Rolling Stone article

[swordznsorcery]

Long article about Freddie this week from Rolling Stone. It's not perfect, and there's a few minor errors here and there, but on the whole it's a good read.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/queens-tragic-rhapsody-20140707

Comments

[egret]

Thanks for posting this. I like that they give Freddie a lot of artistic credit for Queen, but I don't like how the author treats AIDS like some kind of redemptive spiritual experience.

It's possibly worth noting that the author Mikal Gilmore is the brother of executed American murderer Gary Gilmore. He wrote a whole memoir about his brother's death and his family's dysfunction and maybe that background accounts in part for what I found to be a morbid tone throughout this article.

Or maybe I'm just hypersensitive.

ETA: fixed typo/grammar

[swordznsorcery]

No, I don't think you're being sensitive, and that's an interesting note about the author, thank you. The conclusion of the article bugged me, too. Whether he genuinely believes that death is a nice, poetic end, or was merely trying to find a poetic end to his article, I'm not sure, but it did seem a very strange conclusion to make!

There are other oddities, such as the observation at the beginning that Queen were somehow on their way out pre-Live Aid. It may have seemed like that to an American witness I suppose, but in the UK they were as big as ever. "I Want To Break Free" and "Radio Ga-Ga" had been massive hits the previous year, and those and earlier hits were never off the radio. I know that the band have said that they were a bit strung out at the time, but that's different to fans feeling that way.

[heartonsnow]

Today's phrase is "resonant embouchure"..............."resonant embouchure"

[swordznsorcery]

Yes, that was a good one, wasn't it! Somebody likes his thesaurus.