Freddie Mercury

Freddie Mercury

Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara; 5 September, 1946 – 24 November, 1991) was a British musician, best known as the lead singer of the English rock band Queen. He is remembered for his vocal abilities and for his live performances. As a songwriter, he composed many international hits, including "Killer Queen", "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Somebody to Love", "We Are the Champions" and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love". Mercury died from complication of AIDS, greatly heightening worldwide awareness of the disease.

Early Years

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Mercury (on right) with his college friends in 1964, after a lunchtime drink.

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Mercury (third from right) at college with his friends in 1964.

Freddie Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara on the African island of Zanzibar, at the time a British colony, now part of Tanzania. His parents, Bomi Bulsara and Jer Bulsara, were Parsis from India who practiced the ancient Zoroastrian religion. The family had emigrated to Zanzibar in order for Bomi to continue his job as a middle-ranking cashier at the British Colonial Office. Mercury had one younger sister, Kashmira.

Mercury was sent back to India to attend St. Peter's School, a boarding school for boys at Panchgani near Bombay (now Mumbai). At St. Peter's, he was a bright student who excelled at sports and learned to play the piano. At school, he formed a popular school band for which he played the piano. Mercury remained in India for most of his childhood, living with his grandmother and aunt. He completed his education in India at St. Mary's (ISC) High School in Mazagon before returning to Zanzibar.

At the age of 17, Freddie Mercury and his family were forced to flee from Zanzibar to England as a result of the 1964 Zanzibar Revolution. The family moved into a small house in the suburban town of Feltham outside London. Mercury enrolled at Isleworth Polytechnic (now West Thames College) in West London where he studied art. He ultimately earned a Diploma in Art and Graphic Design at Ealing Art College, later using these skills in order to design the Queen crest.

Following graduation, Mercury joined a series of bands and sold second-hand clothes in the Kensington Market in London. He also held a job at Heathrow Airport. Friends from the time remembered Mercury as a quiet and shy student who showed a great deal of interest in music. By 1971 he joined with guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor to form a new band, which would eventually become Queen, when John Deacon later joined through auditions. Despite reservations from two of the other members, Mercury chose the name "Queen" for the band.

Musician

Singer

Widely considered one of the greatest vocalists in popular music, Freddie Mercury possessed a very distinctive voice, including a recorded range of nearly four octaves. Although his speaking voice naturally fell in the baritone range, he delivered most songs in the tenor range. Another characteristic of his voice involved his powerful delivery of technically difficult material. On the other hand, perhaps in part because he suffered from vocal nodules (refusing surgery for the condition), he would often lower the highest notes during live performances. Mercury also claimed never to have had any formal training. Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé, with whom Mercury recorded an album expressed her opinion that "The difference between Freddie and almost all the other rock stars was he was selling the voice."

Songwriter

Mercury wrote ten out of the seventeen songs on Queen's Greatest Hits album: "Seven Seas of Rhye", "Killer Queen", "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Somebody to Love", "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy", "We Are the Champions", "Bicycle Race", "Don't Stop Me Now", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", and "Play the Game". However, by the 1980s, all four members of the band were writing hits. The most notable aspect of his songwriting involved the wide range of different genres that he used, which included, among other styles, rockabilly, heavy metal and disco. Compared to many rock songwriters, Mercury tended to write musically complex material. For example, "Bohemian Rhapsody" is acyclic in structure and comprises nearly sixty chords. On the other hand, "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" is made up of only a few chords. Despite the fact that Mercury often wrote very intricate harmonies, he also claimed that he could barely read music. Singer Axl Rose said of Mercury's songwriting, "If I didn’t have Freddie Mercury’s lyrics to hold on to as a kid, I don’t know where I would be. It taught me about all forms of music. It would open my mind. I never really had a bigger teacher in my whole life." Nevertheless, Queen albums were generally not popular with rock music critics (See Criticism and Controversy section below).

Although all four members of the band Queen were songwriters, producer Gary Langan, who worked in the studio with Queen on many of their early albums, notes that "Freddie was always intensely supportive of other people's songwriting and would give as much attention to one of the others as he would to his own. It was so unlike other bands I've worked with where there is an acknowledged songwriter and anyone else who writes one really has to hassle to get it anywhere." Mercury wrote most of his songs on the piano, often choosing keys that were technically difficult for band mate and guitarist Brian May (e.g., E flat major). Due to his basic proficiency in playing the guitar, he also wrote many lines and riffs for the instrument, including many of those heard in "Bohemian Rhapsody." He also wrote "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" on the guitar and would play a guitar onstage when performing the song.

