Zander05 wrote:
Crisstti wrote:
I get the impression it might have caused some problems.
- I'm pretty sure Brian is not all that open minded about it. He made a comment on his soapbox about Jim's book or about the Freddie's Loves documentary (or about both), I think answering to comments someone sent him about it, that sounded to me more than a little homophobic. So, considering that, I find it quite probable that they had some problems about that.
- It seems pretty clear to me that by the late 70's, eary 80's they were having some problems. That was exactly the time when Freddie came out and had boyfriends and was living a pretty promiscuous lifstyle.
- Brian dislikes Don't Stop me Now, which has clear gay references (and consider Freddie's jacket in the video).
- Brian said in an interview how he "had a go" at Freddie for the lyrics of Body Language, because they were too clearly gay, and therefore didn't represent all of them, saying he tried to write songs in a way in which they didn't clearly refer to a waman so that Freddie could feel them when singing them as well (I'm not reading the interview now so it's by memory).
Them having stayed together doesn't mean the others didn't care about Freddie's sexuality. Just that they didn't care that much, or just dealt with it.
I'd like to preface this by saying I don't know Brian May. And it would be presumptuous of me to think that he isn't capable of being squicked out by "the gay" as loads of straight men are prone to do from time to time. I'd imagine in general, he doesn't give a damn one way or the other what someone's sexual orientation is, but still - he's human.
- I haven't read Brian's comments on the book or documentary. I'm as queer as a three dollar bill but even I didn't like them because they were invading Freddie's privacy. I love his singing, but I don't need to know what he did in bed and who he did it with! If that happened to be his opinion too, that wouldn't be the least bit homophobic - more like "I don't need to know details of my colleague's sex life!"
- What problems might there have been specifically? Can you give an example... a real one, and not a mere speculation? (I'm trying to be harsh here, I swear!)
- Okay, Freddie wore leather back in the day. So what? I'm so sick of the stereotype that leather is something only gay men are into wearing (or doing, if you consider the word "leather" a euphemism for kink/BDSM)! And maybe Brian doesn't like Don't Stop Me Now because he just doesn't like it? Feel free to post a link or something if there's an interview where Brian says something along the lines of, "I didn't like the song Don't Stop Me Now because it's so blatantly gay and I'm so uber heterosexual and now people are totally going to think I like guys omg!!!" Not every member of Queen liked each other's work.
- I don't really like Body Language either, but it got on the album anyway. Sort of like how Gimme The Prize got on the A Kind Of Magic album (I'm not being petty, I really dislike that song... with the exception of the opening solo).
I'd like to say I'm not trying to badmouth Brian. I love him, 'cause he loves animals and is a vegetarian and he certainly seems like a lovely person. And I love his music as well.
But I do get the impression that he had some issues with Freddie being (so overtly) gay. I'm not saying that much of an issue, anyway.
- Brian's comments are here somewhere in this forum. Someone posted them. I don't think you can find them on his website because they're from some years ago and you can only find there staff from a pair of years ago or something.
But will try to find the post here.
I guess Brian's comments could be read as him being upset about invation of Freddie's privacy, but it was not really the impression I got.
I actually don't have a problem with Jim's book, I don't think it goes into too much detail about anything... though I haven't read the ending of it. The documentary doesn't bother me either, though I guess I can see why it would bother other people.
In any case, if anything about Freddie's private life would be offensive, what could be said about a biography or a movie about him?.
- Since I began to read about them, and read interviews and all, I got the impression theyw eren't as close around that time as before. Am I the only to think that...?.
One example I can think of now, is Freddie saying in an interview (from 1984 I think) answering a question about what did each of them do in the band, and he says something about each of them, and then says that they leave the wardrove to him, and the adds "and writing the hits". The interviewer laughs and he says "it's true". Now, that is indeed mainly true, but it seems like a rude thing to say... Also, in some interview from (I believe) 1980, in Argentina, they ask him why he seems to be more on his own and not hang out with the other band members, and he answers something like "we're a band, not a family".
Will try to think of some other example (or to find links to these ones...).
- Hey, I'm not talking about leather :). I'm talking about the T-shirt he wore in that video, which has the logo of a gay sex club of the time... Manschaft maybe?, will try to look it up (I notice I said jacket instead of T shirt, by bad. Consider that my fiirst language isn't English :)).
No, Brian hasn't said why he doesn't like Don't Stop me Now (as far as I know).
- Brian said he didn't like that the lyrics of Body Language were so overtly gay (he called it a gay ode or something similar), and that he had a go at Freddie because of that. I think from that alone one can assume he wasn't all that comfortable about Freddie being gay, and infer that maybe some of the above isses had to do with it.
I know it's speculative.
I'll try to find the interview, but I might not have time today.
