MUSIC

The New Freddie Mercury Demo Has a Vital Message for Our Time

Mercury's stripped-down rendition of "Time Waits for No One" from the multimedia musical "TIME" is a stunning gift from an unforgettable talent.

Dressed in white from head to toe, surrounded by smoke and stage lights, Freddie Mercury looks every inch an angel descended to earth in the video for "Time Waits For No One."

Mercury first recorded the song in 1986, and a version featuring a massive choir of backing vocalists was released that same year. Yesterday marked the release of a never-before-heard demo of the song, featuring only his voice soaring over a triumphant piano backdrop. On it, the singer's unmistakable vocals take center stage, and the stripped-down arrangement communicates the lyrics' message even more powerfully than the original.

Freddie Mercury - Time (Official Video)www.youtube.com

"Time Waits For No One" is an almost painfully relevant song that seems handmade for our day and age—though, then again, its call to solidarity taps into something that humanity has seemingly always needed to hear. "We have to build this world together, or we'll have no future at all," Mercury sings, a resounding sentiment for our times and for all time.

The song is taken from a musical called TIME, with a book by David Clark and David Soames and music by Jeff Daniels. The show is about a rock star named Chris Wilder, who gets transported along with his band to the High Court of the Universe in the Andromeda Galaxy. Once there, he meets the Time Lord Melchisedic (allegedly inspired by the Time Lord of the Doctor Who series), who tells him that the moment has come to determine if the people on earth can be a part of the universal journey towards peace.

Time the Musical - Dave Clark and Cliff Richard, Freddie Mercury, Dionne Warwickwww.youtube.com

Though he never performed in the show, Mercury sang the main character's part on its concept album, which also featured Julian Lennon and Dionne Warwick. The show's spoken theme, which includes a philosophical speech narrated by Lawrence Olivier, was an unexpected hit on the charts in Australia, but in spite of this, the album remained offline until 2012, when a 25th-anniversary edition was released on iTunes.

"Time" (renamed with a longer title on the new demo) is the third track on the concept album. Apparently, Mercury preferred the demo to the official version. According to songwriter Dave Clark, "When we first recorded [the song], I went to Abbey Road and we ran through with just Freddie and piano. It gave me goosebumps. It was magic. Then we got down to recording the track and we [added] 48 tracks of voices, which had never been done in Abbey Road before, then the whole backing. It was fabulous—but I still felt there was something about the original rehearsal."

That something is palpable in the chill-inducing video from that first rehearsal. In it, Mercury is a larger-than-life presence, an embodiment of conviction and hope, communicating a message that seems to be largely absent in modern music. "Let us free this world forever, and build a brand new future for us all," he sings. His voice and presence, which radiate an almost unearthly star power even through the computer screen, are so powerful that you can't help believe in the possibility of a better world.

Gaming

VIDEO GAY-MER | The first queer character in video game history

It all started with a small game called Moonmist way back in the 80s.

Queer history is vast when it comes to civil rights, literature, even myths and legends. Nearly everything in our history has a touch of the gay - because we've always existed. But what about video games? I've spend a lot of time talking about the history of gay video games, or lack thereof, and it made me wonder: Are queer characters as new as we think? Were video games such a non-inclusive place that gay things couldn't even be put anywhere in secret?

Naturally, the answer to that question is: of course not!

After some digging, I believe I have found the first instance of a queer character ever in gaming. It's small, and definitely not really big, but considering the time the game was - that's very surprising. According to the LGBT Game Archive, the game is called Moonmist - Infocom released the game in 1986. And honestly, it's not the most exciting find on this little quest for historical representation, but it's definitely a start.

WHAT IS THE GAME ABOUT?

Moonmist is an interactive fiction detective game. You are a young detective who has been asked by a friend to investigate a strange castle. It's simple, and it's definitely not one of the most nuanced epics you're every going to experience, but it's a competent little computer game for its time. I am going to be honest and tell you that I haven't played it - but I did watch a small play through of it.

WHO IS THAT QUEER CHARACTER/TRADITION/PLACE/ETC?

The person in question is Vivien Pentreath - and much of like many queer characters in most fiction - her sexuality is never openly stated. You know that she's very upset with the main character's friend, because he married a woman she was very attached to. Of course, all of you know that that probably means she was attracted her - and possibly in love with her. Of course, her character doesn't stop there.

Vivien is also, you guessed it, one of the villains of the game. She is apparently the antagonist of one of the story lines of the game. I would say I was surprised, but honestly, after everything that I've seen, I'm really not.

IS THIS POSITIVE? OR NEGATIVE?

Normally, I'd say negative, because not only does the character never says that they're queer, but also because this character is coded as an antagonist. And for a really long time that's how queer people were always portrayed in the media - as not out and villainous. But, does that discredit the presence of a queer character in such a new medium so long ago?

I don't know - it's a gray area. While I don't think that Vivien necessarily set the path for other queer characters later on, I do feel like there's some significance in her presence. In a time when gay men and women were fighting for their lives during the AIDS crisis, they were finally so much of a presence that even a fiercely heterosexual and underutilized medium like video games (almost) accepted their presence.

It's by no means incredibly positive, but it's a small step in the adjacent right direction - and that's something. Right?

HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE RATING

4/10 - It's not very historic and most people have no idea what Moonmist is, but it does allegedly have the first queer character, and that matters, right?


Shann Smith is a lover of video games and writer of plays and screenplays, based in NYC. Do you guys have a game that you think is significant to the LGBTQ+ community? Email me, and I'll give it a look!


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