Performer

Mercury is noted for his live performances, which were often delivered to stadium audiences around the world. As a performer, he displayed a highly theatrical style that often invoked a great deal of participation from the crowd. One of Mercury's most notable performances took place at Live Aid in 1985, during which the entire stadium audience of 72,000 people clapped, sang, and swayed in unison. Mercury's performance at the event has since been voted as the greatest live performance in the history of rock music. In reviewing Live Aid in 2005, one critic wrote, "Those who compile lists of Great Rock Frontmen and award the top spots to Mick Jagger, Robert Plant et al. are guilty of a terrible oversight. Freddie, as evidenced by his Dionysian Live Aid performance, was easily the most godlike of them all."

Over the course of his career, Mercury performed an estimated 700 concerts in countries around the world with Queen. The band was the first ever to play South American stadiums, breaking worldwide records for concert attendance in Brazil. In 1986, Queen was also the first to play behind the Iron Curtain, when it played to a crowd of 80,000 in Budapest. Mercury's final live performance with Queen, which drew an estimated attendance of 150,000, took place on August 9th, 1986 at Knebworth Park in England. Rock star David Bowie, who performed at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert and recorded the song "Under Pressure" with Queen said of Mercury, "Of all the more theatrical rock performers, Freddie took it further than the rest." ... "He took it over the edge. And of course, I always admired a man who wears tights. I only saw him in concert once, and as they say, he was definitely a man who could hold an audience in the palm of his hand. He could always turn a cliché to his advantage."

Instrumentalist

Mercury played the piano in many of Queen's most popular songs. He used concert grand pianos and, in the studio, various keyboard instruments such as organs, harpsichords and an upright piano. From 1979 onwards also he made extensive use of synthesizers in the studio. Although he was not a virtuoso pianist, his contributions were generally very original, with a particular emphasis upon rhythm. Notable examples include "The March of the Black Queen" (Queen II), "Killer Queen" (Sheer Heart Attack), "Death on Two Legs" and "Love of My Life" (A Night at the Opera), "We Are the Champions" and "My Melancholy Blues" (News of the World), "Bicycle Race" and "Don't Stop Me Now" (Jazz). According to Brian May on the Making of 'A Night at the Opera' DVD, Mercury didn't think much of his piano playing and began doing it less and less as time went on.

Mercury began playing guitar in late 1960s, partly because he was a devoted fan of Jimi Hendrix and partly because his songwriting was more oriented towards hard rock and heavy metal. Peter Jones, his driver, is quoted to have said on an online forum recently that "in the studio nobody could get him off the damn thing" (referring to the guitar). From 1979 to 1986, Mercury played guitar live on all concerts during "Crazy Little Thing Called Love."

Producer

Mercury was also a producer both for Queen and for other musicians, including produced artists such as Eddie Howell and Peter Straker. He was frequently involved in mixing Queen material, both his own creations and others'. For instance, the album and single versions of Taylor's "A Kind of Magic" were entirely produced by Mercury and David Richards.

Solo career

In addition to his work with Queen, Mercury produced two solo albums, Mr. Bad Guy and Barcelona, released in 1985 and 1988, respectively. The former was a pop-oriented album that emphasized disco and dance music. "Barcelona" was recorded with the opera singer Montserrat Caballé, whom Mercury had long admired.

Although it remained on the UK Album Charts for 23 weeks, Mr. Bad Guy was not considered to have been a commercial success relative to most Queen albums. However, in 1993, a remix of "Living on My Own", a single from the album, reached the #1 position on the UK Singles Charts. The song remained on the charts for thirteen weeks and garnered Mercury a posthumous Ivor Novello Award. All Music critic David Prato describes Mr. Bad Guy as "outstanding from start to finish" and expressed his view that Mercury "did a commendable job of stretching into uncharted territory." In particular, the album was heavily synthesizer-driven in a way that was uncharacteristic of previous Queen albums, save portions of 1984's The Works.

