ILLICH 11

tired of being the bigger person

I get tired of being the bigger person.

I could be the biggest person, the fittest person, the richest person.

I'm admired for being more wired

than a business person.

That hires and fires the working person.

but I'm tired,

of being the bigger person.

I'd rather be the person that's worse than

a pig

in person

a wicked person

who casts aspersions 

on this disertion

as a subversive incursion:

The coercion of aversion as a diversion from the exertion I spent in this immersion of perversion.

I'm a bitter person!

Watch my conversion into disparate dispersion

my submersion in reversion

to a state that's immersed in

sin

I could be the tallest at the show, bro.

But don't you know, I'd still be tired.

Tired of being the bigger person.

Excerpt from the self-help book I'm writing

from "The Healthy Emotion Expression Handbook."

Preface

“Healthy Emotional Expression.”

What a wholesome sounding phrase!

We would all want what is healthy for us, of course, and yet embedded in the idea that there is a “healthy” way to express our emotions is also the suggestion that there is also an “unhealthy” way to express them as well.

I imagine that way is something that we’re all very familiar with. We have all been exposed to unhealthy emotional expression at some point, and most of us have been guilty of it ourselves. Shouting, berating others, blaming them for how we feel, making judgments of them, calling them names, being vicious or even violent. These are all tragic ways we try to express hurt feelings in order to encourage others to change their ways, and yet more often than not they do more to harm than to help.

These approaches to self-expression erode the good will within our relationships, and make it less likely for other people to willingly help us meet our goals. Even if we can convince others to do what we want in these ways they are unlikely to do so happily. They may help grudgingly, with lingering feelings of resentment - and resentment is relationship carcinoma.

If we would all want what is healthy for us why would we continue to express ourselves in these unhealthy ways?

For all too many of us these are the only types of emotional expression we have the chance to bear witness to as children, and if we don’t replicate the model for self-expression we inherited we are as likely to: “If that’s what expressing feelings looks like then expressing feelings is not something I want to have any part of at all!”

Some refuse to express their emotions because they perceive it as a weak thing to do! (Nothing could be further from the truth – sometimes it takes extreme strength to express oneself honestly when it seems dreadfully scary to do so!)

Others don’t like expressing themselves honestly because they feel vulnerable, are afraid of intimacy, or within their history expressing how they felt in the ways they knew how scared potential partners or friends away.

In other cases our feelings were invalidated as children. “Don’t get angry.” “Life’s like that, you take the good with the bad, keep your chin up.” Or, “Stop crying, don’t be a baby” (which is the biological equivalent of telling a child not to urinate, because tears clear impurities out of the system.)

Or perhaps the feelings of our primary caregivers took precedence over our own, and our needs were seen as an inconvenience, and so we quickly learned not to feel anything at all!

How then may we have learned to identify what was going on inside us so we could express our preferences in ways which would help others to help us to meet our goals? How could we effectively offer others our willingness to help them meet their goals too, and develop the kind of fulfilling relationships that arise out of reciprocity, mutual trust and respect?

In the worst of circumstances, it holds true that in an abusive situation it is often safer not to feel anything at all than to feel all the effects of our abuse there and then. This is the mind’s defense against hopelessness. It learns to master the emotions by turning them off, and in doing so ensures its safety in the short term.

Sadly though, when we grow older and have the ability to remove ourselves from abusive situations these defense mechanisms do not always deactivate themselves lightly.

It seems all too true that if we were not shown a model of healthy emotional expression to follow then it is something we need to learn of our own volition, as adults, in the same way that were we not exposed to French as children it is something we would need to take it upon ourselves to learn.

Often our feelings are there to keep us safe, to teach us what we want out of life and about the way we think, to warn us away from those who might harm us, and draw us towards those who are nurturing and make our lives wonderful.

We are better not throwing the baby out with the bathwater. This book forms a concise guide on how to use your emotions rather than let them use you. 

