A hilarious/annoying article about the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert

The Tribute showed just one thing: That Freddie was untouchable and could never be replaced. Too Bad Maylor chose the dark side of $$$. It would have been a fitting Grande Finale

lets be honest, the tribute concert was embarassing at many many places, and not only Spinal Tap.

Nice find and thanks for the thoughtful highlighting of the key parts Pittrek.

The trouble is that the good points he makes are rather lost in the bad. The Bowie description is spot on for 1992. The Bohemian Rhapsody description is, in essence, spot on and one I'm sure the makers would approve. The quality of the performers was spot on and somehow almost Nostradamian in it's prediction. The 'Fascistic' charm of the interaction on WWRY is clear - and indeed he might be confusing it with Radio Gaga etc etc

And having listened to the WWRY on LK I let out an audible yep of laugher (I believe it was a LOL) as Freddie's 'one more time' does indeed sound like he says 'Spinal Tap'.

If you trust your own musical taste then a good critical review won't make you overly happy and a bad one won't make you overly angry. The best music journalists give you something to think about or ask you to reevaluate what you already believe. In this case, Wyman seems simply to be saying controversial things for the sake of it. The Tribute has to be considered in its totality rather than snipe at individual performances. It celebrated the life of one of the great musical talents of the latter part of the 20thC. It was never meant to be a musically perfect, or even something that should be released as an album/CD. It was an 'Irish wake' for Fred.

[QUOTE] [b]pittrek wrote:[/b]

I just found this hilarious / annoying article about the Freddie Mercury Tribute concert from 1992 from the "Chicago Reader".

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/freddies-dead-thats-all-they-said-a-debacle-on-mtv/Content?oid=879686

Some very "interesting" bits from the article...


[QUOTE]The Freddie Mercury concert would have been one of the most unintentionally hilarious undertakings in the history of the universe if it wasn't for the seriousness of some of the underlying subjects. Mercury, the embarrassing lead singer of the largely bad and largely forgotten (in America at least) Queen, died last November of complications resulting from AIDS. [/QUOTE]

[QUOTE]The striking thing to me was that the concert was barely about AIDS at all, and it was most definitely not about being gay. [/QUOTE]

[QUOTE]... "Under Pressure," the 1980 hit by Bowie and Queen[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE] the artistically barren Bowie, at heart a calculating publicity hound, [/QUOTE]

[QUOTE] they looked like the main event at the Star Wars cantina.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE]the rest of the concert largely consisted of tired, has-been rock stars fronting Queen and tired, soon-to-be-has-been rock stars fronting Queen[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE]Mercury managed to overcome his physical limitations--his tiny stature, buck teeth unattractive even by rock 'n' roll standards, a Terry-Thomas lisp--and make himself a genuine star even as 70s proto-metal kids thrilled to guitarist Brian May's limited but forceful power riffing.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE]"Bohemian Rhapsody," which was apparently created by sticking Tiny Tim, Verdi, and a multitrack recording console into a Cuisinart and hitting puree, is of course a marvelous parody of a rock 'n' roll epic. [/QUOTE]

[QUOTE] "We Will Rock You" has a fascistic charm[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE] Today listening to these records is a painful assignment. (Why doesn't Congress put warning labels on albums like News of the World? They could read, "Warning: Brain Advisory.") [/QUOTE]

[QUOTE]The next time you happen to throw on the live version of "We Will Rock You" (the one on side four of Live Killers), listen carefully to the opening bars of the song. After the crowd sings "We will / We will rock you" for the fifth time, Freddie audibly shouts the words "Spinal tap." [/QUOTE]

[QUOTE]Queen had been thankfully overlooked; [/QUOTE]

LOL, why did they hire a guy who obviously hates Queen to write about Queen and Mercury?

[/QUOTE]




Damn, what a dick this guy piece of filth.

Having been there I can say it was a great gig.

[QUOTE] [b]Miklos wrote:[/b]

lets be honest, the tribute concert was embarassing at many many places, and not only Spinal Tap.[/QUOTE]

examples?

Wasn't EMBARRASSING (*i still haven't seen the ENTIRE gig as I've never torrented )

But some notable low points =

Paul Young
Zucchero (*he's not bad at all but it's a strange mashup)
Axl sounds great but Elton? *(trash. ..feel free to disagree)
Robert Plant forgot everything

Def Leppard (the band that modeled their name upon a cheap syllabic relation to Led Zeppelin, presumably because they thought Led Zeppelin didn't mean anything) - ABSOLUTE SUCK

Bob Geldof - (as always) ABSOLUTE SUCK

Seal - showed ALL his limitations

But aside from that it's not an embarrassment. They were popular icons and performers, and the day served as a launching campaignfor the Mercury Phoenix Trust. It's a good thing.

[QUOTE] [b]john bodega wrote:[/b]

"Nowadays the only place to see those kinds of jokes are whiny Star Wars reviews on YouTube"

Ahhh I'm fucking glad every time I see someone refer to this phenomenon.

Always boggles my mind that these neckbeardy milktits abominations somehow think they've cracked the code on movies and can shit on the new ones, but still think those prequels were alright.

Ungrateful slobs.[/QUOTE]

Oh come on, Zebonka, that's not nice to talk like that about Jeremy. Let's face it - the Disney Star Wars movies make the prequels look like brilliant masterpieces.

[QUOTE] [b]kosimodo wrote:[/b]

And.. at #220: https://www.vulture.com/2018/05/rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame-artists-ranked-from-best-to-worst.html

The man is nuts :)

2nd worst... of all. Poor Bon Jobi.[/QUOTE]

Well, he has "interesting" taste.Chuck Berry #1? James Brown #5? Prince #6? Otis Redding? Had to google who that was. Queen 220? I originally thought that his Tribute concert review was attempt at being funny, but now I feel like he has some really weird musical taste.

[QUOTE] [b]Miklos wrote:[/b]

lets be honest, the tribute concert was embarassing at many many places, and not only Spinal Tap.[/QUOTE]

I don't know, some performances were "far from perfect" but I wouldn't use the word embarrassing

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

Wasn't EMBARRASSING (*i still haven't seen the ENTIRE gig as I've never torrented )

But some notable low points =

Paul Young
Zucchero (*he's not bad at all but it's a strange mashup)
Axl sounds great but Elton? *(trash. ..feel free to disagree)
Robert Plant forgot everything

Def Leppard (the band that modeled their name upon a cheap syllabic relation to Led Zeppelin, presumably because they thought Led Zeppelin didn't mean anything) - ABSOLUTE SUCK

Bob Geldof - (as always) ABSOLUTE SUCK

Seal - showed ALL his limitations

But aside from that it's not an embarrassment. They were popular icons and performers, and the day served as a launching campaignfor the Mercury Phoenix Trust. It's a good thing.

[/QUOTE]

Paul Young and Zucchero were boring, just like that "alleged sexual battery guy (edited for fairness)". Plant looked like he's high and that his brain switched off as soon as the band started to play.I thought that Elton was one of the highlights of the show. Geldolf was fine, I don't get why so many people hate him. Def Leppard - huge respect for the one-armed drummer, but I was never a huge fan of theirs, they're the most 80's sounding band ever, and that's not a compliment.

"Rapist guy"?

OK, sorry, "alleged sexual battery" guy.

@pittrek I’m not a fan of Disney Star Wars but there’s a lot of rewriting of history lately when it comes to the prequels. ;)