Happy birthday Farrokh Bulsara
62 years ago Farrokh Bulsara was born in Zanzibar, an island off the east coast of Africa, which is now part of Tanzania, but was then a British colony. His parents were Parsis, citizens of India of Iranian origin and practitioners of the Zoroastrian religion. As young Farrokh played in the island sands and balmy breezes, it’s unlikely he would have foreseen the life ahead of him. It’s doubtful that he could have foreseen that his creations would move people attending athletic events in vast stadiums throughout the world to leap to their feet and chant. He probably didn’t even know there was a National Football League a world away in the United States, where his words would become a part of every game.
When he was of age to start his education, Farrokh’s parents sent him back to India, where he attended a boarding school near Bombay. There he didn’t particularly distinguish himself, but he did take piano lessons and formed a band that played at school functions. After completing his education in India, he moved back to Zanzibar to live with his parents. During the revolution in 1964, the Bulsara family fled Zanzibar for London, where Farrokh began his college education. After a few stops and starts, he ultimately obtained a degree in Art and Graphic Design from a small technical college.
After graduation Bulsara took on a series of jobs including selling second-hand clothing and working in the baggage area of Heathrow airport. As he drifted from job to job, none of which involved art or graphic design, he formed or joined a few bands, all of which failed. Despite his dead end jobs, his keen interest and focus on music kept him inspired and constantly on the prowl for a band to join. In 1970 he teamed up with the members of a failed band called Smile to form yet another band. Farrokh overcame the resistance of other band members and named the new group Queen, then changed his own name to Freddie Mercury and launched himself into the pantheon of Rock immortals.
Although untrained as a singer, Freddie Mercury was endowed with a spectacular 3.5-4 octave range voice. As a consequence, you don’t see many groups out now doing Queen music, at least not as Freddie did it. There are countless Beatles imitators out there because though the Beatles were clever songwriters, they didn’t have particularly great voices. Their sound is easy to reproduce with fairly ordinary singers – even John Lennon’s sort of whiny voice. Elvis impersonators are a dime a dozen for the same reason. And all of them sound pretty much just like the King. Not so with Freddie. Few can match his vocal range.
Here is Freddie singing a song he wrote called Killer Queen. Ignore the camp (it was all part of Queen’s early shtick) and focus on the range of his voice and the ease with which he hits all the right notes.
Not long after Luciano Pavarotti died I posted a video of a pop singer compared to a trained opera singer at the height of his powers. There was really no comparison. Freddie, however, could hold his own. Here he is in concert with Montserrat Caballé.
As MD pointed out after having watched this video, it’s apparent that Freddie wasn’t formally trained because he sings from his throat. Which is one of the reasons he developed vocal nodules as he aged.
Not only was Mercury a phenomenal singing talent, he was no slouch as a songwriter. Most of the greatest Queen hits were penned by Freddie. Queen and Freddie pioneered the use of video to promote their music and were really the first to perform stadium rock. Freddie wrote two of the songs that are staples at athletic events throughout the world today: We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions. Here he is performing these songs before God only knows how many people in Wembley Stadium.
In what could have been Mercury’s theme song about his own life of excess and flaming out early, here is the group performing another Freddie-written song, Don’t Stop Me Now.
You can better understand the quality of Freddie’s voice when you see someone else with an excellent voice try to duplicate it as this guy does on American Idol. Notice how he can’t hit the high notes at the end and so he bails out and drops them down an octave or two. Link here. For some reason I couldn’t get this YouTube to embed.
Now here is Freddie performing Bohemian Rhapsody, a song he wrote considered by many to be the greatest rock song ever written. Listening to this, you can see that Queen was truly a choral group, which is why MD likes them so much. (Every time I hear the line in this song that goes “Spare him his life from this monstrosity” I always think of all the PBs (poor bast**ds) who get frightened by their misinformed doctors into going on a lifetime of statin drugs unnecessarily.)
MD is afraid that you all will think I have a man crush on Freddie Mercury. I really don’t, but I am mesmerized by the range and quality of his voice. And by his songwriting ability. It’s almost unimaginable that he was able to do the musical things he did without any formal voice or musical training other than the same piano lessons countless others have taken in childhood and ultimately forgotten.
I hope you all have appreciated this little break from nutrition (I needed it after that last post), and I hope you enjoyed these videos as much as I did tracking them down and watching them myself.
