Freddie Mercury Party chapter III

FACTS

The Queen crest

Having attended art college, Mercury designed the Queen's logo, called the Queen crest, shortly before the release of the band's first album. The logo combines the zodiac signs of all four members: two lions for Leo (John Deacon and Roger Taylor), a crab for Cancer (Brian May), and two fairies for Virgo (Mercury). The lions embrace a stylised letter Q, the crab rests atop the letter with flames rising directly above it, and the fairies are each sheltering below a lion. There is also a crown inside the Q and the whole logo is over-shadowed by an enormous phoenix. The whole symbol bears a passing resemblance to the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom, particularly with the lion supporters. The original logo, as found on the reverse-side of the first album cover, was a simple line drawing but more intricate colour versions were used on later sleeves.

Brian May: "That QUEEN logo, and the crest, were both entirely Freddie's design. He had been a student at Ealing Tech, of course...and those designs stayed with us, through various modifications, for many years. Freddie had a great eye for design." Like the fairies and the Phoenix, Queen had a flair for summoning up the great Britain of yore - a place of romance and hard-scrabble mystique that lives on within the folk tradition. It's a tradition that was revitalized by Queen through an eclectically electric vein of sonic sorcery that no one seemed to notice at the time. Magic has a tendency to hide itself.

Freddie’s vocals were over a four-octave range

Although Mercury's speaking voice naturally fell in the baritone range, he delivered most songs in the tenor range. His vocal range extended from bass low F (F2) to soprano high F (F6). He could belt up to tenor high F (F5). Biographer David Bret described his voice as "escalating within a few bars from a deep, throaty rock-growl to tender, vibrant tenor, then on to a high-pitched, perfect coloratura, pure and crystalline in the upper reaches". Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé, with whom Mercury recorded an album, expressed her opinion that "the difference between Freddie and almost all the other rock stars was that he was selling the voice". She adds, "His technique was astonishing. No problem of tempo, he sung with an incisive sense of rhythm, his vocal placement was very good and he was able to glide effortlessly from a register to another. He also had a great musicality. His phrasing was subtle, delicate and sweet or energetic and slamming. He was able to find the right colouring or expressive nuance for each word." As Queen's career progressed, he would increasingly alter the highest notes of their songs when live, often harmonising with seconds, thirds or fifths instead. Mercury was said to have "the rawest vocal fold nodules" and claimed never to have had any formal vocal training.

Vocal ranges are used to determine voice types. For women, the main three types are soprano, mezzo-soprano, and contralto. For men, there are four types: countertenor, tenor, baritone, and bass.
Since letters and numbers are used for classifying vocal ranges according to voice type, I should list those notations and what they represent before bragging about some of rock’s diverse vocals.
For men: it is C3- C5 for tenor, F2- F4 for baritone and for bass, it is E2- E4. For Women: it is C4- C6 for Soprano, A3 – A5 for Mezzo-soprano and F3 – F5 for Contralto.

Bottomless microphone stand

The iconic trademark Freddie Mercury the bottomless mic stand traces back to the days when he did his last performance with Wreckage (formerly Ibex). On 12th December 1969 Freddie played at Widnes Wade Deacon Grammar School. Freddie Mercury was swinging the microphone stand around then Freddie lifted his microphone and the top bit broke away from the main stand and he carried on the show with his shortened mic stand.

The bottomless microphone stand; it is essentially a microphone stand without a base to support itself unaided, meaning it must be held by a singer throughout a live performance. It is useful as a mobile prop.

So Freddie Mercury discovered the device by accident. For the rest of his career he used a bottomless microphone stand regularly. Robbie Williams also uses bottomless microphone stands.

Lady GaGa took her name from the Queen song “Radio GaGa”

Lady GaGa: "My producr, Rob Fusari, was the first to really bring out both my theatrical and pop elements. I was in theatre for many years, but I was also a pop vocalist. When I auditioned for pop, record labels would say you're too theatre. And when I auditioned for theatre they'd say you're too pop. When I met Rob, I discovered David Bowie and Queen, and the more theatrical Beatles records. One day, I played Rob a song called Again Again, and he said, "God that's so Queen! You're so Radio GaGa. Very theatrical". And he stated to call me GaGa when I'd come into the studio. When we were getting ready to really start performing, I decided that I'd been playing under my real name for so long I wanted a new way to reinvent myself. So I said, what about Lady GaGa, because Gaga is sort of crazy and Lady has such connotations. I went to a private school but now I was living in this trash glitter environment. So, for me, it was the perfect description of who I had become."

The working title for Queen’s smash hit “Radio GaGa” was “Radio CaCa”.

Recorded in 1983 and released in January 1984, the song was a commentary on television overtaking radio's popularity and how one would listen to radio for a favorite comedy, drama, or science fiction programme. It also pertained to the advent of the music video and MTV. Ironically, the video for "Radio Ga Ga" would become a regular staple on MTV in 1984, and was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award that year. Taylor originally conceived of it as "Radio caca" (from something his toddler son once said), which doubled as a criticism of radio for the decrease in variety of programming and the type of music being played. "Radio Ga Ga" in one of the original cassette boxes is called 'radio ca ca'. 

Radio GaGa lyrics

I'd sit alone and watch your light

 My only friend through teenage nights

 And everything I had to know

 I heard it on my radio

 (Radio)

You gave them all those old time stars

 Through wars of worlds -- invaded by Mars

 You made 'em laugh -- you made 'em cry

 You made us feel like we could fly

So don't become some background noise

 A backdrop for the girls and boys

 Who just don't know or just don't care

 And just complain when you're not there

 You had your time, you had the power

 You've yet to have your finest hour

 (Radio)

All we hear is Radio ka ka

 Radio goo goo

 Radio ga ga

 All we hear is Radio ga ga

 Radio blah blah

 Radio what's new?

 Radio, someone still loves you!

We watch the shows -- we watch the stars

 On videos for hours and hours

 We hardly need to use our ears

 How music changes through the years

Let's hope you never leave old friend

 Like all good things on you we depend

 So stick around cos we might miss you

 When we grow tired of all this visual

 You had your time, you had the power

 You've yet to have your finest hour

 (Radio)

All we hear is Radio ka ka

 Radio goo goo

 Radio GaGa

 All we hear is radio ga ga

 Radio goo goo

 Radio GaGa

 All we hear is Radio ga ga

 Radio ga ga

 Radio what's new?

 Someone still loves you!

You had your time, you had the power

 You've yet to have your finest hour

 (Radio)