What did they read?

Freddie read poetry. ( Such as Robert Browning's "Pied Piper of Hamelin").


241 ``Joining the town and just at hand,
242 ``Where waters gushed and fruit-trees grew,
243 ``And flowers put forth a fairer hue,
244 ``And everything was strange and new;
245 ``The sparrows were brighter than peacocks here,
246 ``And their dogs outran our fallow deer,
247 ``And honey-bees had lost their stings,
248 ``And horses were born with eagles' wings;
249 ``And just as I became assured
250 ``My lame foot would be speedily cured,
251 ``The music stopped and I stood still,
252 ``And found myself outside the hill,
253 ``Left alone against my will,
254 ``To go now limping as before,
255 ``And never hear of that country more!''

Ha ha. I remember plundering through my mother's copy of Kerouac's 'On the Road' when I was about 13 or 14. As I recall, that and 'All the President's Men' were the beginning and end of my teenaged intellectualism. I pretty much stuck with Stephen King after that until I was 18 or so.

Talking about Brian's teenage intellectualism, his Wiki page says he named his first high school rock band after Orwell’s 1984 :)

[QUOTE] [b]GratefulFan wrote:[/b] his time was too precious, in his terms, to be spent reading when you could get the answer to your questions a lot easier by asking someone. [/QUOTE] So he refused to listen to anyone outside of his little circle. He was his own worst enemy, and one could easily argue that this attitude of "not giving a fuck" is what ultimately took him. This definitely wasn't Freddie in 1974. This is Freddie in 1984. I'd really like to think this was just a front and that the inquisitive nature of his youth was still in there somewhere. Only he knew..

[QUOTE] [b]Zaza Gabor wrote:[/b]

Talking about Brian's teenage intellectualism, his Wiki page says he named his first high school rock band after Orwell’s 1984 :)[/QUOTE]
More places say that than just his Wiki page, but that is correct.

[QUOTE] [b]waunakonor wrote:[/b]
More places say that than just his Wiki page, but that is correct.[/QUOTE]

Good for his Wiki page XD

[QUOTE] [b]The Real Wizard wrote:[/b]
I'd really like to think this was just a front and that the inquisitive nature of his youth was still in there somewhere. Only he knew..[/QUOTE]

I'd rather like to know what Brian has said about it. Peter Freestone himself is no intellectual shine to judge, you know, but Brian !! Pretty much a monster prodigy, at least this thread makes him look like one :D

Its good to know that Brian read Hesse...

I've read a few; notably Demian and Siddharta, but never read Steppenwolf.

I hear ya "Real Wizard" ... Some snobbish cocaine induced party all the time kind of thoughtlessness may have pervaded.

I was kinda joking having mentioned"Page 3"

God, I hope page 3 is still around.

Other notable stuff; Roger was noted as remembering the artwork from sci fi mag "Amazing ----" featuring frank Kelly Freas' work which was redone for NOTW.
ALSO: Fun in Space features a sci fi mag.


I would guess that Freddie read mythologies and biographies (stars etc)...
Plus some basic astrology.

Maybe this is something to ask Brian on his soapbox.

[QUOTE] [b]The Real Wizard wrote:[/b]

[QUOTE] [b]matt z wrote:[/b]

Freddie is quoted in an interview stating that books are a waste of time

[/QUOTE]

That was in the 80s when he became a giant ignoramus. The quality of his work largely went to the shitter, as most of his songs had the same subject matter.

In the 70s he was a very cultured person and no doubt he read plenty, which led to an output of a wide variety of songs.
[/QUOTE]

Silly ASS I am...


You know...I had never given it that consideration until now, BUT. (Big butt)

The notion that a man might THINK of his work and what the public would think, was ENTIRELY lost on me until I considered your statements.


That's probably very naturally HONEST.

And what a shame it didn't amount to enough.


MIH: was a triumph, .... Considering

[QUOTE] [b]matt z wrote:[/b]
.
Maybe this is something to ask Brian on his soapbox.
[/QUOTE]

This is the awesomest idea! Who'll do it?

I just wonder, shall it be mentioned some fans'd like to know if Freddie brought any catalogues for his bandmates?
Ok I'm kidding LOL

Though obviously intelligent in many ways, none of them come across as being particularly literary in areas that might have helped improve and add depth to some of the lyrics. Its almost as though whatever they did read during their formal education years saw them through the 70s but the lyrics became more trite in the 80s as they had no deep interest in developing as writers.