Why doesn't beef cost 7 times as much as grains?

If it takes 7 times as much grain to create the same amount of beef, so why isn't beef 7 times as expensive as grain? Because the vast majority of farming subsidies go to meat and dairy farmers. In other words we are forced to pay for the mistreatment of animals whether we can conscience it or not. Fruits an vegetables have increased in price faster that other products and they are the building blocks of health, while confectionaries have gone down in price in real terms and they destroy the quality of life. If we could end these subsidies the whole society would be healthier, we would also save NHS money on preventable illnesses that could be allocated to those who still needed it. What is more, Western agricultural subsidies for domestic farmers have been a horrendous catastophe for the poor in the developing world, because excess produce is dumped there putting their own producers out of a livelihood and building their own economy. Crazy world we live in, where money is shifted from the people to self-interest groups at the point of a gun, despite the harm it does to the whole of society.

To Your Friends on Spanking

Dear friends. You have talked to your friends about the injustice of war, I am sure. And you've talked about gay marriage. And you have talked about austerity measures and cuts. Have you spoken to your friends about the effects of spanking on children? Many of your friends share the same views with you on politics, and none of us are policy makers, but many of us will have children or care for children. Are they aware that 93% of studies on spanking agree that it is harmful to children, which has been referred to as"an almost unheard of consensus" in child-rearing studies? Are they aware that according to the last 20-30 years of science children who are physically punished even mildly:
- Tend to have a lower IQ and are less able to reason effectively.
- Have a poorer relationship with their parents than those who are reared non-aggressively.
- Are more likely to resort to violence as a means of solving problems and even become chronically defiant.
- Are more likely to smoke and twice as likely develop alcohol/drug addictions.
- Are more likely to develop anxiety disorders and depression and show symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
- Are more likely to display anti-social behaviour and abuse their spouse or children later in life?

So they know that spanking ups the risk of major depression by 41%, drug abust by 59% and mania by 93% amongst other effects.

We can really make the world a better place by bringing up these questions in our social circles with references to the scientific evidence and also speaking about the alternatives to spanking which have been proven to be of psychological benefit to children and sociological benefit to society. Thanks, and please consider this before you next go out for a pint with your pals.

A Love Poem

I

My Dear One,

I come before you not as a beggar, to plead for your favour,

But as a wealthy man who, though born with very little, worked tirelessly to cultivate his riches, 

if only to know the pleasure of sharing that which he had never known.

My treasures, of course, are not material in nature, 

but they are as true, and more valuable, in my humble estimation, 

than those material things.

II

My own,

I offer you my virtue,

I offer you my strength, and even in doing so my vulnerability, 

(a small part of my courage, which you are also entitled to the entirety of.)

I offer you my honour, and also my desire.

I offer you all the kindness, warmth, 

and empathy of a heart that beats only to know love and to love.

I offer you that love, and that heart, 

with passion, and all the tenacity you have seen me show.

I offer you, of myself, all that I have to give,

In all my worthiness, and all my shortcoming,

And pledge to bring with it all the excitement and creativity 

which you have expressed your appreciation for so far.

III

You may not always find such qualities easy to come by,

And where they are found, offered with so little reservation,

But please do not be intimidated if I seem unreasonably brazen,

I credit this fact, 

that all you have to bring will always be shown to have at least as great a value as the eye that cares to look is keen, and never any less. 

(And as you are aware, I have regarded you with rather a keen eye ;) )

Wherefore? But on the account that there is so much to look to! 

In my sight, it would appear we have much to offer one another.

IV

What I ask of you in this respect, 

Is not to give, but only to share 

with me that which you already have in abundance,

Your own passion,

Your integrity,

Your sentiments and feelings,

                Opinions and insights,

                Thoughts and emotions,

Your curiosity, and sense of humour,

Your tenderness, and also your fortitude,

As much honesty as you can muster, 

                as and when you are ready to offer it,

All those qualities you have long since known I love and admire in you,

And adore you for.

