Freddie
September 5, 2024
Freddie.
Today would have been his 78th birthday. He’s been gone almost 33 years, so he’ll seem forever young.
Two years ago today, I showed my first-year students how to do research. Their assignment was to research an expert. Since it was Freddie’s birthday, he would be my subject. The task: Show students how to use library databases to access articles, then show how to sort by relevance or most recent date. I entered “Freddie Mercury” into the search field. Over 10,000 hits. Clicked “Date Newest” for magazine articles. The first hit: “Same-Sex Flamingo Couple Freddie Mercury and Lance Bass ‘No Longer a Pair,’ Denver Zoo Reveals.”
The joy of live research! I managed a good spin. Talked about how the information in the article might not fit the main aim of the assignment, but it would be a cute anecdote on how Freddie has become a gay icon.
My first memory of Queen: on the radio in my teenage bedroom in Orlando, waiting every night at 10pm for BJ 105’s Top Five when I’d be sure to hear “Killer Queen.” The lyrics transfixed the fledgling poet in me:
She keeps her Moët et Chandon
In her pretty cabinet
“Let them eat cake,” she says
Just like Marie Antoinette
A built-in remedy
For Khrushchev and Kennedy
At anytime an invitation
You can’t decline…
I didn’t quite understand the lyrics, but that voice singing those words caused something in my 13-year old mind to sit up and pay attention. That’s when I began to notice Freddie.
When A Night at the Opera came out a year later, “Bohemian Rhapsody” was BJ 105’s Number One song for at least two months. I saved my allowance to buy the album, playing it over and over and over in my room on an old turntable. The lyrics were inside the album cover, along with thumbnail pictures of the members of the band. I memorized every song and wondered about the lives and minds of those four musicians. Particularly Freddie.
I’d clip newspaper and magazine articles about him, poring over every detail. I was definitely crushing on him, but didn’t quite understand why. I remember an audible “hmph” from my mom when I put a large poster of Freddie in my room. She knew, but ignored it!
Living in California in 1985, I woke before 4am to ready the Betamax tapes to record Live Aid. It was 10:41am Pacific Time when Queen took the stage at Wembley. That was the infamous 20 minutes with The Note Heard Round the World, “Aaaaaay-o.” Those Betamax tapes are still in a trunk upstairs, but these days, I just bring up Freddie on YouTube.
Six years later, Freddie was dead.
But my….what a legacy. I have digital versions of all Queen’s studio albums and Freddie’s duet album with Montserrat Caballé, Barcelona. When “You’re My Best Friend” shuffles on Apple Music, I capture it to send my BFFs. I’ll probably request a Freddie song played at my memorial.
Thanks, Freddie.
