Queen are an English rock band originally consisting of four members: vocalist and pianist Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, bass guitarist John Deacon, and drummer Roger Taylor.The band formed in London in 1970 after May and Taylor's former band Smile split after having released an album and single. Freddie replaced lead vocalist Tim Staffell, after the latter's departure from the. British rock band Queen consisted of vocalist Freddie Mercury (d. 1991), guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor, and bassist John Deacon (r. Founded in 1970, Queen released their self-titled debut album in 1973. Despite not being an immediate success, Queen gained popularity in Britain with their second album Queen II in 1974. Their 1975 song, 'Bohemian Rhapsody', was number 1 for.

A still from music video for the song 'Oh, Oh!' (featuring Angelika) by the singer.A music video is a that integrates a with imagery, and is produced for or purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a device intended to promote the sale of. There are also cases where songs are used in marketing campaigns that allow them to become more than just a song. Tie-ins and merchandising can be used for toys or for food or other products.Although the origins of the music video date back to that first appeared in the 1920s, they again came into prominence in the 1980s when the channel (originally 'Music Television') based its format around the medium. Prior to the 1980s, these kinds of videos were described by various terms including ', 'filmed insert', 'promotional (promo) film', 'promotional clip', 'promotional video', 'song video', 'song clip' or 'film clip'.Music videos use a wide range of styles and contemporary video-making techniques, including, and non-narrative approaches such as.

Some music videos combine different styles with the music, such as animation and live action. Combining these styles and techniques has become more popular because of the variety for the audience. Many music videos interpret images and scenes from the song's lyrics, while others take a more thematic approach. Other music videos may not have any concept, being merely a filmed version of the song's live concert performance.Music Video by ft.

Is the most watched Music Video on YouTube.In 1894, publishers Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern hired electrician George Thomas and various performers to promote sales of their song '. Using a, Thomas projected a series of still images on a screen simultaneous to live performances. This would become a popular form of entertainment known as the, the first step toward music video. 1926–1959: Talkies, soundies, and shorts In 1926, with the arrival of ' many were produced. Shorts (produced by ) featured many bands, vocalists and dancers.

Animation artist introduced a series of sing-along short cartoons called, which invited audiences to sing along to popular songs by 'following the bouncing ball', which is similar to a modern karaoke machine. Early 1930s cartoons featured popular musicians performing their hit songs on-camera in live-action segments during the. The early animated films by, such as the shorts and especially, which featured several interpretations of classical pieces, were built around music.

The cartoons, even today billed as and, were initially fashioned around specific songs from upcoming Warner Bros. Live action musical shorts, featuring such popular performers as, were also distributed to theaters.singer appeared in a two-reel short film called (1929) featuring a dramatized performance of the hit song. Numerous other musicians appeared in short musical subjects during this period., produced and released from 1940 to 1947, were musical films that often included short dance sequences, similar to later music videos.In the mid-1940s, musician made short films for his songs, some of which were spliced together into a feature film,. These films were, according to music historian, the 'ancestors' of music video.

The Beatles in Help!were being released in the mid-1960s, at least as early as 1964, with the.The monochrome 1965 clip for 's ' filmed by was featured in Pennebaker's Dylan film documentary. Eschewing any attempt to simulate performance or present a narrative, the clip shows Dylan standing in a city back alley, silently shuffling a series of large cue cards (bearing key words from the song's lyrics).

Many 'filmed inserts' were produced by UK artists so they could be screened on TV when the bands were not available to appear live. Were pioneers in producing promotional films for their songs including ', directed by, ', ' and ', the latter directed by, who also made several pioneering clips for between 1966 and 1968. In the UK made one of the first ' promotional clips for a song. For their single ' (1966) a miniature comic movie was made. The BBC reportedly refused to air the clip because it was considered to be in 'poor taste'. Featured in several promotional clips in this period, beginning with their 1965 clip for '. Their plot clip for ' (1966) shows the band acting like a gang of thieves.

