This is something I was thinking of earlier today while I listened to "It's A Hard Life". Most, if not all, of us look up to Brian, Roger, and John. We also looked up to Freddie. We wanted them to be happy since they brought us such happiness with their music. But many of their songs came about due in some part by the sadness in their lives. Sexual ambiguity, divorce, death, heartbreak, betrayal, lies, you name it. These and other travails were chronicled, at least obliquely, in the songs the four of them wrote. And not just Queen. Look at ABBA and Fleetwood Mac. A lot of their songs were written while the band members were either sleeping with or breaking up or fighting with the others. I guess what I am saying to my fave artists is, "sorry you have had a hard life or that your heart was broken or whatever, but it sure made for some damn good music. Please do not get fat and happy; keep that anguish honed to a fine edge and keep the music coming!"
I think when Freddie,Brian,Roger and John were writing songs in this era they just forgot their dilemmas e.g Freddie's disease,Brain's affair,Roger's divorce and John ?????
I think it's therapeutic to use art to express your feelings. So it's good on many levels.
I'm glad you mentioned ABBA. So many only think of them as a fun little pop group, but their last couple albums are so mature and full of beautiful, yet painful lyrics.
"The Winner Takes It All" is a great example. Written by the ex-husband for the ex-wife to sing, and a song that sorta isn't so flattering to himself. Brilliant and very emotional.
I guess what I am trying to say is; on one hand, we look up to these artists and wish them no ill will, but on the other hand we love songs they write inspired, at least in part, by painful experiences stemming from not only everyday life, but the complications being a public figure bring. To me it is an interesting sort of a paradox.
Also, we do not really want our fave artists to get happier. Not really. For instance, Freddie was wrestling with some personal demons when he wrote "Bohemian Rhapsody". The song made him a big star. About ten years later he wrote "It's A Hard Life" which is an even more revealing look at love and loss. Conventional wisdom is that after the success of "BoRhap" he would have been sitting pretty. Money, fame, freedom to make the music he wanted to make. But stardom also prevented him from being truly happy personally. And we, the fans, benefit from his anguish. This, to me, is an interesting conflict. I would have wanted him to be happy and to have found a stable, lasting relationship, but we probably would have been deprived of a song like "It's A Hard Life" if he had.
This is an interesting point of view.
I have also thought about that. You mentioned Queen as an example, I also love The Clash and it's the same with them. They wrote about their own lives, their problems they and their friends had in England in the late 70's, things they had to deal with, that were certainly not good. Songs like Career Opportunities, White Man In Hammersmith Palais, London's Burning, etc tell the story of their personal lives. Joe Strummer once spoke it out. He said that if he and his friends hadn't experienced these bad things, like poverty, not knowing what to do with your life, The Clash wouldn't have existed and many legendary songs would have never been written.
Same with Queen of course, especially the last songs Freddie wrote, when he was struggling with aids, are very personal but in my opinion also very good. Even though they make us sad because we know what he had to deal with and what made him write them.
Most of those who write songs themselves, write about personal things they have experienced, and ironically, many of the real good songs tell about bad things and troubles and problems.
But this also makes the artists a bit more "human" to us. After all, they have to deal with all the things we also have to go through.