--- product_id: 63358407 title: "Somebody To Love" price: "$U1469" currency: UYU in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.uy/products/63358407-somebody-to-love store_origin: UY region: Uruguay --- # Somebody To Love **Price:** $U1469 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Somebody To Love - **How much does it cost?** $U1469 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.uy](https://www.desertcart.uy/products/63358407-somebody-to-love) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description For the first time, the final years of one of the world's most captivating rock showman are laid bare. Including interviews from Freddie Mercury's closest friends in the last years of his life, along with personal photographs, Somebody to Love is an authoritative biography of the great man. Here are previously unknown and startling facts about the singer and his life, moving detail on his lifelong search for love and personal fulfilment, and of course his tragic contraction of a then killer disease in the mid-1980s. Woven throughout Freddie's life is the shocking story of how the HIV virus came to hold the world in its grip, was cruelly labelled 'The Gay Plague' and the unwitting few who indirectly infected thousands of men, women and children - Freddie Mercury himself being one of the most famous. The death of this vibrant and spectacularly talented rock star, shook the world of medicine as well as the world of music. Somebody to Love finally puts the record straight and pays detailed tribute to the man himself. Review: Mercury Falling - Cue the instrumental version of the Gospel song, Guide Me Home. --An appropriate tune to accompany the arresting prose with which Matt Richards and Mark Langthorne describe the final fortnight in the life of the frontman of one of the most popular bands on Earth. Amid the news events of November 10,1991, a private jet flies home from Switzerland to London with a terminally ill passenger who may well have been oblivious to world events, but whom, by month's end, would be the focus of world attention once again. As a car takes the patient, now with failing eyesight home, and the electronic gate of his Garden Lodge, Kensington estate mansion closes behind him for the last time in his life, we are given a sense of a life that is permanently (and prematurely) shutting down, amid trappings of splendor, including Japanese objets d'art, collected from the country that loved and warmly embraced him and his three colleagues so well for 16 years, and perhaps, more relevantly, a grand piano with a closed fallboard its owner will never play again. Upstairs in a master bedroom with faded yellow walls, he receives his medication intravenously.A favorite film--1959's Imitation of Life plays on a VCR.But he is too Ill to weep at the ending any longer. He could hear the press and paparazzi--speculative about his condition for years--chattering outside his Japanese garden. The terminally ill male, aged 45, suffered from AIDS, and had loaned himself out for the testing of experimental drugs for three years.In previous times, his strong constitution withstood copious amounts of booze, unprotected sex, and cocaine.But the experimental drugs have proven futile. As a cold, grey wet Autumn day shrouded London, and the master of the Garden Lodge Estate has decided to go off his medication, taking only painkillers, the Zanzibar born master pianist, and rock showman extraordinaire with the given name of Farrokh Bulsara, better known as Freddie Mercury, is holed up with his nearest and dearest, resigned to his fate. The intriguing aspect of this 2016 biography--released in time for the 25th anniversary of the singer's death, is that in addition, it chronicles the history of AIDS from its origin and journey around the world as it finds its way towards Freddie Mercury through, unfortunately, every hedonistic fault of his own. We review the life of the gifted singer/songwriter through his birth in Zanzibar, time in boarding school in his parents' native India where he formed his first band, the Hectics, had his first sexual encounter, and the likely impact of being sent away from home at such an early age had on his later behavior. After his return home, an uprising drove the Bulsaras--including father, Bomi, a government accountant, wife, Jer, 12-year-old daughter,Kashmira, as well as 17-year-old Farrokh--out of Zanzibar, they settled in London, near Heathrow Airport, where Farrokh later worked. Studying at Isleworth Polytechnic College, then at Ealing Art College--a pre-cursor to a music career for many rock stars, Freddie Bulsara(as he was known before a final name change)meets his future lifelong colleagues, including Brian May, who lived not far from the Bulsaras, Roger Taylor, who became his roommate, and with whom he ran an antique clothing stall in their salad days,and later bassist, John Deacon. Beforehand, he is involved with a band called Ibex, who name changed to Wreckage, and another short-lived band called Sour Milk Sea. Mercury had a brief romance with one Rosemary Pearson, who grew disenchanted with his attraction to men.A later romantic interest who became his lifelong friend and confidante, Mary Austin, would be a bit more tolerant. His status as a hanger-on of May and Taylor's band, Smile changes, as will the band's name from Smile to Queen. As the legends-to-be come together, beginning their epic but tempestuous 20-year odyssey, the virus that would impact the band's history, which was traced from a slain monkey that bit and infected the Bantu hunter that killed it in the Congo in 1908,and which the hunter may have transmitted to one or more prostitutes, whose clients may have spread it to wives and/or girlfriends back