Barcelona, recorded with Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé, combined elements of popular music and opera. Caballé considered the album to have been one of the great successes of her career and said of Mercury, “He was not only a popular singer, he was a musician, that could sit at the piano and compose. He discovered a new way to bring different music styles together. He is the first and only person to have done this.” In September of 2006, a compilation album featuring Mercury’s solo work was released in the UK in honour of what would have been his sixtieth birthday. The album debuted in the top 10 of the UK Album Charts.

Over the years, rare Freddie Mercury solo albums have greatly increased in value. For instance, a Japanese single of the song “Guide Me Home” from the Barcelona album is now worth as much as £1,000 ($2,003). Another valuable item is a 1973 cover of the 1969 Beach Boys song, "I Can Hear Music" recorded under the stage name Larry Lurex. Widely bootlegged, the original record is now a valuable collectible.

Mercury collaborated with Michael Jackson on some tracks which were never officially released, including “There Must Be More to Life Than This” and “State of Shock”, which were both leaked to the Internet. “There Must Be More to Life Than This” was later released ‒ in a different, Mercury-only version, on Mercury's solo album “Mr. Bad Guy”. Mercury also recorded another track with Michael Jackson called "Victory" that has yet to be released to the public. “State of Shock”, released on the 1984 Victory album, was ultimately performed by Mick Jagger and The Jackson 5. Mercury was originally scheduled to appear on the Thriller album as well.

Personal life

In the early 1970s Mercury had a long-term relationship with a girlfriend named Mary Austin, with whom he lived for many years. However, by the mid-1970s, Mercury began an affair with a male record executive, which ultimately resulted in the end of his relationship with Austin. However, the two remained close friends through the years, and Mercury often referred to Austin as his only true friend. In a 1985 interview, Mercury said of Austin, "All my lovers asked me why they couldn't replace Mary (Austin), but it's simply impossible. The only friend I've got is Mary, and I don't want anybody else. To me, she was my common-law wife. To me, it was a marriage. We believe in each other, that's enough for me. I couldn't fall in love with a man the same way as I have with Mary." According to the DVD "The Making of 'A Night at the Opera,'" Freddie wrote several songs which were dedicated to Mary or were about Mary, the most notable of which is "Love Of My Life."

By 1980, Mercury began to frequent gay bathhouses and clubs in New York, where he met many short-term partners. By 1985 he began another long-term relationship with a hairdresser named Jim Hutton. Hutton lived with Mercury for the last six years of his life, cared for him when he was ill, and was at his bedside when he died. According to Hutton, Mercury referred to him as his husband, and died wearing a wedding band that Hutton had given him. Hutton later wrote a book about his relationship with Mercury called Mercury and Me.

Mercury possessed a notable overbite of his teeth that he had wanted to fix for many years. Early in his career, he commented that he wished to have work done, but regretted that he did not have time to do it.

According to the January 2004 edition of Cat Fancy, Mercury possessed a great fondness for cats, at one point owning as many as ten. Mercury's personal assistant, Peter Freestone, wrote that his boss "put as much importance on them [his cats] as any human life." The album Mr. Bad Guy and the song "Delilah" were dedicated to cats, and Mercury wore clothes featuring cats in videos (such as the video clip for "These Are the Days of Our Lives") and on album covers.

Influences

As a child, Mercury listened to a considerable amount of Indian music, and one of his early influences was the Bollywood playback singer, Lata Mangeshkar. According to Record Collector magazine, after moving to England, Mercury became a fan of Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon and The Beatles. Mercury said of Hendrix: “Jimi Hendrix is very important. He’s my idol. He sort of epitomizes, from his presentation on stage, the whole works of a rock star. There’s no way you can compare him. You either have the magic or you don’t. There’s no way you can work up to it. There’s nobody who can take his place." Another one of Mercury’s favorite performers was singer and actress Liza Minnelli. In a 1975 interview, he said of Minnelli: “Liza, in terms of sheer talent, just oozes with it. She has sheer energy and stamina, which she gets across the stage, and the way she delivers herself to the public is a good influence. There is a lot to learn from her.”

Death

According to Hutton in his book "Mercury and Me", Mercury was diagnosed with HIV in the spring of 1987. That same year, Mercury also claimed to have tested negative for the virus in a published interview. Due to his failing health over the next few years, Mercury and Queen stopped touring. Despite these denials, the British press continued to pursue the rampant rumours about his health, fueled by Mercury's physical appearance and by reports from former lovers to various tabloids. His gaunt appearance in his last video, "These Are the Days of Our Lives", suggested serious illness.

