Monday
Sep052016
An Asteroid For Freddy
Monday, September 5, 2016 at 08:02AM
Happy Labor Day! No work for me today, just rest. Be sure to check out this little tidbit from Classic Rock: an asteroid was just named after Freddy Mercury. Cool stuff.
An asteroid has been named in honour of @QueenWillRock's Freddie Mercury https://t.co/HCJX9GXEAa pic.twitter.com/gOG3U9uelG
— Classic Rock (@ClassicRockMag) September 5, 2016
Reader Comments (7)
I never really got their music (obviously, I like a few of their songs). But I sure as hell recognized their talent. Even when I was going "Wait? What?" while watching them, it was surely the case that Mercury was a tractor-beam of energy and magnetism on stage. What can I say? I would watch their videos all the way through even though I didn't care for the music. That says something about Mercury, as well as the rest of the band. He was one of those performers--like a DLR, or a Plant, etc.--who by sheer force of will made you watch him. And, like them, he put an awful lot into the craft of what being front-man meant. Mercury realized that, while hooks and catchy songs matter, image counts for something. It fuses you with an audience in a way that gathers fans and keeps them, puzzles critics even as they discuss you, and draws in people who would otherwise not care one whit about your particular genre or take on music.
I also recall those days (really, merely a day) when he announced what everyone knew and then passed away. The stigma that was attached to AIDS, the way talented people had to guard against the truth even when it was plain to see (I think also of actors like Rock Hudson or Anthony Perkins, or the comedy--which I loved--of people like Eddie Murphy that only contributed to the ignorance and fear).
We live in a different world now. A world with more compassion, and more options, for people on both sides of the coin. But it is amazing to look back at the legacy of Mercury and think of all the static that surrounded such a glorious talent; some, yes, self-inflicted. While Mercury chose a path like Wilder and Bowie, protecting himself and his fans from the fate he was facing, he was also on a path that was--in its time--so burdened with ignorance: not only of what causes it, but also of what it means. Imagine facing a death sentence, only to have it also induce cackles of cruelty and fears--real and imagined (recall Linda Evans reaction to Hudson's death)--regarding what it foretold about who you were as a person?
And, here again, I want to be clear: Mercury was a reckless and restless soul. But that burden, offering up a gift while also torturing yourself in the process, has been part and parcel of what a lot of gifted artists have chosen over the course of centuries. Imagine what his final weeks and months might have been like in, say, 2001 or 2010, instead of 1991? If he, like people such as Magic Johnson, had available to him options and an openness that offered another line of opportunity? Not that he would have taken it necessarily. I am no oracle. But . . . what if? And that "what if" is qualified by this fact: Johnson announced his HIV diagnosis on Nov. 7, 1991. That was less than three weeks _before_ Mercury died. Time moves in fits and starts that are hard to fathom [and, yes, I realize that the diagnosis of HIV and AIDS are miles apart, but you hopefully get my point].
I tend to side with Deacon on the legacy of Queen. It started, and stopped, with Mercury. Though I am sure the truer fans that want to hear snippets of that legacy are fine with the iterations that have come (and continue to come) since. Which is all well and good. We metal fans also have our share of bands continuing on after continuing on makes sense (to us or to outsiders). Just as we assuredly have our heroes who are gay and also those who have transitioned (Marcie Free being the obvious example). But that is a digression.
Asteroids are considered minor planets. Nothing about Mercury was minor. And his impact on music, in all its facets, lives on. Cool that we can continue to celebrate a legacy like his.
And HIM, I do get what you mean about some of their tunes -- "Radio Ga-Ga" leaves me cold. But listen to "Tie Your Mother Down", "Stone Cold Crazy", "Killer Queen" or their magnum opus, "Bohemian Rhapsody", to be reminded of the majesty of Queen that makes mere mortals name asteroids after them or fast rack 'em into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame!