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Books like Freddie Mercury

Freddie Mercury

2000, Peter Freestone

4.8/5

I have very mixed feelings towards "Freddie Mercury". Ultimately, this is a book worth reading if you are a Queen fan. It is barely a 2/5, however.First of all, Peter is no writer. This book is a complete mess. We got 5 chapters (beautifully named Chapter 1 - Chapter 5), each containing random and unorganized thoughts. Topic 1. Topic 5. Topic 14. Back to topic 1. And so it goes... Few hours of organizing all the anecdotes could make a decently planned book. Someone wasn't in the mood for too much work.Another thing is that Peter was not a friend of Freddy. He likes to point out that he was, but constantly shows proof that this was not the case (vide the description of the talk that supposedly cemented their great friendship - a few hours long blabber about nothing in particular, what a moment to cherish). I've read some biographies, but this is the first one when I wanted to put my shoes on, get into the book and kick the writer's ass for being so dull and tedious.Besides painting the image of Freddy Mercury, it also shows us what kind of person Freestone is. Boring, with weathered personality and not much to say, he makes Mercury's life sound so empty, but it is his perception of things that's pale. Freestone likes to think of himself as Freddie's right hand, but in reality he is just the give-me-that I-want-that-done where's-my-toilet-paper kind of guy. And while some of those star sidekicks wrote killer biographies, this one definitely does not belong to that category.He doesn't deliver an accurate picture that you will find in many other biographical sources. The book is full of description of rooms stuff was happening in (curtain colors are extremely important in biographies), which paints a picture of Freestone not being able to get into conversations, so he just looks around and notices stuff that doesn't matter. About half of this book are such boring descriptions).Why 2 stars then? When you spend 10 years with someone, you're bound to have some interesting information anyway. That is why this book can be read when every other Freddie Mercury and Queen source has been explored. If you want some basic knowledge about Freddie, this is a terrible source though.
Picture of a book: Freddie Mercury

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