home in Europe, had by that point, been spread by re-used, but badly washed hypodermic needles used to combat African Sleeping Sickness, but which still carried traces of HIV, had by the 1970s, been spread to Haiti by teachers, and social workers who were exposed during time in the former Belgian Congo , where they filled in jobs formerly occupied by Belgian officials who returned home--the backfiring of UNESCO Goodwill program. A blood plasma center in Port-au-Prince was open for two years.Impoverished Haitians donated blood for money to sustain the US blood bank because well-to-do Americans were less likely to.But since supplies of donated blood were not checked for a virus no one thought to look for at the time, many may have received HIV that way as well. The plight of Missouri teenager, Robert Rayford, who died of what is now recognized as HIV in 1969, and who case was publicized in 1986 is duly noted.But how he contracted it remains a mystery. A Canadian flight attendant named Gaetan Dugas, who would be misidentified as Patient Zero, contacted the virus in the 1970s, as did actor, Rock Hudson. Mercury was acquainted with both men, and the partner he and Dugas had in common was John Murphy. In 1976,three members of the Roed Family of Bored, Norway would become the first known cluster case of the disease all three died within a year. The hedonistic atmosphere of New York during the US Bicentennial celebration provided more opportunities for the disease to spread.A West Greenwich Village club for gays called The Mineshaft opened in the meat packing district that year.Mercury would join its list of notable clients around 1980, and the book suggests this is where he may have been infected around 1982, although other sources claim that may have happened between 1976 and 1978. While the world enjoyed Queen's musical catalog, including Killer Queen, You're My Best Friend, Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon, Somebody to Love, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Another One Bites the Dust, We Will Rock You, We Are the Champions, Radio Ga Ga,A Kind of Magic, Under Pressure, and of course, Bohemian Rhapsody, among others, the self-destructive behaviors will alter the band's fate. The book notes an observation by one Dr. Thomas Schmidt about the almost compulsive promiscuity among homosexuals, but also of how unfulfilling many of them find their own behavior. The most popular band in the world by 1980, Queen would continue to have its ups and downs.By mid-decade, they faced penalties for violating a UN ban on artists performing in South Africa in protest of Apartheid by playing at the resort in Sun City. But a high point of drama is the story of the band's redemption at Live Aid the following year when at 6:44PM on Saturday, July 13,1985 Queen's African-born frontman and colleagues took the stage to perform to help starving children in Africa before 72,000 at Wembley Stadium, 100,000 at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, and a worldwide television audience of 1.9 billion .With the best amplified performance, they were truly the Champions of the moment, and that is known as The Day Queen Ruled the World! But signs of Mercury's impending downward spiral were visible even then, in the hoarseness of his voice (he had a cough that day and ignored the advice of a doctor at Wembley against his performing),and a purple mark on his right arm which may have been one of his first sarcomas. Later that year the death of Rock Hudson from AIDS further fueled his anxiety. In counterpoint to the main narrative are the perspectives of his mother,his sister, his band mates,Mary Austin, his friend, actor/singer, Peter Straker, journalist, Lesley-Ann Jones, rock critic, Paul Gambaccini, who claims to have unsuccessfully tried to warn Mercury about modifying his behavior, singer Marc Almond, Jim Hutton, Peter Freestone, Montserrat Caballe,et.al. that round out the story.We also read about the destructive influence of Mercury's lover and personal assistant, Paul Prenter, who succumbed to AIDS three months before the singer did. It begins with a famous quote by Socrates:The unexamined life is not worth living. But this cautionary tale of a gifted, but self-destructive life, like so many before and since, also recounts how a tragic loss further galvanized the fight against AIDS, especially via the memorial concert at Wembley the following spring, and the foundation of the anti-AIDS organization, The Mercury Phoenix Trust, and how the musical stylings of Freddie Mercury continue to delight and inspire, with wisdom and much relevant insight on offer. The star may have fallen, but the legacy continues to rise. Review: Good for any fan - Interesting and insightful story with pictures! Good for any Freddy Mercury fan. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #550,830 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #113 in LGBTQ+ Biographies (Books) #206 in Rock Band Biographies #669 in Actor & Entertainer Biographies | | Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 2,885 Reviews | ## Images ![Somebody To Love - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81Ykg8J1W4L.jpg) ## Available Options This product comes in different **Media Language, Media Format** options. ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Mercury Falling *by D***E on April 22, 2020* Cue the instrumental version of the Gospel song, Guide Me Home. --An appropriate tune to accompany the arresting prose with which Matt Richards and Mark Langthorne describe the final fortnight in the life of the frontman of one of the most popular bands on Earth. Amid the news events of November 10,1991, a private jet flies home from Switzerland to London with a terminally ill passenger who may well have been oblivious to world events, but whom, by month's end, would be the focus of world attention once again. As a car takes the patient, now with failing eyesight home, and the electronic gate of his Garden Lodge, Kensington estate mansion closes behind him for the last time in his life, we are given a sense of a life that is permanently (and prematurely) shutting down, amid trappings of splendor, including Japanese objets d'art, collected from the country that loved and warmly embraced him and his three colleagues so well for 16 years, and perhaps, more relevantly, a grand piano with a closed fallboard its owner will never play again. Upstairs in a master bedroom with faded yellow walls, he receives his medication intravenously.A favorite film--1959's Imitation of Life plays on a VCR.But he is too Ill to weep at the ending any longer. He could hear the press and paparazzi--speculative about his condition for years--chattering outside his Japanese garden. The terminally ill male, aged 45, suffered from AIDS, and had loaned himself out for the testing of experimental drugs for three years.In previous times, his strong constitution withstood copious amounts of booze, unprotected sex, and cocaine.But the experimental drugs have proven futile. As a cold, grey wet Autumn day shrouded London, and the master of the Garden Lodge Estate has decided to go off his medication, taking only painkillers, the Zanzibar born master pianist, and rock showman extraordinaire with the given name of Farrokh Bulsara, better known as Freddie Mercury, is holed up with his nearest and dearest, resigned to his fate. The intriguing aspect of this 2016 biography--released in time for the 25th anniversary of the singer's death, is that in addition, it chronicles the history of AIDS from its origin and journey around the world as it finds its way towards Freddie Mercury through, unfortunately, every hedonistic fault of his own. We review the life of the gifted singer/songwriter through his birth in Zanzibar, time in boarding school in his parents' native India where he formed his first band, the Hectics, had his first sexual encounter, and the likely impact of being sent away from home at such an early age had on his later behavior. After his return home, an uprising drove the Bulsaras--including father, Bomi, a government accountant, wife, Jer, 12-year-old daughter,Kashmira, as well as 17-year-old Farrokh--out of Zanzibar, they settled in London, near Heathrow Airport, where Farrokh later worked. Studying at Isleworth Polytechnic College, then at Ealing Art College--a pre-cursor to a music career for many rock stars, Freddie Bulsara(as he was known before a final name change)meets his future lifelong colleagues, including Brian May, who lived not far from the Bulsaras, Roger Taylor, who became his roommate, and with whom he ran an antique clothing stall in their salad days,and later bassist, John Deacon. Beforehand, he is involved with a band called Ibex, who name changed to Wreckage, and another short-lived band called Sour Milk Sea. Mercury had a brief romance with one Rosemary Pearson, who grew disenchanted with his attraction to men.A later romantic interest who became his lifelong friend and confidante, Mary Austin, would be a bit more tolerant. His status as a hanger-on of May and Taylor's band, Smile changes, as will the band's name from Smile to Queen. As the legends-to-be come together, beginning their epic but tempestuous 20-year odyssey, the virus that would impact the band's history, which was traced from a slain monkey that bit and infected the Bantu hunter that killed it in the Congo in 1908,and which the hunter may have transmitted to one or more prostitutes, whose clients may have spread it to wives and/or girlfriends back home in Europe, had by that point, been spread by re-used, but badly washed hypodermic needles used to combat African Sleeping Sickness, but which still carried traces of HIV, had by the 1970s, been spread to Haiti by teachers, and social workers who were exposed during time in the former Belgian Congo , where they filled in jobs formerly occupied by Belgian officials who returned home--the backfiring of UNESCO Goodwill program. A blood plasma center in Port-au-Prince was open for two years.Impoverished Haitians donated blood for money to sustain the US blood bank because well-to-do Americans were less likely to.But since supplies of donated blood were not checked for a virus no one thought to look for at the time, many may have received HIV that way as well. The plight of Missouri teenager, Robert Rayford, who died of what is now recognized as HIV in 1969, and who case was publicized in 1986 is duly noted.But how he contracted it remains a mystery. A Canadian flight attendant named Gaetan Dugas, who would be misidentified as Patient Zero, contacted the virus in the 1970s, as did actor, Rock Hudson. Mercury was acquainted with both men, and the partner he and Dugas had in common was John Murphy. In 1976,three members of the Roed Family of Bored, Norway would become the first known cluster case of the disease all three died within a year. The hedonistic atmosphere of New York during the US Bicentennial celebration provided more opportunities for the disease to spread.A West Greenwich Village club for gays called The Mineshaft opened in the meat packing district that year.Mercury would join its list of notable clients around 1980, and the book suggests this is where he may have been infected around 1982, although other sources claim that may have happened between 1976 and 1978. While the world enjoyed Queen's musical catalog, including Killer Queen, You're My Best Friend, Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon, Somebody