David Bowie was never one to be subtle about any of his performances.
Even when he was playing the vaudevillian act that he would later disown, he wanted to make sure he left the right impression before he even opened his mouth to sing half the time. As far as he was concerned, rock and roll was all about the performance, but ‘The Starman’ never believed that he was the be-all and end-all for where rockstars could go with their glamorous antics.
After all, Little Richard practically had Bowie beat before he even thought about becoming a singer. Whereas most rock fans point to Bowie as the height of androgyny when Ziggy Stardust was brought into the world, Little Richard was already wearing makeup and giving the most animated performances that the pop world had ever seen before Elvis Presley had even broken into the mainstream.
But whereas Bowie was looking to be as much of a sonic actor as he was a singer, all he did was kick down the door for what rock stars could do. The seeds of glam were already starting to be sown by him, and it was only a matter of time before people like Mott the Hoople and Sweet started to ride his coattails. Although a lot of bands found themselves throwing on makeup at the time, fans knew they were dealing with a different class of glamour when Queen took the stage.
The sound of the band’s debut may have felt like a slightly more polished version of Led Zeppelin, but Queen is a band that really needs to be seen to be understood properly. Sure, they had plenty of fantastic moments in the studio and managed to push studio trickery in a way that no one had ever thought of, but Freddie Mercury found his home onstage much better than he did in the studio.
Aside from being a natural ham onstage, Mercury left every bit of himself onstage during every one of the band’s tours. Did some songs have issues being recreated live? Of course. What band doesn’t have that problem? But the main difference with Mercury was his ability to somehow make every song better when he was in front of an audience, even during the moments where he would be leading the crowd in his vocal exercise sing-along.
Bowie may have helped pave the way for a band like Queen to become superstars, but he admitted that there was no matching what Mercury could do, saying, “Of all the more theatrical performers, Freddie took it further than the rest. He took it over the edge. And of course I always admire a man who wears tights!” Considering how Mercury was behind the scenes, it’s amazing to think he had that natural stage animal inside of him.
He was always described as fairly shy and reserved by his friends and family, but none of that seemed to matter when the houselights went up. He knew he had a job to do for every single person in that crowd that paid for a ticket, and even if Bowie changed up his style multiple times, Mercury had the kind of foolproof method of performing that no other artist could even hope to master when he hit his stride.
While many artists normally run into trouble when taking things “over the edge”, Queen always had that unique way of taking everything just far enough to keep people on the edge of their seats. It was hard to gauge what they would be doing half the time, but that’s what made every one of their songs so captivating. No one knew if Mercury was going to sing a lush ballad or a showstopping showtune, but chances were that they were going to leave every audience with smiles on their faces.