To give of yourself, as and when is pleases you,

Whatsoever it pleases you to give,

In whatever measure it pleases you to give it,

And show me who you are,

In all your worthiness, and all your shortcoming.

V

Should you be willing to attempt this exchange,

As you know I am most certain that you should,

I will not give you reason to regret it,

Not for a single day,

Not even for a moment if I can help it,

Do not reject such a ‘wholesome’ offer lightly,

Such opportunities are rare to find, and rarer still are they ever realised,

Let us inspire ourselves with what could be possible,

Forever at your service,

Forever in your awe,

With love, and the deepest of affection,

Antoine. 

Campness, and the Music and Style of Queen

here is a paper I wrote for university.

                      Camp can be defined as a kind of aesthetic denoted by its tendency to provide sophisticated, knowing amusement by being self-consciously artificial and extravagant.[1] There is a very strongly effeminate[2] quality to campness and it regards something as appealing or humorous because of its ridiculousness to the viewer.[3]

Throughout the 70s and 80s the rock band Queen gained worldwide success with a unique blend of hard rock fused with countless other influences including ragtime, opera, gospel, vaudeville, and folk, which they delivered with theatrical bombast, sometimes attracting criticism for being overblown due to “histrionic vocals, abrupt and pointless compositional complexity.”[4]  A more admiring critic put it this way:

“Few bands embodied the pure excess of the '70s like Queen. Embracing the exaggerated pomp of prog-rock and heavy metal, as well as vaudevillian music-hall, the British quartet delved deeply into camp and bombast, creating a huge, mock-operatic sound with layered guitars and overdubbed vocals.”[5]

When the usage of the word camp appeared, in 1909, it denoted: ostentatious, exaggerated, affected, theatrical, and effeminate behaviour[6] which Queen certainly conformed to in their music, and also their style:

The “pure excess” described above could easily be substituted for the “‘shocking’ excess”[7] which American writer, Susan Sontag, in her essay Notes on Camp (1964), stated as one of the features which defined campness. “The essence of Camp is its love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration”[8]… an ironic and parodic appreciation of an extravagant form that is out of proportion to its content.[9] Queen were certainly not at odds with her analysis, never taking themselves too seriously while penning with subtle humour parodic tracks the likes of Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon whose flighty intro resounds as follows, with ultimate camp:

This far from humourless style, paired with the whimsical lyrics (which follow) along to the swooning wall of harmonised backing vocals which intersperse the lead line (shown in brackets) certainly conforms to the “artifice, frivolity, naïve middle-class pretentiousness”[10] which are key features of campness, and of Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon. There is certainly something shamelessly highbrow and pretentious about the song, but it is carried with humour.

Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon Lyrics (Freddie Mercury)

I go out to work on a Monday morning,

Tuesday I go off to honeymoon,

I'll be back again before it's time for Sunny-down,

I'll be lazing on a Sunday afternoon.

Bicycling on every Wednesday evening, [a bicycle bell rings, camply]

Thursday I go waltzing to the Zoo.

I come from London town, I'm just an ordinary guy,

Fridays I go painting in the Louvre,

I'm bound to be proposing on a Saturday night (There he goes again)

I'll be lazing on a Sunday, (oooo)

Lazing on a Sunday (ooooo)

Lazing on a Sunday (Sunday) Afternoon.[11]

Deriving from the French slang term se camper, meaning “to pose in an exaggerated fashion,” usage of the word camp has always been linked in English to a theatrically effeminate style associated with homosexuality or pertaining to the characteristics (real or perceived) of homosexuals. As Dyer puts it, “[Camp] is just about the only style, language and culture that is distinctively and unambiguously gay male. In a world drenched in straightness all the images and the words of society express and confirm the rightness of heterosexuality. Camp is the one thing that expresses and confirms being a gay man.”[12]

The gay liberation movement of the late 1960s and early to mid-1970s urged homosexuals to publicly reveal their sexuality in order to counter shame with “gay pride” and used camp to confront society with its own preconceptions and their historicity. Freddie Mercury, the famously homosexual lead singer of Queen, has been considered a gay icon by some, in no small part because he neither tried to hide his sexuality throughout the band’s career, nor did he overemphasise the fact in a way that would lead to it fully defining him as an individual or an artist.

