In a new Interview with GW, Brian May was asked about Freddie Mercury’s guitar skills.
He said:
“He was very good on the guitar, very unorthodox – all downstrokes. He wrote the riff for ‘Ogre Battle’ [from 1974’s ‘Queen II’]. I used to play it with up- and downstrokes, but he was all downstrokes. Imagine how fast his right hand was moving!
“He had frenetic energy on the guitar, which came across very well in that song. He played the rhythm on ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love.’ I wanted to sound as good as Freddie did on that record, which was damn good.
“He kind of left the guitar after a while and concentrated more on the piano. In the latter days, he even left the piano behind. He just wanted to be a performer who ran around and had the freedom to be a frontman.”
Broan further talked about the poses he and Freddie gave back in the day. He said:
“I don’t know where it all came from. We had our influences, but we were never choreographed. We did it all instinctively, but there was an awareness of energy flow on stage.
“I think Japan changed us. We went to Japan and were treated like we were The Beatles. Every move we made was greeted by some kind of response from the audience, so we learned very quickly, instinctively, to use that.
“I think I wasn’t a very physical guitar player in the beginning, but experiencing the Budokan and that wall of appreciation molded us into people who are much more physical and responsive to what the audience felt.”
1 comment
Death to phalse metal.