Had Freddie Mercury lived, what would have happened to Queen?*

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Meddows, Jan 16, 2017.

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  1. pdenny

    pdenny 22-Year SHTV Participation Trophy Recipient

    Location:
    Hawthorne CA
    He would still be alive, and that'd be good enough for me :realmad:
     
  2. Matheusms

    Matheusms Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brazil
    It would be interesting to see Queen going through the grunge era. I believe the heaviest Queen records would come out in the early 90s.
     
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  3. Man at C&A

    Man at C&A Senior Member

    Location:
    England
    PHEW!! I can't see they'd have gone too far with it though, Freddie hated mundane rock and always brought his camp charisma and esoteric influences to Queen. Queen also always had very clean and clear guitar sounds and melodies, I can't imagine Brian May going for the more 'sludgy' guitar sounds of the grunge era. The Red Special never did anything to deserve that!
     
  4. Lightworker

    Lightworker Forum Resident

    Location:
    Deep Texas
    He'd probably still be "pushin' dope for the man".
    Ooops...wrong Freddie. My bad.

    [​IMG]
     
  5. Sondek

    Sondek Forum Resident

    Queen reacted to punk by toning down their big multilayered sound somewhat. But knowing that was a passing phase (to an extent), I doubt they'd have reacted in the same way twice. By that point, I think they'd have just done their own thing, and like I say, after Innuendo, it'd probably been heading towards - or something not unlike - their earlier sound of the mid 70s; more theatrical again. I do think Freddie had more great music in him when he died.
     
  6. I think their fortunes in the US, at least as a live act would have been bolstered by millennial interest as has been shown here repeatedly. As a recording act they might have enjoyed some success or been met with the same indifference and lagging sales as many of their peers have experienced.
     
  7. stunner2020

    stunner2020 Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    These questions are hard to answer, especially when Freddie didn't die suddenly and unexpectedly, but after a long battle against a disease. If you want to do a "What if Freddie didn't contract HIV?" kind of deal, then this alternate universe detaches from the real one back from 1986's A Kind Of Magic creatively, and likely as far back as 1982 biologically.

    Ultimately, Queen were fed up with each other after the Magic Tour and they all moved onto other projects - including Roger Taylor going as far as to form a whole new band, the decidedly mediocre The Cross. As it's likely that Freddie's illness (the band didn't know during the sessions for The Miracle, but almost certainly suspected he was on borrowed time) was the impetus for their coming together in 1988, who knows how different things would have been from late-1986 on?

    The best guess I can make (a wild one) is that Queen would never have split, but that they would have worked together increasingly less, and stopped recording albums a long while back.
     
  8. WilliamPoe3

    WilliamPoe3 Active Member

    Location:
    Bay Area
    I think had they still been Queen, they would've been seen as a bit tacky like Micheal Jackson in the late 90's and 2000's. Especially with the grudge of the early 90's and Queen was known to be a very flamboyant band.
     
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  9. Maybe he went solo exploring new generes and then some Queen album and tours....
     
  10. Orthogonian Blues

    Orthogonian Blues A man with a fork in a world full of soup.

    Location:
    London, UK
    Probably Queen would have, eventually, retreated into making only very occasional new music, which would have attempted to give the fans one last taste of the classic sound. And they'd be giving the Stones a run for their money in the mega-gig stakes.

    Boy, what I wouldn't have given to hear Freddie sing Innuendo live.
     
  11. Brendan K

    Brendan K Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    Just imagine Queen playing Havana instead of the Stones...

    Plenty of tracks on Innuendo that I would have loved to see live including the title track. These are the Days of our Lives, I'm Going Slightly Mad, The Show Must Go On, The Hitman...
     
  12. stevemoss

    stevemoss Forum Resident

    The boost they received from "Wayne's World" suggests otherwise. Were Freddie still around then, I think they would've used that momentum to their benefit.
     
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  13. WilliamPoe3

    WilliamPoe3 Active Member

    Location:
    Bay Area
    One novelty song and Freddie was already dead, which could only help their status. Why would anyone even deny the fact that they most likely would've been seen as tacky and outdated? Grunge was literally the opposite of what Queen was. One stoner comedy doesn't change that.
     