The promo film to 'Call Me Lightning' (1968) tells a story of how drummer came to join the group: The other three band members are having tea inside what looks like an abandoned hangar when suddenly a 'bleeding box' arrives, out of which jumps a fast-running, time lapse, Moon that the other members subsequently try to get a hold of in a sped-up slapstick chasing sequence to wind him down. In 1966, filmed a clip for her song '. Appeared in promotional clips, such as his 1968 hit, 'Walk On'.The Rolling Stones appeared in many promotional clips for their songs in the 1960s. In 1966, directed two promo clips for their single ' In 1967, Whitehead directed a plot clip colour promo clip for the Stones single ', which first aired in August 1967. This clip featured sped-up footage of the group recording in the studio, intercut with a mock trial that clearly alludes to the drug prosecutions of and underway at that time.

Jagger's girlfriend appears in the trial scenes and presents the 'judge' (Richards) with what may be the infamous fur rug that had featured so prominently in the press reports of the drug bust at Richards' house in early 1967. When it is pulled back, it reveals an apparently naked Jagger with chains around his ankles. The clip concludes with scenes of the Stones in the studio intercut with footage that had previously been used in the 'concert version' promo clip for 'Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby'.

The group also filmed a colour promo clip for the song '2000 Light Years From Home' (from their album ) directed. In 1968, Michael Lindsay-Hogg directed three clips for their single ' / 'Child Of The Moon'—a colour clip for 'Child Of The Moon' and two different clips for 'Jumpin' Jack Flash'. In 1968, they collaborated with on the film, which mixed Godard's politics with documentary footage of the song's evolution during recording sessions.During late 1972–73 featured in a series of promotional films directed by pop photographer, who worked extensively with Bowie in this period. Rock directed and edited four clips to promote four consecutive David Bowie singles—' (May 1972), ' (Nov.

1972), the December 1972 US re-release of ' and the 1973 release of the single ' (lifted from Bowie's earlier album ). The clip for 'John, I'm Only Dancing' was made with a budget of just 200 and filmed at the afternoon rehearsal for Bowie's concert on August 19, 1972. It shows Bowie and band miming to the record intercut with footage of Bowie's dancers dancing on stage and behind a back-lit screen. The clip was turned down by the BBC, who reportedly found the homosexual overtones of the film distasteful, accordingly Top of the Pops replaced it with footage of bikers and a dancer. The 'Jean Genie' clip, produced for just US$350, was shot in one day and edited in less than two days. It intercuts footage of Bowie and band in concert with contrasting footage of the group in a photographic studio, wearing black stage outfits and standing against a white background. It also includes location footage with Bowie and (a MainMan employee and a friend of David and ) shot in San Francisco outside the famous, with Fox posing provocatively in the street while Bowie lounges against the wall, smoking.Country music also picked up on the trend of promotional film clips to publicize songs.

Sam Lovullo, the producer of the television series, said his show presented 'what were, in reality, the first musical videos,' while JMI Records made the same claim with ' 1973 song 'The Shelter of Your Eyes'. Country music historian Bob Millard wrote that JMI had pioneered the country music video concept by 'producing a 3-minute film' to go along with Williams' song. Lovullo said his videos were conceptualized by having the show's staff go to nearby rural areas and film animals and farmers, before editing the footage to fit the storyline of a particular song. 'The video material was a very workable production item for the show,' he wrote. 'It provided picture stories for songs. However, some of our guests felt the videos took attention away from their live performances, which they hoped would promote record sales. If they had a hit song, they didn't want to play it under comic barnyard footage.'

The concept's mixed reaction eventually spelled an end to the 'video' concept on Hee Haw. Promotional films of country music songs, however, continued to be produced.1974–1980: Beginnings of music television The Australian TV shows and, both of which premiered in 1974, were significant in developing and popularizing what would later become the music video genre in Australia and other countries, and in establishing the importance of promotional film clips as a means of promoting both emerging acts and new releases by established acts.

