Freddie Mercury and Remembering
Woman in the Middle | September 28, 2012Last night Hubby, Eldest Daughter and I (Youngest Daughter is at school or she would have gone) went to see ”Hungarian Rhapsody: Queen Live in Budapest.” It was filmed in 1986 when going to Budapest meant going behind the Iron Curtain. That wasn’t the only nostalgic thing that struck Hubby and I as we watched the film. Remember when men wore short shorts? Or track suits were in? Or guitars were plugged in to speakers with cords?
Hubby and I have gone to a lot of concerts in our day. As a matter of fact, we are going to see Three Dog Night tonight! But for some reason we never saw Queen. So this was my first opportunity to see Freddie strut his stuff on stage. And strut he did! Only some singers can really handle singing in front of tens of thousands of people and Freddie was one of them. Every gesture, every step, was designed to be seen in the back row. But, with this movie you aren’t in the back row, you are right on the stage where you see just what a work out playing and singing in a rock concert can be, based on the amount of sweat pouring off of Freddie!
Freddie Mercury had a VOICE, an amazing, strong, powerful, unique voice. I felt a bit of melancholy as I watched that voice on display because it was silenced in 1991 by AIDS. AIDS has become, at least in this country, a chronic disease. But back then it was still oh so deadly.
So if you like Queen go see the film. Enjoy Freddie and his band mates. We can miss Freddie and mourn his loss. But we can be grateful for how far we have come.
We have a video of Queen and have also seen a tribute band. No matter what you think about tribute bands, this one is different. First the lead looks like Freddie, he sings like Freddie and he does the intense strutting. Sitting in the audience watching the tribute, I realized what I had missed at not seeing Queen live. Freddie must have really been something in person! His songs were unique and his talent amazing.
We lost a lot of talent to AIDS — many designers. Thank God we have learned to manage it although there are countries where people die of it routinely.
After the movie Hubby and I were telling Eldest what it was like when AIDS first started. It is something she will never fully understand, thank goodness. We know people now who have had AIDS for a couple of decades. Amazing what science can do! Now, if they can figure out a way to get the medicine paid for and to people in third world countires.
The tribute band sounds amazing! I wouldn’t mind seeing them. I just don’t know why neither Hubby nor I ever went to see Queen. He went to even more concerts than I did back in the day.
What a coincidence! I just saw a live concert of Queen on Netflix the other day. Queen is one of my favorite bands because of their unique songs. I once saw a documentary of Queen and found out that every band member had college degrees in music, and that Freddie used to be a college music professor.
That is really interesting! I was surprised to learn Freddie was born in Zanzibar and grew up in Egypt!!
Your post took me down 2 different memories: Ryan White’s fight to go to school when diagnosed with AIDS in the late ’80s and listening to “Bicycle Race” for the first time in high school in the early ’90s.
KIm, It seems to me that you and your family are having great times! So i hope you wouldn’t notice the heat so much!
When you’ve got the people you love around you, i guess everything else is irrelevant!! Look at me go haha!
Anyways, i find this blog more to my liking, than the other (on blogger), and of course i’ve only read this post so far, but i took a look around, and there were so many pretty pictures.