personally indifferent to the song after years of overkill but if that song isn't genius I don't know what the fuck is. "Killer Queen" is another really great inventive pop song he composed that really wasn't like anything else before or sense. He was indeed a gifted vocalist and an even better performer, but his song writing is incredibly overlooked. Genius? Why not.

 

Queen's resume was never the most consistent but there is still plenty of great varied stuff. The Highlander soundtrack rules btw.

[Ripper 0]

Didn't he just write the lyrics? not so much with the composing? Maybe I am wrong...*shrugs*

 

ANd honestly, and don't get me wrong, i love the song, its kinda just 2 songs shoved together to make one with mock opera in the middle to bridge the two. And that part of it he was just following a theme. I don't know if that is as much genius or just doing mock opera because of the name of the album. If that song was randomly in the middle of Sheer Heart Attack then I would have found it one of the greatest things ever(although I still consider it one of the greatest things ever...not really sure what I was going for there....just wanted to be argumentative I guess).

 

 

[Coffin Surfer 0]

"Didn't he just write the lyrics? not so much with the composing? Maybe I am wrong...*shrugs*"

 

He wrote and arranged many of the songs on the piano. The word play of the lyrics are also pretty damn genius on their own.

 

 

 

[Ripper 0]

I personally found the lyrics and structure to be pretty simplistic. People call it genius because they assume Mercury was using the lyrics as a metaphor for something, but since they don't know what it was, its genius.

 

Like, yeah, it would have been awesome lyrics if he was using them as a metaphor for AIDS, but I don't remember him being able to see the future.

[Coffin Surfer 0]

"I personally found the lyrics and structure to be pretty simplistic. People call it genius because they assume Mercury was using the lyrics as a metaphor for something, but since they don't know what it was, its genius."

 

 

Just to clear this up. Mercury did more than the structure and lyrics, he wrote everything from the drums to the guitar solo by most accounts with everything being pieced together by Freddie in the studio.

 

Anyway, I'm not sure how many people actually love the song because of some hidden depth they attach to it. There is alway stupid speculation about lyrics but I'm not sure that's why the song is such an immortal hit. I thought people just liked it cause it was fun and different. News to me. Wasn't sure a song had to be overly complex and deep to be genius either.

[Guest Pizza Hut's Game Face]

I wouldn't think "Bohemian Rhapsody" was that great if people didn't tell me it was. I grew up watching Wayne's World, so of course I have a special place in my heart for the whole thing (everybody does recite "look, it's Phil" and "he does this every Friday" at the right moments, right? right?), but it's not an especially brilliant song. No Queen songs really are. I have special places in my heart reserved for all kinds of songs, like "Valerie" by Steve Winwood, but I don't profess its greatness. Its perceived greatness is just a construct, more than most popular music. Driving to Stan Mikita's Donuts and sporting events. That's Queen in a nutshell, really.

[Coffin Surfer 0]

Well, everyone has their opinion. As I said before I'm not even the biggest fan of the song or even Queen in general, but I'm certainly not going to deny the creativity and uniqueness in some of their music. But I was really just pointing out that Freddie was much more than the voice and face of the band as seemingly implied by many of the posts in this thread. Before bashing the man, at least know who your bashing.

 

 

 

 

[King Kamala 0]

One of the last time I was at FYE, I looked through the Queen CDs and some high school kids snickered at me and made snide comments behind my back. Damn them. I've never teeheed at them for looking at Killers CDs. Damn kids!

 

That's all I have to add to this thread.

[Nighthawk 0]

I also forgot to mention that a guy I know has a Freddie Mercury tattoo on his calf. He meant it in some sort of irony, but it actually just looks gay gay, not funny gay. Which would be fine if he were gay, but he's not.