In early 1974, former radio DJ launched a weekly teen-oriented TV music show which screened on 's on Saturday mornings; this was renamed Sounds Unlimited in 1975 and later shortened simply to Sounds. In need of material for the show, Webb approached Seven newsroom staffer and asked him to shoot film footage to accompany popular songs for which there were no purpose-made clips (e.g. Using this method, Webb and Mulcahy assembled a collection of about 25 clips for the show. The success of his early efforts encouraged Mulcahy to quit his TV job and become a full-time director, and he made clips for several popular Australian acts including,. As it gained popularity, Countdown talent coordinator and producer Michael Shrimpton quickly realized that 'film clips' were becoming an important new commodity in music marketing. Despite the show's minuscule budget, Countdown's original director was able to create several memorable music videos especially for the show, including the classic film-clips for the AC/DC hits ' and '.

After relocating to the UK in the mid-1970s, Mulcahy made successful promo films for several noted British pop acts—his early UK credits included 's 'Making Plans for Nigel' (1979) and his landmark video clip for ' ' (1979), which became the first music video played on in 1981.In 1975, the British rock band employed to make a promotional to show their new single ' on the BBC music series. According to rock historian Paul Fowles, the song is 'widely credited as the first global hit single for which an accompanying video was central to the marketing strategy'. Has said of 'Bohemian Rhapsody': 'Its influence cannot be overstated, practically inventing the music video seven sic years before MTV went on the air.'

, created by Jerry Crowe and and launched on November 1, 1979, was the first nationwide video music programming on American television, predating MTV by almost two years. The program was one of the first American programs to showcase these videos as an art form.In 1980, the music video to 's ' became the, having a production cost of $582,000 (equivalent to $1.81 million in 2019), the first music video to have a production cost of over $500,000. The video was made in color with stark black-and-white scenes and was filmed in multiple locations, including a padded room and a rocky shore. The video became one of the most iconic ever made at the time, and its complex nature is seen as significant in the evolution of the music video.The same year, the New Zealand group had major success with the single ' and the album, and later that year they produced a complete set of promo clips for each song on the album (directed by their percussionist, ) and to market these on video cassette. This was followed a year later by the first American video album, by, directed by the group's keyboard player, which included two videos directed by Russell Mulcahy ('Talk to Ya Later' and 'Don't Want to Wait Anymore').

Among the first music videos were clips produced by, who started making short musical films for. In 1981, he released, the first winner of a for music video, directed by William Dear. Detective story lee grant.

Credits the independently produced as being the first with nationwide video music programming on American television. 1981–1991: Music videos go mainstream In 1981, the video channel launched, airing ' by and beginning an era of 24-hour-a-day music on television. With this new outlet for material, the music video would, by the mid-1980s, grow to play a central role in popular music marketing. Many important acts of this period, most notably, and, owed a great deal of their success to the skillful construction and seductive appeal of their videos.Two key innovations in the development of the modern music video were the development of relatively inexpensive and easy-to-use recording and editing equipment, and the development of visual effects created with techniques such as image. The advent of high-quality color videotape recorders and portable video cameras coincided with the DIY ethos of the eraenabling many pop acts to produce promotional videos quickly and cheaply, in comparison to the relatively high costs of using film. However, as the genre developed, increasingly turned to 35 mm film as the preferred medium, while others mixed film and video.During the 1980s, music videos had become de rigueur for most recording artists. The phenomenon was famously parodied by television comedy program who produced a spoof music video 'Nice Video, Shame About The Song'.

(The title was a spoof of a recent pop hit 'Nice Legs, Shame About Her Face')In this period, directors and the acts they worked with began to explore and expand the form and style of the genre, using more sophisticated effects in their videos, mixing film and video, and adding a storyline or plot to the music video. Occasionally videos were made in a non-representational form, in which the musical artist was not shown. Because music videos are mainly intended to promote the artist, such videos are comparatively rare; three early 1980s examples are 's ', directed by, 's video for and 's ', and ' video for 's '. One notable later example of the non-representational style is 's innovative 1987 video for 's ' – influenced by Dylan's 'Subterranean Homesick Blues' clip, it featured only the text of the song's lyrics.In the early 1980s, music videos also began to explore political and social themes. Examples include the music videos for ' and ' (1983) which both explored race issues. In a 1983 interview, Bowie spoke about the importance of using music videos in addressing social issues, 'Let's try to use the video format as a platform for some kind of social observation, and not just waste it on trotting out and trying to enhance the public image of the singer involved'.In 1983, the most successful, influential and iconic music video of all time was released: the nearly 14-minute-long video for 's song ', directed. The video set new standards for production, having cost US $800,000 to film.

