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Freddie Mercury died 20 years ago today


The Poojer

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For you Pumped Up Kicks fans, make sure you listen to the entire album 'Torches'. Great stuff. Foster the People may just usher in a new generation of rock fans if they play their cards right.

 

 

3rd. I was driving back to Buffalo after a Bills - Jest game that the Bills actually won (way back when) when the DJ told us that Freddie had passed away from AIDS and he chose 'Someone To Love' as the song to commemorate it. Sorry, but I think that was what got Freddie into that mess in the first place. There were so many great Queen songs to choose to play upon his passing, why did the DJ choose THAT to commemorate him? I am still bitter about that 20 years later.

 

No disrespect (because I can tell you're a fan) but I abjectly disagree. That song, to me, is about so much more than one man's sexual/romantic experiences. It's about the common search for affection and closeness, and the inherent pain involved therein. When Freddie sings, "Til the tears run down from my eyes", it may just be the most emotionally wrenching thing in rock history.

 

As a part-time radio DJ myself, I can say with confidence that I'd choose the exact same song. :thumbsup:

 

Besides, nobody knows how he got AIDS and I think it's unfair to assert that he was promiscuous (if indeed that was your assertion, apologies if I misunderstood). His partner, Jim Hutton, also tested HIV positive so for all we know Freddie acquired the disease unwittingly from a stable relationship. Or it could have been the other way around...we just don't know.

 

Just my opinion. :)

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For you Pumped Up Kicks fans, make sure you listen to the entire album 'Torches'. Great stuff. Foster the People may just usher in a new generation of rock fans if they play their cards right.

 

 

 

 

 

I was listening to some of the 30 sec cuts on Amazon...I may pick up this album for sure.

 

Pumped Up Kicks is pretty dark though! I'll see if I can find the link to the interview with the lead singer...it was interesting.

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I was listening to some of the 30 sec cuts on Amazon...I may pick up this album for sure.

 

Pumped Up Kicks is pretty dark though! I'll see if I can find the link to the interview with the lead singer...it was interesting.

 

'Colors on the Wall (Don't Stop)' and 'Houdini' are just plain addictive.

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1st off, SHOCKED that you are 6 years younger than me. From your posts, I was certain you were 3-5 years older than me.

 

2nd, sorry but AOBtD was '80. You can try to blame that on the '70's disco craze but it just missed it.

 

3rd. I was driving back to Buffalo after a Bills - Jest game that the Bills actually won (way back when) when the DJ told us that Freddie had passed away from AIDS and he chose 'Someone To Love' as the song to commemorate it. Sorry, but I think that was what got Freddie into that mess in the first place. There were so many great Queen songs to choose to play upon his passing, why did the DJ choose THAT to commemorate him? I am still bitter about that 20 years later.

 

As I said earlier in the thread, I was at the Bills game in Foxboro when they shockingly lost to the lowly Patriots (and the Sabres lost to the Bruins in the Garden the night before) when I heard the news about Freddy.

 

Now you had me question if my memory was playing tricks on me, but it wasn't:

November 24, 1991 at New England Patriots Foxboro Stadium L 13–16 10–2 NBC 1:00pm

47,053

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Does anybody have the same memory of it that I do - thinking that "it wasn't that big of a deal, he was washed up anyway, etc."

 

I was 29 at the time and by '91, Queen hadn't had a hit in a long time that I remember. (I do remember that my cousins from Spain visited us in probably 90 or 91, and gave us an album that he made with a Spanish opera singer that was about the upcoming 92 Barcelona Olympics - and to me at the time that was like Rod Stewart's American Songbook territory.)

 

Now, looking back, if he had lived, I bet Queen would have had a big comeback run, like Aerosmith did.

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to me it wasn't about whether they were 'washed' up...i was a fan of them and the fact that such an immense talent had died too young...who knows what he could have done post queen, if that was the direction he went....it was more about a talent that was no longer here to share his talents....

