talon
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Post by talon on Sept 8, 2012 8:34:41 GMT -5
:D I thought that might resonate with a fan or two on this website  I've actually been excited about detailing the next album too! Should be fun! Thanks for reading! |
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gabby
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Post by gabby on Sept 8, 2012 17:20:41 GMT -5
An amazing time for a Queen fan! Next up we go back to the studio - A Night At The Opera - one of the greatest albums in history! Can't wait to discuss favorite QAL versions from whatever song you will introduce that QAL performed! __________________________________________________ OT.... Can you tell us about Jim Hutton? 1. Was he in the music industry? 2. How did he meet FM/Queen? 3. Was he working with Queen or just FM? 4. Whatever happened to him after FM died? 5. Was he in contact with any Queen member after FM died? |
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talon
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Post by talon on Sept 8, 2012 18:58:57 GMT -5
Can't wait to discuss favorite QAL versions from whatever song you will introduce that QAL performed! Indeed we are starting to come across those songs now  Nope. He was a simple gardener who Freddie met and for whatever reason was struck with. He fit Freddie's type to a "T" Macho, tough looking, with some meat on his bones! Freddie met him at a gay bar and was quite forward with him, struck by the fact that Jim didn't care who he was! Just Freddie. He was Freddie's longterm boyfriend but when they moved in together, he insisted on paying his way so Freddie took him on as the gardener as Garden Lodge. There is some speculation on how important he was to Freddie. Personally, I believe that Jim may have exaggerated their relationship a tad. Jim claimed they were basically married, etc. I'm not entirely sure although I will be the first to admit, I have NO inside knowledge and am only going by what I know. AND I want to add that I don't mean to demean Jim's relationship as I think Jim WAS very important to Freddie. Freddie was a very complex man. He initially claimed he was bisexual but for the most part he was a gay man. There is a part of the documentary where Mary reveals that Freddie told her he thought he was bisexual and she replied that she thought he was gay. After his relationship with Mary dissolved though he only had one other female lover, Barbara Valentin. There was a large string of male lovers. I have come to the conclusion that he was in love with Mary but was highly attracted to men and preferred homosexual sex but Mary was always the love of his life. - Freddie was in LOVE with Mary Austin. This was claimed by both Mary and Freddie. In fact years later Freddie often said that he could never fall in love with a man the way he had with Mary and Mary could never be replaced...All his lovers asked why and he couldn't explain it. Freddie often claimed they were basically common-law married. - I think that Jim was mostly one in the string of male lovers but the difference was, Jim was the man he was with when he discovered he had AIDS. He gave Jim the chance to leave but Jim stuck by Freddie (EXTREMELY honorable). I think Freddie saw that as taking the next step so Jim definitely became the most important male lover Freddie ever had. That's where the "marriage" comes in. Freddie did wear a ring that Jim gave him. So why do I have doubts in Jim's complete story? Mainly because of: When Freddie died, Freddie left the bulk of his estate not to Jim but to Mary (and some to his parents and sister) What did he leave Jim? 500,000 pounds and a house in Ireland so Jim could be closer to his mother. Seems decent, but Joe Fanelli and Peter Freestone (Freddie's cook, and personal assistant) also received the same amount. Jim claims that Freddie told him he would be able to live on in Garden Lodge but he left it to Mary who moved in afterwards. It all seems a bit strange to me that if Freddie and Jim were married, etc. that he would take FAR more care of Mary than Jim. SO I think Jim may have exaggerated his relationship a bit...although I certainly could be wrong. I have had some very aggressive fanatical homosexuals accuse me of homophobia by claiming that I was apologizing for Freddie's gay lifestyle or trying to make him straight and clouding my vision on this subject...but I've never had a problem with homosexuality - I was a theatre major and had many friends who were homosexual. I've never denied Freddie's sexuality or anything and still call him gay to this day. I just think he was a VERY complex man who was really beyond the label homosexual, heterosexual, or bisexual. Afterwards Jim moved to Ireland where he proceeded to write a tell-all book that some Queen fans have found inappropriate and something Freddie wouldn't have wanted. But some feel it was honest and forthcoming. Jim was HIV positive but lived much longer - until 2010 when he died at 61 after a battle with cancer. No, he never was really in contact with Brian, Roger, or John except through Freddie. THere may have been the odd meeting or two but nothing much. |