The video for 'Thriller', along with earlier videos by Jackson for his songs ' and ', were instrumental in getting music videos by artists played on MTV. Prior to Jackson's success, videos by African-American artists were rarely played on MTV: according to MTV, this was because it initially conceived itself as a rock-music-oriented channel, although musician was outspoken in his criticism of the cable channel, claiming in 1983 that MTV's refusal to air the music video for his song ' and clips by other African-American performers was 'blatant racism'. David Bowie had also previously lashed out against MTV during an interview that he did with them prior to the release of 'Thriller', stating that he was 'floored' by how much MTV neglected black artists, bringing attention to how videos by the 'few black artists that one does see' only appeared on MTV between 2:00 AM until 6:00 AM when nobody was watching.On March 5, 1983, or CMT, was launched, created and founded by Glenn D. Daniels and uplinked from the Video World Productions facility in. The music channel was launched in in 1984. In 1984, MTV also launched the (later to be known as the VMA's), an annual awards event that would come to underscore MTV's importance in the music industry.

The inaugural event rewarded and with the for their work in pioneering the music video.In 1985, MTV launched the channel (then known as 'VH-1: Video Hits One'), featuring softer music, and meant to cater to the slightly older baby-boomer demographic who were out-growing MTV. Was launched in 1987, and in 1991.

Another important development in music videos was the launch of on the UK's in 1986. This was a program which consisted entirely of music videos (the only outlet many videos had on British TV at the time ), without presenters. Battle of the bulge timeline.

Instead, the videos were linked by then state of the art. The show moved to in 1989.In early 1985, the second music video for 's hit single ' was released, and included a revolutionary alternate universe of characters living inside of a book.

This music video won six awards at the, as well as being nominated for Favorite Pop/Rock Video at the. It also popularized the use of, a form of sketching that involves tracing live-action footage.The video for the 1985 song ' made pioneering use of computer animation, and helped make the song an international hit. The song itself was a wry comment on the music-video phenomenon, sung from the point of view of an appliance deliveryman both drawn to and repelled by the outlandish images and personalities that appeared on MTV. In 1986, 's song ' used special effects and animation techniques developed by British studio. The video for 'Sledgehammer' would go on to be a phenomenal success and win nine MTV Video Music Awards.In 1988, the MTV show debuted; the show helped to bring to a mass audience for the first time.1992–2004: Rise of the directors. ’s ' music video was ranked number eight in 's 'All-Time Greatest Music Videos in History'.In November 1992, began listing with the artist and song credits, reflecting the fact that music videos had increasingly become an 's medium.

Directors such as, and all got their start around this time; all brought a unique vision and style to the videos they directed. Some of these directors, including, Gondry, Jonze, Sigismondi, and, went on to direct feature films. This continued a trend that had begun earlier with directors such as and.Two of the videos directed by Romanek in 1995 are notable for being two of the three: and 's ', which allegedly cost $7 million to produce, and Madonna's ', which cost a reported $5 million.

From this, 'Scream' is the most expensive video to date. In the mid to late 1990s, directed ' by, ' by, and ' by.During this period, MTV launched channels around the world to show music videos produced in each local market: in 1993, in 1996, and in 1997, among others., originally called 'M2' and meant to show more alternative and older music videos, debuted in 1996.In 1999, 's ', became one of the, costing over $2.5 million.From 1991 to 2001, Billboard had its own Music Video Awards.2005–present: Internet. A video promoting Spoon's album Spacey Boy and Sadness Girl.The website, which hosted short videos, including music videos, launched its service in 1997., a service which ran between 1999 and 2001, enabled users to share video files, including those for music videos.

