Somebody to Love
The Life, Death and Legacy of Freddie Mercury
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Somebody to Love
Buy Now for $42.99
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Narrated by:
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Tim Bruce
About this listen
For the first time, the final years of one of the world's most captivating rock showmen are laid bare.
When Freddie Mercury died in 1991, aged just 45, the world was rocked by the vibrant and flamboyant star's tragic secret that he had been battling AIDS. That Mercury had even been diagnosed came as a shock to his millions of fans, with his announcement coming less than 24 hours before his death.
In Somebody to Love, biographers Mark Langthorne and Matt Richards skilfully weave Freddie Mercury's incredible pursuit of musical greatness with Queen, his upbringing and his endless search for love with the story of a terrible disease that swept across the world in the 1980s, as medical treatment fought to catch up with it despite underfunding, social ignorance and homophobia.
With brand-new perspectives from Mercury's closest friends and fellow musicians, this unique and deeply moving tribute casts a very different light on both his death and the origins of AIDS itself.
An intimate listen, like Freddie and his art, it will stay with you for a long time.
©2014 Matt Richards & Mark Langthorne (P)2017 Bolinda Publishing Pty LtdNarrator did not appeal
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Good story.
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Would recommend to both Queen’s fans as someone who never heard about them nor Freddie.
Reflective story about his legacy.
Provided all sides of Freddie’s life
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eye opening
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This book parallels Mercury's story with that of the AIDS virus, and for those interested in the history of AIDS and HIV, there is some interesting material in this book. This does however tend to reduce Freddie Mercury's life, to the fact that he was a promiscuous gay man, who contracted HIV and died of AIDS. Even early accounts of his schooling tend to focus primarily on the question of how gay Freddie was at school. This results in some truly bizarre content, including a pseudo-scientific exploration of whether the trauma of being sent to boarding school turns boys gay. The author appears to be drawing a longbow here, linking Freddie Mercury's eventual death to his early life in boarding school. Frankly, it comes across a bit homophobic in an age when homosexuality is no longer considered a mental illness. In later sections, the book seems to dedicate an uncomfortably long time, trying to pinpoint the exact time, place and even sexual encounter, which likely resulted in Freddie's infection with HIV. I personally found this macabre, sensationalist and exploitative. I also took issue with the author's use of statistics (who knows how accurate or out of date) that seem to reinforce negative stereotypes of gay men and women, as more promiscuous than heterosexual people and less likely to form lasting monogamous relationships.
This is the only biography I have read of Freddie Mercury. He appears to have been a very private person in life and perhaps there isn't a truly comprehensive alternative on the market. This book however, is less about Freddie Mercury's life than his death; at times reading more like a history treatise on the AIDS virus with some fun facts about a famous guy thrown in, to add interest and commercial appeal. For me it didn't really work. It left me feeling dirty.
Left me feeling dirty.
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