Boudica wrote:
He did a lot more promotion for the Barcelona album. But the whole Barcelona album isn't exactly top of the charts commercial pop music.The Barcelona song did well in spite of the fact that it wasn't very commercial. The album is well regarded and highly rated, on most places. Freddie did prove that he could work separately from Queen.
...give or take an AIDS diagnosis.
When confronted with one's mortality, of course everything changes. Naturally there's no way of knowing if Mercury would've gotten his act together in that short time had his health not taken a turn for the worse, but if we're being honest with ourselves, we know the answer.
It's got nothing to do with promotion. The artist doesn't call the shots on promotion - the label does. And when his label realized what a turd Mr Bad Guy was, they dropped him like a used rubber. Barcelona was on a different label, and because it was a much better album, it was promoted well.
Mercury was brilliant, full stop. But from about 1982-85 he was not even close to his creative peak. No doubt he was a great collaborator with the other band members, even during this period, but in 1985 he was a far cry from the artist he was a decade earlier. Music went from being his main focus to a side gig that paid the bills. It happens to plenty of us.
But Mercury got a second lease on life, knowing it was a limited one. He left New York and Munich behind, and became an artist again. This is undoubtedly why his writing becomes far more consistent after 1986.
