As it began ' or any other books

I have heard of that one too, Amidds, but haven’t looked into it too closely. I’ll have to give it a look.

Back at home now and I realized that I also read the recently updated Freddie In His Own Words, and I think that one may be my favorite. It isn’t about Queen inclusively, but I really enjoyed the feeling of hearing Freddie’s words and opinions on things. It’s so well done, considering the difficulty of fitting parts of different interviews over many years into coherent chapters. It felt the most real of what I’ve read.

Hi all I just wanted to say that I have read Elton John's book and I really really enjoyed it. It came across very down to earth, honest and humble but happily admits to his highly strung nature. Perhaps it's his english sense of humour that gets lots with you guys in the UK (I could be wrong). Regarding name dropping, I read it that he is a famous guy and writing about his life so he is bound to mention people. I didn't see this as a negative at all.
He does mention Freddie and he loved Freddie very much, for this reason he is unable to watch Bho Rhap. He said it would be to upsetting.
Freddie was a man with a wicked sense of humour and is known for taking the mickey out of people. Again Elton describing the scene in a club where he talks about Mr May wearing clogs wasn't nasty just freddie being freddie. TBH those clogs are awful.

Anyway I finished the book having a lot of respect for Elton and what he went through as a child .

Amidds it was John Reid who introduced him to cocaine. He turned up at the studio one day when John was doing it and so he tried it and was hooked from that moment.

His and John's relationship was instigated by Elton who was madly in love with John but sadly much like Freddie, John couldn't keep it in his pants. It was when John hit Elton that the relationship ended but they remained friends and John remained his manager until years later when it was discovered that John has been stealing Eltons money.


Totally agree with below:

Along comes Jim Hutton: comfortable in his own skin, an emotionally a mature man, and while I've seen him described as simple, what I believe is that he was reserved, not a blabber mouth, and had very good native intelligence. Hutton addresses some of this very discussion in his book, but you're right that it is very sad that these guys couldn't be open, couldn't live as who they were. Thank goodness that's changed--no everywhere--but in many places.

It was Thor who referred to Jim as 'simple'. I felt that a little harsh . It understand that he was a little reserved which is what Freddie like about him.


I have the illustrated lyrics and I love it.

meant you guys in the US not the UK lol

oh and ignore the bad bad spelling etc lol

Doughnut, very interesting take on the EJ book. Of course, you probably already answered most of my questions so I might be able to save a couple $$ lol! I am really enjoying the Complete Works you recommended, even though it's gonna be a while until I get through it all - seems like it will be my #1 reference so.....gonna follow your opinion on Illustrated Lyrics, I think, and move that to the top!

Regarding the Thor and Jim, I wonder if Thor meant simple as in not high maintenance? Didn't require money, lavish parties, etc to keep him entertained/interested? Cause that's kinda the impression I have of him. Man with simple needs. I'm sure it will come up again when Thor gets back on QZ.

MHZ, I do love IHOW! Read that twice not too long ago so as I am re-reading Somebody to Love, I can clearly point out any quotes that came from IHOW and it's nice to hear it again!! I agree with the organization. At first I was disappointed with the lack of sourcing but, on another thread, one of the contributors mentioned how difficult and extensive it would be so I get the grouping better.

Amidds, you might be correct about how the term "simple" was used to describe Jim Hutton, though I initially read it differently. It's hard to say, of course--in this sort of discussion arena, it's easy to misconstrue meaning.

I guess at some point, I'll need to read IHOW, folks seem to like it, lack of sourcing notwithstanding.

TUHI, could’ve been lack remembering on my part as well. I intend to re-read the threads as well to refresh my memory. When I originally found QZ, I read through as fast as I could to catch up and probably missed a lot.

I think you will enjoy IHOW. While we have all heard a lot of his quotes in various places, there were a quite a few I hadn’t heard or hadn’t heard in its entirety which made them more interesting! I actually got mine free through Kindle so, if you have that, check it out through Amazon.

I'll check it out on Kindle--thanks for that, Amidds. I'm currently reading a book on class differences in the US; fairly depressing, not gonna lie, so maybe something joyful and Freddie-like is just the right antidote.

Katydyd, Complete Works doesn’t confirm the story you mentioned. Actually, it doesn’t say much just that two versions were recorded. One on 9/1/87 featuring mostly improvised lyrics since the words hadn’t yet been written. The other on 11/9 which is a cappella. Furthermore, an instrumental version was created for The Solo Collection. I will make a note of this though and keep an eye out as I do my reading!

Just finishing up re-reading Somebody to Love. I know some people don’t like this book but I feel as if the authors tried to present some good info and, concerning some controversial subjects, tried to present both sides or point out if it was just conjecture. I did get the feeling in this read through, ever, that Jim Beach maybe shouldn’t have been trusted as much as he was. Does anyone else get that feeling or know more about him? I could have gotten the wrong impression and don’t want to stir something up but it’s hard to find info about him.....

Beach keeps a low profile and it seems like the band trusted/trusts him. Certainly, Freddie did, it seems. He's certainly made business decisions which have enriched the lot of them, but I don't care much for him. (Not that it matters what I think!)

I remember seeing him interviewed in a clip from one of the documentaries, ('The Untold Story' or 'The Great Pretender'?), and he's talking about the full orchestra recording and release of 'Barcelona' and he says, several times, how *this version* is the version Freddie would have made "if he'd had the balls." Really? If Freddie had had the balls? You mean the Rock God who reached out to the Opera Goddess and magic ensued? That guy doesn't have a pair?

It just seemed like a weird a-hole statement and I was quite taken aback.

That comment, plus the problems with how FM was portrayed in the movie, give me pause about Beach. 'Maylor' get lots of blame for the movie issues, but I'm not sure the undercutting of FM was, in fact, their doing.

I haven't read "Somebody to Love"--what is its reputation?

TUHI, very interesting. I remember some veiled references in various books, vids, etc that Beach, while loyal to Queen, (he does make money off of them) may do whatever he must to keep the cash flowing. In this particular book, I was mostly reminded of him maybe influencing Freddie over his will and his final statement to the press right before he passed. No smoking gun kind of thing, just that Freddie made decisions after talking to Beach that he may not have made otherwise. Saying Freddie didn’t have balls makes me think the guy is kind of a loser, geez.

Somebody to Love isn’t one of those books people here blacklist, some just say that the authors include a lot of myths, lies about Freddie. It does include a lot of quotes from a lot of sources including reliable ones like Freestones books but then includes debunked quotes/stories from the Leslie Ann Jones book. I would actually recommend because overall it seems to be very consistent with other reliable sources.

Katydyd, think I found something for you from This is the Real Life by Minns/Evans. Going to attempt to attach a screen shot. Fingers crossed.....

Amidds, that's it!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bless you! I have been looking for that for a couple of weeks now and even checked in that book. I'm truly grateful to you because I was beginning to think I imagined it. You are the best.

Katydyd, glad I could help!!! That drives me nutty too! I believe I also saw the quote in IHOW but I stopped looking when I found that reference. I love Freddie's reaction, especially because he was such a perfectionist :)

I’m here. Busy week on this end. I Need to do some catch up reading here and in AIB. Looking forward to it. Looks like very interesting additions!!!