[QUOTE] [b]GratefulFan wrote:[/b] I'm sure there are several examples, particularly with Brian, but I recall specifically the song White Queen from the album Queen II being inspired by Robert Graves' The White Goddess. Brian also cites the work as a primary reason for embracing Freddie's suggestion of 'Queen' for the band name. His 2004 quote follows: "White Queen" - back in time again - I wrote this at College, where I led a relatively sheltered life, even though the University on the whole was a pretty rampant pace! I had been reading "The White Goddess" by Robert Graves, which explored the role of the idealised Virgin/Mother/Queen/ figure in art through history, and the name for our group, decided just around that time, fitted in with this perfectly - which was one of the reasons I was convinced to go with the name. The personal side is bound up with a girl (of course!) whom I saw every day at College, and was to me the ultimate goddess. It's incredible in retrospect, but because I held her in such awe, in three years I never had the courage to speak to tell her, or even speak to her. The song found its way on to tape much later, on our second album." The Graves book he cited is built around imagery and symbolism relating to the phases of the moon and a three faced moon goddess. [/QUOTE] Wow, thanks for posting this. I'd never heard him go into such great detail about the song so I find it very interesting. [QUOTE] [b]jones904 wrote:[/b] Freddie like Einstien was more of a thinker and creator than a follower of other pepples ideas[/QUOTE] Don't you think that's giving him a bit much credit for simply not being interested in books?

[QUOTE] [b]Zaza Gabor wrote:[/b]

Talking about Brian's teenage intellectualism, his Wiki page says he named his first high school rock band after Orwell’s 1984 :)[/QUOTE]

Okay I now remember I also read 1984 in my teens. And a whole slew of sci-fi stuff. I'm probably wildly shortchanging my own history as my face was always jammed in some book or other and they can't ALL have been Stephen King. I think that is one of the reasons I was drawn to this thread. Despite being a prolific reader who did everything I could to foster a love of reading in my own child I also have a teenager who simply does not engage with books. Over the years I've learned to understand it, though I've never learned not to regret it for his sake. Like Freddie and so many other bright people he simply can't pull together the particular kind of focus and stillness you need for reading. Despite this he is a bright and inquisitive person with a love of knowledge and so it's been an education for me learning to jettison some of my past assumptions about reading and people who didn't do much of it.

[QUOTE] [b]AlbaNo1 wrote:[/b]
Though obviously intelligent in many ways, none of them come across as being particularly literary in areas that might have helped improve and add depth to some of the lyrics. Its almost as though whatever they did read during their formal education years saw them through the 70s but the lyrics became more trite in the 80s as they had no deep interest in developing as writers.
[/QUOTE]

This is what happens to most of the adults. It only proves how important this personality development phase is. What I read during my years of formal education is seeing me through the rest of my life in which, I have to admit, my intellectual ambitions hardly rise above a copy of Stephen King or, well, Dan Brown XD so it would be a bit hypocritical to expect professional musicians to be different.

[QUOTE] [b]GratefulFan wrote:[/b]
Okay I now remember I also read 1984 in my teens. And a whole slew of sci-fi stuff. I'm probably wildly shortchanging my own history as my face was always jammed in some book or other and they can't ALL have been Stephen King. I think that is one of the reasons I was drawn to this thread. Despite being a prolific reader who did everything I could to foster a love of reading in my own child I also have a teenager who simply does not engage with books. Over the years I've learned to understand it, though I've never learned not to regret it for his sake. Like Freddie and so many other bright people he simply can't pull together the particular kind of focus and stillness you need for reading. Despite this he is a bright and inquisitive person with a love of knowledge and so it's been an education for me learning to jettison some of my past assumptions about reading and people who didn't do much of it.
[/QUOTE]

I’m not complaining, there are many reasons why I’m grateful for my kid being the way he is. However, there are at least five or hopefully more (I know everybody complains how useless those college degrees are but show me an employer who wants to see a CV without one) years of formal education ahead of him and I won’t lie that I’m not scared because I am. The chances to learn and discover things he has today may never be here again.
That’s true I’m relieved my kid isn’t like Brian. I mean, the type who leads a sheltered life in a college worshipping the most intellectual stuff of Herman Hesse and considering pretty girl a goddess instead of taking her to a party. By God, why did they say Freddie was the one with his nuts loose? This case sounds much worse.
At the same time, if I think that Freddie made all the way from Beatrix Potter to Mr. Bad Boy in the 80ties just asking wrong people and getting bad answers, I don’t want that happen to my child. There should be some independence in thinking and the comparison of different sources of information, books being one of them, probably helps.
I guess for me, it’s very much like that college thing: happiness doesn’t lie in books but I’m afraid not reading them is even worse alternative XD

3 little words: "The Invisible Man". :-)