Freddie Mercury: A Life, In His Own Words

Dear Queenzoners

Greg Brooks here. Co-editor compiler of this book.

Not much has changed here since I last looked, probably 3 or 4 years ago, and that's why many good people have inevitably drifted away from this website over the years, towards forums with fairer balance, perceptive observations, consistently serious debate, relevant helpful informative findings, constructive and considered comment. In your various comments about the book, I note I have been referred to as a fat bastard and lazy, etc, which is fine, and to be expected here, but it has nothing to do with the book or anything else. It's just tedious. Why would anyone serious feel compelled to offer anything serious here?

I'm saying this not because it bothers me greatly - I'm not here enough for anything written about me to bother me - but because if all that tedious puerile crap was put aside, and people commented only on Queen, or Freddie, and the matters in hand, and offered interesting original refreshing comment, rather than inane drivel (too often) this forum would be the nice place to be that it once was, when it began... before the plebs spoilt it for everyone else, and continue to. There are some good people here, obviously, with good and interesting things to say, but they're posting to individuals desperate to find error and to take the piss or be insulting... all the while offering NOTHING interesting or remotely creative of their own of course. Such is life in the world of certain people who have no real lives to speak about, so mock others. I've always found people like that large irritating, and I wonder what purpose they serve! Answers on a postcard please, to....

ANYWAY... here is some considered, thought-about, information on the book, to answer the points most often mentioned. I hope it helps...

Why didn't we offer the source for EVERY quote? We would have loved to do that - if it were possible - but it wasn't, unless you wanted to see a complete mass and mess of source stats and dates at the back of the book, which would have been even more boring and tedious than a post by dudeofqueen.

As we said in the book's Introduction, Freddie's quotes for each subject covered were compiled and edited from MANY sources, not just one or two, or even 6 or 7. It was often the case that we took everything he said about a given subject, from 30 or 40 or more source interviews, spanning his entire career, not just one part of it, then pieced together the most informative, flowing, articulate, logical, consistent sentence that was possible to achieve. It wasn't easy because Freddie flitted about all over the place in a typical interview.

For example, taking a random paragraph of FM comment from... let's say Chapter 6, if we were to offer details of the source for EVERYTHING there, gathered from 20 years of interview encounters with 15 or 50 different people, we'd have to put... Chapter 6. Paragraph 1. Sentences 1, 3, 4 and 7: taken from Blah Blah interview with John Smith, Radio XYZ, USA, November 1976. Sentences 2, 5, 12, 16 and 21: taken from Blah Blah interview, with Pete Peters, Radio ABC, Japan, May 1982. Sentences 14 from blah blah, Norway 1976, Sentences 24 from blah blah, France 1979, and so on.

And then... Chapter 6. Paragraph 2. Sentences 1, 2, 3.... 30
Chapter 6. Paragraph 3. Sentences 1, 2, 3.... 30
Chapter 6. Paragraph 4. Sentences 1, 2, 3.... 30
Chapter 6. Paragraph 5. Sentences 1, 2, 3.... 30
Chapter 6. Paragraph 6. Sentences 1, 2, 3.... 30
Chapter 6. Paragraph 7. Sentences 1, 2, 3.... 30
Chapter 6. Paragraph 8. Sentences 1, 2, 3.... 30
Right up to Paragraph 78 of Chapter 6.

Then the 93 paragraphs of Chapter 7
Then the 37 paragraphs of Chapter 8
Then the 42 paragraphs of Chapter 9
Then the 50 paragraphs of Chapter 10
Then the 29 paragraphs of Chapter 11

And so on...

Until EVERY word, every sentence, or indeed half sentence, in every paragraph, was given a source.

Some paragraphs would need masses of source details, while other entire paragraphs will have come from only one source. Over all, realistically, to offer the reader accurate details of where every word came from; every sentence in all 930 paragraphs over 194 pages, would have been a mass of ugly tedious text, probably spawning 30 or 40 pages, if we were to do it thoroughly.

Is that REALLY what you want? To do so would have added a tenth more cost to the book, and people would have complained about that too. We wanted (and succeeded) in keeping the book price under £10.

Before anyone says this... let me say... we did consider offering a huge list of the 200-300 sources that our book represents, and giving each source a unique number - such as David Wigg (33), Ray Coleman (28), NME (1975) (12), Circus Magazine (1975) (17), Unknown Source (1) and then adding a number to every sentence and paragraph. But can you imagine how horrible that would look?

Ultimately... we simply offered Freddie's thoughts and opinions delivered in his own words. No more, no less. Can you imagine if Freddie were around today, what he'd say if we asked, "Should we inform the readers of the origins of EVERY single word you utter in this book, Freddie?" I don't think he would give a damn about that. All that surely matters is that we have Freddie's words gathered together in ONE place, for you to read and hopefully enjoy. Is it so essential to know which utterances were to Mary Turner in 1984, which were to Mike Read in 1989, or Jo Bloggs in Italy, and which were from a 1975 radio interview?

