With Freddie Mercury leading the way, practically any rock group could have been enhanced. Mercury enthusiastically embraced the center of the stage, even if he may not have initially enjoyed the frontman position. Whenever he went on tour, he would always hold the audience in his hand. The liner notes of one of his CDs revealed that he had a sensitive side, despite his tendency to put on a show whenever he took the mike.
Mercury was prepared to stop at nothing to obtain the sounds he imagined for the band during its early years. Mercury was in charge of every song whenever the group entered the studio, making sure he recorded the perfect vocal take. As a result, on several tracks, the final master tape was almost translucent from the numerous overdubs that were added.
It was obvious by the time the band entered the 1980s that they needed time apart from one another. The group crafted an eclectic blend of varied textures, from the rockabilly sounds of “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” to the disco-tinged classic “Another One Bites the Dust,” after embracing the sounds of synthesizers throughout their previous album, The Game.
The band members may work on whatever individual project they want to, in addition to their multiple Queen ventures. Roger Taylor, the drummer, would be among the first to release any work, but Mercury became one of the most well-known solo artists, even achieving some chart success with his solo album Mr. Bad Guy.
Going through the liner notes revealed, however, that Mercury was openly proud of his existence as a feline lover. Mercury, who was renowned for having 10 cats overall, was known for appreciating his furry companions and even devoted whole rooms to them when he first purchased his rock star residence.
Mercury stated in the liner notes that the entire album would be dedicated to his dogs when he completed the masters for Mr. Bad Guy. “This album is dedicated to my cat Jerry – also Tom, Oscar and Tiffany, and all the cat lovers across the universe – screw everybody else!”
Even though the album would go down in Queen’s history as a footnote, Mercury would continue to incorporate his passion for cats into his songs in the future.
During the process of recording Queen’s last album while Mercury was still alive, the lead singer finally wrote a whole song about his affection for his cats, naming the song “Delilah.” The notorious cats would also make an appearance in a few of Queen’s last videos. They were given a prominent role in “These Are the Days of Our Lives,” which was also one of Mercury’s last videos.
Even though Mr. Bad Guy had its supporters in its day, the album’s tracks would have another opportunity to become hits with the posthumous release of Made in Heaven. Songs like the title track and “I Was Born To Love You” were leftovers from Mercury’s first solo album, and they were modeled after the recordings he was working on right up to the day of his death. The only things that appeared to be important to Mercury, the leader, were the cats he would return home to, even with all the rock history since his solo debut.