Mercury
An Intimate Biography of Freddie Mercury
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Narrated by:
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Jane Collingwood
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By:
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Lesley-Ann Jones
About this listen
A revealing, intimate look at the man who would be Queen
As lead vocalist for the iconic rock band Queen, Freddie Mercury's unmatched skills as a songwriter and his flamboyant showmanship made him a superstar and Queen a household name. But despite his worldwide fame, few people ever really glimpsed the man behind the glittering facade.
Now, more than 20 years after his death, those closest to Mercury are finally opening up about this pivotal figure in rock 'n' roll. Based on more than a hundred interviews with key figures in his life, Mercury offers the definitive account of one man's legendary life in the spotlight and behind the scenes. Rock journalist Lesley-Ann Jones gained unprecedented access to Mercury's tribe, and she details Queen's slow but steady rise to fame and Mercury's descent into dangerous, pleasure-seeking excesses - this was, after all, a man who once declared, "Darling, I'm doing everything with everyone."
In her journey to understand Mercury, Jones traveled to London, Zanzibar, and India - talking with everyone from Mercury's closest friends to the sound engineer at Band Aid (who was responsible for making Queen even louder than the other bands) to second cousins halfway around the world. In the process, an intimate and complicated portrait emerges. Meticulously researched, sympathetic yet not sensational, Mercury offers an unvarnished look at the extreme highs and lows of life in the fast lane. At the heart of this story is a man...and the music he loved.
©2011 Lesley-Ann Jones (P)2012 Simon & Schuster AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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They were the last great band of the '60s and the first great band of the '70s. They rose, somewhat unpromisingly, from the ashes of the Yardbirds to become one of the biggest-selling rock bands of all time - and eventually paid the price for it, with disaster, drug addiction, and death.
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Very annoying but tolerable for serious fans.
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Keith Richards
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In 1992, Victor Bockris' celebrated biography was the first to recognize Richards' pivotal role in the legend of the Rolling Stones. Now that book on rock's most incredible survivor has been expanded. Here are the true facts behind Richards' battles with his demons: the women, the drugs and the love-hate relationship with Jagger. His struggle with heroin and his status as the rock star most likely to die in the 1970s. His scarcely believable rebirth as a family man in the 1980s. Illuminated with revealing quotes and thoughtful insights into the man behind the band that goes on forever.
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doesn't comapre to LIFE
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Who I Am
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- Narrated by: Pete Townshend
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From the voice of a generation: the most highly anticipated autobiography of the year, and the story of a man who wanted The Who to be called The Hair; wanted to be a sculptor, a journalist, a dancer and a graphic designer; became a musician, composer, librettist, fiction writer, literary editor, sailor; drank too much and nearly died; detached from his body in an airplane, on LSD, and nearly died; planned to write his memoir when he was 21; and published this book at 67.
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Glad To Meet You
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Tearing Down the Wall of Sound
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Phil Spector, born in the Bronx in 1940, grew up an outsider despised by his peers. But he formed a band, and had a number-one hit with "To Know Him Is to Love Him". He quickly became the top producer of early rock and roll and the originator of such girl groups as the Ronettes. Hit followed hit, and for all of them he used a new recording style called the "wall of sound". But the reign of the boy-man who owned pop music was doomed, and Spector spiraled into paranoid isolation and peculiar behavior.
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Descent Into Madness
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Unchained
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From the moment their hugely influential 1978 debut landed, Van Halen set a high bar for the rock 'n' roll lifestyle, creating an entirely new style of post-'60s hard rock and becoming the quintessential rock band of the 1980s. But the high-flying success was fraught with difficulty, as Eddie struggled with alcohol and drug addiction while simultaneously battling David Lee Roth over the musical direction of the band, eventually taking the band in an entirely new direction with Sammy Hagar and scaling new heights, before that iteration of Van Halen disintegrated.
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Please don't read other audible books
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From our talent-rich neighbor to the north comes this biography of one of the most successful Canadian rock bands, The Tragically Hip, which announced a year-long tour after sharing the news of lead singer Gord Downie’s inoperable cancer. Now available to US listeners, The Never-Ending Present details what led up to the memorable night when music fans all over the world watched Downie’s heroic final performance.
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Hometown Heroes
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Iggy Pop
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Iggy Pop's legendary career has been tumultuous, reaching great heights with mega-hits and then hitting rock-bottom lows in jail and mental institutions. Along the way, he's become a cult-rock hero, an inspiration for dozens of other famous rockers, and has had a pretty good time of it, too. But the image of Iggy Pop versus the man behind that image, James Newell Osterberg, Jr., is surprisingly contradictory.
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Banal and Boring
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Beatles '66
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The year that changed everything for the Beatles was 1966 - the year of their last concert and of Revolver, their first album created to be listened to rather than performed. This was the year the Beatles risked their popularity by retiring from live performances, recording songs that explored alternative states of consciousness, experimenting with avant-garde ideas, and speaking their minds on issues of politics, war, and religion. Music journalist and Beatles expert Steve Turner investigates the enormous changes that took place in the Beatles' lives and work during 1966.
