Queen
Innuendo

("As long as the sun shines in the sky and the desert is covered with sand, we'll keep trying, to cross that thin line, until the end of time")

On February 25, 1991, the world of music was torn apart by a drum roll.

This is what opens the record and the song that gives the album its title.

It's the beginning of one of the absolute myths in rock music. Of the great rock icons of history. But let's go in order.

1991 is a turning point. The '90s were born with the general perception of great changes underway. The fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of socialist empires, the (only temporary) victory of the United States as the sole great world power. A bomb is set to explode in the following decade.

The '80s had left a void. A decade of transition that had demolished the old world. Even musically.

A new world was about to begin. And the collective consciousness was aware of it.

Music could not escape this huge revolutionary phase. The '80s had brought to rock music all the contradictions of a confused decade, where even the great icons of rock and roll, Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney first and foremost, had become commercial and harmless pop singers.

It's needless to say that the Queen had absorbed the ongoing changes like sponges. From a leading glam-rock group, with the '80s they gradually moved to more successful planes. The cult band had come out transformed, sparking the anger of some early fans who felt betrayed, and the leader was the clear proof of it. Starting with the look. The gay icon now had the macho look that was so fashionable in eighties London. Long mustache, short hair, tank top, visible biceps.

But behind the macho mask, the fragility of the man and artist remained intact. The leader of Queen had moved to New York, the capital of the now-winning empire, and here, after ending his long-term relationship with his partner MARY Quant, he dedicated himself to a frenetic activity of a bon vivant. Cocaine-fueled parties, orgies with men and women.

New York led Mercury to perdition, and the price to pay was very high.

In '87, after the Wembley concerts, Mercury started experiencing his first health problems, and discovered his HIV positivity. It was a devastating blow for the singer.

Initially, he decided to keep it hidden from everyone, including the band, except for a few close friends (the Catalan soprano Montserrat Caballé was one of the first to be informed). He devoted himself to solo projects and went to the studio to promote the album "The Miracle," which was a great commercial success.

But something creaked, the singer became elusive, stopped performing live, shut himself down in stubborn silence. Rumors abounded. In March 1989 the band reunited to begin rehearsals for the new album. During the same period Mercury's HIV transformed into full-blown AIDS. Only in November would Mercury reveal his real health conditions to the other band members.

The '80s ended like this. While the old world collapsed, balances shifted, entire nations were dismantled and experienced the beginning of a revolution, even Queen's world was upended. The external world dissolved. Mercury's interior world experienced his personal fall of the empire, the beginning of dissolution.

He changed his life. Quit drugs. Quit sex. Even stopped smoking when informed that each cigarette could hasten his end.

He withdrew into private life, surrounded only by his cats, lifelong companions, and the ever-faithful Mary Quant, the true "Love of my Life" of the artist, to whom he would leave everything in his will.

Now aware of being "sentenced to death," Mercury wrote the new pieces frantically.

The group retreated to Montreux, Switzerland, in the absolute peace of Lake Geneva and began recording. What emerged was the most intense album of Queen's entire discography.

Mercury removed the mask. The authenticity of what he wrote reached heights never before approached. The '90s also began in the world of Queen, bringing with them their revolution. Musically the tracks maintained the intensity of previous albums, but with newfound harshness and grace.

The album opens with Innuendo, one of the masterpieces of rock history. The song that brought flamenco, a flamenco solo, to the Olympus of the best ever.

The video derived from the album is a cry of rare expressive power. A real seismic shock.

Mecury broke the barriers of space-time and brought his voice "Till the end of Time," to the end of time.

Each band member chose for the video a graphic representation of themselves that reflected the style of their favorite artist. John Deacon chose Picasso, Taylor chose Jackson Pollock, Brian May had himself portrayed in a Victorian style. Mercury chose the Absolute genius: Leonardo Da Vinci.

The text is an invitation to destroy barriers, "surrender to your Ego, be free, for yourselves."

In six minutes, Queen unleashed a firepower of rare intensity, overwhelming the listener in front of a firing squad. A deadly track, among the best in the entire modern discography.

The rest of the album remains at constant quality levels. "I'm Going Slightly Mad" reflects the mental confusion and delirium of a terminally ill person, aware of being "finally truly crazy." A video of rare beauty, in black and white, was also recorded for this piece. Here the signs of the disease became evident for the first time: the emaciated face, the very thin body, heavy makeup, and a wig revealed not optimal conditions. Speculations in the press became insistent. Mercury could no longer conceal what was happening inside and around him.

"Headlong" is a new frontal assault on the listener's ears. "All God's People" is an excellent choral piece with gospel echoes, an anthem to brotherhood.

The album ends with "The Show Must Go On," celebrated by many as the spiritual testament of the album, though mistakenly according to the author.

The true spiritual testament of the album is "These Are the Days of Our Lives." Here Mercury ends beautifully with a new video, again in black and white.

Now skeletal, without ornaments and wigs, Mercury's face assumes a feminine beauty, like that of a Greek statue, revealing all its intensity.

At the end of the video, the singer stares at the camera, looks the listener in the eyes, and whispers "I still love you."

A poignant message of love to fans around the world from an all-round, versatile artist who, 25 years ago, with this album, unveiled the deepest side of his soul. So it would become eternal.

The artist's true swan song, however, will be the song "Mother Love," a return to the womb of the great mother, which will see the light only a few years later, in the album "Made in Heaven"... But that's another story...