 

Does anybody have the same memory of it that I do - thinking that "it wasn't that big of a deal, he was washed up anyway, etc."

 

I was 29 at the time and by '91, Queen hadn't had a hit in a long time that I remember. (I do remember that my cousins from Spain visited us in probably 90 or 91, and gave us an album that he made with a Spanish opera singer that was about the upcoming 92 Barcelona Olympics - and to me at the time that was like Rod Stewart's American Songbook territory.)

 

Now, looking back, if he had lived, I bet Queen would have had a big comeback run, like Aerosmith did.

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As I said earlier in the thread, I was at the Bills game in Foxboro when they shockingly lost to the lowly Patriots (and the Sabres lost to the Bruins in the Garden the night before) when I heard the news about Freddy.

 

Now you had me question if my memory was playing tricks on me, but it wasn't:

November 24, 1991 at New England Patriots Foxboro Stadium L 13–16 10–2 NBC 1:00pm

47,053

You're right, it was the Patsies. Went to all 3 games that weekend (Friday started well with a romp over the Blackhawks, final was 2-0 but the game wasn't that close), the last 2 stunk. The Jest game that year was in September. Was getting my roadtrips mixed up. :oops:

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Wow, I happened to have my Sennheiser headphones sitting here, so since I had NFL Network on and I wanted to hear Freddy on the video, I put the headphones on. If anyone else has a pair, toss em on while watching this clip...sounds like you're there live as it was being performed! :thumbsup:

You can find entire concerts of theirs on youtube with similar quality.

 

Here's another:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8-rH2ilkxk

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You're right, it was the Patsies. Went to all 3 games that weekend (Friday started well with a romp over the Blackhawks, final was 2-0 but the game wasn't that close), the last 2 stunk. The Jest game that year was in September. Was getting my roadtrips mixed up. :oops:

 

The worst part of that was that we were in the balcony at the Garden, and sitting next to a bunch of guys who were stereotypical Boston - wicked pissah and all that....They gave us crap the whole game and we kept saying wait until tomorrow (they also were going to the Bills-Pats game)......By the grace of God, we didn't run into them after the Bills game!

 

to me it wasn't about whether they were 'washed' up...i was a fan of them and the fact that such an immense talent had died too young...who knows what he could have done post queen, if that was the direction he went....it was more about a talent that was no longer here to share his talents....

 

My comments were really more directed at what a dope I was. Thinking somebody is washed up if they haven't had any hits lately and in their mid-40s. I'm sure it was a function of me not being a huge fan. I liked them, but you only have room to big fans of so many groups. I saw them in the Aud in the late 70s, and it was really good.

 

One of my favorite not hits by them is '39 (although it's a Brian May, not a Freddy song):

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xki7lbro9_U&feature=fvst

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The Greatest Frontman in Rock History.

 

 

Also, shame on anyone even mentioning bands like Foster the People in a thread about real rock legends. They can take that indie/pop/college rock with them, straight off a cliff.

 

Back in 1973, I bet somebody said "Who the !@#$ is Queen? We're talkin' Chuck Berry here, man, a LEGEND."

 

I'll remember this when FtP explodes. :D

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Back in 1973, I bet somebody said "Who the !@#$ is Queen? We're talkin' Chuck Berry here, man, a LEGEND."

 

I'll remember this when FtP explodes. :D

 

FtP has already exploded, but not literally enough. haha :P

 

And a better comparison would have been back in the 80s when someone said "Who the !@#$ is A Flock of Seagulls? We're talking QUEEN here, man, LEGENDS!"

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HOLY F***...watching Queen Rock Montreal, they go from Killer Queen to 'I'm in Love with my car'...never put Taylor and Rod Stewart together....holy hell.... :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

 

and to this day I always sing 'she keeps a movin' in sideways...' :oops:

 

That's something I've been realizing more and more is that there is so much great Queen music that never hit the radio and that I never heard before. Even that Roger Taylor song, "I'm in Love With My Car" has really gotten some air time with me lately cause it's sorta catchy. I'd never heard it prior to a few months ago and it wasn't on the Queen compilation (2-disc) that was sort of serving as the foundation of the Queen tracks in my personal library. I want to go back and pick up the first two Queen albums and give a complete listen to both, cause I'm sure that MOST of those tracks I'm not familiar with.

