History Main / Queen

** And then there's "Death On Two Legs (Dedicated to...)", a [[{{Understatement}} SCATHING]] attack on their former manager Norman Sheffield. On the ''Live Killers'' version, Freddie ramped it up a bit more by saying it was dedicated to "a [[PrecisionFStrike motherfucker]] of a gentleman".

* BadassBoast: "Princes of The Universe", "Gimme the Prize" and "Seven Seas of Rhye".

** Their performance at Wembley Arena during Live Aid 1985. Freddie somehow got ''75,000 people'' to clap in unison during the refrain of "Radio Ga-Ga". (It must be seen to be believed, so go to CrowningMomentOfAwesome to see it.)

* AuthorExistenceFailure: Freddie died a tragic death from AIDS. He kept it a closely guarded secret and only went public with it less than 24 hours before his death. It has to be said though that there were quite a few hints in their songs and in the fact that Freddie hadn't appeared in any music video since I'm Going Slightly Mad.

** Even their "worst" songs were catchy and not too bad. Is there even a genuinely bad song in their list at all? Of course not.

* FaceOfTheBand: Freddie Mercury. Overlaps in the public mind with IAmTheBand, as even the fans who ''don't'' regard new singers as [[ReplacementScrappy replacement Scrappies]] will tend to agree that there is no Queen without Freddie.
** To be honest, there wouldn't be a Queen without Brian May either; his distinctive guitar style is just as important to Queen's trademark sound as Freddie's vocals.
*** According to Freddie himself (Circus mag, 1977), if ANY of the four left, it'd be the end of Queen.
** This trope could slightly apply as the band's career went on, with the gradual reduction in the amount of songs with lead vocals by the other members.

* AuthorExistenceFailure: Freddie died a tragic death from AIDS. He kept it a closely guarded secret and only went public with it mere days before his death. It has to be said though that there were quite a few hints in their songs and in the fact that Freddie hadn't appeared in any music video since I'm Going Slightly Mad.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Considering Freddie's untimely passing, there's a lot of this relating to Queen.
** After Freddie died, it was given serious consideration as to having GeorgeMichael take over as full-time lead singer.[[hottip:* :His rendition of "Somebody to Love" was considered to be the best performance at the Tribute Concert.]]
** Brian May has expressed regrets over not releasing a proper soundtrack for ''Highlander'' with Michael Kamen's score complementing the band's compositions.
** In a 1986 interview, Freddie suggested that he would eventually stop performing if he felt he was getting too old for it and focus on songwriting and producing instead.
** Before Freddie's death rumors were spreading of them touring with DavidBowie
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome: Queen and ONLY Queen could write a song about something mundane as riding a bike and make it fucking AWESOME.

* EvenTheGuysWantHim - Freddie caused more than one StupidSexyFlanders among the Queen fanboys.
** Roger Taylor in the video for "I Want To Break Free". Wow.
*** At some point during his early twenties, Roger actually had to grow a beard in order to prevent blokes from chatting him up when they saw him.

* [[StupidSexyFlanders Stupid Sexy Freddie]]

* DisContinuity: Narrowly averted with ''Hot Space'' ([[YourMileageMayVary for some]]), because of the presence of DavidBowie on ''Under Pressure'', the one track that everyone enjoys.
** The Paul Rodgers album might be a better example. Many fans feel that the lack of Freddie makes it not a Queen album. Even non-fans have commented that it ''sounds'' more like a Paul Rodgers album than Queen.

* CargoShip: "I'm in Love with my Car", on ''A Night at the Opera'':

* YourMileageMayVary: The ''Hot Space'' album alienated a lot of Queen fans who preferred the band's rock and roll sound, but it has its defenders (MichaelJackson, notably, cited ''Hot Space'' as a major inspiration for ''Thriller'').

* FetishFuel: Freddie's ClothingDamage in ''Crazy Little Thing Called Love''? The crossdressing in ''I Want to Break Free''?
** Freddie's concert costumes.
*** [[FetishFuelStationAttendant Freddie.]]

* {{Anvilicious}}: "White Man", "Put Out the Fire".

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome : How many rock singers have performed in sold-out stadiums? Some. How many have performed (in this case, pre-recorded the performance) a song for '''the Olympic Games?''' "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTcNlcefAQ0 One.]]"
** Their one true CrowningMomentOfAwesome, though, is their appearance at Wembley Arena during Live Aid, in 1985. Freddie Mercury took a hundred thousand people into the palm of his hand and led them to heaven. Their set during the Live Aid event was recently voted the Greatest Live Gig By Any Band '''''EVER''''', and there have been very few dissenters from this opinion. ( [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LncAQR47eZo They obviously haven't seen Freddie in action.]])
*** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T36Ez1pq3E8&NR=1 Then he came back the next year]].
* CrowningMomentOfFunny: The final verse of "One Vision". Just as you think it's certainly a song about union of the people, Freddie tacks in "just gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme ''fried chicken!''" It was originally intended for the Live Aid concert but wasn't finished in time; the last line was the suggestion of Freddie's boyfriend, Jim Hutton, who encouraged Freddie to ThrowItIn, suggesting that he was "big enough" to get away with it.
* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: The 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert.
* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: Basically all of it, but "Bohemian Rhapsody" is certainly the most evocative.
** "Bohemian Rhapsody" was Queen's younger CMOA. Their older one was definitely "The Show Must Go On."
*** [[CountdownToFinalCrisis That latter one can destroy planets.]]
** Tolga Kashif wrote a symphony based on Queen's music. It is a solid hour (well, 58 minutes) of sheer auditory awesome.
** "'''[[{{Highlander}} HEEERE WE ARE! BORN TO BE KINGS! WE'RE THE PRINCES OF THE UNIVERSE]]'''!"

