About book Mercury: An Intimate Biography Of Freddie Mercury (2012)
At first I wanted to give it 3 stars for disappointing me and not giving me enough about one of my favorite rock groups. Then I was reminded that this book was NOT a rock biography about Queen, but instead of Freddie Mercury. Duh. The story of Freddie Mercury is one of hubris and tragedy--that recklessness, excess, and pride will eventually destroy the individual. Rock musicians will probably suffer this forever as they have done so for decades already. Rarely do musicians provide such an impact and influence as Freddie Mercury, though. I don't think I have ever run into one person who has never heard of Queen or can't sing or hum one song (usually "We Will Rock You/We are the Champions" or "Bohemian Rhapsody"). That's an amazing legacy of music. His performance at LIVE AID is considered the definitive performance for any musicians at these music shows (or even the Super Bowl) when an artist can only play for about 20 minutes and pack in as many hits as they can and put on an electrifying, albeit brief, show. I have watched this performance more than a few times and am still amazed by it. In fact it has been called by some as the "greatest live performance of all time." Do yourself a favor and find it on YouTube and watch. You might be numbed today to how incredible this is, because we live in an age of rock festivals, tribute concerts and Super Bowl half-time shows. But trust me, in 1985, this was WAY ahead of the curve. It's also this performance that acts as a climax to the book.I was not disappointed in reading this very revealing biography and most definitely a "definitive" story about "The Great Pretender" as Freddie Mercury has been described. Rock and roll is a lonesome and lonely existence for those that make it huge. Self-destructive behavior is as old as not only rock and roll music, but going back further to the musicians that influenced rock and roll from the country western, blues and jazz genres. Something about pressure of celebrity and performing for thousands, and being a driven artist some how creates this behavior. Or perhaps the self-destructiveness is already ingrained within the person and is expressed further with the accessibility of alcohol, drugs, and sex. No biography on Freddie Mercury can confront him if they don't talk about it. He was a personification of decadence and excess. To not discuss this is a lie. One of the tragic things about being a fan of his for so long (and remembering the day when my freshman roommate in college called me from the radio station he worked at to tell me he just read the press release) is that we need to accept our musical "heroes" with all their warts, or we don't accept them at all. Mercury's story is fascinating because he could be so childlike and loving, but suffered from some incredible hardships. While many would simply dismiss him as another person in the 80's that simply wanted to continue his lifestyle of debauchery and sleeping with whomever he wished, I think that is a caricature. And this biography, while it definitely presents plenty of chapters describing this, does indeed tell a larger story of how Mercury was always needing to be affection and to be loved--searching for it in every touch and encounter. Today we would call him a "sex addict" and it would have been out in the open earlier. Back then, discretion was practiced a bit more and acts of intervention by friends and family weren't done as much. The author was incredibly well researched and had definitely spent a LOT of time with Mercury as well as the rest of the band, family and plenty of friends and lovers. She compiled hundreds of thousands of notes and probably tape recordings as well (though musicians are notorious for not wanting to be tape recorded) over the decades. The amount of research was impressive and there were plenty of "hidden gems" of stories and anecdotes, which is one of the things I love about rock bios and memoirs--just those snippets of trivia that help paint a deeper and richer and more colorful picture of the music and musicians themselves.
The first thing I should say about this book is that it is incredibly poorly written and edited. In addition, Freddie Mercury's personal story as painted in the book isn't really that interesting once you get past his status of an outcast from a family of Zoroastrians from Zanzibar. His attitude towards life is mostly unchanged through the book- an embrace of love towards his close friends, but also an embrace of an exceedingly hedonistic rock lifestyle characterized by drugs, booze, and a lot of casual sex. There are whole chapters dedicated to a series of lovers that are supposedly more meaningful than the next, but the author doesn't seek to describe why. Instead of getting at any real motivations for Mercury's behavior, the author just takes for granted that this is the way a rock superstar is supposed to act- even though the other members of Queen largely outgrow this behavior eventually and settle down as family men. One could talk about the complications of homosexual life in the 70s and 80s, but this is largely ignored for the surface glitz and glamour.The more interesting parts of the book are about the history of Queen as a band, and how they combined theatrics, musical creativity, and an incredible business saavy to achieve their success. The embracing of Mercury's over the top gay tendencies and making them palatable for a hard rock audience is in retrospect a very difficult task, yet Queen's footprint has certainly outlived other glam rock stars of the time as a influence on mainstream pop culture. In summary, the book is pretty good for a inside look at Queen the band, but for a serious biography of Freddie Mercury I felt it fell quite short.
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Hmmm...this book was first published in 1997 and seems to have had a new lease of life with a new name and cover?? I could be wrong but I can't see what Lesley-Ann Jones could have discovered about Freddie since her first extensive foray into his life in the late 1990's?Therefore, I must presume that the one everyone has read recently -"Mercury" which was published in 2011 - is a re-hash of this one I've had in my collection for years?!Might be wrong on that though, don't quote me lol!So, just f
—Vix
For those who like Queen, this detailed account of Freddie's life and the group's career answers many questions. The book highlights Freddie's childhood, education, and life as a performer. The group's musical history, and the people associated with them, is an unconventional, exciting story. The band members' relationships, affairs, and personalities are all dissected in the book. It's hard to evaluate the story of Freddie and his band mates. I believe in living life to the Nth degree. Freddie did just that! Still, I'm left feeling sad for Freddie, as well as for those he loved and who loved him.
—Doreen
This book was not as fun as I wanted it to be. I didn’t enjoy it very much. I wanted more grandiose fabulousness. Instead it seemed like a long death march. In every chapter the author reminded you Freddie was going to die. The audiobook had “actors” portraying the voices of different people in Freddie’s life. A lot of the voices conjured images of one eyed hunch backs. This is not who I want to picture in Freddie’s entourage. This seems to be a thing when the actors are British. It’s just a voice in their bag of tricks I guess. The author also seems to be obsessed with Queen’s “Live Aid” performance in 1986. I was tired of hearing about it. There was some fun in the book such as if Freddie wanted someone to find him “rent boys” or “taxi boys” he had a guy for that. There were also some of Freddie’s demands like “Get me more coke, Dahling!” But there was not enough of this to make up for the sadness though.
—Kelly