 

Funny you say that about the age thing and my posts lol...I've heard that a few times...and sometimes I feel about ten years older than I actually am :blush:

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hmmmm.....interesting......never a huge springsteen fan, but hard to deny his 'frontman-ship'....in this case...can't we have a tie, or at least a 1 & 1A? Along with Jagger(and others that haven't immediately come to mind), those bands would have been nothing without the respective frontmen....

 

 

If Bruce Springsteen is considered a frontman, then I will have to respectfully disagree.

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You can find entire concerts of theirs on youtube with similar quality.

 

Here's another:

 

youtube.com/watch?v=u8-rH2ilkxk

 

I couldn't resist, I went ahead and ordered the blu ray version of LiveAid/Montreal, and the DVD version of "Live at the Bowl"...these clips you guys posted are absolutely amazing, and I just realized another gap in my Freddy experience - I haven't seen enough of him LIVE! :D I have put a lot of time and money into a great home theater/audio system, so Freddy deserves nothing but the best! Can't wait to get this... :thumbsup:

 

HOLY F***...watching Queen Rock Montreal, they go from Killer Queen to 'I'm in Love with my car'...never put Taylor and Rod Stewart together....holy hell.... :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

 

and to this day I always sing 'she keeps a movin' in sideways...' :oops:

 

For some reason I didn't think there was a lot of live footage of Freddy and the boys....but now I know why those clips that you, Levi, and others posted are such good quality! I feel like a moron....I had no idea they were this amazing live!

 

If Bruce Springsteen is considered a frontman, then I will have to respectfully disagree.

 

Gotta definitely keep Bruce in the conversation since (I believe) he wrote most of his own shiit, just like Freddy and the boys did. Freddy still stays in the top spot for me since I think he was more physically gifted in terms of his vocals, and also because Queen has arguably been more iconic. Just my opinion...and I grew up with Bruce more than I did with Queen.

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Fair enough. I agree that Freddie's vocals are better, but I do think Bruce is more iconic. His concert here in Buffalo two years ago - the last of the tour and feared to be the last with the ESB (which thankfully this week turned out not to true) was the hottest ticket I'm pretty sure this town has ever seen. $500 to stand on the floor, with many celebs in attendance.

 

And, that is 25 years after his total peak of Born in the USA. And, 29 years after I had the toughest time I ever had getting a ticket - to The River tour.

 

Queen's run was about 10-11 years I think - from their first hits to Live Aid. And, I really didn't like much they did after probably '79. Another One, Crazy Little Thing, etc. just didn't do it for me........Although my all time favorite Queen song was Under Pressure, which was 82 or 83. (Oddly enough, the song really wasn't that big at the time, despite my loving it, but it has really gotten bigger over time).

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Fair enough. I agree that Freddie's vocals are better, but I do think Bruce is more iconic. His concert here in Buffalo two years ago - the last of the tour and feared to be the last with the ESB (which thankfully this week turned out not to true) was the hottest ticket I'm pretty sure this town has ever seen. $500 to stand on the floor, with many celebs in attendance.

 

And, that is 25 years after his total peak of Born in the USA. And, 29 years after I had the toughest time I ever had getting a ticket - to The River tour.

 

Queen's run was about 10-11 years I think - from their first hits to Live Aid. And, I really didn't like much they did after probably '79. Another One, Crazy Little Thing, etc. just didn't do it for me........Although my all time favorite Queen song was Under Pressure, which was 82 or 83. (Oddly enough, the song really wasn't that big at the time, despite my loving it, but it has really gotten bigger over time).

 

Great points...all I know is that they're both well represented in my music collection, and always will be :thumbsup:

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