Commentaire sur la chanson I Want To Break Free de Queen

There are two versions of this song : the single, and the album version. In the first one, there's a fairly long intro, done with a synthesizer, and some guitar solos, as well as synthesizer ones as well. Regarding the promo vid of that song, it was directed by David Mallet, and it's a mockery of the famous british soap opera Coronation Street, aired on tv since 1960. In this vid, all the members are wering women chothes : Freddie Mercury, the lead singer, appears dressed as a moustached-maid (and hoovering), Roger Taylor, the drummer, as a young student about to have lunch, and eventually John Deacon, the bass-guitarist, as an old woman reading the newspaper. The door under the staircase, opened by Freddy Mercury, leads us right into the second part of the vid : we now can see the band (back in their usual clothes), rounded by fans and wearing miners'helmets. The last part of the vid is a remake of Vaslav Nijinsky's ballet. Some of the groupies appreciated seeing Freddie without a moustache in that shot, all the more as he wears it most of the footage. The house, where the band gathers, could be my grandmother's, the hoover, is coming from a remote time as well. These details make us consider Freddy Mercury as an has been. We hint differences in the way the members of the band are dressed : the old lady has a neat apperance while the girl in the kitchen looks rather neglected, with her socks that are not raised at the same level. There is, in each of the members of the band, an impression of being pervos : the old lady, for instance, often raise her eyes from her newspaper, to glance at Freddy's ass. The second scene, with some blue in the background, and the men's silhouettes in the light gives to the band, that stands motionless, a nonconformist image. When Freddy disappears behind a white screen while it blows up, we then see him reappear oddily dressed, and many women at his feet. He doesn't seem to pay much attention to the women to who he gives what seems to be a trumpet. We notice his ears got a pike-shape, so we can imagine he wanted to resemble the god Pan, and that would gives sense to having a trumpet, even if the god was more renowned for his ability at the flute. He then trows himself on some raisin, which strenghten our analysis. Then he allows himself to fall in women's arms; we can understand that for him, it's a liberation from something rough. From that we can draw the hypothesis he is homosexual. It is all the more believable as in the next shot, he's stuck to a women's back, but doesn't touch her. The expression 'I want to break free" must be a reference to the homosexuals' will to make a strong statement about their sexuality, which is all the more difficult in that era.

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