Funny, that song was the only Queen song i ever included in my solo act repertoire, and is one of my favorites. The words became even more poignant to me after my sister died. We always rode the roller coaster together, even after we were too big and fat to fit comfortably anymore :-). We came from Asbury Park, which used to be famous for it's boardwalk and rides.
I have mixed feelings lately about the color footage that was put in the documentary. It almost feels like snuff...that may stem from my recent anger at Brian and Roger for axing SBC from the movie project, I'm starting to see them as vultures with Freddie's legacy now.
And i wish the hand movement mentioned above was included in the official video instead of Brian's face being the last image i have to see. He used it a lot, but that last time it almost seems as if he's grabbing me by the heart and taking me with him.
As many have said, he was very brave and also very proud. I read over and over that he rarely if ever denied his fans an autograph or picture if asked, he realized it was the fans worldwide who made Queen number one. This video is obviously a very sweet goodbye to his fans. I don't think he intended it to be sad but rather to show his fans how much he loved his craft and them, right until the end, his passion for both. As Bluesqueen stated...Freddie was very adept at grabbing his audience by the heart, every single one no matter how large the audience and taking us along with.
This documentary was the catalyst for the movie plot.
I think there was a deliberate intention to hype up the Live Aid event in the bands career path just to set up the canvas for the upcoming, then movie.
I see many sheep commenting on YT about the movie and telling enthusiastically how Live Aid made wonders for this band who was almost on the brink of dissolution for many reasons, (mind you one reason in the documentary "Sun City" being left out of the movie and thus gone from the attention of the general public) yet thru that 20min performance, which by itself was so hard and difficult to come to fruition, everybody in the world rediscovered them and made the carry on with new strength - "the best live musical performance", granted this is another hyped up story made up by others which only emphasizes, the earlier story.
And I come to think this story which doesn't really add up in full, if you follow the trail of true events, dates and facts, originates only from this damn documentary.
And it settled in all our minds fans or just bystanders that this is the truth and these are most important events, just because it is narrated by Brian and Roger.
However there is a hard stench of "screenplay" drama in this official documentary...
came home on a monday afternoon, the newspaper said that Freddie was gone....couldnt believe it..even when it was hot news on the journals.
Midnight around 2400....a Dutch programm broadcasted as a tribute the video.
That was the moment i realized it was true...
didnt' sleep that night and the night after that and the night after that...and i cried, cried...cried....
id have 6 tiks for the memorial gig....didnt go..to emotional....
couldn't even listen to Queen music for many years...never heard Made in Heaven record either..still in i'ts cellophane.....
Freddie died the day after my brother died -- of the same complications from the same disease.
I was handling myself OK until I saw that doco. I was keeping it together to get my parents through, etc. But somehow seeing the Axl Rose doco and the video of Freddie saying goodbye broke me completely. I'd shed tears, but that BBC show was gut-wrenching and it just broke me down completely. I stayed in bed for a day or two afterward and took time off of work that week. I'm in my late 50s now. It's like being sucked right back in time seeing that video. My throat instantly tightens and I essentially lose it. I've not watched it in probably at least a decade.
I can never separate these things. I know I was/am mourning my brother - who also adored Queen and went with me to some shows through the years. But it was the distance of seeing it all happening on screen that caught me unguarded enough. I dunno - I still can't get over how I'd stayed so buttoned up until seeing that doco. It still just kills me.
I'd been quite lucky to have seen almost all of the '86 tour. Freddie was in wobbly voice at times but it was a fantastic tour. They'd been putting out music. I'd heard rumors and seen horrible tabloid stories, but they were always saying everyone was dying, so I didn't much think it was real. I only briefly questioned whether some rumor might be true when they didn't tour The Miracle, but I couldn't make the Freddie Mercury I'd seen fit into the "sick" category. So I dismissed it, then years later I remembered dismissing it and I was pissed at myself for not somehow knowing all of this beforehand.
Freddie was so vital, and honestly so brave to be recording and putting himself out there. In the early 90s, people dying of AIDS usually said they'd died of something else. So it was very brave of him to tell the truth and get some worldwide recognition for a disease that had been ignored and shunned for so long.
I was hoping some of the BH movie money would go to the MPT. I don't know if it is or not, but I doubt it. Anyway, this is a sad remembrance. I hardly remember the actual documentary. I've got a VHS copy somewhere, so maybe I'll watch it again and have another breakdown all these years later...
I’m interested in learning about the record company’s reactions to Queen’s last two music videos with Freddie.
[QUOTE] [b]MisterCosmicc wrote:[/b]
I’m interested in learning about the record company’s reactions to Queen’s last two music videos with Freddie.[/QUOTE]
I don't think we will ever find out.
MisterCosmicc, re:
>I’m interested in learning about the record company’s reactions to Queen’s last two music videos with Freddie.
I'm sure the sounds of the cash registers ringing and the press coverage Freddie's death received will give you a good idea of what they thought about them........
As for the TATDOOL video, it's an incredibly wonderful, brave, personal statement from Freddie (Brian's bits being filmed separately and then cut in from what I recall), but B&W film never suited Queen because of their ability to project such incredible colour through their performances. It does them no favours here other than to cover Freddie's make-up. Was it filmed in colour and then processed in to B&W? Was that what Freddie WANTED (B&W) given that he'd made such an effort with the elaborate waistcoat or was it something that DoRo did after the event to make him look less dishevelled (which, funnily enough, it fails to do)?