By the mid-2000s, MTV and many of its sister channels had largely abandoned showing music videos in favor of shows, which were more popular with its audiences, and which MTV had itself helped to pioneer with the show, which premiered in 1992.2005 saw the launch of the website, which made the viewing of online video much faster and easier;, and 's video functionality use similar technology. Such websites had a profound effect on the viewing of music videos; some artists began to see success as a result of videos seen mostly or entirely online. The band capitalized on the growing trend, having achieved fame through the videos for two of their songs, ' in 2005 and ' in 2006, both of which first became well-known online (OK Go repeated the trick with another high-concept video in 2010, for their song ').At its launch, 's provided a section of free music videos in high quality compression to be watched via the iTunes application. More recently the iTunes Store has begun selling music videos for use on Apple's with video playback capability.The 2008 video for 's ' also captured this trend, by including at least 20; the single became the most successful of Weezer's career, in chart performance. In 2007, the issued cease-and-desist letters to YouTube users to prevent single users from sharing videos, which are the property of the music labels. After its merger with, YouTube assured the RIAA that they would find a way to pay through a bulk agreement with the major record labels.

It was an utterly unexpected rebirth. From the moment and the other members of – guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor and bassist John Deacon – took the stage at London’s Wembley Stadium, on July 13th, 1985, at the historic Live Aid concert, the group captured the day. Mercury began by sitting at the piano, playing ’s most famous song, the strange and gorgeous “Bohemian Rhapsody,” with the band storming in behind him in majestic stride, and an audience of 72,000 singing the lyrics from a seemingly deep-rooted memory, as if this was what they had waited for all day. Things built from there. Mercury grabbed his sawed-off microphone stand as the band swayed into the rapturous “Radio Ga Ga,” and the crowd responded with a collective gesture, slapping hands overhead and pumping fists as the singer pushed them on with his sonorous roar.

Some people found the sight of that multitude acting in spontaneous accord, like a human tide, scary: that much power, all at the beckon of one band and one voice. That it was Queen accomplishing this came as a wonder to nearly everybody. They seemed to have run their course.

After their epic 1975 album, they had piled up hit after hit in a stylistically diverse range: from baroque pop to hard rock, disco, rockabilly and funk. Then, by the mid-1980s, their fates had shifted – in part because many fans had trouble accepting Mercury’s perceived homosexuality. After a mind-stopping error of judgment in 1984, when Queen elected to play a series of shows in apartheid South Africa, the band appeared to be pariahs even in its native England. But then, after the Live Aid performance – which exemplified everything extraordinary about Queen, their scope, their virtuosity, their command of a stage – all anybody wanted was more.

Years later, May would say, “That was entirely down to Freddie. The rest of us played OK, but Freddie was out there and took it to another level.”.

RelatedToday, nearly 23 years after Freddie Mercury died of bronchopneumonia related to AIDS, Queen’s legacy – as one of rock’s biggest and most controversial bands – is still inseparable from him, whatever the success May and Taylor might achieve in the next few months on tour with Adam Lambert. When Taylor and May have talked about the Mercury years (Deacon refuses to talk about the experience at all), it’s sometimes as if they’re still mystified by how wonderful and horrible it all was. “We were very close as a group,” Taylor said days after Mercury’s death. “But even we didn’t know a lot of things about Freddie.” Years later, May said, “It fucked us up in the way only an out-of-world experience can do. Queen were the biggest thing in the world. You’re adored – surrounded by people who love you, yet utterly lonely. The excess leaked from the music into life.”Queen begins and ends with Freddie Mercury.

He embodied the band’s identity, its triumphs and failings, and he was the psyche whose loss it couldn’t survive. But in the beginning, there was no Freddie Mercury.He was Farrokh Bulsara, born on September 5th, 1946, in the British protectorate of Zanzibar, off the east coast of Africa to a Parsee family that practiced Zoroastrianism, one of the world’s oldest monotheistic religions. Farrokh’s father, Bomi, was a high-court cashier for the British government, which meant that he, his wife, Jer, and Farrokh – and later Farrokh’s sister, Kashmira – lived in cultural privilege, compared to much of the island’s population. In 1954, when Farrokh was eight, the Bulsaras sent him to St. Peter’s Church of England School, in Panchgani, India. Located 150 miles from Bombay (now Mumbai), St. Peter’s had been regarded for years as the best boys boarding school in that part of the world.

