“I Want To Break Free”: 40 years since Queen’s most controversial video clip, which ruined the band in the United States

“Debauchery”. “Lack of youth control”, it was said in the United States. Today all this could be reduced to a tattoo. For the video rather than for the topic itself, I want to break free put to What does it has to do with it? on the verge of fascinating indecency. And she did it starting from the voice, and the vote, of Freddie Mercurypontiff with a sensitivity always out of center with respect to the conservative canons of rock.

For those days in 1984, this song meant an approach to the flame and morbidity of sexuality. If you think about it, these same lines could also be about I am who I amSandra Mihanovich’s album was released in the same year.

I want to break free: We’re talking about one of the most popular songs in all of history. “I want to see myself free”, sang Freddie Mercury, while the most restless understood that it was an Olympics coming out. But – the “but” is on purpose – I want to break free It is composed by John Deacon, a heterosexual “denounced” by Mercury himself when distorted readings suggested that the lyrics had been dictated by Freddie himself.

40 years ago the controversial video clip was published. It happened in April 1984. It was the last interesting thing to happen to Queen after the album The game (1980), when Mercury grew a mustache. We’ll talk about it Crazy little thing called love. From the band’s only hit album in the US, and the last of the quartet that was truly worth it.

I want to break free It’s later. Belonging to Jobs, the English team’s eleventh effort. It was recorded between August 1983 and January 1984. It was released on 27 February 1984 in the UK and the following day in the US. Radio ga ga It became the first and regrettable cut of the broadcast. Queen was already a reminder of a great band going through its final decade horribly.

A shocking video

Then came the negative impact of the video in which the members dressed up I want to break free. The song to watch ended up censored in the United States. It could be deduced that from that moment Queen ceased to exist until the death of its famous singer.

The MTV network did not want to rotate it because the singer was seen with formidable fake boobs, mustache and wig.. It was the closest thing to a coming out with a whistle, a horn and the hysterical queen singing a beautiful hymn to freedom.

Too bad social networks didn’t exist. It would have been a trend towards the latter. More than a song, I want to break free It was received as a manifesto. It felt like “let’s say it all” and we know it once and for all: I’m gay and I’m shouting it out loud. At least in Argentina, with the new democracy, crude interpretation has killed the interpreter.

The song that fueled the controversy was another “fucking hit” by George Harrison of Queen: John Deacon. A biography will say that thanks to him, the bassist who retired from music as a mature footballer, Queen managed to play for the only time at the Studio 54 dance studio in New York with Another bites the dust (Another bites the dust).

The illustrious video was recorded at the end of March directed by David Mallet, who has made clips for Queen, Iron Maiden, David Bowie, etc. The idea for the parody was the drummer’s wife Roger Taylorinspired by a 1960s English soap opera, Coronation Streetaround the lives of working class people.

The four characters

Mercury’s character ridiculed a selfless housewife with protruding breasts, dressed in a miniskirt, heels and (oops!) a mustache. Brian May, the guitarist, wore curlers (of course)Deacon played a widow and Taylor played a good student.

The media decided it I want to break free It was an anthem to the LGBT community. When Queen went to play Rock in Rio in 1985, Polish singer Goyeneche also knew the song. It was like Slowly. He was also played at funerals.

A journalist from Rio wanted to know if this topic, Freddie tells me the truth, is dedicated to homosexuality. Smoking a cigarette, wearing a T-shirt and sporting a thick, generic moustache, the band leader distanced himself from judgment: “Not at all, it’s also John Deacon’s,” he implied, alluding to the bassist’s hetero tendency. “It’s from him, a happily married man with about four kids…”

And I add: “I don’t know where they get all this from. It’s about someone who has a hard life and wants to free himself from problems. Nothing to do with the gay movement.”. The Rio journalist must have been hard of hearing, because she asked him exactly the same question and good old Freddie, fed up with the whole thing, simply asked her to change the subject.

Brazil wasn’t there Everything OKAdding to the uncomfortable interrogation was the fact that at the time of recording the singer appeared on stage dressed almost as in the video. Result? Blunt elements flying against his costume and Freddie begging for mercy with the folded hands emoji: “Stop! Stop! Stop!”

If band videos were intended as a new instance of music promotion, MTV was the real reason for their existence. I want to break free It was forbidden. Queen have suffered censorship by the most important music network in the world. In retaliation, the band decided that the United States would not take part in the album’s tour.

In favor of the journalism of the time, it can be argued that the lyrics of the song are so simple, so Palito Ortega, that perhaps one naturally tends to try to look for a message between the lines. But, so much scandal for a man dressed as a woman? Seven years must have passed before MTV decided to broadcast it uncensored. Poor Mercury couldn’t zap to see it.