Somebody to Love: The Life, Death and Legacy of Freddie Mercury Hardcover – November 22, 2016

This book is one of the best I’ve read. Rarely do I have the opportunity or sustained interest in reading a big book non stop cover to cover, but that is exactly what has happened. It’s certainly the best biography I’ve ever read. It also gives a fairly comprehensive history of AIDS, some of the hysteria of which I remember from childhood in the 80s when no one knew how it was transmitted, and thus, were extremely paranoid. More importantly, though, it is a really deep look into the life of Freddie Mercury from birth to death. The man was a marvel and so much of who he was resonates very deeply with me. SOOOO driven...such a perfectionist. Unique in every way.The time he lived in really prevented him from openly being who he was and it caused him to be one of the loneliest people on the planet (GaGa talks about this in her documentary. The more famous you become, the more people who surround you...but at the end of the day, they all disappear and you’re totally alone ). So many of his lyrics tell the story of his loneliness or need for true relationship(s), yet he was also one of the most fun-loving, generous and over the top humans I’ve ever heard of.He was always stunning, youthful and beautiful (even as he was dying and declining)—maybe not in anyone’s traditional sense of those things, but he was indeed those things to the nth degree.After having read it, I don’t understand why everyone in the world isn’t in love with him 😊.This Queen/Freddie thing is strange. I’ve had deep inspirations before in my life, but always they were from my own time (apart from F. Scott Fitzgerald). I mean, I loved a few Queen tunes in my younger childhood, but that was about it. I kind of forgot about them until the movie came along. And that movie (Bohemian Rhapsody)awakened a beast with a new ear for the music and new eyes for everything else about Queen.It’s been well over a month now since I saw the movie the first time (and of course countless times afterward) and EVERYDAY it’s been Queen music whenever possible. After everyone’s in bed? interviews, concert footage, videos. Literally, every night.At this point, I may know just about as much as fans who have loved Queen for decades.It doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I know if it’s wrong, I don’t wanna be right. Haha!Needless to say, as a long time reader of amazing books, this one comes highly recommended. Excellent writing, thorough coverage and great accompanying photos.

The title "Somebody to Love: The Life, Death, and Legacy of Freddie Mercury" portrays accurately what the authors Matt Richards & Mark Langthorne accomplished. The end notes shows a careful researched informations. I've read previous frivolous Freddie Mercury biographies by other authors such as Rick Sky and they fail to capture the essence of Freddie. The first two chapters captivates you about a hunter killing a chimpanzee in 1908 in the deep Belgian Congo. I'm so enthralled into the origins of the AIDS story that I forget that I am reading about Freddie. Then the story switches in the third chapter about Freddie's father Bomi Bulsara being born in north of Bombay in 1908. As you can already surmise the author marriages two stories of different continents together as the book goes on. This is essential to understand Freddie. Although this book does not interview the members of Queen, they reach out other artists and friends that knew him. Let me also tell you on a side note that the writer Mark Langthorne met with Freddie in 1983 in a infamous gay club called Heaven in London. I thought that the AIDS story merging into Freddie's life was essential, because now deducing that Freddie was infected with HIV around the summer of 1982 means a lot to the reader. How does a man go forward knowing he has a dead sentence. The famous Live Aid, July 13 1985 we all know was performed by a man that already had an inkling of this mysterious disease. When a man gets a disease like this it plagues his mind. Whether he is performing on stage or washing the dishes. It's fascinating how Freddie pulled up his boot straps and continues to live a life of hope and joy. Freddie in his mind knowing he had this disease is truly getting to know his life. The book also goes into how homosexuals were heavily discriminated in the 80's. How hate crime rose through the decade. How a gay man in the 80's had to be strong. Were today everybody to the average Joe has a "coming out the closet" party. That party wasn't happening in the 80's. Gay men at that time had to go into strange underground clubs like New York's Mineshaft to be themselves. This is who Freddie was. A extraordinary musician and vocalist. An incredible writer. A electrifying performer. A benevolent wealthy man. A lover of life. Freddie also was a gay man. A man that understood racism and his Indian past. A broken hearted man. Understood the witch hunting press. A man that had a disease which he fought in the end. He is truly somebody you can love.