Farrokh arrived as a terribly shy boy, self-conscious about the prominent upper teeth that immediately earned him the nickname “Bucky.” (He would remain sensitive about his teeth the rest of his life, covering his mouth with his hand whenever he smiled. At the same time, he realized that the pronounced overbite – caused by four extra teeth at the back of his mouth – may have been his greatest blessing, giving his voice its distinctive resonant embouchure.). Many remembered Farrokh seeming lonesome at St. “I learnt to look after myself,” he said years later, “and I grew up quickly.” When some schoolteachers began calling him Freddie as an affectionate term, he seized the name instantly. He also cultivated his own tastes.

Freddie’s family had steeped him in opera, but he was also developing a love for Western pop sounds – especially the boisterous piano-based rock & roll of and the virtuosic R&B of. After Freddie’s aunt Sheroo noted that he could hear a tune once, then sit down at the piano and play it, his parents paid for a private music tuition. In 1958, he formed a band, the Hectics, with some other St. Peter’s students. In Freddie Mercury: The Definitive Biography, a student at a neighboring girls school, Gita Choksi, said that when he was onstage, Freddie was no longer a shy boy: “He was quite the flamboyant performer,” she said, “and he was absolutely in his element onstage.”Some students at St. Peter’s believed Farrokh had a crush on Gita, but she said she was never aware of it. Others thought it was already plain Farrokh was gay, though there is little evidence of him being sexually active.

Janet Smith, now a teacher at the girls school, remembered him as “an extremely thin, intense boy, who had this habit of calling one ‘darling,’ which I must say seemed a little fey. It simply wasn’t something boys did in those days. It was accepted that Freddie was homosexual when he was here. Normally it would have been ‘Oh, God, you know, it’s just ghastly.’ But with Freddie somehow it wasn’t. It was OK.”In 1963, Freddie returned to Zanzibar and his family. British colonial rule ended that same year; then, in 1964, the island erupted in revolution and slaughters, and the Bulsaras fled to Feltham, Middlesex, in England, near London.

The weather was rough and the income not as good, and Freddie began changing in ways they didn’t get. “I was quite rebellious, and my parents hated it,” he told Rolling Stone in 1981.

“I grew out of living at home at an early age. But I just wanted the best. I wanted to be my own boss.”Whatever he had left behind in Zanzibar and Bombay, Freddie Bulsara would never claim it as a past that he was willing to talk about. He was just in time for the era of Swinging London, the time of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

Life was opening up for him, and he intended to revel in every moment of its future. Like Bulsara, the two other men who initiated Queen, Brian May and Roger Taylor, were attending London colleges in the late 1960s.

May was tall, lean, soft-spoken, erudite and developing into a visionary guitarist. What most informed his sensibilities, he later said, was the range of harmony-steeped music he had been hearing since the 1950s: the vocal blends of Buddy Holly and the Crickets, the layered strings of popular Italian concertmaster Mantovani and then, in the 1960s, the innovative methods of the Beatles. In late 1963, May and his father built him an electric guitar with mahogany parts taken from a fireplace.

(Known as the Red Special, it is the guitar that May still plays.) May and a friend, bassist Tim Staffell, were playing in a cover band called 1984 when both started college careers in the mid-Sixties. May attended Imperial College, studying math, physics and astronomy; in 1968, he and Staffell started a new band, Smile, which would be closer to the fierce improvisational spirit then gaining ground in British rock being made by Cream and others. They posted a note on an Imperial College bulletin board, seeking a drummer who could play like Ginger Baker and Mitch Mitchell. Taylor, who was preparing for a dentistry career but hated studying, answered the ad. Taylor was pretty-faced, a bit rowdy, and could play what Smile was looking for, though he was closer to the spacious style of the Who’s Keith Moon, and, like Moon, he had an instinctive sense of tonality.