Paul Rogers was also the lead singer of the Firm..Jimm Page, Chris Slade and Tony Franklin and also the awful The Law..he and Kenny Jones from Le Who and le Small Faces.
There are no impersonators? I tend to disagree, when I was in Ireland on the Millennium eve, I went with a friend to a night club in Bir (small town with an interesting past (housed for nearly 100 years the biggest telescope in the world and was the first town in Europe to be electrified) in the middle of the country). There was a live performing band in that club, that played all the Queen classics nearly perfectly, while it is true that the singer could not achieve the highest notes of Freddy Mercury the performance was really, really top class. The singer even looked like him (a bit shorter and more muscular ) and the band was perfect. I’ve seen worse performers on paid concerts.
You don’t by chance remember the name of the group, do you? I didn’t say no one does Queen, I just said that Freddie impersonaters were not thick on the ground.
Ha! “A Night at the Opera” wasn’t the first album I bought with my own money (that was Pink Floyd’s DSotM) but it was the second… followed by Yes “Yessongs” and then an album of Jacqueline Du Pre on cello featuring the Saint-Seans concerto. Those were the days! Thanks for the post.
Lark
Speaking of Jacqueline du Pre, I’ve got a CD of her performing the Elgar concerto for cello. What a magnificent, beautifully haunting piece!
Thanks for this, it’s a nice diversion and some new info for me. I knew he was Indian but I didn’t know his name. My wife and I are fans of his and love seeing the taped concerts when they’re on TV. I used to listen to that album on 8 track tape when I was in college. I nearly drove my friend crazy playing that tape every single day on our way to CCNY. It was his car AND it was his tape. I love the song “You’re my Best Friend.”
Actually, he was a citizen of India, but he was of Iranian heritage.
Actually…just to give credit where it’s due, Brian May, who just got his PhD, wrote ‘We Will Rock You’.
You are correct. My mistake. Brian May just got his Ph.D. in astrophysics, so he’s no dummy. Not a bad rock guitarist, either.
If you are looking for good Freddie impersonators/Queen tribute bands you should check out:
- Gary Mullen & The Works ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKu4EOAMjc4 ). His Freddie mannerisms are spot on and so is the voice even though he’s a little scrawny. He definitely needs more protein in his diet…
- Queen for a Day ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGKfbj5S83I ) for the pre-moustache stadium era of Freddie (around 79). The singer’s name is Gregory Finsley. No protein shortage here…
Those two really nail the voice!
- Queen Nation ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_p09LAuvWs ). Good singer (does an even better Robert Plant with Led Zepplica) even though there’s no vocal resemblance to Freddie. I like the left handed Brian May though. Correct hair, attire & guitar go a long way.
Here’s two treats:
-Gregory Finsley of Queen for a Day but with Queen Nation as his backing band
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCVjPhnUkRM
-Queen Nation with special guest David Bowie (sort of…)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTn0_VPBKCo
There’s more Queen tribute bands out there. YouTube is full of them…
Just for laughs check out this guy. He even goes so far as to wear a fake overbite!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX__j4xQEoI
Also funny is the far east fraction:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdHLcOrIZz8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE9f3eC4FzM
Some of these guys are pretty good. Now let them write the songs, and I’ll really be impressed. Thanks for the links. I had fun going through them.
Hi Doc,
Sorry Bolly’s not your cup of chai. And FM obviously moved right away from the idiom of Bollywood. But, you must remember that the Parsis are possibly the most prominent community of Bombay (now Mumbai), and my point was he must have been immersed in these marvelous singing voices, even in Tanzania. Different songs (though they sound much the same to us) but still the same singers: Asha and Latta and the rest.
But he also was gifted as well. Look at his huge chest and his very high cheekbones, which as Joan Sutherland pointed out, meant that he had large resonating cavities in his sinuses.
But then, if you listen to the average Indian humming, they sing much better than we do because of the exposure from childhood to such great singing on the radio.
Enjoy the melodies of India — in 15 years’ time!
Michael
Interesting. Thanks for the enlightenment. I’ll take all I can get where music comes along.
Cheers–
MRE
Mike,
I really agree with your point about the difference between performers and singer-songwriters. My favorites are the singer songwriters. It’s just such a rare talent to do both, as Freddy had. Some that come to mind are Paul Simon, Shawn Colvin, Neil Young and Gordon Lightfoot.
