A new biography of Queen narrates a long list of episodes about the life of both the singer and the group.
That Freddie Mercury was a complex character is well known, but a new and particular biography of Queen tells a long list of episodes about the life of both the singer and the group that make it clear who the charismatic leader of the group loved and despised.
Between the relationships of the artist who dissects Magnifico: The A to Z of Queen, fruit of the extensive knowledge and numerous interviews of the journalist Mark Blake, are the close friendship with Monserrat Caballé, the frustrated relationship with Michael Jackson, the fierce competition with David Bowie or the initial tension with Sex Pistols.
“He was a huge fan of opera, and he had gone to see it in London, in Covent Garden.”, count to Efe Blake on Mercury’s admiration for Caballe.
“(Mercury) never focused solely on rock music or pop music. He had a whole series of strange influences “, adds the author of the book, which goes on sale on November 11, in the same month that marks the 30th anniversary of the artist’s death.
The chapter on the Barcelona soprano details the first meeting between Mercury and Caballe in a private room at the Ritz Hotel in Barcelona, in which the Briton admitted that he was so intimidated that “he did not know how to treat her.”
It was that meeting, in which the Spanish mistakenly interpreted that Mercury had made a song for her, which finally led to the composition by the leader of Queen and his collaborator, Mike Moran, from Barcelona, the song that opened the Olympic Games in 1992.
“They invented it as they were composing”, Blake asserts about the completely improvised character of the creation by Mercury and Moran of both Barcelona as of the complete album of the same name that the British and the Spanish ended up recording together in 1987.
Among Blake’s most frequent sources for writing this book, which at the moment is not expected to be published in Spanish, is Queen’s guitar, Brian May, and the drummer, Roger Taylor, whom he has interviewed numerous times in the last 30 years. “There is a lot of material that I had not used before”, aim.
On his relationship with another of the greats of music, Michael Jackson, the book exposes a series of facts that drop that, although he initially got on well with the king of pop and there was mutual admiration for years, the relationship ended up cooling.
Blake recalls that, in 1983, Jackson invited Mercury to record a series of songs at his ranch in Encino (California, USA), although the songs were never completed, because the British had to return to London.
In fact, two of the songs in which Mercury had participated for the album Victory Jackson 5’s were eventually released with Mick Jagger’s voice, not his own, something that, according to May, angered the Queen singer.
In 1987, when Jackson released his album Bad (Bad), Mercury proposed: “We should title our next album ‘Good’.”
Bowie comes off somewhat better than Jackson in the book, which underlines the clear competition between the members of Queen and the head of Heroes, who, for example, narrowly beat them with an innovative feminine outfit on stage.
The rivalry for more than a decade, however, led to success in 1981 Under Preassure, which brought fresh air to both Queen and Bowie’s careers.
Of the Sex Pistols, the work highlights the initial tension between both groups, diametrically opposed, when they met in the same London recording studio in the summer of 1977.
“We looked at each other suspiciously at first, but they were down to earth kids.”, the Queen drummer told Blake. “Except (bass) Sid Vicious. He was a total chump, ”she added.
Although Blake has a long and varied list of sources, he admits that he did not even speak to the bass of the group, John Deacon, nor with the one who was Mercury’s wife, Mary Austin, considered an essential figure in his life who became his close friend when the singer admitted he was gay.
Both, he assures, are very far from the spotlight and “make their own lives”, without wanting to speak to the media. (I)
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