In illustration of this, while on one hand Freddie would famously refer to himself (camply) as, “Gay as a daffodil,”[13] in December 1974, when asked directly, “So how about being bent?” Mercury replied, “You're a crafty cow. Let's put it this way; there were times when I was young and green. It's a thing schoolboys go through. I've had my share of schoolboy pranks. I'm not going to elaborate further.” This showed him at ease with his sexuality but not wishing to make it the focus of great attention. He was a private person in that respect, but he could still bring humour to his response. As John Marshall of Gay Times expressed it: “[Mercury] was a 'scene-queen', not afraid to publicly express his gayness but unwilling to analyse or justify his 'lifestyle' ... It was as if Freddie Mercury was saying to the world, 'I am what I am. So what?' And that in itself for some was a statement.”[14]

Certainly the effete, ‘fey’, camp style long since associated homosexuality and camp is relevant to Queen. Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language refers to the term as “homosexual jargon”[15] which denotes any of banality, mediocrity, artifice, ostentation, etc. so extreme as to amuse or have a perversely sophisticated appeal and the music of Queen can certainly be categorised as “perversely sophisticated.” One scathing critic wrote in Pomp Without Circumstance (1975): “Best of all was [guitarist, Brian] May's big moment: an immensely likeable, totally silly "virtuoso" guitar solo which somehow managed to suggest the filigreed fussiness of "Flight of the Bumblebee" being played by somebody who'd just fallen in love with feedback.” [16] Another, Bart Testa, wrote: “Queen makes elaborate music from shards of nostalgia for the British Empire. They push boys' public-school chorales and English martial music through the funnel of hard rock, aiming carefully at romantic crescendos embellished with heavy echo. “[17] Or as Brian May put it himself, “Most of our stuff, particularly Freddie's songs, was in oddball keys that his fingers naturally seemed to go to: E-flat, F, A-flat. They're the last things you want to be playing on a guitar, so as a guitarist you're forced to find new chords. Freddie's songs were so rich in chord-structures, you always found yourself making strange shapes with your fingers. Songs like Bicycle Race have a billion chords in them.”

But while Queen were “referred to as 'pomp' rock by British critics,” [18] owing to their use of “theatricality to the hilt…” not everything about queen was effeminate, “they are also popular with heavy metal fans” (the suggestion being that heavy metal is a particularly masculine genre.) “They could be discussed as a progressive metal band,”[19] and progressive rock was a genre overly dominated by all male bands, The Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Jethro Tull, Yes, Rush, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Gentle Giant, Electric Light Orchestra et al., plus the vast majority of fans of the genre were white males.[20] As one biographer wrote, “Queen's music was a bizarre yet highly accessible fusion of the macho and the fey.” [21]  

It is worthy of note that in contemporary culture both the effeminate, or the overly macho, in a man, can be construed as in some way ‘gay’, as though there were some form of Aristotelian Mean of masculinity versus the fey which constitutes ‘straightness.’ Leaving moderation aside, Queen, at points, had it in them to fully access both ends of this spectrum. Certainly the “mock-operatic sound” referenced by the allmusic.com biography of Queen can be seen as representative of the campness of Queen, as opera has long since been adopted by queer culture in which “music and drama do not seem to exist for their own sakes, but rather for the opportunities they create for performance.”[22] (Freddie Mercury would in 1988 collaborate on an album with Spanish operatic soprano Dame Montserrat Caballé, whom he was a great admirer of.)[23]

