Bibek Acharya
No artist is exempt from having a little bit of envy when they see their competition on the charts. The idea of even reaching the top of the charts should be reason enough to be happy with one’s career, but being stalled out at number two while someone else reaps the benefits of being the biggest star in town is going to do nothing for one’s ego. Although there was usually no sense of competition when Freddie Mercury took to the stage, even he wasn’t safe from the occasional rockstar who gave him a run for his money.
Then again, Mercury was far from the first frontman of all time. The entire foundation for him to stand on happened because of people like Mick Jagger and Robert Plant coming first, but as soon as people heard the first Queen album, Mercury’s booming voice, along with the layers of harmonies on top of everything, made the band sound like a musical wrecking ball before they even finished their first track.
But for all of the great rock tunes they made, Mercury’s greatest strength came from pure camp. There was always a democratic policy as to who wrote which songs in the group. Still, there was no doubt that showtunes numbers like ‘Seaside Rendezvous’ were written by the frontman, complete with the kind of posh angle and enough 1920s song worship to make Paul McCartney want to start bringing back his “granny shit” music.
This kind of angle would have been unthinkable a year or two before, but Queen’s ascent coincided with one of the greatest renaissance periods for glam rock. David Bowie was the one first testing the boundaries of what glam could be with ‘Space Oddity’, but while Queen didn’t always fit into the same area as bands like Mott the Hoople soundwise, they certainly leaned into it, with Mercury favouring lavish outfits whenever he played and adopting a little bit of makeup whenever they played.
And while the Queen name had been retired for some time after Mercury’s passing, Adam Lambert was one of the only people who could fill his shoes in May’s mind. Lambert may have been a bit more current than some of the older fans may have wanted, but as soon as he opened his mouth, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that he certainly had the range to compete with what their old singer had done.
Even May had to admit that there are times when Lambert sings that would have had Mercury shaking his head in amazement, saying, “I’ve heard a billion voices in my life, and I’ve never heard a voice like Adam’s. Time and time again, I can picture Freddie saying, ‘You bastard!’ Because Adam’s range is ridiculous, isn’t it? And so often, I’ve found myself wishing that Freddie and Adam could have gotten together, because they would have had the greatest time.”
It also comes down to the way that Lambert likes to test the boundaries of different styles of music. He is firmly in the pop world like Mercury was in the 1980s, but there’s even a touch of soul in his voice that isn’t all that dissimilar from when Queen started working on their gospel chops in the 1970s on tracks like ‘Somebody to Love’.
The thought of May and Roger Taylor going out on tour billing themselves as Queen with Lambert may be unthinkable, but making a record with him is the least they could do given how long he has been with the group on tour. I mean, the experiment with Paul Rodgers had its fair share of dozy moments, so why not bring back that signature flamboyance that Mercury excelled at for a record?
