Many great rock & roll bands in history were formed in the 1970's. The rise of this music in the sixties along with musicians who impetiously dared the limits of social lifestyle inspired this later generation to go beyond the stereotypes, unconsciously becoming the creators of the best music ever written. This is why nowadays we remember this as the "Golden Age of Rock and Roll". And of course, Queen was part of it.
Born in 1970, Queen was formed by guitarist Brian May, singer and keyboardist Freddie Mercury (whose real name was Farrokh "Freddie" Bulzara, but changed it after joining the band), drummer Roger Taylor, and bassist John Deacon (who joined the following year). The group is considered the worldwide most popular British band of the last thirty years, and also as the best in history (wining the polls to the Beatles by only four hundred votes, according to the BBC). Queen is known for its great muscial variety and their overcrowded high quality concerts.
Although the group was already famous in the early seventies, massive succes would arrive in 1975 witht the first single of the album "A Night at the Opera": Bohemian Rhapsody, a song that would become a mark of distinction of Queen and that was declared the best of the twentieth century. Apart from this masterpiece by Freddie Mercury, many songs of the band have occupied the top of lots of rankings along the years, like "Killer Queen", "Another one Bites the Dust", "We Will Rock You", "Love of my Life", "We are the Champions", "Somebody to Love", and many, many others.
Freddie Mercury progressively became the head and creative leader of the band, and his partners didn't dislike the idea. Mercury showed an unmatched energy up the stage, and possesed a very uncommon (and exceptional) tone of voice, which gave him extra fame outside the group and allowed him to sing opera (which in fact he did, in album "Barcelona"). He found in this genre the inspiration to write most of his songs, Bohemian Rhapsody being the clearest example of it.
After all the great succes of the seventies and eighties with albums like "Innuendo", a dark shadow laid upon the boys of Queen: on November 23 of 1991, Freddie Mercury announced to the world that he had AIDS. he died the following day at the age of forty five, surrounded by friends and family, in his house at Garden Lodge, London. Right after this terrible, most sudden event, Queen utterly dissolved.
A few weeks after the separation, Queen's Greatest Hits was released, breaking sales recors all across the world. In 1992, a tribute concert was held at Wembley in honor to Freddie Mercury, with the purpose of making world conscious about AIDS and it's consequences.
The legacy of Queen has remained untouched along the years, and it will always be an amazing source of inspiration for the generations to come. When we talk about them, we often ignore we're talking about one of the greates, most creative bands in history. It wouldn't be wrong to say that only what was mortal of Freddie Mercury has passed on, would it?
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