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Queen guitarist Brian May recently looked back on the creative cooperation with Freddie Mercury. And revealed an amusing anecdote in which the band rejected an unusual proposal of their legendary singer.
“Deep inside, Freddie Mercury was one of the most shy people I’ve ever met,” said May in an interview with “Mojo”. “But his energy and enthusiasm were so overwhelming that it could be easily forgotten. Sometimes he was so excited that he could hardly speak.”
Mercury often brought in “crazy, cheeky and completely new ideas”, the guitarist recalls. “Some of them were awesome, others are not.”
Good or Bad?
A particularly bizarre proposal has remained in the memory to this day. “Freddie came in one day and said, ‘I have it! Michael Jackson just brought out his album’ Bad ‘ – why don’t we call our next album’ Good ‘?'”
The band reacted cautiously. “We just looked at each other and said: ‘Maybe we should think about it again, Freddie.’ It wasn’t exactly a earth -shattering idea.
Even if Mercury was known for his creative flashes of inspiration, May never felt quite sure when he presented his own song ideas: “I was nervous every time, ‘You will hate it.’ This feeling never went away. “
State of Shock
It is unclear why Freddie Mercury absolutely wanted to call an album “Bad”. Was it admiration? Or was it mockery? Michael Jackson and Mercury went to the studio together in the early 1980s. Jackson was a fan of the “The Game” song “Another One Bites The Dust” (1980). He is said to have insisted that Queen publish the Funkrock song as a single-which the band would not have had on the screen. “Another One Bites The Dust” became a number one hit in the USA, her only “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” from the same album.
However, after the flop with the “Hot Space” album from 1982, Queen was considered a little uncool. The drag video of “I Want to Break Free” (1984) also made Freddie Mercury a persona non grata in the prudish USA. This is also why Michael Jackson decided not to publish the common duet recording of “State of Shock”. Instead, he won Mick Jagger in front of the microphone, who hoped for a career as a solo singer after a few Rolling-Stones misery. The Jackson Jagger version of “State of Shock” appeared on the The Jacksons album “Victory” from 1984.
Freddie Mercury was not very pleased with the change of personnel. However, after the live appearance at Live Aid, Queen were back in the game in 1985. A queen album called “Good” never came out. In 1989 a new Queen plate appeared with “The Miracle”. The “Bad -Good” joke would have been OFL for two years …