Sounds of Pride: Freddie Mercury & Queen “I Want to Break Free”
When Freddie Mercury embraced his homosexuality in the mid-70s, he did it not only in his personal life but in his on stage personae as Queen’s front man as well. Gone were his longhair rocker locks and in their place, the neat cropped look and thick mustache of the leather look.
Freddie reveled in the flamboyance he found in the gay community and used it to compliment the theatricality of his music, stage shows, and music videos. Nowhere is that more appearance than Queen’s 1984 music video for “I Want to Break Free.”
Three years earlier Freddie Mercury and his band mates teamed up with another music and gay icon, David Bowie on one of the greatest duets in music history, “Under Pressure.”
In our broken and addled current times, it is both prophetic in its vision, but hopeful in the solution it prophesies, “Why can’t we give love that one more chance?”
Previous posts from theOUTfront series “Sounds of Pride –The Music of Community, Love, and Equality”
Billy Porter’s defiant “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair”
When “Love is in the Air,” Tea Dance Classics make a “Perfect Day”
“We Are Family,” our “Family” Anthem
Kim English and “Unspeakable Joy”
Celebrating 25 years of RuPaul’s “Supermodel”
Frankie Says, “RELAX” (Banned Video)
#proudOUTloud
