QUEEN GETS ROYAL TREATMENT The English rock band Queen gets the
royal treatment from the English language in a book called QUEEN
MAGIC. The world class group is brought to life through amazingly
vivid detail in two pieces of writing from longtime rock music
author Jim O'Donnell. The first piece is O'Donnell's landmark
review of 1992's Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley
Stadium, London, watched on TV by an estimated billion people. In
the process of telling the story of the show, the piece tells the
story of Queen in language fit for a king. Written in a lively
style with many comic touches, the review steps far beyond
center-stage and into the realm of fresh insight. The second piece
is a deeply felt interview with Queen guitarist Brian May that
O'Donnell conducted shortly after Freddie Mercury's death in 1991.
The interview is a genuine, personal glimpse of the guitarist's
feelings about his lead-singer and his band. All in all, QUEEN
MAGIC uses the written word to discover and reveal the essence of
this legendary band. FROM THE LATE RAY COLEMAN, FORMER
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF MELODY MAKER: "Jim O'Donnell's extraordinary
piece on the Mercury farewell concert is the best writing I've ever
seen on Freddie or, for that matter, on Queen." EXCERPTS FROM QUEEN
MAGIC: On a post-concert interview: "After the concert, I had to
pick my way through a courtly gathering of rock royalty backstage.
It had been a long evening of deep feeling and I wondered what this
lead-singer had on the tip of his tongue about the lead-singer who
was missing. In a voice thick with emotion, the Who's Roger Daltrey
told me: 'When we lost Freddie, we not only lost a great
personality, a man with a great sense of humor, a true showman, but
we lost probably the best, the really, the best virtuoso rock 'n'
roll singer of all time. He could sing anything in any style. He
could change his style from line to line and, God, that's an art.
And he was brilliant at it.'" On Freddie Mercury's legend:
"Mercury, the element, may be Number 80 on the Periodic Table, but
Mercury, the musician, is closer to Number 8-probably higher-on the
table of all-time great rock 'n' roll singers." On Freddie
Mercury's vocal range: "He sang every form in the business-rock,
pop, blues, country, soul, disco, opera-without disgracing any of
them. Music loves to dance in the voice of a great singer and
Mercury had a superlative voice. It was as if he didn't really
'hit' notes: he would more or less sweep them. As rock 'n' roll
landmarks go, the Mercury voice had the range of the Matterhorn and
the complexity of the Eiffel Tower." On the latter half of the
Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert: "Twilight began to settle on
England. The evening sun dappled the stadium with flecks of
zodiacal light as the three bandmates kicked the concert into
warp-drive. Admirably as they played, the trio seemed jangled to be
performing without their missing friend." FROM MICHAEL LYDON, A
FOUNDING EDITOR OF ROLLING STONE: "Jim O'Donnell has a reporter's
curiosity, a rock 'n' roller's heart, and he writes like a lyrical
Irish poet."
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