“I remember being flabbergasted when Roger set his kit up at Imperial College,” May told Mojo in 1999. “Just the sound of him tuning his drums was better than I’d heard from anyone before.” Smile’s trio were now in place.Staffell also shared musical interests with Freddie Bulsara, who by then was attending Ealing College of Art, where both were students. By this point, Bulsara was less reserved. He had long hair, was exotically handsome, even dangerous-looking, and had a sinuous way of moving.

Staffell took Bulsara to meet Taylor and May in early 1969. Bulsara struck them as a little peculiar – he painted his fingernails black, he could be effeminate – but he was endearing. He could also be imperious. “At that stage,” said May, “he’s just kind of an enthusiast. He says, ‘This is really good – it’s great how. you’re aware of building up atmospheres and bringing them down.

But you’re not dressing right, you’re not addressing the audience properly. There’s always opportunity to connect.' Bulsara was in and out of a couple of groups himself during this period, and he tended to remodel everything about them. He liked singing blues – most bands demanded it – but his influences were much broader: the compositions of British composer and singer Noel Coward; the instrumental voicings of Chopin and Mozart; the singing of Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, Robert Plant and Aretha Franklin; and the histrionics of his two favorite stars, Jimi Hendrix and Liza Minnelli. After he saw Smile, though, his ambition was to be the band’s lead singer. Sometimes at Smile shows, he would yell, “If I was your singer, I’d show you how it was done.” In early 1970, after too many false hopes, Staffell announced he was leaving Smile. May, Taylor and Bulsara were sharing an apartment by this time.

The others were well aware that Bulsara was a nimble and well-schooled pianist and was developing into an exceptional singer. So in April 1970, the three formed a new band. They went through a handful of bassists – at least one of whom had difficulty with Bulsara’s over-the-top style – before meeting John Deacon in early 1971. Deacon was another exemplary student (he had a master of science in acoustics and vibration technology) and struck everybody as extremely reserved.

(“He hardly spoke to us at all,” May recalled of the first meeting.) But he learned quickly, and in his audition he “plugged a gap and didn’t drop a fucking beat,” in the words of a musician present that day. Deacon was hired on the spot.Right away Bulsara began to exert his sway, persuading the others to dress more dramatically, more dandyish.

He also insisted he had come upon the perfect title for the band. May and Taylor suggested names such as the Rich Kids and the Grand Dance, but Mercury insisted on Queen. “It’s ever so regal,” he said. “It was a strong name, very universal and very immediate,” he added years later. “It had a lot of visual potential and was open to all sorts of interpretations, but that was just one facet of it.”And crucially, Queen’s lead singer was no longer Freddie Bulsara. He was now Freddie Mercury – the new name a reference to the Roman messenger of the gods. “I think changing his name was part of him assuming this different skin,” said May in a 2000 documentary.

“I think it helped him to be this person that he wanted to be. The Bulsara person was still there, but for the public he was going to be this different character, this god.”. In Queen’s early years, a legend persisted that the band had spent a year or two mapping out the stratagems of its success before anybody ever heard the music. (Deacon once boasted to friends that the group had a “10-year plan.”) For the music press, this sort of ambition showed guile rather than any true passion for the meaning or social possibilities of music. It was an image that Queen didn’t escape for most of their career.

In truth, Queen’s rise was beset by questionable business deals and serious health problems (at one point May almost lost an arm to gangrene, and was later hospitalized with hepatitis, then an ulcer). But for Mercury, there was no fallback. May, Taylor and Deacon could all resort to their original academic-bred careers: May kept working toward his Ph.D.

Thesis in astrophysics in the band’s early years, and Deacon later admitted that he wasn’t convinced Queen were truly viable until after their third LP. Mercury eventually persuaded the band that it was worth abjuring any other careers.

