The 1985 Listening Post - Freddie Mercury - Mr. Bad Guy

Freddie Mercury - Mr. Bad Guy

#131

April 29 1985

Freddie Mercury

Mr. Bad Guy

Genre: Dance Rock

4.75 out of 5 (a biased rating. Your mileage may vary)

Highlights:

Let’s Turn it On

Made in Heaven

I Was Born to Love You

Your Kind of Lover

Living on My Own

Speaking from personal experience I guarantee you there were legions of Queen fans whose heads spun off their shoulders when they heard this. And, like me, they tried to explain it and adore it and give it cred.

Except that I really loved this record when it came out. I frequently return to the tracks from it, even though it’s not available on streaming platforms, much of it has been included in other Freddie compilations.

And then I really hated it for a while. I gave my CD copy to my brother who turned it into a desk clock. 

I didn’t get it. 

I do now. 

Look. It’s mostly disco. Fred was in a…place in his life. As the Bohemian Rhapsody detailed. Thing is, this is also a kitchen sink of ideas. The production is spectacular. “Let’s Turn it On” and “I Was Born to Love You” are expertly crafted studio creations (Imagine if the latter had been recorded by The Pointer Sisters, gold, Jerry, gold!). Ballads like “Made in Heaven” and “There Must Be More to Life Than This” would have fit perfectly on a latter day Queen record. (The former would appear as the title track of their last, posthumous one, the latter would reappear in 2014 as it was originally recorded: as a duet with Michael Jackson)

One thing that is very apparent, evidenced on the Side One closer, “Your Kind of Lover”, is that the years of untrained stadium anthem singing + cigarettes (and other things) are taking their toll on Fred’s voice. I started to notice it on News of the World. There’s more rasp and strain and that’s all over the place here. From 1973 -1978 he had no equal. Later he had to work harder and this song (a terrifically dopey tune) is a prime example. 

Side Two opens with the title track, and it’s here that we can begin to hear the sounds that will come to define Fred’s later work. It’s similar to “Play the Game” or “It’s a Hard Life” and will all come together in his epic, Barcelona, a few years later. It’s also his most confessional track here. And it’s telling. Fred isn’t a good guy. People are afraid of him, can’t get close to him. He has to be what he has to be to be who he really wants to be. 

I’ve said before that, amid his bombast Fred really writes tellingly confessional songs. “Somebody to Love” is a bloodletting scream from the bowels of loneliness. “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” is an admission of his inability to truly connect or trust intimacy. “Mr. Bad Guy” is that record here. Gussied up in fauxpera. (And, until this listen I completely forgot the Montserrat Caballe soprano impression he does on “Man Made Paradise”. Kudos!) “Living on My Own” is another good example of the solitude confessional dressed up as an upbeat rock/dance track (with Jazz Scat!!!). Fred hid is sadness so well.