{"id":1236,"date":"2017-08-02T20:35:12","date_gmt":"2017-08-02T20:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/?p=1236"},"modified":"2017-08-02T20:35:12","modified_gmt":"2017-08-02T20:35:12","slug":"somebody-to-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/?p=1236","title":{"rendered":"Somebody to Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

Always Overbooked
\n<\/strong>By Terri Schlichenmeyer<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Last year was a particularly rough one.  <\/p>\n

Every time you open a newspaper or turned on the computer or TV, it seemed as though someone \u2013 a Hollywood actor, singer, or stage performer you liked \u2013 had died. Even now, whether it was six months, a year or, as in \u201cSomebody to Love\u201d by Matt Richards & Mark Langthorne, more than a decade, you still miss them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Farrokh Bulsara was born in India in the fall of 1946 to Parsee followers of the prophet Zoroaster, facts he tried to hide it as a young man. For reasons he didn\u2019t belabor, Bulsara claimed that he was \u201cPersian\u201d and seldom discussed his relatively privileged childhood. He even changed his name to Freddie.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Known as a shy boy and famously ashamed of his prominent front teeth, Freddie was nevertheless so in love with music that he helped form his first band in 1958, in part to \u201cimpress the girls.\u201d As soon as he was old enough, he moved to London, where he became a hanger-on for two popular local bands, one of which eventually hired him as a lead singer. Freddie, say the authors, loved to put on a show.<\/p>\n

At around this time, he also fell deeply in love with a woman, though he \u201cwas struggling to come to terms with whether he was straight, gay or bisexual.\u201d Indeed, despite social mores and legalities of the time, he was also undoubtedly sleeping with men, but he \u201chad no intention of coming out\u2026 even if in truth he had felt able to.\u201d<\/p>\n

By mid-1970, Freddie changed his surname, while his latest band changed its name to Queen; both began attracting attention in the U.K. Meanwhile, Mercury fell in love with someone whom he considered his \u201ccommon-law wife.\u201d She, too, seemed to have no idea that he slept with men, which might not have mattered much anyhow: Mercury had led a \u201chedonistic\u201d life for years and that was just Freddie being Freddie.<\/p>\n

But then, possibly some time in 1982, he was infected with the HIV virus\u2026<\/p>\n

At nearly 400 pages, sans notes, \u201cSomebody to Love\u201d is one of those books that might have been enhanced by being shortened by a third.<\/p>\n

Authors Matt Richards & Mark Langthorne did an exhaustive job with the biography of Queen front man, Freddie Mercury, but that\u2019s not all: this is also a surprising biography of the AIDS epidemic, beginning more than a century ago. That\u2019s often imagined, since exact circumstances are unknown but, while it makes for a fascinating tale, it stretches too slowly, gets too breathy, and loses its punch. Even Mercury\u2019s career seemed a mess here; readers get names and dates in a bounce-around narrative on a story-loop.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s merit in this book \u2013 early sections on the beginning of AIDS and the beginning and end of Mercury\u2019s life are all stellar \u2013 but much of the middle part is pretty ho-hum. In the end, for fans, \u2018Somebody to Love\u201d may still be worth a try. Others may find this book to be a rough one.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody to Love: The Life, Death and Legacy of Freddie Mercury\u201d by Matt Richards & Mark Langthorne<\/p>\n

c.2016, Weldon Owen                           $24.95 \/ $33.95 Canada                  440 pages<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Always Overbooked By Terri Schlichenmeyer   Last year was a particularly rough one.   Every time you open a newspaper or turned on the computer or TV, it seemed as though someone \u2013 a Hollywood actor, singer, or stage performer you liked \u2013 had died. Even now, whether it was six months, a year or, as in \u201cSomebody to Love\u201d by Matt Richards & Mark Langthorne, more than a decade, you still miss them.   Farrokh Bulsara was born in India in the fall of 1946 to Parsee followers of the prophet Zoroaster, facts he tried to hide it as a young man. For reasons he didn\u2019t belabor, Bulsara claimed that he was \u201cPersian\u201d and seldom discussed his relatively privileged childhood. He even changed his name to Freddie.   Known as a shy boy and famously ashamed of his prominent front teeth, Freddie was nevertheless so in love with music that he helped form his first band in 1958, in part to \u201cimpress the girls.\u201d As soon as he was old enough, he moved to London, where he became a hanger-on for two popular local bands, one of which eventually hired him as a lead singer. Freddie, say the authors, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1237,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[355],"tags":[368,734,1557,1265,1552,1553,1555,1559,1551,1554,1550,1556,367,56,1558],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1236"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1236"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1238,"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1236\/revisions\/1238"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}