Commentary

Freddie's life is an enigma and it is really only through his lyrics and music that we can come to some understanding of this riddle. Whereas it is true that he kept the meaning of what he wrote largely secret, we can, with some research and a lot of judicious guesswork, come to some further understanding of Freddie Mercury through his works.

Freddie's songs were emotional - there is no doubt about that. He preferred, on his own admission, the balladic type song where lyrics have meaning, not only in their literal interpretation, but in their context and also simply with their onomatopoeic sound quality and the way they relate with each other. In the earlier albums especially, Freddie's lyrics tended to be music in them selves. The sound of what is produced is as important as the meaning of those words. This is exemplified amply in later concerts where his vocal manipulations would lead the crowd in a charismatic display of leadership and unity through sound alone.

When you listen to others sing the songs of Freddie

there is always a sense of 'wrongness'. Certainly, he had a wide range (four octaves) and a powerful voice, but others have powerful voices and five octave ranges and still they cannot sing the songs as they should be. Queen songs are hard for others to sing as they are based around the ability of Freddie to infuse them with himself - something very few other singers either realise or can do. Often they are caught in the mire of 'he had a better range' or 'he had a different vocal quality' but in reality it is because they sing the songs. Freddie lived them.

His oft touted masterpiece of Bohemian Rhapsody is perhaps the quintessential song and should last as long as music itself. This piece of music is not his longest, nor is it the most complex, yet it is the dichotomy of it which most closely speaks of Freddie himself. The mix of opera with rock, the swinging moods throughout it more then the lyrics shows us who and what Freddie is. Many ask what it is about - well simply it is about someone who just killed someone and who is waiting on death row and going though their mind is a jumble of thoughts and feelings leading to a general acceptance of '..any way the wind