Until yesterday I had no idea that Freddie Mercury even had a solo career.
While finding songs for my blog about the songs that won't appear on my Queen countdown blogs, I kept on seeing advertising for Freddie Mercury's "Messenger of the Gods: The Singles Collection". As I like to be fairly thorough in my research about these musicians, I went to Google Play and listened to "Messenger".
Now I understand better why I didn't know that Mercury had a solo career after listening to this collection. None of these songs have the grit, humor, bombast, sex and fun of the even average Queen song. The 25 songs that are on "Messenger" are mostly interchangeable, one generic mid-tempo song followed by another similar sounding song and so on. He recorded two solo CDs, one of those was "Barcelona". He recorded that CD with Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballe. I admire Mercury's chutzpah, but quite simply that experiment didn't work. Some of the songs from "Barcelona" are okay until Caballe starts singing. I'm sure she's a fine singer, but her singing sounds completely out of place on "Barcelona". Also as soon as she starts singing, the song's listenability takes a nosedive. I'm not criticizing Caballe's singing ability. I'm just saying that her singing on "Barcelona" is completely unneeded. That was an idea that should have been nipped in the bud at the beginning.
But let's not forget that Mercury was one of last century's most charismatic entertainers. This world could use a Freddie Mercury infusion about right now. (The Struts lead singer Luke Spiller has the same look as Mercury and is also a good singer. But to ask him to live up to Mercury's pizzazz is asking too much of any mortal. I like the music of The Struts, but it's doubtful they'll ever be as big as Queen.) Mercury was another amazing musician that the world lost too soon. R.I.P. Freddie Mercury (9/5/1946 - 11/24/91)
Anyway these are the best songs on "Messenger of The Gods", such as they are.
"Love Kills" (Wolf Euro Mix):
"Love Kills" (Regular Version):
"Stop All The Fighting":
"I Was Born To Love You":
"The Golden Boy": (This is the best of the songs that Montserrat sang on.):
"Living On My Own" (Julian Raymond Mix):
"Living On My Own" (Regular Version):
A remake of The Platters original, a version that will never be topped. "The Great Pretender":
The Platters "The Great Pretender":
"Time":
Near the beginning of this song, it feels like it's going to equal a Queen song. But when it's just about to get up and go, it stops. "Love Me Like There's No Tomorrow":
"Let's Turn It On":
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