“If we were going to abandon all the qualifications we had got in other fields to take the plunge into rock,” May later said, “we weren’t prepared to settle for second-best.”By the time the group released its debut, Queen, in July 1973, the material already felt dated to the bandmates. Mercury didn’t have the patience for jams or fantasias. He believed that carefully crafted song forms with strong, focused melodies were radical enough; if you wanted people to hear your work, strive for memorable performances. He also finally convinced the others that how a band looked – how to dress, how a lead singer moved and commanded a stage – was equally important.

With his black nails, and his harlequin bodysuits and angel-wing cloaks that heightened his athletic, roundelay-like movements onstage, Mercury reveled in an androgynous splendor – albeit one with an ominous edge about it. These attributes seemed akin to the styles being forged at the time by David Bowie, T. Rex, Roxy Music and Mott the Hoople, which was a concern. “We were into glam rock before the Sweet and Bowie,” May said at the time, “and we’re worried now, because we might have come too late.”.

With their next two albums, Queen II and Sheer Heart Attack (both from 1974), Queen successfully caught up with themselves. Queen II‘s lavish sound and Sheer Heart Attack‘s harder and more propulsive approach laid the groundwork for the extravagant and complex sound that marked Queen’s first triumphant period. Onstage, though, it was Mercury who was the focal point.

The British press largely hated what it saw as his campy, theatrical mannerisms. But he was steadily building a powerful, uncommon bond between the band and its audience, often engaging fans in singalongs. “What you must understand,” he once told another singer, “is that my voice comes from the energy of the audience. The better they are, the better I get.”Recording their fourth album, 1975’s A Night at the Opera, Queen felt that their time had come. May recalled thinking, “This is our canvas, we will paint on it at our leisure.” Mercury had ideas for a ludicrously epic track.

Producer Roy Thomas Baker, who had worked with Queen on their music up to this point, has told the story of the first time he heard “Bohemian Rhapsody”: “Freddie was sitting in his apartment, and he said, ‘I’ve got this idea for a song.’ So he started playing it on the piano. Then he suddenly stopped and said, ‘Now, dears, this is where the opera section comes in.' ” From the opening ballad section, the song soared into operetta form, then into battering rock & roll, finally back to a ballad. Said May, “It was Freddie’s baby.” Queen and Baker worked on the track for weeks. The band overdubbed some 180 vocal parts for the song, fashioning its famous cathedral-like chorale sound. At one point, there were so many tracks that the audio tape wore down to transparency and would have evaporated with any more recording.When “Bohemian Rhapsody” was done, the band wanted it to be A Night at the Opera‘s first single.

Queen’s manager at the time, John Reid – who was also Elton John’s manager – said that it could never happen without the nearly-six-minute-long track being edited. Deacon felt the same way, but Taylor and May shared Mercury’s resolve. Whatever doubts remained were dispelled when Mercury and Taylor played the finished recording for BBC DJ Kenny Everett.

“It could be half an hour,” Everett told them, “it’s going to be Number One for centuries.” As it developed, “Bohemian Rhapsody” became Queen’s first Number One British single, and it hit the Top 10 in America. In the years since, the song has routinely headed British lists of all-time best and worst singles. That never daunted Mercury. “A lot of people slammed ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,'” he said, “but who can you compare it to?”. Mercury wasn’t patient with those who asked him about the song’s meanings. “Fuck them, darling,” he said. “I’ll say no more than what any decent poet would tell you if you dared ask him to analyze his work: ‘If you see it, dear, then it’s there.'

” It’s possible, though, that the song had meanings Mercury simply wasn’t ready to divulge. “Freddie’s stuff was so heavily cloaked lyrically,” May later said.

“But you could find out, just from little insights, that a lot of his private thoughts were in there.” Indeed, “Rhapsody” may have held the key to Mercury’s still-secret life. “The song,” critic Anthony DeCurtis has said, “is about a secret transgression – ‘I’m being punished’ – at the same time that there’s this desire for freedom.”Mercury guarded his depths closely because he felt he had to.

Some thought his effete behavior was largely an affectation. Photographer Mick Rock remembers Mercury “dabbling” in relationships with women (“I do know of one or two names!” Rock said). Also, Mercury sustained a passionate relationship with his partner of m.