The contrast between the heavy metal and prog-rock machismo of Queen and their effeminate side is further exemplified by contrasting the eerily lady-like falsetto that begets the track Brighton Rock versus it’s later heavy chorus and guitar solo, or the hard rock force of tracks such as Hammer to Fall, or Princes of the Universe, which was written for the swords and sorcery feature movie Highlander. The music video for this single had Freddie Mercury duelling with his microphone stand against lead star of the movie, Christopher Lambert, who wielded a sword. While swordsman ship is classically perceived as a man’s game, often even entered in the hope of winning a woman’s favour perhaps even this caricature of the power of music versus the blade can be construed in some way as camp. As a prelude to the guitar solo Freddie declares: “Come on! Come on! Come on!... Bring on the Girls!” in a strange fusion of camp with implied straightness.

           

While it has been stated that “Vocalist Freddie Mercury brought an extravagant sense of camp to the band, pushing them towards kitschy humor and pseudo-classical arrangements, as epitomized on their best-known song, "Bohemian Rhapsody.”” And that  “… his sexuality was apparent throughout Queen's music, from their very name to their veiled lyrics -- it was truly bizarre to hear gay anthems like "We Are the Champions" turn into celebrations of sports victories. That would have been impossible without Mercury, one of the most dynamic and charismatic frontmen in rock history.”[24] It cannot be fairly stated that the campness of Queen owed it’s quality solely to Freddie alone. As Jennifer Anne  de Boer wrote in her dissertation, “Lead singer Freddie Mercury's stage persona, the types of music on which Queen drew, and Brian May's guitar playing all serve to "feminize" the band…”[25]

In this way May could bend his broad virtuosic style to conform to the campness of Music Hall-influenced numbers such Bring Back Leroy Brown (which he also played a section on ukulele in, another expression of overblown versatility and flamboyant dedication to idiom) Killer Queen, Seaside Rendezvous – in which Freddie and Drummer, Roger Taylor, went to great lengths to imitate woodwind and brass instruments, as well as a kazoo, using only their voices for the instrumental section, and even went so far as to record an outrageously camp tap dancing breakdown by recording the sounds of thimbles on their fingers tapping on the table, and ends, camply, with the line spoken, “Give us a kiss.”

Taylor was also known for hitting the highest notes in Queens sophisticated “wall of sound” vocal arrangements, a C6 in Seaside Rendezvous. His long falsetto melody which takes the lead line in instrumental section the sci-fi skiffle ’39, described by May who penned the song as a “Tour de Force,”[26] also exemplifies Taylor’s contribution to the overall campness of the Queen aesthetic.

 The peak of camp expression from the band probably culminates in the hit single Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy, the last example of Mercury's vaudeville/musichall influenced pieces, which I have heard described as “a bit far even for Queen” by more than one fan. It includes “Queen's trademarks: catchy melody, playful arrangement, nice harmonies, a guitar solo with the distinct guitar sound and style, and high built-in lead melody content… The non-model-like song form has a long non-repeated content, while we have four choruses (one of them is instrumental).[27]

Classic Rock Magazine, in October 2006, described this song as “quaintly British… one of several Queen songs to be inspired by the tradition of Music  Hall… this song sits perfectly next to Seaside Rendezvous. Full to the brim with camp innuendo from wonderful vocal and harmonies thick enough to beat a whale to death, even the multi-layered guitar solo seems lathered in saucy seaside postcard humour. Lyrically it’s never clear whether Mercury is referring to himself or an object of his desire as the titular man about town but, just as it’s difficult to be insulted by Bon Scott’s red-blooded heterosexuality, you find yourself drawn effortlessly into Fred’s own world.” [28]

In praise of a style earlier berated for “pointless compositional complexity.”[29] Classic Rock’s analysis continues: “The vocal textures and arrangements are on a par with the infinitely more familiar Bohemian Rhapsody, with one break-down mimicking a clock striking nine [camply]. Has a rock band ever done this? We doubt it and Queen’s ability to seamlessly fit such a count into a 4/4 time signature beggars belief: you try dividing eight by nine and see how far you get...“[30]

A particular analysis of the Campness of the 2976 Queen single

“Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy” (by the author.)