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Post by lambo on Sept 8, 2012 20:11:07 GMT -5
Freddie was a very complex man. He initially claimed he was bisexual but for the most part he was a gay man. There is a part of the documentary where Mary reveals that Freddie told her he thought he was bisexual and she replied that she thought he was gay. After his relationship with Mary dissolved though he only had one other female lover, Barbara Valentin. There was a large string of male lovers. I have come to the conclusion that he was in love with Mary but was highly attracted to men and preferred homosexual sex but Mary was always the love of his life. - Freddie was in LOVE with Mary Austin. This was claimed by both Mary and Freddie. In fact years later Freddie often said that he could never fall in love with a man the way he had with Mary and Mary could never be replaced...All his lovers asked why and he couldn't explain it. Freddie often claimed they were basically common-law married. I've seen lots of confusion over this, but it makes perfect sense to me. I'm still very much in love with my first girlfriend but it's love on an emotional level. I could have an emotional relationship with either gender but I'm only sexually attracted to men. Sexuality you're born with and there's no changing that but I think most people could build a strong emotional love towards either gender, which just might be suppressed depending on how prominent sexuality is in your life. If that makes sense  |
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talon
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Post by talon on Sept 9, 2012 6:33:25 GMT -5
It does make sense to me as I believe honestly that it's NEVER as black and white as people want it to be. I hesitated writing about it here as a few times I've gotten into conversation people ended up being very hostile towards my opinion saying I was trying to whitewash his homosexuality or that I couldn't accept that my hero was gay so I was rationalizing or something. I'm not at all. I just think that Jim was the most important man in his life and most of that came down to his loyalty and willingness to stay with Freddie despite Freddie contracting the horrible disease. BUT I think if you were to pick the love of Freddie's life, it would have to have been Mary....hell...as I'm about to write in a few days down the line, Love Of My Life was written by Freddie about Mary! I think that in a perfect Freddie world, Freddie and Mary would have been married and the whole nine, but he would have been free to go off to have homosexual sex if that makes sense. It wouldn't have been fair to Mary which is why Freddie ended it but sex was very important to Freddie and he couldn't give up men.
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Post by lambo on Sept 9, 2012 6:56:25 GMT -5
I don't see how anyone could consider it homophobic  Hard to exactly deny Freddie being gay, though there were never any male gender references in his songs right? Did he go from female ones to neutral at some point? |
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talon
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Post by talon on Sept 9, 2012 8:15:41 GMT -5
New album... A Night At The Opera A little background: - This was it. It was make or break time for the band. After Queen flopped for the most part, and then they had some success with Queen II and had hit stardom of sorts with Sheer Heart Attack the band was still basically paupers. It was time for them to break free from their management. They approached John Reid and with help from Jim Beach, John said go away and make the best album you can and I'll worry about the contract situation. - So the band basically said screw it and went off and while Queen was done on down time, Queen II allowed the band to really explore themselves in the studio at the time, and Sheer Heart Attack is where they really perfected their knowledge of studio... A Night At The Opera is where they decided to throw everything including the kitchen sink in with the recording of this album! - Cited by the band as their Sgt.Peppers the band was meticulous and perfectionist as they ranged from biting rockers, to gentle ballads, from space folk rock, to epic storytelling, from vaudeville to pop, this album really had it all! - Recorded between August and November of 1975 (except God Save The Queen which was recorded during the Sheer Heart Attack sessions. - The album was a massive success worldwide. It hit #4 in the US and #1 in the UK as well as #1 in Australia, #9 in Austria, #2 in Canada, #16 in France, #5 in Germany, #9 in Japan,#1 in the Netherlands, #1 in New Zealand, #4 in Norway, and #10 in Sweden - selling somewhere in the area of 10 million copies worldwide. - NO SYNTHS!Tracks on the album:1. Death On Two Legs (Dedicated to...) (Mercury) 2. Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon (Mercury) 3. I'm In Love With My Car (Taylor) 4. You're My Best Friend (Deacon) 5. '39 (May) 6. Sweet Lady (May) 7. Seaside Rendezvous (Mercury) 8. The Prophets Song (May) 9. Love Of My Life (Mercury) 10. Good Company (May) 11. Bohemian Rhapsody (Mercury) 12. God Save The Queen (arr. May) Rumored RecordingsWoe (?) - A track that was said to be recorded during these sessions or A Day At The Races sessions. All that is known is a name. It is unclear if this became a different song, or if it existed on it's own or indeed if it's myth at this point. First track upcoming... Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to...) |
