COMPUTERBLUE1984 said:

2045RadicalMattZ said:

For the record, they are extremely underrated. Composition wise (Prophet's Song/Bohemian Rhapsody/Millionaires Waltz/Bijou) and structure wise, as well as the DEPTH of styles (only Frank Zappa and Prince can boast so many diversities), peer acclaim (Zappa, Steve Vai, John Lennon, Ringo, Paul Macca, Sabbath, G'n'R's, Bowie, Michael Jackson, etc), recording techniques (Good Company[that's nearly all guitar, f**tards!]/Bohemian Rhapsody), sonic landscaping (In the Lap of the Gods/Prophet's Song), unique voices AND guitar [a homemade guitar "the Red Special" made mostly from a fireplace], indelible influence...

there are an incredible amount of reasons why they're underrated as a band.

However, if you just bring it down to Freddie Mercury, you must conclude that he is very underrated: He in fact wrote many of their most well known ROCK/METAL songs: (Stone Cold Crazy; initial riff, sped up by Brian May), Princes of the Universe, Death on Two Legs (dedicated to....), Ogre Battle.

He also strengthened and re-directed many of the band's compositions into becoming hits: a few: "A Kind Of Magic, Radio Ga Ga, One Vision" come to mind.

The guy sang the sweetest ballads (Love Of My Life/Dear Friends/Lily of the Valley/You Take My Breath Away/My Melancholy Blues) and the most aggressive heavy shit!: (Gimme The Prize, It's Late/Another One Bites the Dust [just TRY to scowl like that], Prophet's Song)... often combining them in the same song (White Queen/The Show Must Go On), the RANGE of emotion and delivery, he's incomparable.

But he also was instrumental in creating a new genre (like it or not); the crossover opera singer. When he released BARCELONA with Montserrat Caballe; opera peers like Pavarotti dismissed him as ridiculous [the fatass later went on to COPY the format with his numerous charity concerts w guest singer crossovers]. The album is eclectic and dense; co written with music direction from Mike Moran, it is an incredible achievement of bombast and determination.

I feel he's very underrated. But we're living in times of disposable crap like Nikki Minaj, Kanye (most of his stuff likely being made by producers), Lil Wayne, and a generation of rock kids who will grow up saying: (this is a joke by the way) "MAN!, you don't know NOTHING ABOUT MUSIC!" When I GREW UP, We had JOHN MAYER, JOHN LEGEND, DAVE MATTHEWS, LORDE and ROBIN THICKE! the MASTERS!!!"

Sheeeeeeiit... Pretty much everything is underrated by the masses (themasses/dumbasses)

Freddie is an interesting study. I have all his solo work as well as the Queen discography (minus a few late 80's albums). In my Mt. Rushmore of entertainers, he is up there with Prince, MJ, and Bowie.

On one level, he is easily the most impressive frontman in rock history. His vocal abilities and persona made him second to none fronting Queen. As a songwriter, May, Deacon, and Taylor were not slouches, but the best (IMO) songs on Queen's best albums (pre-synthesizer) were primarily Mercury's handiwork. Mercury + Queen=criminally underrated, especially when you consider they were possibly the biggest band of the 70's who were always trashed by the critics (especially Rolling Stone). Was he campy? Sure, but that was the allure.

With that being said, as a solo artist, I think that because he was so larger than life in Queen/extroverted nature that his material is somewhat overrated. His solo albums were very hit and miss and even in documentaries on him, producers and such have said he didn't have the discipline on his first solo album to put in the time to create a cohesive work of art. He had some glimpses of potential with songs like "Living on My Own" and "Love Kills", but among the die hard Queen fans (fans of their 70's work), the dance/disco leanings of Freddie were not something they were ready to accept. Barcelona was a very good album, but I believe that his solo career gained in stature due to the conditions in his life at the time (he confided in Caballet that he was sick) and the last work (Innuendo) with Queen (especially Days of Our Lives).

I agree, he was uniquely gifted.

IMO, Freddie is underrated in terms of the scope of musical genres he encompassed. The standard like Jazz cool of "My Melancholy Blues", the smooth R&B of "Cool Cat" where he adopts a falsetto type vocal, the operatic "Bohemiam Rhapsody" his recordings with Montserrat Caballe where a real showcase of his vocal ability too. So vocally Freddie is up there with the best. Creatively I'd like to have seen more from his as he had every criteria needed to move into superstar territory. Queen too whilst not in The Beatles league of influence I think helped pave the way for a lot of rock bands with flamboyant frontmen. So IMO Freddie is underrated and sadly I believe didn't make a definitive solo record. Arguably it's "Barcelona" but the Mr Bad Guy LP could have been a much bigger deal than it was. I don't think that has had a digital resissue release although it is in the multi disc Freddie box set.

thetimefan said:

IMO, Freddie is underrated in terms of the scope of musical genres he encompassed. The standard like Jazz cool of "My Melancholy Blues", the smooth R&B of "Cool Cat" where he adopts a falsetto type vocal, the operatic "Bohemiam Rhapsody" his recordings with Montserrat Caballe where a real showcase of his vocal ability too. So vocally Freddie is up there with the best. Creatively I'd like to have seen more from his as he had every criteria needed to move into superstar territory. Queen too whilst not in The Beatles league of influence I think helped pave the way for a lot of rock bands with flamboyant frontmen. So IMO Freddie is underrated and sadly I believe didn't make a definitive solo record. Arguably it's "Barcelona" but the Mr Bad Guy LP could have been a much bigger deal than it was. I don't think that has had a digital resissue release although it is in the multi disc Freddie box set.

Hear, hear!

Although, in the US, the FM Solo Collection (excellent collection Btw: we were supposed to be treated to something equally thorough from Queen; but after 20 years I've given up waiting) was released in the USA as a 3-CD set containing MR BAD GUY/BARCELONA/bonus disc of 4 tracks from the solo collection.

Currently, there was a teaser on the Queen Facebook page that was reported on Queenzone.com. Some are speculating that the solo Album MR BAD GUY will get a deluxe edition release this year. More speculation suggesting that Bri and Rog may be involved with the release, possibly patching some weak production up.

It's also interesting that at the time of MBG, Fred had been working with MJ (and some say THE JACKSONS) on a few tracks.

Notably "There Must Be More to Life Than This", "State of Shock", and "Victory (as yet unheard; whether its the same as the Jacksons song)".

TMBMTLTT had gotten shittily remixed by a producer William Orbit, for inclusion on another Queen compilation : QUEEN FOREVER.... a leaked far better version appeared about 18 months ago as a leak titled "The GOLD MIX".... this one sounds more on par with an ideal ballad, and doesn't have all the cheap glitchy amateur panning and poor levels and vocal muting that the Orbit mix does.

It has also ended speculation about there never having been any proper front desk takes and mixes of the song; as several small differences can be heard on the GOLD MIX that were not present on the previously leaked demos: (one MJ solo take w Fred on piano, one duet)

Anyways, my talkiness is apparent here. Just wanted to comment that it had in fact been released before. BARCELONA was also re-recorded with a live Orchestra... but I don't particularly like that version, it depletes a lot of character and seems very rushed. In fact, most of the musicians' names are mispelled on the release as well.