Hello my dear QZers, this is a Chinese news report on ITV’s Freddie documentary--A Kind Of Magic.
It’s from a news program called World Express on China Central Television News Channel (CCTV-News, which is the state TV station).
File size: 6.74MB
Duration: 4 minutes 10 seconds
Transmission date: Sept. 6
Original link: link
Download link:
mms://winmedia.cctv.com.cn/guojishixun/2006/09/guojishixun_300_20060906_7.wmv
For anyone interested, here’s a little translation done by myself:)
CCTV.com (World Express)--Queen are a world-famous rock band who swept the pop arena in the 1970s. Although their lead singer, Freddie Mercury, died as early as in 1991, various music genres including psychedelic rock pioneered by him still hold enduring influence on today’s pop music. September 5 this year marks Freddie Mercury’s 60th anniversary. To celebrate this occasion, a documentary about Freddie’s life and experiences will be shown on September 12 in the UK. Now let’s take a look at it in advance.
The title of this documentary is Freddie Mercury—A Kind of Magic, which comes from Queen’s 1986 hit album. This documentary features a lot of footage of interviews with Freddie himself, members of Queen as well as his family members.
Freddie, whose real name was Farookh Bulsara, was born on September 5, 1946 in Zanzibar, Tanzania. During his studies in St. Peter’s Boarding School, Freddie began to show his music talents. He won the music scholarship and started to play piano in the school band.
Freddie’s school friend: This is the stage and hall of St. Peter’s High School where Freddie and the Hectics first started the band as well as the show.
After graduation, Freddie was for one time involved in clothing business. In 1971, introduced by his business partner, Roger, Freddie met Brian and John. Four of them founded the band Queen, and went huge success.
Throughout the 70s, Queen were the banner of the pop music, gradually forming their unique style. In Bohemian Rhapsody, the signature Queen song in that period, opera and rock were artfully blended, defining the style of psychedelic rock of the band.
In the 80s, Queen’s music tended to be either soft and slow or catchy and frolic. According to statistics, Queen have sold more than 80 million records in the world.
Queen influenced almost all the heavy metal bands in the late 20th century. Their unique operatic rock guided the development of progressive metal. Their sumptuous live performances were also followed by many other bands. Freddie, as the frontman of Queen, was the soul of the band. We can say that he was one of the most talented, most passionate and most charismatic singers in the rock history. However, in his private life, Freddie was rather indiscreet. What fans always saw were mostly his glamorous images on stage, few would know what Freddie was really like off the stage. In everyone’s eyes, Freddie was different.
In 1987, Freddie did a cover version of an old song—The Great Pretender. The title itself has strong connotations.
Queen member Brian May: It’s quite Freddie.
Queen member Roger Taylor: In one life time, impossible.
Queen member John Deacon: Full of surprises, and lots of creative ideas.
Freddie’s sister: For us, he was just another family member.
On November 22, 1991, Freddie admitted publicly that he had AIDS. On November 24, Freddie passed away. Queen, in essence, were disbanded. After Freddie’s death, other members of Queen, together with their manager Jim founded the Mercury Phoenix Trust, hoping that it would help more and more AIDS patients to battle with the disease in the name of Freddie.
When Freddie says “I still love you”, the dubbed Chinese is “Dedicated to you, love of my life.”
They got a few info wrong in the report, but most part is OK. Sorry for my poor English but hope you enjoy it!
Belle Queenie
GSTQ
thats the first time ive heard freddies and queens music as being described as pschedelic.theyve obviously never heard of the floyd!
anyone got this pschedelic queen album or do they mean hot space?
joxerthemighty wrote: thats the first time ive heard freddies and queens music as being described as pschedelic.theyve obviously never heard of the floyd!
anyone got this pschedelic queen album or do they mean hot space?
It's also the first time I've heard about their music being referred to as "psychedelic", even in China! LOL! That's the funniest point in this report:)
Anyone here knows sth about rock or Queen would describe them as the glam rock or hard rock band with the widest range of styles.
joxerthemighty wrote: thats the first time ive heard freddies and queens music as being described as pschedelic.theyve obviously never heard of the floyd!
anyone got this pschedelic queen album or do they mean hot space?
Anyone here knows sth about rock or Queen would describe them as the glam rock or hard rock band with the widest range of styles.
Well, I think the easiest way would be labelling them just as a "rock band", because that could mean anything. And in fact, Queen played way too many different "styles" to be labelled. ;-)
joxerthemighty wrote: thats the first time ive heard freddies and queens music as being described as pschedelic.theyve obviously never heard of the floyd!
anyone got this pschedelic queen album or do they mean hot space?
Anyone here knows sth about rock or Queen would describe them as the glam rock or hard rock band with the widest range of styles.
Well, I think the easiest way would be labelling them just as a "rock band", because that could mean anything. And in fact, Queen played way too many different "styles" to be labelled. ;-)
That's right, though the word "rock" itself would scare away some ppls--they think rock means at least heavy metal and screaming:) If you play some softer Queen numbers, they'd ask--is that ROCK??
But real Queen fans don't care about classifications, they just love them.