TEARS FOR BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

I dig Frank Sinatra. In the early 1960's the song "Fly Me to the Moon" was a big hit 'cause dating and walking at the park by the light of the silvery moon was really romantic. Women's beauty was poetically compared to the mystic moon and its goddess Diana. But that was before men landed on the moon. Since then, the moon became a symbol of pock marked faces. 

Then Rock and Roll took over with Elvis and the Beatles. Then in the 1970's came the regal rock group, the "Queen" with their hit song "The Bohemian Rhapsody".  I did not like the song then. Never did like all the yelling and bastardized opera music. I stuck to the music of the 1960's and the 1970's, appreciating a few song from the 1980's on. But things changed a bit after we watched the bio-movie of Freddie Mercury and his band.

He was a musical genius of his time and his rendition of the song "Love of My Life" can really get into you. The movie was well made and the final scene of Freddie singing "The Bohemian Rhapsody" caused me to shed some tears. His life was no different from other rock stars and celebrities who cannot handle the curse of fame. But he was one of the "lucky ones". Stricken with the AIDS virus, he was able to reconcile with the people who mattered most to him and vindicated himself by reuniting with his old band and performing to the biggest crowd ever assembled to watch a concert. Unlike the grief-stricken big names who chose the easy way out by committing suicide, he faced all the pains and found his inner peace before his demise.

Now 5 of his hits songs are on my playlist and he too has filled a slot in my idol list of stars who dealt life in their own unusual way. Sinatra, who defined his life through the song "My Way",still is my guy but not very far behind together with Muhammad Ali, Magic Johnson, George Foreman and Arthur Ashe. These guys all suffered a sudden twist of fate, Ali with Parkinson's , George Foreman with his humiliating losses to Ali and Young and early retirement from boxing, Magic's struggle with AIDS, and Arthur Ashe's cancer, but dealt with the pains and bounced back with questioning God's Divine will.

Hope everybody has the time to see this movie ...