tinyE: While I totally agree I think it would be fair to say that Queen WAS Freddie and Freddie WAS Queen.
drennan: With all due respect, sir, that is a pile of bovine manure. No, it would not be fair to say that. I do, however, agree with the rest of the post.
Brian May has often said that it was Freddie who was the focal point - he brought people together, got them motivated. He had the energy, the drive, the passion and if Freddie hadn't joined with the others to make Queen, they'd probably have went separate ways long before.
John Deacon felt the same way - with Freddie gone, he gave up life in show business completely. Freddie was the one pushing Deacon to write songs - Deacon was very shy and humble and always felt his songs were no good yet look at the hits he wrote:
You're My Best Friend
I Want To Break Free
Spread Your Wings
Another One Bites The Dust
And he wrote or cowrote several other favorite songs of mine which aren't well known (One Year Of Love being quite brilliant). The point is that Freddie pulled him out of his shell and the other band members have similar stories - Freddie motivated them. Now look at the music they made since Freddie died: Brian May made an album composed of songs which he worked on when Freddie was still alive, quite a few of them being songs that failed to make it onto Queen albums. Brian May is easily the best but even he lost inspiration after his Back To The Light album and the Cosmos Rocks CD was very very mediocre.