#the transformation from Freddie ''I can't tell anyone I'm gay or it'll ruin everything'' Mercury in 1974
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You know something I don't think I've ever seen people talk about is how Freddie changed the lyrics for Big Spender.
Because in case you don't know, all original versions of the song are sung by women - and it is made very clear that they are singing to men:
The minute you walked in the joint I could see you were a man of distinction A real big spender [....] So let me get right to the point: I don't pop my cork for every man I see Hey, big spender Spend a little time with me
Probably not too surprising, then, that when Queen performed this song in 1974 Freddie had to do a bit of a gender-switch on it:
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Though, it would probably be more accurate to say that Freddie made this song gender-neutral because he didn't change it to be about a woman. He eliminated the first use of "man" entirely and then sang "I don't pop my cork for everyone I see" (instead of "every man").
And honestly there's probably a whole dissertation you could write just about those changes alone, but what I really love is when Queen brought the song back in 1986 and Freddie changed the lyrics again:
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Because yes he still dropped the first "man" but the "everyone" is changed and Freddie instead sang "every guy" with just the barest hint of a "-rl" sound at the end to give him plausible deniability if anyone asked about it.
So much of Freddie's music speaks to his experiences as a queer man but, because of the nature of the times in which he lived, he couldn't always be directly open about that fact. Most of his love songs are intentionally vague, and he sang about "somebody" or "you" to avoid having to use gendered terms as much as possible.
Freddie singing "I don't pop my cork for every GUYrl I see" wasn't just an adjustment to the original lyrics, it was a specific change from how Freddie had sang it before in order to make it more gay in a way that he could rarely be with his own music, and that is what I adore about this. It's such a little thing, but it gives such a unique insight into how Freddie balanced his sexuality and his stardom, and how the relationship between those two changed over the nearly 12 years between these performances.
#freddie mercury#queen#queen band#freddie#text#ramblings#long post //#I got the Rainbow on dvd for xmas and I've been thinking about this a lot since then#and thinking about it even more after posting yesterday's gifset#it's SUCH a little thing but it's made me emotional ever since the first time I've noticed it#the transformation from Freddie ''I can't tell anyone I'm gay or it'll ruin everything'' Mercury in 1974#to Freddie ''Four cocks fighting - ooh it's getting nice this!'' Mercury in 1985#perfectly summed up in two video clips#idk. sometimes I feel like in defense of Freddie's queerness some fans take it to the opposite extreme#and insist that it was SO UNBELIEVABLY OBVIOUS TO EVERYONE ALL THE TIME in the 70s/80s that Freddie was gay#when in actuality... no it really really wasn't#and that's IMPORTANT. the ways in which Freddie had to hide himself and the ways in which he chose not to are IMPORTANT.#and erasing those decisions from his history or pretending they were easy ones to make isn't defending his queerness#it only serves to erase it even further
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