Mercury continued to record music in the studio until the month before he died. On November 22, 1991, Mercury called Queen's manager Jim Beach over to his Kensington home, to discuss a public statement. The next day, November 23, the following announcement was made to the press:

Following the enormous conjecture in the press over the last two weeks, I wish to confirm that I have been tested HIV positive and have AIDS. I felt it correct to keep this information private to date to protect the privacy of those around me. However, the time has come now for my friends and fans around the world to know the truth and I hope that everyone will join with my doctors and all those worldwide in the fight against this terrible disease. My privacy has always been very special to me and I am famous for my lack of interviews. Please understand this policy will continue.

A little over 24 hours after issuing the statement, Mercury died at the age of 45. The official cause of death was bronchial pneumonia resulting from AIDS. Although he had not attended religious services in years, Mercury's funeral was conducted by a Zoroastrian priest. It was tradition for those of the Zoroastrian religion to be cremated with all their possessions, as his parents were followers of the religion. He was cremated at Kensal Green Cemetery and the whereabouts of his ashes now are unknown, although some believe them to have been dispersed into Lake Geneva. In his will, Mercury left half of his wealth to his girlfriend, Mary Austin, and the other half to his parents and sister. He further left £500,000 to his chef, £500,000 to his personal assistant, £100,000 to his driver, and £500,000 to his partner, Jim Hutton. Mary Austin inherited his estate, where she now lives with her family.

In the spring of 1992, the remaining members of Queen founded The Mercury Phoenix Trust and organized The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness. The concert, which was broadcast around the world and had an attendance of 72,000, featured wide variety of guests such as Extreme, Elton John, Metallica, David Bowie, Annie Lennox, Tony Iommi, Guns N' Roses, Elizabeth Taylor, George Michael, Def Leppard and Liza Minnelli.

Criticism and controversy

Regarding sexual orientation

Mercury has been criticized for his unwillingness to publicly acknowledge both his sexual orientation as well as his Indian background. Critics have noted that Mercury never formally admitted to the public that he was gay. Others criticized Mercury's reluctance to admit his HIV status, saying that this gave the message to many fans that AIDS was a shameful disease. He also suggests that Mercury could have raised a great deal of money by speaking truthfully and honestly about his situation and his fight against AIDS. On the other hand, much awareness was also made possible as a result of the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, which was broadcast around the world. Shortly after his death, pop star Phil Collins said about Mercury,"I have the greatest admiration and a lot of affection for him. But if you go around living a pretty much promiscuous life, as he did, you always run the risk of AIDS."

Regarding ethnicity

Mercury has further been criticized for having kept his Indian background a secret from the public. He would sometimes refer to himself as "Persian," perhaps alluding to his identity as a Parsi. The Sunday Times noted that he "managed to avoid claiming the crown of Britain's first Indian pop star." Many friends expressed their view that Mercury felt ashamed of his ethnic origins and feared racial backlash in a country that had long been troubled with ethnic tensions. Bandmate Roger Taylor suggested that Mercury downplayed his heritage simply because he did not feel that it would fit well with his public persona.

Criticism from rock critics

Although Queen was always highly successful on a commercial level, in the 1970s the band often received poor reviews from rock music critics in magazines such as "NME" and "Rolling Stone." Many of these critics embraced the newly emerging punk rock movement and felt that Queen albums were full of over-produced songs. One Rolling Stone critic expressed his opinion that many of the songs on the band's 1974 Queen II album (largely written by Mercury) featured "histrionic vocals, abrupt and pointless compositional complexity, and a dearth of melody."

Controversies

Mercury and Queen were widely criticized in the 1980s for the fact that they broke a United Nations cultural boycott by performing a series of shows at Sun City, an entertainment complex in apartheid South Africa. As a result of these shows, Queen were placed on a United Nations list of blacklisted artists and was widely criticized in magazines such as NME.