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talon
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Post by talon on Sept 9, 2012 8:37:48 GMT -5
I don't see how anyone could consider it homophobic Hard to exactly deny Freddie being gay, though there were never any male gender references in his songs right? Did he go from female ones to neutral at some point? Yeah I don't know why they considered it homophobic. I think they may have been oversensitive due to some of the prejudices they may have felt - not sure *shrug* As far as lyrics go...That's a great question. Off the top of my head and I may be wrong, but I can only remember 3 instances of gender specificness in his lyrics. 99% of the time when Freddie wrote a love song it was always aimed specifically at the person so it was always you... The three times were: 1985 - Foolin Around - female So to a lady...of course they all had female nicknames in his group at that point (he was Melina ) so that's dubious. 1985 - Your Kind Of Lover - male So definitely out and out to a male (which always makes me really laugh when people say that Freddie never came out of the closet until he died. He never DENIED it. He didn't talk about it much or go into much detail...but he did say quite a few times that he had more lovers than Elizabeth Taylor - both male and female and that he was as gay as a daffodil. He just didn't talk about it much *shrug* and 1995 Mother Love - female **of course Freddie and Brian wrote this together so it may disqualify this song...although given the lyrical context and the time it was written, I think it was Freddie's last song about Mary - Brian hasn't talked much about it. They gave each other lyrics though... There may be more examples...ones I'm sure we'll discover as we go on if they exist! :D |
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talon
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Post by talon on Sept 9, 2012 9:17:12 GMT -5
Death On Two Legs (Dedicated to...)Written by: Freddie Mercury Musicians: Freddie Mercury - lead and backing vocals, piano Brian May - guitars, backing vocals John Deacon - bass guitar Roger Taylor - drums, backing vocals - Written by Freddie as a direct attack on their management. He declined to mention them by name but the management decided to sue him anways, and the publishing company paid them off. Of course by suing, they let the public know exactly who Freddie was talking about - Played live through The Game Tour and then never again after 1981...although Freddie would occasionally play the intro before another song. - Early title: "Psycho Legs" - Featured on Neil Fairclough's Name That Riff bass solo during the Queen + Adam Lambert tour in 2012. QUOTES: - " Death On Two Legs is the most vicious lyric I ever wrote. It’s so vindicitive that Brian felt bad singing it. I don’t like to explain what I was thinking when I wrote a song. I think that’s awful, just awful. When I’m dead, I want to be remembered as a musician of some worth and substance.” – Freddie Mercury - March 1977 - Circus Magazine OFFICIALLY RELEASED LIVE VERSION: LIVE KILLERS VERSION- Audio only. - The part beeped out is when Freddie introduces the subject as "a real motherfucker of a gentleman" UNRELEASED LIVE VERSIONS: LIVE IN OAKLAND - 1980- Audio only - BUT probably my favorite performance of the track. LIVE AT EARLS COURT - 1977- Video - and Freddie in that godawful unitard! :D LIVE AT HAMMERSMITH - 1979- Another great video of another great performance! DOCUMENTARY: THE MAKING OF DEATH ON TWO LEGSPERSONAL NOTES: - It is a very bitter bitter song. I love the classical piano intro, so suited to this particular album. Brian adds some great texture as does John's very fluid bass run. Great tune! Next up, Freddie does another short one - although this one is far more humorous and fun that his previous beautiful attempts...this one is Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon!
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Post by lambo on Sept 9, 2012 11:34:46 GMT -5
I love ballsy songs like this and Flick of the Wrist :D
BTW re: female gender references, doesn't he sing "there goes my baby, she knows how to rock n roll" in CLTCL?
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Hard to exactly deny Freddie being gay, though there were never any male gender references in his songs right? Did he go from female ones to neutral at some point?