Imagine if movie makers did that with every movie they made. The Sources list for Oliver Stone's JFK movie would have been 7,000 sources long !!! And imagine if recording artists did that for every song they released; offering you the listener details of the origins of each line of song lyric and which exact session it came from, and when....

Here's how the sleeve for Free's classic single ALL RIGHT NOW might have looked.

There she stood (take 6, 22/5/72) in the street (take 2, 8/5/72)
Smiling from her head to her feet (take 22, 9/6/72)
I said hey, what is this (take 11 or 12, 26/5/72)
Now baby (take 3, 10/5/72), maybe she's in need of a kiss (take 16, 19/5/72)
I said hey, what's your name baby (exact take unknown, probably 17 or 18)
Maybe we (take 6, 22/5/72) can see things the same (take 22, 9/6/72)
Now don't you wait or hesitate (take 6, 22/5/72)
Let's move before (take 7, 22/5/72) they raise the parking rate (take unknown)
All right now (take 11, 26/5/72) baby, it's all right now (take 3, 10/5/72 and take 28)
All right now baby, it's all right now (takes 6, 7 and 22, dates already given)

My God! How boring it would be to be told the origins of literally EVERY single line of that work.

We did not want the detail, the behind the scenes trivia, to get in the way of what Freddie had to say. It's what he said that mattered, not who he said it to, or when.

If there had been perhaps 4 or 4 sources per page, we may well have offered those details, but where it was 30 or 40 or more.... no. That would have been Ever Boring!

Hi Greg! Thanks so much for this book, I thought it was fantastic! I have read, and re-read, most of the books out there on Freddie and Queen, and for me this was the best. It really details how he thought about many things and was so well put-together. I can’t imagine the painstaking process of pulling all his interviews and comments and coordinating them so well.

As for this site, I saw it referenced somewhere so I came and joined, excited to think there was another place to enjoy discussion on my favorite topic. When I saw the cruelty and disgusting language, etc. it shocked me. This is my first (and most likely last, LOL!) post here.

Thank you again, I’m sure there are many of us out here that love what you’ve done!

Big points for creating a new account to reply to your own tedious post. Bravo!

Thanks - this does at least help explain why you made those decisions.

Can you confirm if any of the quotes used were changed in any way - i.e. edited by you or the team working on the book, or if they are all absolutely verbatim? Thanks.

Hey Greg, just wanted to say thanks for all your work throughout the years.

Thank you MyHumanZoo, I think you put that extremely well and I completely agree. Thanks also Stick; that's much appreciated. CMSDRUMS... yes we attempted to keep Freddie's words verbatim as he said them... delivery too. We just tidied it a bit, removing "Um" and "Ah" and hesitation. And remember, Freddie often began a sentence without ever finished it, or else he changed his mind 6 or 7 times pers sentence and began numerous points without ever finishing any of them. Hence we had to edit, tidy and restructure. But it is Freddie verbatim as much as that is possible. Negative Creep's comments just prove 100% what I said in my post. Dick Heads like that are why good people like MyHumanZoo will only post here ONCE, then drift away from QZ and away from idiots like him. How could I be replying "to my own tedious post" if this is my first and ONLY post in three years? If he had a brain, he'd be a danger to himself and others. As it is, he's just a tedious negative creep with nothing interesting to say. I bet this has been said to him many times in his life !

Oh no

Greg, not to steer this topic away from the book but just wanted to take the opportunity to ask if there is any progress on a Brian May boxset like The Lot from Roger?

Not much has changed from you either! Crappy way to start your comments and as always crappy products!

You clearly made the account up yourself. You deserve nothing but negative responses to the rants/drivel you post here - it's always the same, you just moan about this forum yet strangely don't post on the official Queen forum. Strange that.

Cheers Greg. Great to see you back here mate!

Hey Greg it’s Jake! I will always back you up when it comes to these projects! I bought the book since I did miss out on the first time and I loved it! I really did! Also happy with the projects as of late and understand you can’t please everyone! Also very excited for the Never Boring box set!

So, effectively, the process of re-writing history and making stuff up has been continued on from the "Barcelona" butchering and the fiction which is that film to this book with the pace to be maintained by the upcoming "Mr Bad Guy" re-hash.

Brilliant; well done.

Hi Greg.So glad to see you posting here again.There are too many people here who retort to using foul and abusive language to other members,it just sums up their mentality(or lack of it).The book looks really good,and am looking forward to reading it at some point.I can only assume that this has taken many hours/days/months of painstaking work.Yet could they do a better job?

Ah yes, spend two full paragraphs bitching about the bitching, then the rest of your post with bitching about wanting actual sources.

I guess you've never heard of footnotes. It's not that difficult. Several other books use them; you should try them some time.