Freddie Mercury’s unseen handwritten Queen lyrics and paintings unveiled
Today marks the fiftieth anniversary of Queen’s self-titled debut album and to mark this main second Sotheby’s have launched pictures of beautiful objects from that point in Freddie Mercury’s historical past.
His ex-fiancée Mary Austin who he left half his property to upon his dying in 1991, is placing a lot of his private objects up for public sale later this 12 months after they’ve been on show in exhibitions.
On Queen’s debut album launch on July 13, 1973, Sotheby’s wrote: “Having established themselves as Queen just a year earlier, the newly-formed band first started recording their debut album in 1971 at De Lane Lea’s new state of the art studios in Wembley, before transferring to Trident Studios in Soho, London.
“With a number of live performances behind them, they had a wealth of material to draw on, but it was nonetheless a time-consuming and likely frustrating process.
“Not least because the band were only allowed into the studio during so-called ‘Dark Time’, between the hours of 11pm and 2am, when it wasn’t being used by other artists such as Lou Reed, who was recording the album Transformer at the time, and later David Bowie, who was recording Aladdin Sane.”
Items from Freddie Mercury: A World Of His Own revealed at this time linked to the fiftieth anniversary of Queen’s debut album embrace a skilful drawing by the singer depicting the band in lavish Cavalier costumes.
A caption reads: “Likely a concept image for the cover of Queen’s first album, just as the words on the sheet, Dearie Me’ were considered as a title for the album. Estimate: £1,500-2,000.”
Also unveiled was Freddie’s authentic paintings for the enduring Queen crest which integrated the zodiac indicators of the band members.
These had been fairies for Virgo (Mercury), lions for Leo (Deacon and Taylor) and a crab for Cancer. This drawing is anticipated to fetch between £8,000-12000.
Next up are Freddie’s handwritten lyrics (heavy with musical annotations and notes re. recording and mixing course of) for six songs featured on this primary album, together with intensive drafts for My Fairy King – the track that features the traces ‘Mother Mercury / Look what they’ve achieved to me’. Estimate: £30,000-50,000.”
And most extremely of all: “Fragments from other early songs can also be found in a previously unrecorded red notebook from the early 1970s. One of Mercury’s most prized possessions, including working lyrics (Stone Cold Crazy, Liar, and Keep Yourself Alive) and songs by other artists Queen were performing at the time, as well as doodles, designs for Queen’s logo and fragments of unpublished songs. Estimate: £120,000–180,000.”
To discover out extra about Freddie Mercury: A World Of His Own, click here.