During the heart felt Intro which plays as follows:

 Freddie Sings with pure romance, “I can dim the lights and sing you songs full of sad things, we can do the Tango just for two. I can serenade and gently play on your heart strings, be your Valentino just for you.”[31] It could be said that this lyric is “shmaltzy,” meaning overly sweet and sentimental in American slang,[32] but something of this full blown “cheesiness” is very fay and effete. Yet the heart of the campness of this song, which begins with the flighty turn around in the ultimate bar of the passage above, takes heart during the chorus which begins the body of the song:

Chorus:

            The bouncy staccato which leaves the left hand hanging on all but the last offbeat in the first six bars gives the song a buoyant, campy feel as it is accompanied by the lyrics, “Ooh love, Ooh lover boy, where you going tonight, hey boy!”

            Variations on the lyrics continue throughout in a camp style over this passage: “Set my alarm, turn on my charm, that’s because I’m a good old fashioned lover boy”,  “Write my letter, feel much better, and use my fancy patter on the telephone”, more so “Everythings alright, just hold on tight, that’s because I’m a good old fashioned lover boy” because of the inescapable sexual innuendo in the lyric ‘hold on tight’, but probably most so in the line, “Driving back in style, in my saloon will do quite nicely, Just take me back to yours that will be fine,” because Freddie declares “Come on and get it” with immensely exaggerated pomp before doubling the chorus.

One can’t help but remark upon the continual repetition of the word “boy” throughout the song when analysing it from this angle.

There is also a Bridge (which appears surprisingly early in the structure) which takes the piece briefly into the minor of chord iv, Ab minor:

            Freddie sings “Ooh let me hear your heartbeat” and the rest of the band sing a chorus of, “Grow faster, faster,” with unambiguous camp as Freddie continues, “Can you feel my love heat, come on and sit on my hot-seat of love…” with thick sexual connotation which is only neutralised and made less shocking by the innocent fey style in which it is delivered, and perhaps also because it is followed by the line “and tell me how do you feel,” given that the term ‘hot-seat’ is used in slang to denote a situation where someone is sat down on a chair and given the opportunity to speak (deriving from the expression’s original meaning for a high-pressure situation in which a great deal of attention and scrutiny is focused upon a person.)[33]

Finally, there is also the Midsection, which begins in Fm and has the rest of the band questioning Freddie in moody tones,

“Hey boy where do you get it from?

Hey boy where did you go ?”

To which he gleefully responds, “I learned my passion in the good old fashioned school of loverboys.” One can’t help have in mind the English boarding schools which for a long time, perhaps unfairly, have been associated with acts of homosexuality in England.

As discussed, Campness, as a form of aesthetic, was an inextricable part of the music and style of Queen, although it would be unfair, owing to their diversity of their styles and music throughout their twenty year career, to dismiss the band’s style and music as camp alone. Their embrace of the effete alongside credible pure hard-rock, heavy metal, and progressive styles, could perhaps be construed as part and parcel of the band’s broad range of influences, exemplified by Mercury citing as two of his heroes, Liza Minelli, whom he described as “oozing with sheer talent… which she gets across the stage, and the way she delivers herself to the public is a good influence,” and Jimi Hendrix whom he described as his “Idol.” Continuing to say “He sort of epitomizes, from his presentation on stage, the whole works of a rock star.”[34]

While on the face of it these two influences seem broadly diverse, one embodying the feminine, the other the masculine, there is certainly one ingredient in common to what they were admired for, and that is their stage presence. Clearly this aesthetic, which, while spearheaded by vocalist Freddie Mercury was fully embraced and brought to bear by the entire band, must have been the their motivation in their embrace of campness, the fact that at its core, camp as a performance style is something that entertains by being larger than life. This has contributed to Queen’s enduring popularity and legacy as one of the greatest performing bands in the rock cannon.