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Great listen
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Paul McCartney
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The best-selling author of the definitive biography of former Beach Boy Brian Wilson offers new insight into the life and music of Paul McCartney, one of the world's most popular and influential musicians. Informed by new, exclusive interviews with friends, bandmates, and collaborators, the book describes McCartney's many triumphs as well as his failures, from the Beatles era through his decade with Wings and his subsequent solo career.
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Great...But
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Brian Jones
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Brian Jones is a forensic, thrilling account of Jones' life, which for the first time details his pioneering achievements and messy unraveling. With more than 120 new interviews, Trynka offers countless new revelations and sets straight the tall tales that have long marred Jones' legacy. His story is a gripping battle between creativity and ambition, between self-sabotage and betrayal. It's all here: the girlfriends, the drugs, and some of the greatest music of all time.
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Great story, exceptionally well narrated
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Fornication
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Despite an epic reputation for exhibitionism, drug taking, and drunkenness, through it all the Chili Peppers have continued to produce records that shock, challenge, and intrigue their fans. Jeff Apter tells the complete Red Hot Chili Peppers story, from their first meeting at a Los Angeles high school to the creation of such career-defining albums as BloodSugarSexMagik, Californication and By The Way.
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Cabron
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Small Town Talk
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When musicians in the New York folk scene of the 1960s grew tired of city life, they decided to "get it together in the country". They headed for Woodstock - not to the site of the infamous music festival of 1969 but to the Catskills, to Bearsville, to Woodstock proper. Counterculture revolutionaries like Janis Joplin, Richie Havens, and Paul Butterfield got "back to the land", turning the once sleepy hollow into a funky Shangri-La.
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Captured the era - too many mistakes
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What listeners say about Mercury
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Big Mama
- 05-26-19
excellent!
A must read for fans of Freddie Mercury! Couldn't put it down! You will not regret this purchase!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Jaye
- 12-06-23
Overall Really Good! Only One Complaint...
Overall this biography was very well done and the performance was excellent. The only issue I have with the book is the blatant Bi-erasure about Freddie's sexuality. In today's times, he would have been celebrated as a Bisexual, but in his time he was labeled "Gay" or "Homosexual" because the mindset in those times was "You can't possibly be attracted to both!" When infact he was.
Still a 5 Star book and one of the better Freddie Biographies I've listened to.
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- Anonymous User
- 03-30-24
Love Freddie
Detailed conf of what I expected Freddie was as a whole hearted kind person looking to be in the right.
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- Paul Sas
- 10-05-12
A tattler, not well-written, yet a guilty pleasure
Let's just bite the big bad truth at the outset: This is a gossipy tattle sheet about Freddy Mercury & by extension, Queen. I was initially quite irked by the author's voice, which is that of a self-loathing hack journalist whose greatest ambition is to gawk at famous people. She boasts of having "worked as a columnist on The Sun, The Daily Mail, The News Of The World and The Sunday Express." I was about to bail on this, when I suddenly realized that I was getting direct access to a personality I've never myself encountered, and although I can't say she's at all attractive, she does channel the British underclass obsessions and anxieties. Armed with this realization, I kicked back into enjoying this guilty pleasure. Unfortunately, the book doesn't give a great deal of insight into Freddy Mercury, who remains rather enigmatic. But there's lots of quotes (the audiobook's additional quirk is that multiple actors voice the different persons quoted). There's some interesting info about Queen, e.g., that they're the only band to ever have more than one #1 single written by each of the 4 members (so, there, they're better than the Beatles, and indeed, Ms Jones states that Queen has sold more albums than the Fab 4). I was fascinated to learn that Freddy developed a close relationship with Barbara Valentin, an actress in Germany who'd been in several Fassbinder films. I ended up enjoying this romp, although it's not at all a well written book.
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16 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 09-18-23
Great info
This was a great perspective on Freddy. Not new info but a great read anyway.
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- Jesse
- 10-22-12
Very Informative
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
the final days of Freddie's life were told very well. it made me cry as if I had been there.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 12-19-18
Touching memories n blunt realistic story
This is both a touching n traumatizing story of dedication to your art form and the trappings of achieving your goals
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- Joselo
- 02-19-18
The show must go on
'Mercury' presents an intimate look at the life of the legendary singer and performer of Queen. It includes interviews with many of the people that were closest to him, including his bandmates and some of his romantic partners. As a fan of the band, I enjoyed getting a sense of what took place behind the scenes, both at work and in daily life. Author Lesley-Ann Jones has focused her journalistic career on the world of celebrities. The book does sometimes feel a little bit like the gossip column of a magazine, but I wouldn't say it's sensationalistic. It's respectful and sympathetic towards its subject. I finished the book feeling like I had a better understanding of the artist, the band and their music.
Unlike most audiobooks that I've listened to, this one is read by several narrators. And it mostly works. The majority of the actors read their lines in a very naturalistic style, which makes it all sound like a documentary. Only one or two of the characters sound somewhat fake. But over all, I am happy with the narration. It suits this particular book.
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- Beth
- 10-15-15
Awesome
I loved the book. It was very accurate and well written. It was also very interesting and informative.
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- PavFan
- 11-30-19
Felt very authentic
With the author as one who had first-hand knowledge of the life of Freddie Mercury, I felt confident in the validity of the content. It flowed well, and it was one book that was hard to 'put down'. I felt enlightened about him as well as saddened by his struggles. A musical genius who will always be missed and remembered.
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1 person found this helpful