Nice Jams

I have many a favorite artist but felt compelled to post these 2 videos of Curtis Mayfield and Queen (not performing together). Curtis, as you may know, was a talented musician, amazing man, passionate songwriter, freedom fighter who often wrote about the Vietnam War, addiction, oppression, subjugation.

Then there's Queen with Freddie Mercury...a very different band but Freddie was an artist cut from a similar cloth as Curtis - they were both outside the norm, both on the edge of something bigger than the worlds that they resided in (Curtis a black man speaking up against the U.S. government and Freddie a gay Indian man in the very masculine and white world of rock & roll). In this video Queen are playing at Wembley Stadium in front of over 120,000 people and, for the entire show, they have the audience in the palm of their collective Queen hand. I remember watching this concert as a kid (Queen was my mom's all time favorite band) and being in awe at the vastness of their sound, all those people packed into this gigantic stadium, the tone of Brian May's guitar, the power of Freddie's voice.

Both Curtis and Freddie are truly missed...hope you enjoy these videos...xo, melissa