Controversy arose in 1999 when a Royal Mail stamp was issued in honor of Mercury as part of the Millennium Stamp series. One journalist expressed the opinion that Mercury had lived a "degenerate lifestyle," making him an unsuitable subject for a stamp. The stamp caused further controversy because Queen drummer Roger Taylor could be seen in the background. At that time, members of the British Royal family were the only living people who usually appeared on stamps in the UK, although this policy has since changed.

A further controversy ensued in August 2006, when an organization calling itself the Islamic Mobilization and Propagation petitioned the Zanzibar government's culture ministry, demanding that a large-scale celebration of what would have been Mercury's sixtieth birthday be cancelled. The organization issued several complaints about the planned celebrations, including that Mercury was not a true Zanzibari and that he had lived a homosexual lifestyle not in accordance with the laws of Islam, the dominant religion of the island. The organization claimed that "associating Mercury with Zanzibar degrades our island as a place of Islam." The planned celebration was cancelled.

Legacy

Freddie Mercury statue in Montreux, Switzerland.

The Millennium Stamp featuring Freddie Mercury.

Lasting popularity

In the years since his death, Freddie Mercury and Queen have remained popular. Several popularity polls conducted over the past decade indicate that Mercury's reputation may in fact have been enhanced since his death. For instance, in 2002 he appeared in the 58th spot in a list of the "100 Greatest Britons", sponsored by the BBC and voted for by the public. He was further listed at the 52nd spot in a 2007 Japanese national survey of the 100 most "influential heroes." Other western entertainers on the Japanese list included Audrey Hepburn, John Lennon and Elvis Presley. Finally, despite the fact that he had been criticized by gay activitists for hiding his HIV status, author Paul Russell included Mercury in his book on the 100 most influential gay men and lesbians in his book "The Gay 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Gay Men and Lesbians, Past and Present." Other entertainers on Russell's list included Liberace and Rock Hudson.

In addition to its continuing popularity in the UK, Queen remains a popular international band as well. As an example, two of Mercury's songs, "We Are the Champions" and "Bohemian Rhapsody", have each been voted as the world's favorite song in two different polls. Whether Mercury's death in fact enhanced Queen's popularity is not clear. In the United States, where Queen's popularity had lagged in the 1980s, sales of Queen albums went up dramatically in 1992, the year following Mercury's death. At the same time, the movie Wayne's World, which featured "Bohemian Rhapsody," also came out that year. In a list of the greatest English language singers of the 20th century, compiled by BBC Radio, he was the highest-ranked hard rock vocalist, having been voted at the tenth spot. He also came in second in MTV's list of the 22 greatest singers of the past 25 years, having been beaten to the top spot by singer Mariah Carey.

A statue in Montreux, Switzerland (by Irena Sedlecka) has been erected as a tribute to Mercury. Beginning in 2003, fans from around the world gather in Switzerland on a yearly basis to pay tribute to the singer as part of the Freddie Mercury Montreux Memorial Day on September 1st and 2nd. A Royal Mail stamp was also issued in honor of Mercury as part of the Millennium Stamp series.

Finally, Mercury has recently been acknowledged as an influential person of Asian descent. In 2006, Time Asia magazine named Mercury as one of the most influential Asians of the past 60 years. The article credited Mercury with having "duplicated in popular music what other Indians—such as Salman Rushdie and Vikram Seth—have done in literature: taking the colonizer's art form and representing it in a manner richer and more dazzling than many Anglophones thought possible."