  14. Sondek

    Sondek Forum Resident

    Bohemian Rhapsody wasn't a novelty song. Also, you're looking at this from the perspective of the U.S only (or north America anyway). It's always a strange thing hearing about Queen from the perspective of people from the U.S. Wanye's World didn't make much odds to the rest of the world where Queen's popularity hadn't declined (in particular the UK and Europe - it grew).
     
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  15. johnny q

    johnny q Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bergen County, NJ
    AND....they had a head start. They were doing drop d tuning before these grunge bands were born....."White Man" and "Fat Bottomed Girls" to name just two.

    However, the thought of Queen doing a Kiss Carnival Of Souls type grunge re-invention makes me vomit in my mouth :)
     
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  16. BeatleJWOL

    BeatleJWOL Senior Member

    Lung cancer in 2016 if he didn't quit the stuff.

    As for where the band would have gone, we can only wonder.
     
  17. GodShifter

    GodShifter Forum Member

    Location:
    Dallas, TX, USA
    They'd probably tour and record sporadically minus John Deacon. They'd probably be all over the map musically at this point.
     
  18. AlecA

    AlecA Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Hampshire, USA
    Queen would have broken up, and Freddie would have beaten Rod Stewart to the punch and done his own "Songbook" series.
    There would be many threads on the Steve Hoffman boards lamenting this and wondering what would have happened if Queen stayed together.
     
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  19. WilliamPoe3

    WilliamPoe3 Active Member

    Location:
    Bay Area
    Quirky song then, you get the point. Yes, I am seeing this from a US perspective. Wasn't Oasis really big in the UK too? In the US they are often overlooked because of Nirvana. US market is what makes or breaks your legacy, really(many fantastic exceptions though).
     
  20. GodShifter

    GodShifter Forum Member

    Location:
    Dallas, TX, USA
    Metallica covering one of their tunes gave them instant credibility to metal heads everywhere. With the right songwriting and marketing, they'd still be relevant if not hugely popular.
     
  21. WilliamPoe3

    WilliamPoe3 Active Member

    Location:
    Bay Area
    you have a point
     
  22. Sondek

    Sondek Forum Resident

    It gives an artist more sales - and Queen broke that market. But I wouldn't say it makes or breaks an artists legacy. I mean, Oasis are fairly big worldwide - they've certainly got their legacy, without being particularly popular in the U.S (I don't really like Oasis myself though).

    According to Wiki, "By 2009, Oasis had sold over 70 million records worldwide", which is much the same as Nirvana, I believe (I much prefer Nirvana too btw).
     
    Last edited: Jan 16, 2017
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  23. walrus

    walrus Staring into nothing

    Location:
    Nashville
    I think they were heading that way, albeit slowly.

    They'd already sort of existed like Genesis, balancing solo albums with Queen projects. As none of them were particularly successful, I do think Queen would have kept going as a recording entity, albeit with probably bigger gaps between albums, as long as they had fans interested in listening.

    Queen were always a band for the people...they were artists, but not "art for art's sake" artists, if that makes sense. They enjoyed being successful, never complained about venues being "too big," etc. As long as the four of them kept writing songs that sounded like Queen, I think that would've kept them together, because songwriters want their songs to be heard (and who on earth better to sing them than Freddie?)

    Maybe it's a bit idealistic. Queen has always been my favorite band behind the Beatles, and I like to imagine that, despite all their internal conflicts in the 80's, they'd have kept making music if life hadn't intervened. The kind of stuff that caused problems for them in the 80's wasn't anything a thousand other bands had dealt with, and overcome with time, maturity, and, well, often the financial need to keep their band together.
     
  24. misterdecibel

    misterdecibel Bulbous Also Tapered

    Oh, Mercury. I thought it was gonna be Garrity.
     
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  25. PretzelLogic

    PretzelLogic Feeling duped by MoFi? You probably deserve it.

    Location:
    London, England
    If Freddie had lived, I think most of what has happened would have still happened- John departing, Greatest Hits III, Made In Heaven (in some form), collaborations with 5ive and Wyclef Jean, Pop Idol appearances, generally relying on reissues and the odd tour to prop them up. Only difference is that The Cosmos Rocks would have Freddie's songs and vocals, and might have been a bit better.

    Like Dennis Wilson, though, I've never imagined Freddie making it to 70.
     
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