* EarWorm: Many.

* EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory: What exactly are their songs about again? According to the band themselves whatever you want.
** Most of the dissections and analyses of Bohemian Rhapsody tend to veer off into this category.

* FanDumb: Unavoidable in a band with a fanbase as large as the Queen one. For example, there are the homophobic Queen fans who believe Freddie Mercury was a straight man assassinated by a gay conspiracy led by EltonJohn (that's an actual theory. There was a published book about it).
* FanNickname: 'Bo Rhap' for 'Bohemian Rhapsody' (acknowledge by Freddie in some concerts and interviews), 'Deacy' (pronounced, and sometimes spelt, 'Deaky') for 'John Deacon' (used often by Brian May - Roger and Freddie always called him 'John', though), 'Maylor' for Brian May + Roger Taylor, 'Dr May' for Brian May (recently a certified PhD, which makes it accurate).

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: Freddie's statement that "we're going to stay together until we fucking well die, I assure you." Ouch.
** That line is followed by "[[HarsherInHindsight I keep wanting to leave... but they won't let me!]]".

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Queen is very popular in Iran, partly due to the fact that Freddie Mercury was of Iranian descent.
** When Queen fell out of favor in the United States, they developed massive followings in Europe, Asia, South America, the Middle East while restoring their position at the top of the rock pantheon in their native UK (having concentrated pretty heavily on America between ''News Of The World'' and ''Hot Space''). In fact, they were BigInJapan years before America took to them, which they acknowledged by writing "Teo Torriate (Let Us Cling Together)" for ''A Day At The Races'' as a tribute to their Japanese following.

* GrowingTheBeard: ''Sheer Heart Attack'' is regarded as the band's first great album. ''Hot Space'' is generally the point where fans agree that they shaved off the beard.
** Said beard was grown back, depending on one's point of view, either at Live Aid in 1985, with the release of ''A Kind of Magic'' and its accompanying tour in 1986 or even as late as 1991, when the band released ''Innuendo.''
** The early and late (i.e. no-synth and synth) periods of the band (the former as an art/progressive-rock album band, the latter as a mainstream pop group) are reflected in their long/short hair periods as well as Freddie's moustache.

* HarsherInHindsight: Some of the lyrics of Bohemian Rhapsody, especially the ones relating the impending death of Freddie's character.

* MemeticBadass: Freddie. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvg6ZP-HTCA 'Nuff said.]]
** AIDS didn't kill him, epic power just engulfed his body.

* ReplacementScrappy: Paul Rodgers. His tours with the band and the addition of BadCompany and Free songs to the set were actually fairly popular with fans, but the less said about the original album they recorded the better.

* StuckInTheirShadow: While John Deacon is considered one of the best bassists in rock music, his personality was too reserved to make him as memorable as the more dynamic band members ([[FleetwoodMac like some]] [[TheWho other nonetheless talented]] [[DreamTheater bass guitarists]] [[LedZeppelin called John]].)

* UnfortunateImplications: It's hard to listen to "One Vision" without being reminded of the motto of NaziGermany: "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer".

* VindicatedByHistory: Brian May has said that, in retrospect, he thinks that ''Queen II'' was probably the strongest album the band ever recorded. Similarly, some critics have reconsidered the first album and judged it to be a perfectly good hard rock debut.
** Also Freddie himself: while alive, he was regarded by many tabloids as a conceited gay showman with some (but not too much) talent and more often than not Brian was shown as the musical anchor (although his personal life was heavily criticised especially in the 80's). Recently, the press tends to refer to Freddie as a great late musical genius without whom Brian and Roger are nothing.
** Hot Space has become much more appreciated in recent years, what with the revival of funk and disco music by modern artists, especially those in the electropop genre.

* "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgzGwKwLmgM Don't Stop Me Now]]", like the song above, is best known for being an important element of the pub scene in ''ShaunOfTheDead''. Tonight, I'm going to have myself a real good time. I feel aliiiiii-iiiiiii-iiiiiii-iiiiiiiive.

* VillainSong: "Gimme the Prize [[Highlander (Kurgan's Theme)]]"

* AmbiguouslyBrown: Freddie. His real name was Farrokh Bulsara, and he was born in Zanzibar, East Africa to Parsi parents, and went to boarding school in Mumbai, India. According to TheOtherWiki, he was named one of the 60 most influential Asian heroes of the last 60 years.

* "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEI4U5KyAS0 Radio Ga Ga]]"