music performance

Freddie Mercury’s 1982 ET Interview

~ clarascassettes ~ Leave a comment

Several years ago I wrote about stage presence and directly referred to Freddie Mercury. Yesterday I discovered an interview Freddie did with Entertainment Tonight back in 1982 where he dove deeper into what he was constructing both with that presence and with Queen as a whole. He described how his attitude shifted onstage depending on the content and beat of the song: some of their work is bawdy (cut to a clip of him gyrating onstage) or a power ballad (cut to a clip of him clinging to the microphone and singing his heart out).

Freddie was very intentional with his costumes and attitude and it’s fascinating to watch him go into detail about it. I’ll let Freddie speak for himself:

Raw or isolated vocals

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I’ve talked a lot on this blog about the connection between music and memory, music and emotion. The feelings music can call up, or even create, within us. One of the purest ways that can be accessed is through isolated vocal tracks.

Some of my favorite college memories are of going to acapella concerts. There’s something about the distilled rawness of vocals that cuts to the core of a song’s meaning and makes you shiver. For example, one of the concerts featured a rendition of “River of Dreams” by Billy Joel. I got chills when they sang, “And even though I know the river is wide/I walk down every evening and I stand on the shore/And try to cross to the opposite side/So I can finally find out what I’ve been looking for.” I felt transported, as though I was on that journey too.

The most powerful example of isolated vocals, though, is “Gimme Shelter”. Merry Clayton is the guest vocalist here and, arguably, creates the song’s power. In 20 Feet From Stardom she describes how she’d been called to sing the song late at night and wanted to demonstrate the full potential of her voice. At each chorus, you can hear her sing louder and more passionately until her voice practically cracks with power. Experience it for yourself below: