Brian May recently joined an episode of Smooth Radio and broke down some of The Queen’s most famous music videos. Brian talked about their 1984 hit ‘I Want to Break Free’ from their ‘The Works’ album, explained the process of making that video, and pointed out the reason behind them being in drags:
“It was actually an idea from Roger’s girlfriend at the time who said ‘Why don’t you guys do a pastiche of ‘Coronation Street’?’ Now not everybody realised that that’s what it was, they thought we just were in drag for no reason.
But it was meant to be ‘Coronation Street.’ You know, a glimpse into ordinary life, ‘I want to break free from ordinary life,’ that’s the kind of narrative of the video. And it’s meant to be fun.”
May admitted that the English television series ‘Coronation Street’ was too local for their global fans, so they didn’t understand the reference, and Freddie Mercury and he received backlash, especially in the U.S.:
“Of course, it wasn’t so easy in other countries. They didn’t really get it because they didn’t know what ‘Coronation Street’ was. They just saw rock stars dressing up in women’s clothes. And some of them took a very dim view of it. It actually did us a lot of damage in America, quite surprisingly. We were kind of shocked that anyone would really kind of bother themselves about that.”
The guitarist also mentioned that when Foo Fighters did a similar thing in 1999, they didn’t receive the same backlash:
“But you know, that’s the way the world was, and it’s funny that Foo Fighters who acknowledge us as an influence, did ‘Learn to Fly’ in a very similar way, and nobody raised an eyebrow by that time which at least shows you the world is changing.”
Brian also reminisced Freddie Mercury’s look and how it became iconic:
“But it was a lot of fun doing. I mean, the most extreme bit is Freddy in his moustache and the false boobies, and the Hoover, you know. That’s the most enduring and endearing image of this whole video, isn’t it?”
‘I Want to Break Free’ was uploaded to YouTube in 2008, and it has 542 million views since then. Back in 1984, it reached number 45 on ‘Billboard’s Hot 100’ list, but it received success in the UK, reaching number three, and sold over 1,200,000 copies. Although it received backlash in the U.S., and was consequently banned from MTV, ‘I Want to Break Free’ was highly praised and was associated with a rebellious act towards oppression. Nevertheless, when The Queen came on stage in their Rio de Janeiro, Freddie Mercury’s drag costume caused commotion among the fans, resulted in him losing the ‘women parts’ of the costume.
You can watch the whole interview below.