But I have to say that my all time favorite musician, who is a singer-songwriter, is Joni Mitchell. She is just so talented, almost to a freaky point like Freddy. She is known for inventing her own guitar tunings to the point that others couldn’t follow. I remember a few years back when Scientific American had an article about the various forms of genius, they had a picture of Joni as the example of musical genius.
Just a quick story about Joni. I was so taken by her music when I was in college in the late ’70s ( I think it was ’78) that I organized my friends to drive up with me from Seattle to Vancouver BC to see her live in concert. This was the show where she appeared with Pat Metheny and Jaco Pastorius, who would become great men of jazz.
So here we are, my friends and I, packed into my junker station wagon, driving to Vancouver from Seattle. We get to Vancouver proper, pull up to a red light next to a big limousine, and lo and behold Joni Mitchell is in the limo! We all start waving at her and she was very nice and waved back with enthusiasm! My brush with greatness! I’ll never forget that.
One of my all time favorite Joni Mitchell songs is “River”. So melancholy and so sweet and pure and heartfelt and great vocal range. Here’s a youtube of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVwo9IQMWM0
Thanks for the link. I watched it and roamed through a few other Joni Mitchell videos. Pretty remarkable.
i think R Taylor hit many of the high notes attributed to the Pursing Parsi
After Freddy passed guitarist Brian May put out a solo album called “Back to the Light.” The Brian May Band toured a bunch of small clubs here in the US and I was lucky to see him in Providence, RI. They played a few songs from “Back to the Light” but most of the concert was Queen hard rock songs. I expected Brian May’s vocals to be weak but I was VERY impressed as he belted them out. As far as I am concerned that is the closest I am ever going to get to seeing Queen and I will die happy for it. They were, hands down, the best live band anyone has ever seen. Live Aid proves it but try to find footage of Queen Live in Rio. They were the headline act closing the one of Rio’s famous festivals/carnivals. I don’t know if they still hold the “biggest ever” record for that show but I believe there was 350,000 people there. Freddy was in Heaven.
Ignore the schtick?! That is as great as the songs themselves, imo! Man, I often forget how much I love Freddy Mercury… I have a big-time man crush, what a man he was indeed. I sent this post to a bunch of people who care little to none about how much carbage they eat, and I am sure they’ll all love it. Great post, moochas gracious!
Glad you enjoyed it.
Cheers–
MRE
Hi Dr. Mike,
If you don’t mind me asking, what’s your hi-fi system? I’m guessing not an iPod and earbuds. I can see you as an audio aficionado.
Guy
You missed the boat on this one. I love good music, and I love to listen to a great sound system. But, I don’t think we own one. And the one we have, I don’t even know how to turn on. I’m serious. I have to get MD to turn the thing on, put the CDs in, etc. I’m clueless. Same with the TV (we have a complicated system). If there happens to be something I want to watch, she has to set it up. If I want to watch something that comes on while she’s gone, I have to get her to turn the TV on before she leaves and set it to the correct channel. When it’s time to watch whatever I want to watch, I drag out of my study and go down and watch it. It’s pitiful.
RIP Freddy
Not a huge queen fan but this guy was definitely special.
Count me among those who enjoyed your digression. Freddie Mercury was, without even a near-rival, the greatest rock-and-roll front man in history. The voice was peerless, and he commanded a stage like nobody else.
I am so glad you posted this. I am a music teacher and I am trying to get my students to become as appreciative of the rockers of yore, as they are of Beethoven and Debussy. I never really listened to much of Queen, but I can tell you that their music was theatrical to say the least ( I loved the bow that Freddie took in the “We Will Rock You” video ). I always valued Freddie Mercury’s voice. The elementary band that i teach played ” We Will Rock You” for their Spring concert last year. When I began reading your post I thought to myself ” Hmmm, he looks just like Freddie Mercury .
I’m glad you enjoyed the post.
Freddie Mercury was immensely talented. What made Queen stand out was their rather unique sounding vocal harmonies. This, coupled with Brian May’s rich guitar tone, made them rock legends. Their musical contribution to the 1980′s Flash Gordon, made the movie. It wouldn’t have been the same without them. Unfortunately, Mercury chose to live a sexually degenerate lifestyle that resulted in his untimely death. He could have given us many more years of great music.
thank you for sharing and remembering The Most remarkable man who ever lived , there truly will never be anyone like Farrohk Bulsara /Freddie Mercury I;ll never forget him ever Freddie If you can hear me ” I still Love you “” My Bijou Keepin yor memorie alive