A Kind of Magic

mike hunt wrote:

are you being sarcastic?.......

No I'm not.  If you're a fan of Freddie's falsetto, which I take it you're not, this song is right up there with Cool Cat.

Micrówave wrote:

mike hunt wrote:

are you being sarcastic?.......

No I'm not.  If you're a fan of Freddie's falsetto, which I take it you're not, this song is right up there with Cool Cat.

Actually I love freddie's falsetto....vocally couldn't agree with you more,  but the music?.....not so great.....Cool cat  vocally is one of his best for sure, and also the music is cool.

mike hunt wrote:

pittrek wrote:

Pure crap. The only good song is Who Wants To Live Forever

now that i disagree with....the album is a bit weak by queen standards but that doesn't make it crap.....the only crap here is you're stupid post.......go listen to that crap band metallica "st anger" the worst album of all time.

Well you really LOVE that album, don't you ? :-)

But honestly, I used to like the 80's albums - in the 80's and early 90's. But after hearing the 70's albums for the first time, I never could like the 80's albums again.

I think it's maybe the worst Queen album (A Kind of Magic).

But I like Pain is so Close to Pleasure. And also Don't Lose Your Head and A Kind of Magic...

queen's greatest work and a sad reminder as a lot of the lyrics point to the fact of freddie knowing he had AIDS already...

andreas_mercury wrote: queen's greatest work and a sad reminder as a lot of the lyrics point to the fact of freddie knowing he had AIDS already...
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What do you mean? Are you talking about A Kind of Magic here or about Innuendo?

It's entirely possible Freddie knew he was ill while recording AKOM.  He certainly knew it during the Magic tour.

Sir GH wrote: It's entirely possible Freddie knew he was ill while recording AKOM.  He certainly knew it during the Magic tour.
He looked fine!

I doubt he knew during recording, but probably suspected it while out on tour.

Peter Freestone claimed that Freddie knew it from 1987, but he probably could at least suspect that he has AIDS. If I recall correctly, some of his former sex partners died on AIDS in the 80's so he could be simply afraid of knowing the truth.

OK, enough speculations

Here's my last "speculation:"

He did not have AIDS in 1986.

of course he had aids in 1986, duh!....he found out he had the virus in 87 and takes years for aids to show up in your system.   I think he got it in the early 80's. About 81 or 82.

Barbara Valentin claimed he had symptoms (a persistent growth/enlargement in his throat/neck  - swollen lymph glands? )  and perhaps even a private test as far back as 1985.  I remember in one biography or another an interviewer recounting meeting Fred for an interview (1985 or 1986? - pre diagnosis anyway)  and being struck from across the room by his healthy, glowing appearance that belied his years - until he approached and noticed Freddies tongue covered by a shockingly thick white coating.  Could have been oral thrush, which is another common early symptom of transitioning from HIV infection to AIDS.  The KS that prompted the diagnosis in '87 is generally a later progression symptom, relatively speaking. Average time between infection and AIDS is about 9 years.  It's my (completely speculative) belief that the 81/82 period people usually assume for infection is too late.  My guess is the late 70's, in America, around the time he was with Joe F (who he probably infected, resulting in Joe's death following relatively soon after Freddie's) and that he became seriously privately worried about his health in the later Munich years and that he knew for sure (whether officially or unofficially) by the Magic Tour.  The psychological burden must have been extreme for some time.  It  really is an amazing part of the story of his life when you realize the pressures, panic and hysteria of those years.

GratefulFan wrote: Barbara Valentin claimed he had symptoms (a persistent growth/enlargement in his throat/neck  - swollen lymph glands? )  and perhaps even a private test as far back as 1985.  I remember in one biography or another an interviewer recounting meeting Fred for an interview (1985 or 1986? - pre diagnosis anyway)  and being struck from across the room by his healthy, glowing appearance that belied his years - until he approached and noticed Freddies tongue covered by a shockingly thick white coating.  Could have been oral thrush, which is another common early symptom of transitioning from HIV infection to AIDS.  The KS that prompted the diagnosis in '87 is generally a later progression symptom, relatively speaking. Average time between infection and AIDS is about 9 years.  It's my (completely speculative) belief that the 81/82 period people usually assume for infection is too late.  My guess is the late 70's, in America, around the time he was with Joe F (who he probably infected, resulting in Joe's death following relatively soon after Freddie's) and that he became seriously privately worried about his health in the later Munich years and that he knew for sure (whether officially or unofficially) by the Magic Tour.  The psychological burden must have been extreme for some time.  It  really is an amazing part of the story of his life when you realize the pressures, panic and hysteria of those years.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMHPebRu4Qk

There's the interview with an "ill" Freddie. The AIDS/thrush theory does make alot of sense, but I just looked it up, and the thrush that accompanies AIDS/HIV, strikes during the intial HIV infection stage. There's no way he could have had AIDS (let alone full-blown AIDS) during 1985!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV#Acute_HIV_infection

Now, those symptoms that you described above completely match "acute HIV infection" (when you first get infected). I'm guessing he got infected with the virus around 1985 and the symptoms (swollen lymph nodes, thrush, etc) he showed during that interview were consistent with it.

The guy was the picture of health during the mid 80s (at least on the outside), leading me to thinking that that he didn't progress to AIDS until the mid/late 80s.

There are a great many sources out there that do a better job than Wikipedia at describing early AIDS symptoms and symptoms at transition from HIV to AIDS, which definitely include persistently swollen lymph glands. The acute stage is short and self contained, and thrush is a less common symptom in that stage.  It's a very common symptom of early AIDS, even according to your Wiki article that states in the AIDS section that Typically, resistance is lost early on to oral Candida species [and to Mycobacterium tuberculosis], which leads to an increased susceptibility to oral candidiasis (thrush)  The 'mushroom' (that's what Freddie and Barbara called the growth in Freddie's throat in 1985) was persistent over time.  There are other 'maybes' that are highly speculative.  An often very subtle symptom of advancing HIV infection is a loss of  lean muscle mass and tone, something I believe you can definitely see from, say, Montreal to Live Aid.  Of course aging along with many lifestyle factors could cause that as well, so that's really just mentioned as a possibility for interest. The vast, vast majority of infected people develop AIDS between 8 and 10 years after initial exposure and appear very healthy to themselves and observers for nearly all of that time.  Infected in 1985?  I don't think so. Beginning to be symptomatic in 1985 after a typical latency period and then diagnosed with an AIDS defining opportunistic infection (Kaposi's Sarcoma in FM's case) by early 1987 makes a great deal more sense.  See the later (8-9 years post infection) and latest (10 or more years post infection) time periods from the Mayo Clinic: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hiv-aids/ds00005/dsection=symptoms

one we can all be certain of, is that he caught AIDS and eventually died