---

[1] (2013) “The Random House Dictionary” Random House, Inc. 2013, Noah Webster.

[2] (2009) “Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition” William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979

[3] Babuscio, J. (1993) “Camp and the Gay Sensibility” In Camp Grounds: Style and Homosexuality. Ed David Bergman. Amherst: U of Massachusetts, p.19-38.

[4] Barnes, K. (June 20, 1974) "Queen II," in Rolling Stone, p. 52.

[5] Alllmusic.com biography of Queen (accessed 2013) http://www.allmusic.com/artist/queen-mn0000858827

[6] (2011) “Concise Oxford English Dictionary: Main edition”, OUP Oxford.         

[7] Sontag, S. (1964) “Notes on "Camp"” in (2009) Against Interpretation and Other Essays, Penguin Classics.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Rodriguez, E. M. (2012) Lecture Notes (Accessed 2013).

[10] Sontag, S. (1964) “Notes on "Camp"” in (2009) Against Interpretation and Other Essays, Penguin Classics.

[11] Queen (1975, 1993) “A Night At The Opera” CD Sleeve Notes, EMI Music UK.

[12] Dyer, R. (2001) “The Culture of Queers” Routledge.

[13] Webb, J. (December 1974) “Freddie Mercury Interview” in New Musical Express.

[14] Urban, R. (Not Dated, Retrieved 01-08-2010) "Ragged Blade Reviews: Queen's Freddie Mercury and his Legacy" Urban Productions, NYC

[15] (1976) “Webster’s New World Dictionary of the English Language”, Prentice-Hall.

[16] Nelson, P. (April, 1975) “Queen: Pomp Without Circumstance,” in Rolling Stone, p. 78.

[17] Testa B. (Februray, 1978) "News of the World," in Rolling Stone, p. 96.

[18] Brown, C. (1992) "The Art of Rock and Roll" New Jersey: Prentice Hall, p. 189.

¹⁹ Ibid.

[20] Planer, N. (2008) “Prog Rock Britannia: An Observation in Three Movements”,  BBC Four.

[21] Alllmusic.com biography of Queen (accessed 2013) http://www.allmusic.com/artist/queen-mn0000858827

[22] Rodriguez, E. M. (2012) Lecture Notes (Accessed January, 2013).

[23] BBC Four (29-12-2012) "Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender - Directors Cut" Available online at the time of writing: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p012tfl4

[24] Erlewine, S. T. “Queen Biography” (Not Dated, Accessed  January 2013)  All Music Guide.

[25] de Boer, Jennifer Anne (1999) "On the Margins of the Mainstream: Queen, the Rock Press, and Gender"  McMaster University, Open Access Dissertations and Theses. Paper 3651, abstract, p. iii.

[26] (2008 DVD Release)"The Making Of A Night At The Opera - Classic Albums" Eagle Rock Entertainment.

[27] Independent Analysis by unspecified author “Queen Songs, Recording and Songwriting”

 (Accessed January 2013 at http://www.queensongs.info/index.php)

[28] Author Unspecified (2006) "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy" in Classic Rock, p. 31.

[29] Barnes, K. (June 20, 1974) "Queen II," in Rolling Stone, p. 52.

[30] Author Unspecified (2006) "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy" in Classic Rock, p. 31.

[31] And all following lyrical quotations, Queen (1976, 1993) “A Day at the Races” CD Sleeve Notes, EMI Music UK.

[32] Spears, R. A. (2007) “Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions”,  McGraw Hill.

[33] (2009) “Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition” William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979

[34] Cohen, S. (April 1975) “Queen's Freddie Mercury Shopping For An Image In London” in Circus Magazine.