In Greece it was very evident at the time around 1992 that music television tried to "sell" in my defense as a " death -sentenced man" sort of apologetic music single. Well...how convenient.
Have to admit It was veeeery effective( also i was a innocent/all -heart, teenager back then).
But i came to realize that it may was with odds with Freddie's attitude and spirit.
In many ways it comes across now with a pity / sorry undertone ( we know that In My Defense was written in a completely different context) and a tear-jerk of a music video collage. I am not sure that he would approved.
Well, what do you think?
Was music television there very anti-gay at the time? You have to remember a LOT of people in those days were brashly claiming Freddie deserved his fate because of his lifestyle and so on (something which was touched upon topically in the Days Of Our Lives documentary), so this could have been an extension of that filth.
Yes, it was very anti-gay although not as forward as you would expect. Greeks have a lot respect in the issue of death so they weren't vocal about those thoughts. It was all too "exotic" for greek pop culture ( lets assume it did existed at one point) to really dig hard on his drama.
However it did unconsciously (?) created a " poor guy" mentality. Mercury himself allowed some sort of "ego-trip tragedy" by performing These are the days of our lives, on video. But it was his choice. The In My Defence case was a conservative approach by conveniently pulling the thing in a different so therefore false context
The "ohhh, look what i have done" kind of thing.
I believe he wouldn't by amused.
Lol. Funny enough for the Greeks who LIVED THE TERM "GREEK" by their IDEALIZED relationship of OLD MEN and YOUNG BOYS.
That kinda shit ASTOUNDS me.
Just like the American and his trip on "freedom" on the death and slavery of "Indians" and blacks
Too many cultures with their head between their legs giving lip service only to themselves without a SHRED of honesty. .... lol. GREEKS, UPSET BY HOMOSEXUALITY? ????????......
Mind -FUCKING- boggling
matt z wrote:
Lol. Funny enough for the Greeks who LIVED THE TERM "GREEK" by their IDEALIZED relationship of OLD MEN and YOUNG BOYS.
That kinda shit ASTOUNDS me.
Just like the American and his trip on "freedom" on the death and slavery of "Indians" and blacks
Too many cultures with their head between their legs giving lip service only to themselves without a SHRED of honesty. .... lol. GREEKS, UPSET BY HOMOSEXUALITY? ????????......
Mind -FUCKING- boggling
I know. Your astonishment is valid BUT its so complicated that it would need experts to answer that.
Let me give you some basic directions:
The liberal-open-free spirit of ancient Greece has been vandalized by christianity Big Time. It was almost like a mission for the christians to ruin everything that the ancient world had achieved cos the freedom of the body and its pleasures and the inquiring mind of the poets and the philosophers was a constant threat for them.
For about 400 years Greeks had been under the power of Turks. The Turks had a cultural background were man on man sex was seen as another way of humiliation from the active to the passive. They used penetration as a weapon so in the collective subconscious of Greeks the " try never to get fucked" became the ultimate goal.
Patriarchy, sexism and machismo, as it can also be seen in other mediterranean cultures (ex. South Italy) became a very standard foundation for every kind of relationship and expression.
So perhaps you can see how the dynamics of younger-older man love, became through the centuries a field for heavy oppression.
STELIOS wrote:
In Greece it was very evident at the time around 1992 that music television tried to "sell" in my defense as a " death -sentenced man" sort of apologetic music single. Well...how convenient.
Have to admit It was veeeery effective( also i was a innocent/all -heart, teenager back then).
But i came to realize that it may was with odds with Freddie's attitude and spirit.
In many ways it comes across now with a pity / sorry undertone ( we know that In My Defense was written in a completely different context) and a tear-jerk of a music video collage. I am not sure that he would approved.
Well, what do you think?
I think that it wasn't the music television that started it, it was Queen Productions. The video was shown during the FM tribute concert, which means the rest of the guys must have approved it .
Back then I didn't know much about Freddie, and the song did have at least some emotional impact like it was supposed to... It was a marketing decision after all, and Freddie didn't really care how his material would be used after his death.