Lyrically, What Went Wrong For Freddie in the 80's?

As they became more an 80s-mold rock band songs about love or pining for it didn't really fit.

[QUOTE] [b]aion wrote:[/b]

He became lazy when the band reached great success... it's not that he wasn't able anymore, but he just couldn't be bothered to go through the trouble and work hard on the lyrics when he was swimming in money and drugs and easy life.

By comparison in the early 70s he was young and hungry and had everything to prove.[/QUOTE]


I think so too.
Also, as someone said, disco-music doesn't "need" great lyrics.

[quote]
Why did Freddie stop painting his nails?

He grew up, he said it him self.

Lyrically what happened? He grew up. [/quote]

I don't think writing shitty lyrics constitutes growing up, in fact i think it's the opposite.

well, in the 80's, he wrote it's a hard life, life is real, good part of the song the miracle, the album barcelona, the 70's was his great moment, but the 80's are good moments too

I'd say his lifestyle of excess is the main (only?) reason. Touring with the band was one thing, but Mercury didn't stop when the tour stopped. By 1978 it all got to his head and he was changing dramatically. Brian May even says in retrospect that they saw the dangers of where Freddie was going in his lyrics to Don't Stop Me Now.

Read the March 2005 issue of Uncut if you want to read the tour stories. Zeppelin paved the way, the Queen out-partied them tenfold if half of the stories are true. And if 1/4 of the stories are true, it's astounding that Mercury lived until 1991 as he could've easily been infected in the 70s.

His work greatly suffered in the 80s. Only he can know if he was truly happy with his work, and if comments like "my music is disposable" is something he truly believed.

Bob, do you have a copy of the article(s) you could share?

I think he struggled in the 70s with his sexuality and that caused a lot of emotional turmoil, which then became heartfelt lyrics. Once he started to become more comfortable with himself, some of that that heartache/inner struggle subsided and that inspiration may not have been there.

[QUOTE] [b]Poppingjay wrote:[/b]

I think he struggled in the 70s with his sexuality and that caused a lot of emotional turmoil, which then became heartfelt lyrics. Once he started to become more comfortable with himself, some of that that heartache/inner struggle subsided and that inspiration may not have been there.
[/QUOTE]

This seems likely, especially considering his lyrics generally became more thoughtful again towards the end of his life.

Hi all, I would agree with a lot of whats been said above Though I wouldn't say it was because he got lazy I'd say it's because it was the 80's! - what I mean is for me anyhow the 80's is probably the worst decade ever for serious music I truly feel it was the video invasion that took over, - ALL the great artists as well as the rest thought more about making stupid trendy video's in the 80's in front of the music - and to me and a lot of other folk, the music suffered, video's took over and the music became secondry. All the bands done it, Queen, Bowie The Police etc etc....I'm first to admit I used to enjoy the MTV burst and used to watch all sorts of music video's but looking back now most are crap. - even Queen ones i'm sorry to say...My thoughts anyway....But there are still classics - Love me like theres no tomorrow, Barcelona!!!

I always thought that Under Pressure was a good example of this.Ba da de ba de do.It seemed to me originally when first hearing the song that Freddie just left in a kind of scat phrasing from early recording rather than writing some actual lyrics.But what do I know the song was huge,and who knows who wrote what. I of course assumed that Bowie wrote the lyrics that he sung and Freddie likewise.It was a collaboration after all.It would be interesting to know more about it.