Freddie Mercury: A Kind Of Magic

It isn't often that I criticize a book for being too short, but Mark Blake's biography of Freddie Mercury gallops through the rock star's life. Mercury died at 45, but this book, while giving us much of what we need to know, doesn't go much beyond a series of important events.

Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara on the African island of Zanzibar to Parsee Indian parents. He spent time in a boarding school in India, and then, when there was a revolution in Zanzibar, went with his parents to England. He had always shown an interest in music, and became an unofficial roadie to a band called Smile. They had a lead vocalist already, but when that guy quit, Mercury got the gig. They changed their name to Queen and became huge stars.

All that is dutifully reported by Blake, but I wanted more on the creative process. One chapter covers the recording and release of two of Queen's biggest albums, A Night At The Opera and A Day At The Races. The single from the former, "Bohemian Rhapsody," which is today Queen's signature hit, gets a couple of pages. I would think a whole chapter could be devoted to the process behind that one song. "Listeners have spent forty years analysing ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and wondering whether its central character – a suicidal murderer in mental turmoil? – was a metaphor for something. And if so, what?" I wish Blake could have elaborated on the "what."

Blake makes a lot of hay about Mercury's flamboyance. It's interesting to see how his behavior in the '70s wasn't seen as controversial, because of the time period: "The gay connotations of the name might have bothered some in those times. But in 1970 it had not occurred to many people that Freddie might be homosexual." But he was, though he had a long-time relationship with a woman, Mary Austin. But he lived life to the fullest."I sleep with men, women, cats, you name it. I’ll go to bed with anything," he said.

Blake depicts the other band mates perfunctorily, but a bit as if they were along for the ride. He quotes Brian May and Roger Taylor liberally (John Deacon retired from the group and has not made any public appearances or interviews since). Often Blake uses direct quotes, and they are not exactly bon mots: "But asked if he thought A Day at the Races had been a little overblown, Roger admitted, ‘Yes, some of it was.’" I don't think a direct quote was called for there.

Still, the book has a lot of fun information for Queen fans. Such as when Mercury went to a costume party, dressed as himself. Or that Queen threw parties at a brothel in Cologne, Germany and at another party had the wait staff adorned only with body paint. I also found in interesting that Queen was much more popular in Britain than America. "Bohemian Rhapsody" is the third-highest selling single in British history, and long after Queen were considered irrelevant in the U.S. they were still hitting number one in England with their last albums.

After reading the book, though, I still don't feel I knew Mercury, and maybe because he was unknowable. But I think that this book isn't the definitive biography of the man.