to Love, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Another One Bites the Dust, We Will Rock You, We Are the Champions, Radio Ga Ga,A Kind of Magic, Under Pressure, and of course, Bohemian Rhapsody, among others, the self-destructive behaviors will alter the band's fate. The book notes an observation by one Dr. Thomas Schmidt about the almost compulsive promiscuity among homosexuals, but also of how unfulfilling many of them find their own behavior. The most popular band in the world by 1980, Queen would continue to have its ups and downs.By mid-decade, they faced penalties for violating a UN ban on artists performing in South Africa in protest of Apartheid by playing at the resort in Sun City. But a high point of drama is the story of the band's redemption at Live Aid the following year when at 6:44PM on Saturday, July 13,1985 Queen's African-born frontman and colleagues took the stage to perform to help starving children in Africa before 72,000 at Wembley Stadium, 100,000 at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, and a worldwide television audience of 1.9 billion .With the best amplified performance, they were truly the Champions of the moment, and that is known as The Day Queen Ruled the World! But signs of Mercury's impending downward spiral were visible even then, in the hoarseness of his voice (he had a cough that day and ignored the advice of a doctor at Wembley against his performing),and a purple mark on his right arm which may have been one of his first sarcomas. Later that year the death of Rock Hudson from AIDS further fueled his anxiety. In counterpoint to the main narrative are the perspectives of his mother,his sister, his band mates,Mary Austin, his friend, actor/singer, Peter Straker, journalist, Lesley-Ann Jones, rock critic, Paul Gambaccini, who claims to have unsuccessfully tried to warn Mercury about modifying his behavior, singer Marc Almond, Jim Hutton, Peter Freestone, Montserrat Caballe,et.al. that round out the story.We also read about the destructive influence of Mercury's lover and personal assistant, Paul Prenter, who succumbed to AIDS three months before the singer did. It begins with a famous quote by Socrates:The unexamined life is not worth living. But this cautionary tale of a gifted, but self-destructive life, like so many before and since, also recounts how a tragic loss further galvanized the fight against AIDS, especially via the memorial concert at Wembley the following spring, and the foundation of the anti-AIDS organization, The Mercury Phoenix Trust, and how the musical stylings of Freddie Mercury continue to delight and inspire, with wisdom and much relevant insight on offer. The star may have fallen, but the legacy continues to rise. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Good for any fan *by S***H on August 26, 2026* Interesting and insightful story with pictures! Good for any Freddy Mercury fan. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Excellent Freddie Biography!!! *by E***L on December 10, 2018* This book is one of the best I’ve read. Rarely do I have the opportunity or sustained interest in reading a big book non stop cover to cover, but that is exactly what has happened. It’s certainly the best biography I’ve ever read. It also gives a fairly comprehensive history of AIDS, some of the hysteria of which I remember from childhood in the 80s when no one knew how it was transmitted, and thus, were extremely paranoid. More importantly, though, it is a really deep look into the life of Freddie Mercury from birth to death. The man was a marvel and so much of who he was resonates very deeply with me. SOOOO driven...such a perfectionist. Unique in every way. The time he lived in really prevented him from openly being who he was and it caused him to be one of the loneliest people on the planet (GaGa talks about this in her documentary. The more famous you become, the more people who surround you...but at the end of the day, they all disappear and you’re totally alone ). So many of his lyrics tell the story of his loneliness or need for true relationship(s), yet he was also one of the most fun-loving, generous and over the top humans I’ve ever heard of. He was always stunning, youthful and beautiful (even as he was dying and declining)—maybe not in anyone’s traditional sense of those things, but he was indeed those things to the nth degree. After having read it, I don’t understand why everyone in the world isn’t in love with him 😊. This Queen/Freddie thing is strange. I’ve had deep inspirations before in my life, but always they were from my own time (apart from F. Scott Fitzgerald). I mean, I loved a few Queen tunes in my younger childhood, but that was about it. I kind of forgot about them until the movie came along. And that movie (Bohemian Rhapsody)awakened a beast with a new ear for the music and new eyes for everything else about Queen. It’s been well over a month now since I saw the movie the first time (and of course countless times afterward) and EVERYDAY it’s been Queen music whenever possible. After everyone’s in bed? interviews, concert footage, videos. Literally, every night. At this point, I may know just about as much as fans who have loved Queen for decades. It doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I know if it’s wrong, I don’t wanna be right. Haha! Needless to say, as a long time reader of amazing books, this one comes highly recommended. Excellent writing, thorough coverage and great accompanying photos. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.uy/products/63358407-somebody-to-love](https://www.desertcart.uy/products/63358407-somebody-to-love) --- *Product available on Desertcart Uruguay* *Store origin: UY* *Last updated: 2026-10-02*