In one of the recent books - either Somebody to Love or the latest Leslie-Ann Jones book - the president of Hollywood Records arranges to have a meeting with Freddie. He'd heard the rumors and wanted to at least meet the man for himself. I think they had a quiet lunch together, in what, 1990? They knew what was happening but still believed in the band and played a key role in their early 90s revival. That's when I became a fan. So thanks for that.
[QUOTE] [b]DrowsingOnASundayAfernoon wrote:[/b]
They knew what was happening but still believed in the band and played a key role in their early 90s revival.
[/QUOTE]
this is some ignorant shit here, MJ style
Well, as far as I've ever heard or read, Freddie wanted those albums out (the two early 90s albums. He'd recorded them and asked specifically for them to be released. It's discussed in lots of places, but I've not heard anyone say anything other than he recorded those bits for the band to release after his death. He wanted to work until the end, and he pretty much did. So I'm glad the record company helped promote those records and the video. The covers have no band photos, but they are the full foursome. It seems right for the company to back them fully. Fans were in shock and people wanted the albums.; Innuendo is a pretty stellar album. It stands up to others. Even Made in Heaven, while probably as bad as anything they'd ever done, was still Freddie singing (gloriously at moments) and he'd apparently asked them to do what they could with the material. Obviously, Made in Heaven would be a much better album if Freddie had been around, but this is what they could do with the pre-recorded vocals he did.
Innuendo was the last one he had real input arrangement-wise etc, but no matter what, to me at least - it seems right for those final albums and the video to be fully backed and promoted if for no other reason than Freddie made these things for release, as far as I know. Freddie was a performer, and he knew he was dying and wouldn't see the release of all of it, but as far as I've ever heard, he worked on those albums and the video and wanted them out.
Whole different story for all the things that keep turning up these days, though. I'm torn about things that they held back for a reason coming out now. This happens with so many artists after they pass, and it's just a creepy feeling. I want to stay complete, but buying it feels very dirty. I didn't feel at all dirty about the final two Queen albums or buying the videos.
I believe the final video was meant to come out in B&W to try and camouflage some of his health issues. Don't have a source handy for that though. Anyone know if I've got that wrong?
The B&W thing also explains the IGSM clip.
I'm sure we would've seen it by now, but I wonder if any more video was shot with the same principle to use after his death?
They sort of caved in in those last years. A few interviews, no performances, and questions were asked and the press were all over Freddie.
Brian and Roger did a bit of publicity work and avoided awkward questions.
But Freddie kept working as long as he could and I believe he did it to keep having a goal in life, and he did it for the band and his fans.
After recording Innuendo, Freddie did some more recording work (but not much) and recorded the Headlong (december 1990) and IGSM (februari 1991) videos.
TATDOOL was recorded last (may 91) and i do believe that it was meant to be released after his death, as his farewell to his fans.
It was a very, very brave decision to record that video.
No more recordings were made after may '91.
Greatest Hits 2 was released in oktober 1991 and the CD-book had a picture of Freddie from the TATDOOL set in it.
When I saw that picture, about a month before he died, I knew the rumours were true and it would soon be over.
When I saw video " I'm Going Slightly Mad" I knew that something is very bad going on and I'm wasn't surprised when I saw "These Are The Days Of Our Lives" for the first time.
ANAGRAMER's post was 7 years ago now, but how fascinating.
It is difficult now to imagine you could love a band for 8 years and have never once heard the members speak outside of a concert situation. Nor is it possible to imagine how so many other things differed then - from attitudes to exposure. There isn't the same possibility of the mystique of fame in this day and age... or the mystery of any thing I guess in quite the way there once was.
I'm sure many of us know what it is to live with someone who is dying though and that awful combination of feelings when the person is someone you deeply love, where you cannot believe the truth of it even when the moment comes, even though you may watch and be with that person in such extreme pain, and so different in terms of who they once were and what they once could do, at the same time, there will surely for everyone have been moments when you wished for an end for the person - to their own suffering if it was never going to get any better than this for them, and to your own.
I think it is only human to not want to see death and to hope, hope, hope for the best and that everything is or will be ok.
Well, I first heard Freddie and Queen on the track "Made in Heaven" as a child & thought "Whose voice is THAT!?!" So obviously when I discovered who Freddie was, he was already gone. Death was I suppose very much involved in how I discovered Freddie.
Does anyone else find the advance editor doesn't work for them on here? Well in any case, I am going to try to do a quote, but it is likely wrong how I am going to try to do it, thus my apologies as I don't think you can edit posts here either?
[quote]And his vocals on Innuendo were so strong that it was hard to believe anything was really wrong despite Freddie's appearance on video (particularly Headlong) - to my mind he just didn't look 'right' and his weight-loss was apparent. Some of us thought that it was simply a case of getting older...
Imagine a family member getting ill - you don't really notice the increments of change
When the announcement was made in November 1991, it was a complete shock (to an avid fan) - I think most of us had no idea that it was as serious as it became
If only we had known, I'm sure fans would have supported Freddie, prayed for him and let him know how much we loved him [/quote]
This part especially broke my heart. You're probably not still on here, ANAGRAMER but in case you are, thank you for sharing this with us all.
I notice, watching videos of Freddie nowadays how often Freddie speaks of being old or older, even when he was still in his 30's. I don't know why I typed that. I don't know what I think about it, but I do notice it.
