Junior's Eyes: Love Of My Life

Showing posts with label Love Of My Life. Show all posts

September 5, 2009

Today's Tune: "Mother Love" By Queen

This 'Today's Tune' is in honor of Freddie Mercury, as he was born on September 5, 1946. Mercury is best known as lead singer for one of Britain's all time greatest bands, Queen. Freddie (Farrokh Bulsara) was born on Zanzibar, an island of Tanzania, of Parsi heritage. He later went to school in India, before he and his family moved to London, England in 1964. There, he became a British citizen, went to college and in 1970, formed the band Queen with guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor and bassist John Deacon. They spent many years as one of the world's top bands. Mercury was diagnosed as having AIDS in the Spring of 1987. Freddie died November 24th, 1991, less than twelve hours after publicly announcing through a prepared statement that he had AIDS.

"Mother Love" is supposed to be the last song ever recorded by Freddie Mercury. You'll notice the last verse being sung by guitarist Brian May. It is said that after having willed himself through recording several other songs, he didn't have the strength to finish the last one. However, it may have just been decided later that it needed a bit more at the end to properly finish the tune.

The song's meaning has been debated, but to me it is quite simple. "Mother Love" is not about love from Freddie's mother. The song refers to his desire to be loved with the same intensity and unyielding quality as a Mother's love of her child, the mother of of all loves. A love without fear of being left behind. There's no deviant meaning here. There is only one line that actually brings up the actual mother - "Mama, please let me back inside". This is about a frustrated, lonely and scared person wanting to hide away from the sometimes overwhelming real world. Most likely, Freddie was thinking of his (much more than) close friend Mary Austin, when he and Brian May wrote this song. He loved her as much as any gay (bisexual?) man could ever love a woman.

I browsed through several videos, and couldn't decide which was best. Therefore, here's two of the fan made YouTube videos I like.

Queen - "Mother Love"

June 13, 2009

Queen + Somebody Other Than Paul Rodgers

First live concert as Queen + Paul Rodgers.
Brixton Academy in London, England March 28, 2005.

By now, anybody that's a real music fan has heard the sad news. Queen + Paul Rodgers have split up. Apparently there's no hard feelings between singer Rodgers and Queen. The door has been left open to do special appearances together, but nothing more.

Their lone studio album, 'The Cosmos Rocks' did well in the charts when it first came out in 2008, but sales fizzled quickly outside of Europe and Japan. Perhaps that is one of the main reasons for the breakup. Quite honestly, I don't think Queen has had a very good marketing team working on the United States since the early 1980s. Their old tunes have been in a boat load of commercials, but does that get you new fans? You gotta let people know who's music they are hearing. The biggest attention getting activity in the US over the past couple years has been two TV appearances on American Idol.

Adam Lambert and Brian May on American Idol May 20, 2009.
Photo by Ray Mickshaw / Fox Broadcasting Co.

Speaking of American Idol, this season's finale marked the second episode to feature Queen, well guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor anyway. They came on during a duet with Season 8 winner Kris Allen and runner up Adam Lambert singing "We Are The Champions". Since this happened shortly after Paul Rodgers turned the plus sign in Queen + Paul Rodgers into a minus sign, the rumors started flying that Adam Lambert would be Queen's new lead singer. Brian May didn't waste much time before trying to tame that that ridiculous notion. “Amongst all that furor, there wasn’t really a quiet moment to talk,” May told Rolling Stone in an E-mail interview. “But [drummer Roger Taylor] and I are definitely hoping to have a meaningful conversation with him at some point. It’s not like we, as Queen, would rush into coalescing with another singer just like that. It isn’t that easy. But I’d certainly like to work with Adam. That is one amazing instrument he has there.”

So, if not Adam, then who would be a good choice to front one of Rock 'n Roll's best ever bands? Forget about the American Idol talent pool. No, not even Season 5 cutie Kellie Pickler. Though, I wouldn't mind seeing a short stint by another female singer who spent her early days becoming noticed in 'Idol' fashion. You know the old saying, "Good things come in little Italian packages". As a matter of fact, I wouldn't mind seeing Giorgia Todrani ..... Sorry, drifted off into a steamy fantasy world there for a while. Giorgia is known for doing Queen songs during concerts all the time. The whole world became aware of her after she sang "Who Wants To Live Forever?" for Luciano Pavarotti at one of his "Pavarotti and Friends" charity concerts. Yes, I know everybody sings Queen songs, especially that one.

Kellie Pickler practices with Queen in April 2006.
Photo by Ray Mickshaw / Fox Broadcasting Co.

Who will Queen choose for the job? Jeff Scott Soto? George Michael? Graham Bonnet? Ozzy Osbourne? ... Ozzy?! ... What?!! ... What?!!! Will they pick anyone? Are they interested in a long term collaboration at all? If it happens, it probably won't be anytime soon. Dammit!