Thirteen years ago, rock music lost perhaps its most unforgettable showman. Freddie Mercury succumbed to AIDS on this day in 1991, just hours after acknowledging he had the deadly disease. The band he fronted, Queen, put out some of the best music you've ever heard--"Under Pressure," "We Are the Champions," "Somebody to Love," etc. Queen successfully conquered disco ("Another One Bites the Dust"), hard rock ("Hammer to Fall"), opera ("Bohemian Rhapsody"), synth-pop ("Radio Ga Ga"), and just about any other musical style they wanted to. For many, Mercury provided Live Aid's most memorable performance. On the world's largest stage, Mercury was larger than life. Ironically, Queen's crowning achievement came at a time when their popularity, at least within the United States, was probably at its nadir. Less than a decade later, Mercury, and necessarily Queen, would be gone for good. That's too bad for us, but on the bandstand in the sky he is belting out some great tunes with Keith Moon, Jimi Hendrix, John Bonham, Brian Jones, John Lennon, Ronnie van Zandt, John Entwhistle, and too many others lost to this world.

Nice post! I am a huge classic rock fan and ironically enough, I was listening to some live Queen last night while reading a post and remembered that today is the anniversary of his passing! Music is just not the same anymore. Mercury was one of the best. The cliche, "They broke the mold when they made him" definitely fits in this case.

Hey, does anyone remember his real name? I used to know but am drawing a blank now. I think he was Lebanese, too.

Be well,

Sponge

His real name was Farrokh (don't remmeber the last name, Burlsara or something like that).
He was born in Zenzebar (I was checking last night) which is an Iland in Eastern Africa.
Then moved to India with his family and then London.
We've heared from years ago he was half Iranian.