Posted on 11/25/2011 7:34:02 PM PST by Recovering_Democrat
Freddie Mercury died 20 years ago today. The Queen singer and songwriter had been secretly battling AIDS for four years, announcing that he had contracted the disease on Nov. 23, 1991, one day before he passed away of AIDS-related bronchopneumonia. He was 45.
Known for his wide vocal range and unparalleled showmanship, the Zanzibar-born Mercury (nee Farrokh Bulsara) also wrote many of Queen’s biggest hits including the six-minute-long rock opus "Bohemian Rhapsody,” sports anthems "We Are the Champions" and “We Will Rock You” and throwback "Crazy Little Thing Called Love.”
(Excerpt) Read more at hollywoodreporter.com ...
But seriously, how could anyone not know George was a flamer after the first time they saw that Wham! "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go" video?
It’s strange but it’s true...
Freddie was constantly shoving his sexuality in our faces. But we 80’s kids forgave him that and loved his music on it’s own merits.
The stuff he did when he knew he was dying is his most awesome work. He deserves to0 be remembered for that.
He was probably the best of his time. 20 years. I am getting old.
How many threads to we need commemorating homosexual zoroastrian crooner, Farrokh Bulsara?
Apparently he was molested as a teenager, goes a long way to explaining why he turned out the way he did.
Indeed. Have made the same comment several times in conversations about music of the era. I remember girls at my school vehemently denied George m was gay. “look, look! He puts supermodels in his videos!”
I linked his "Somebody to Love" cover from the Mercury tribute upthread. He does the song justice.
Farrokh Bulsara? Who knew? Far out Farrokh. Fag Rock!
Queen is one of my all time favorite bands. Freddy Mercury was one talented man. Too bad he was unable to contain his sexual urges.
Saw them twice in concert. Once right after their first album came out. I think they opened for Mott the Hoople.
Then again on the News of the World tour as the headline.
Both shows FABULOUS!
That’s why he brought in Brooke Shields for damage control.
It didn’t work.
One thing I can say...I was fortunate enough to see him and Queen in concert back in the 70’s and 80’s approximately a dozen times.
I was acquainted with a very quiet, kind man when I was younger, who sang backup for some very well-known artists, Chaka Khan and many others. He contracted AIDS back when it was a fairly rapid death sentence and cause for complete social ostracism. I didn’t really know he was gay at the time, but should have suspected, he wasn’t exactly effeminate but he was empathetic and soft.
His singing was his existence, really, outside of that apparent sexual compulsion, that I knew nothing of until afterward. AIDS took his voice first, some sort of paralysis of the vocal chords, it began as almost a stutter but progressed to not being able to speak at all, quite a few motor function disabilities followed in the wake of that.
The last time I saw him, he had turned into an ashen, wooden figure, hollowed out with empty eyes. He didn’t seem to be in there anymore, and it was if his ravaged body had been taken over by something alien. Not long after that, he left here as his immediate family wanted nothing to do with him in that state, they were afraid of the disease and uncomfortable being associated with it or with him. This was back in the late eighties, when AIDS was a very rapid death sentence, and in fact it was, all this occurred over about a years’ time.
A very fundamentalist Christian aunt in Houston paid to fly him down there, and she cared for him and ministered to him until he died in bed, in her home. She wanted to get him right with God and to save his soul. I didn’t really understand at the time but I do now, having found or actually returned to God myself, and I hope she succeeded.
He was an exceedingly kindhearted and gentle person with a beautiful voice. It’s a pity that such carnality took him over and destroyed him, but that’s what it did. Utterly destroyed him, took away everything he ever valued in life in as cruel and embarassing manner as possible, reduced him to a hollow stick figure, made him dependent as a baby while simultanteously making him an outcast.
It’s a very grave sin that provokes such a punishment, imho.
RIP Freddie Mercury.
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