The Death of Freddie Mercury and How Great Was Queen?

Was listening to "Don't Stop Me Now" and other Queen tunes recently and reflecting on what a great band they were. Americans never fully embraced Queen or gave them their due the way the Brits did. In England, Queen is absolutely revered, and the group is generally considered second only to the Beatles as the greatest band of all time. But in the U.S., it seems like Queen is sort of lumped into a category of "good" rock bands (in there with Rush, Heart, and other 70s-era groups) who, though they're certainly respected, still take a back seat to acts like the Rolling Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin, and U2.

This represents a huge oversight. When you think of all the things that make a band great -- songwriting, musicianship, vocals, live performance, creativity, etc. -- Queen comes in as a top ten band of all-time -- right up there with the Beatles, Earth Wind & Fire, Fleetwood Mac, the Beach Boys and Chic. 

One of the major reasons Queen ranks so highly is because of their innovative, diverse and eclectic sound, evidenced on songs like the operatic "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "It's a Hard Life"; the staccato, pause-heavy, and uniquely arranged "Bicycle Race"; the stripped-down, haunting, R&B-influenced "Another One Bites the Dust", and the anthem-like sing-alongs "Radio Ga Ga" and "We Will Rock You". With Queen, you got track after track of songs that didn't sound like anything else you'd ever heard before. 

And then of course, there was lead singer Freddie Mercury's amazingly distinct vocals. Mercury had one of those voices that you would hear and immediately know who it was -- similar to Sting, Stevie Nicks, and Bono, except Mercury's voice and vocal range was much richer than any of theirs.

You ponder these things and then you begin to think about how and when Freddie died. In my case, I happened to be watching and recording a show on MTV and the VCR was still going when Kurt Loder came on with this shocking and sad story. You have to remember that this was the early 90's before everyone had access to the internet, before news and information was ubiquitous and instantaneous. Also, Freddie was able to keep his HIV/AIDS diagnosis secret, so most didn't even know he was sick until his own public acknowledgement which took place just a day before he died. This was a truly sad report:

(From the Pop Culture Fiend Archives)