You cannot mistake that voice — its depth, its crispness and its unwavering clarity. Blessed with a natural baritone, he effortlessly sang tenor making him one of the few rock performers to have a range spanning four octaves.
You cannot mistake that face — the thick trademark moustache, the protruding teeth and the pout it created. He sported a wig and dabbed some makeup with such élan, it was hard to forget a visage so unique.
You cannot mistake that personality — confidently strutting around in Spandex, the natural charm and disdain alike, as well as his larger than life on-stage theatrics.
Freddie Mercury was one of a kind. The British rocker of Indian-origin, born Farrokh Bulsara, who famously said, “I’m just a musical prostitute, my dear”, was the multi-faceted frontman of the super successful band Queen. Popular for his voice, songwriting, piano playing as well as performances, Freddie was all encompassing. It is another matter that the band saw little favour in the US when Freddie was alive, resulting in them remaining Grammy-less.
Awards are hardly the judges of a musician’s mettle and the legacy that Freddie has left behind is testimony to that. “Freddie Mercury was undisputed genius. Freddie’s magic lay in the fact that he was a complete musician. Apart from his superb voice, Freddie was also an incredible songwriter,” says singer Gary Lawyer, who has performed Queen songs countless times at live performances.
Freddie was heavily influenced by the happenings in the contemporary forms of art like theatre, music and dance, incorporating whatever inspired him, into his songs. As a composer, Freddie was unmatched. Says Indus Creed frontman Uday Benegal, “Freddie Mercury wrote some great songs, but also wrote some rather mediocre ones. I think that is the mark of a great band and musician. There was no formula that Freddie and Queen stuck to and the fans and critics forgave them for some terrible songs only because the masterpieces left them speechless.” Indus Creed, as erstwhile Rock Machine, have performed Queen’s foot-tapping number Crazy Little Thing Called Love.
While this song comprised only a few chords, Freddie also had a penchant for writing songs with very intricate and complex structures. The most famous example of this for Queen and rock music in general would be the masterpiece Bohemian Rhapsody. Strikingly different for stringing together a ballad portion with operatic technique and then heavy rock, Bohemian Rhapsody remains Queen’s most popular song and an obvious choice for a cappella contests.
“Bohemian Rhapsody was released in 1975. It’s still so fresh today. Clearly Freddie was ahead of his time,” says Gary, in awe. “Freddie’s sense of composition, his idea of sequencing chords are inspiring and no other song encapsulates that more than Bohemian Rhapsody,” he adds.
Bohemian Rhapsody may be Queen’s greatest hit but there are so many other songs that exemplify the genius put together by four very talented men. “Queen were fearless. They never conformed to one sound. When you listen to an entire album and not just their hits, you realise even within one album there is so much of variety. My personal favourites would be The Prophet’s Song, It’s Late and Millionaire Waltz,” says Warren Mendonsa, one of the best guitarists of contemporary rock in India. Warren, as the lead guitarist of Mumbai-based rock band Zero, has opened many concerts with Stone Cold Crazy. Gary’s favourite album is Innuendo. He adds, “Examine the album in the period in which it was released and you’ll realise that Freddie was probably trying to say something with his last album Innuendo.”
There is no doubt that Freddie was a master composer and a talented pianist, but his selling point has always been his remarkably distinctive voice. Clear, hardly going off key and with sharp diction, Freddie spanned four octaves.
“Freddie’s voice was so powerful because he was raised on a good background of Western music. That made him a perfectionist, something that made sure his every note was also perfect,” says Gary.
In the later years Freddie had nodules in his throat that obstructed his singing, but that didn’t stop Freddie from going shrill and singing deep in equal measure. “He had a phenomenal voice. His versatility inspired me. His range — not just in terms of his voice, but also as a musician — was a lesson to me as a singer,” says Uday.
For Warren, Freddie was one of the best singers in “a hundred years”. “His voice was so strong and the power behind each note was just something else altogether,” he adds. Musicians till date credit Freddie for his pathbreaking music and innovation. He gave rock a certain amount of flair and panache and a bit of an operatic twist that no one else had managed to. Uday can’t help agreeing more readily. “He brought in classical operatic influences into his genre of music. He challenged the boundaries of rock constantly and succeeded almost every time.”
Another regular singer of Queen songs at concerts is Pentagram frontman and Bollywood music director Vishal Dadlani. Vishal’s Queen medleys are a concert staple and as a vocalist himself, he can’t help being influenced by Freddie. “What stands out most about him was that he was 100 per cent uninhibited on stage. He brought out his true personality on stage; all that flamboyance was just an extension of him. Off stage he may have been a lot more reticent, but the guy on stage was really him — not some façade. His stage presence was phenomenal, it was inspiring to watch him on stage,” says Vishal.
Freddie himself put in a lot of effort to create a larger than life performance each time. The power to mesmerise a crowd with a motley of genres and myriad stage personas, Freddie was clear about how he wanted his concerts to be. The Spandex, capes and vests all added to the whole drama that a Queen concert was known to be. He once said, “A concert is not a live rendition of our album. It’s a theatrical event.”
“His stage presence was dynamic, he was engaging and powerful,” says Uday. Warren feels that the way the crowds were involved with Freddie’s showmanship is an inspiration, a lesson for all performers. Superlatives fall short while describing Freddie as a singer, performer, instrumentalist or songwriter.
Nineteen years since his death on November 24, 1991, Freddie’s magic is still fresh amongst Indian rock musicians. And when you think of that, you can’t help thinking how true Freddie was about himself: “When I’m dead, I want to be remembered as a musician of some worth and substance. I won’t be a rock star. I will be a legend.”