If one thing is absolutely certain, it’s that Freddie Mercury was an ideas man. Put together a seven-minute rock opera, the kind of which was completely unprecedented in music before? Sure, go for it. Make a career comeback at Wembley Stadium and turn it into one of the most iconic live sets of all time? Why wouldn’t you? He was the king of Queen, after all.
While this undoubtedly cemented Mercury as the definitive rock star, there was a lot to be said for actually putting these visions into practice. As a bandmate watching on while your frontman expelled creative mirages almost like air, there understandably had to be a stopping point, where the other three members had the right to veto some of the more exorbitant ideas coming out of his mouth. The trouble is, with hindsight, it’s hard to know whether some of the notions that fell by the wayside were missed opportunities to strike gold.
But like any good right-hand man, Brian May knew pretty well when to indulge in his flamboyant friend’s grand plans and when he thought they were better left to the creative graveyard, as he said himself: “Freddie’s ideas were off the wall and cheeky and different — and we tended to encourage them. Sometimes the idea he brought in was brilliant, and sometimes not brilliant.”
One of the latter, less earth-shattering examples came at the very end of the 1980s, four years on from when the band had made their triumphant comeback at Live Aid, and to the outside world, they were back on top. Of course, behind closed doors told a different story – Mercury’s health was declining and he was entering into the crux of his final years – but in his true style, he was still as ebullient, effervescent, and energetic as ever.
That truly manifested itself during the production process for The Miracle, released in 1989, which eventually bore the home of hits such as ‘I Want It All’ and ‘Scandal’. But originally, Mercury had come up with a very different conception for the album of pop-rock anthems, heavily influenced by the musical landscape around him. May recalled in an interview with Mojo: “He came in one day and announced, ‘I’ve got this amazing idea. You know Michael Jackson has just put out this album called Bad? Well, listen… What do you think about us calling our next album Good?’”
Well, it was certainly something to consider, but, guessing by the rest of the band’s response, it basically went down like a lead balloon. May continued: “We all looked at each other and said, ‘Well, maybe we should think about it, Freddie’. It wasn’t one of his world-shattering ideas, but looking back, maybe we were wrong…” That’s the thing – among corridors of wall-to-wall hits, it was perhaps easy to naysay ideas once Queen felt they had enough skin in the game. But looking back on the legacy of Mercury’s visionary genius, would it have been better to just go along with him after all?
It’s something that May and the rest of the band likely continue to wrestle with to this day, but in many ways, what allowed them to keep their creative dynamic alive was being able to put their foot down from time to time. Indeed, an album dichotomy between Queen and the King of Pop may have been interesting, but maybe the pomp and flair of music’s regal court would have proved too much to bear.