Quotations about Mercury by influential artists

• "When we lost Freddie, we not only lost a great personality, a man with a great sense of humor, a true showman, but we lost probably the best, the really, the best virtuoso rock 'n' roll singer of all time. He could sing anything in any style. He could change his style from line to line and, God, that's an art. And he was brilliant at it." — Roger Daltrey
• "When Freddie died, Queen ceased to exist." — David Bret
• "Of all the more theatrical rock performers, Freddie took it further than the rest." ... "He took it over the edge. And of course, I always admired a man who wears tights. I only saw him in concert once, and as they say, he was definitely a man who could hold an audience in the palm of his hand. He could always turn a cliché to his advantage." — rock star David Bowie, who recorded the song "Under Pressure" with Queen and performed at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert
• "The difference between Freddie and almost all the other rock stars was he was selling the voice." — opera singer Montserrat Caballé, who collaborated with Mercury on the Barcelona album
• Freddie Mercury was the one rock star mentioned in singer Kurt Cobain’s suicide note (1994): "I haven't felt the excitement of listening to as well as creating music along with reading and writing for too many years now. I feel guilty beyond words about these things. For example, when we’re backstage and the lights go out and the manic roar of the crowds begins, it doesn't affect me the way in which it did for Freddy [sic] Mercury who seemed to love, relish in the love and adoration from the crowd, which is something I totally admire and envy."
• Pop star Phil Collins was quoted as saying shortly after Mercury's death,"I have the greatest admiration and a lot of affection for him. But if you go around living a pretty much promiscuous life, as he did, you always run the risk of AIDS."
• Comedian Mike Myers, whose movie Wayne's World introduced "Bohemian Rhapsody" to a new generation of listeners, said of Mercury, "He had theatricality, he was larger than life, new, fresh, cool. This is a god that walks as man."
• Although singer Axl Rose has long been criticized by gay activists, he was a Freddie Mercury fan. He has been quoted as saying, "If I didn’t have Freddie Mercury’s lyrics to hold on to as a kid, I don’t know where I would be. It taught me about all forms of music. It would open my mind. I never really had a bigger teacher in my whole life." Rose also performed “We Will Rock You” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” with Elton John at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert.

Discography

Main article: Freddie Mercury discography

See also: Queen discography

Instruments used by Mercury

Keyboards

Grand pianos:

• Baldwin SD10 Concert Grand
• Bechstein D Concert Grand
• Bechstein S Baby Grand
• Bösendorfer Imperial Concert Grand
• Kawai RX7 Concert Grand
• Steinway D Concert Grand
• Steinway S Baby Grand
• White Baby Grand (unknown brand)
• Yamaha C1 Baby Grand
• Yamaha C7 Concert Grand
• Yamaha CFIIIS Concert Grand

Upright pianos:

• Chappell
• Upright (unknown brand)

Electronic pianos:

• Roland RD1000
• Wurlitzer EP200
• Yamaha CP80

Synthesizers and samplers:

• E-mu Emulator II+
• Fairlight CMIIIS
• Korg M1
• Kurzweil K250
• Oberheim OB8
• Oberheim OBX
• Oberheim OBXA
• Roland Jupiter 8
• Yamaha DX7

Other keyboard:

• Hammond organ
• Harpsichord (unknown brand)

Other

Guitars:

• Ovation 12-string
• White Fender Telecaster

Further reading

• Boyce, Simon (1995), Freddie Mercury, Bristol: Parragon, ISBN 9780752511054
• Clarke, Ross (1991), Freddie Mercury: A Kind of Magic, Oxted: Kingsfleet Publications, ISBN 9781874130017
• Freestone, Peter (1998), Mister Mercury, London: Tusitala, ISBN 9780953334100
• Jones, Lesley-Ann (1998), Freddie Mercury: The Definitive Biography, London: Coronet, ISBN 9780340672099
• Hudson, Jeffrey (1995), Freddie Mercury & Queen, Chessington, Surrey: Castle Communications, ISBN 9781860740404
• Mercury, Freddie; Brooks, Greg; Lupton, Simon (2006), Freddie Mercury: A life, In His Own Words, London: Mercury Songs Limited, ISBN 9780955375804
• Sky, Rick (1992), The Show Must Go On, London: Fontana, ISBN 9780006378433

References

• Evans, David; Minns, David (1992), Freddie Mercury: This is the Real Life, London: Britannia, ISBN 9780951993712
• Freestone, Peter (1999), Freddie Mercury: An Intimate Memoir By the Man Who Knew Him Best, London: Omnibus Press, ISBN 9780711978010
• Gunn, Jacky; Jenkins, Jim (1992), Queen: As It Began, London: Sidgwick & Jackson, ISBN 9780330332590
• Jackson, Laura (1997), Mercury: The King of Queen, London: Smith Gryphon, ISBN 9781856851329
• Hutton, Jim; Waspshott, Tim (1994), Mercury and Me, London: Bloomsbury, ISBN 9780747519225

External links

• Freddie Mercury at AllMusic
• Template:Last.fm
• Freddie Mercury Tribute at Respectance.com
• Freddie Mercury at IMDb
• Template:Nndb
• Freddie Mercury Montreux Statue
• Queen Encylopedia
• Lyrics of Freddie Mercury and Queen

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