His years of touring experience provided him with an arsenal of stagecraft prowess: strutting, holding poses, dressed in his glam rock style, with white spandex.Īudiences adored his showmanship and flamboyance.
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Twelve minutes into the footage, Mercury slowly struts to the piano and improvises a segue into Somebody to Love in a gospel style with a call and response with the audience. When the entire crowd of 72,000 joins Mercury in beating out the rhythm to We Will Rock You, it is electrifying.įurther evidence of Mercury’s masterful stagecraft can be found in a bootleg video of Queen performing in Sydney in 1985. Mercury and band were in stellar form, having just completed a world tour for their album The Works, recorded in 1984. Queen’s appearance at the historic Live Aid Concert at London’s Wembley Stadium in July 1985 remains one of the greatest rock performances of all time. Mercury solos again at the end of the song with a loose vocal reference to Duke Ellington’s It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing). It is a driving, high spirited and fearless vocal solo. Here, he employs scat singing and the opening syncopated repetition of a single note hints at Ella Fitzgerald’s influence. Mercury demonstrated his versatility, genre crossing and creative exploration on the 1985 song Living On My Own. His vocal timbre could depict a delicate vulnerability, especially with his falsetto, or use dynamic extremes to accentuate lyrics with screams and growls. Strong musicianship, excellent pitch and vocal control enabled Mercury to draw on a broad array of note choices, dynamics, tone colours and vocal effects. A lyric rock tenor with over three octaves in range, Mercury could belt into his upper register with his signature fast vibrato, or use a controlled pure falsetto with smooth legato phrasing. Technically masterful, Mercury possessed a voice that was powerful, agile, and highly expressive. The song, which topped the British charts for almost nine weeks, was described by Mercury as a “ mock opera”. This six-minute epic is unrivalled in complexity of form, lavish production, vocal layering and the sheer number of choral overdubs. In 1975’s Bohemian Rhapsody, perhaps Queen’s most famous song, Mercury took genre crossing to a new level. He gives us just a hint of his vocal range in the bridge, on the lyrics “she gives me hot and cold fever” where Mercury effortlessly uses an octave yodel. In the song, Mercury subtly models aspects of Presley’s vocal tone and rockabilly styling in the catchy chorus. Mercury’s 1979 composition Crazy Little Thing Called Love pays homage to Elvis Presley. He wrote songs with poetic and heartfelt lyrics, witty metaphors and memorable melodies, with Queen drawing influences from The Everly Brothers, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and the Beach Boys. The composerĪs a composer, Mercury drew on an eclectic range of genres. He fearlessly pushed artistic boundaries, believing in the spontaneity of live performance: every show was different.
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A prolific songwriter, arranger and music producer, a consummate theatrical entertainer and one of the 20th century’s best-known lead singers, Mercury fronted Queen from 1970 until his death in 1991.Īrtistically, he challenged many of the prevailing pop and rock parameters, willing to take musical risks and happy not to be part of the mainstream. The style of the song was described by author Karl Coryat as rockabilly in his 1999 book titled The Bass Player Book.Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara in 1946) died on this day 30 years ago.
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The song was played live on 20 April 1992 during The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, performed by Robert Plant with Queen. Since its release, the song has been covered by a number of artists. Queen played the song live between 19, and a live performance of the song is recorded in the albums Queen Rock Montreal, Queen on Fire – Live at the Bowl, Live at Wembley '86 and Hungarian Rhapsody: Queen Live in Budapest. Having composed "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" on guitar, Mercury played rhythm guitar while performing the song live, which was the first time he played guitar in concert with Queen. It topped the Australian ARIA Charts for seven weeks. The song peaked at number two in the UK Singles Chart in 1979, and became the group's first number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US in 1980, remaining there for four consecutive weeks. Written by Freddie Mercury in 1979, the track is included on their 1980 album The Game, and also appears on the band's compilation album, Greatest Hits in 1981. "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" is a song by the British rock band Queen.