Queen
"Bohemian Rhapsody"
Single / B-side: "I'm In Love with My Car" / "Death on Two Legs" (Poland) / "Sweet Lady" (Turkey)
Released: 31 October 1975
Album: A Night at the Opera (Released: 21 November 1975)
Writer: Freddy Mercury
Label: EMI / Elektra / Parlophone / Hollywood
"Bohemian Rhapsody" is a song by the British rock band Queen. It was written by Freddie Mercury for the band's 1975 studio album A Night at the Opera. The song consists of several sections: a ballad segment ending with a guitar solo, an operatic passage, and a hard rock section. At the time, it was the most expensive single ever made.
Queen's UK single; "Bohemian Rhapsody" (1975)
Queen - "Bohemian Rhapsody" (single 1975)
When it was released as a single, "Bohemian Rhapsody" became a commercial success in many countries all over the world, Although critical reaction was initially mixed, "Bohemian Rhapsody" remains one of Queen's most popular songs and is frequently placed on modern lists of the greatest songs of all time. The single was accompanied by a promotional video, which many scholars consider ground-breaking.
The song became the 1975 UK Christmas number one, holding the top position for nine weeks. "Bohemian Rhapsody" was the first song ever to get to number one in the UK twice with the same version, and is also the only single to have been Christmas number one twice with the same version. The second was upon its re-release (as a double A-side single with "These Are the Days of Our Lives") in 1991 following Mercury's death, staying at number one for five weeks.
In the United States, the single was also a success, although to a lesser extent than in the UK. The original single, released in early 1976, reached number nine on the Billboard Hot 100, while a re-release in 1992 (timed to tie in with the song's appearance in the hit film Wayne's World) reached number two. In a retrospective interview, Its chart run of 24 weeks, however, placed it at number 18 on Billboard's year-end chart, higher than some number ones of the year. The single was also certified gold for sales of over one million copies in the US. In its 1992 chart resurgence, it lasted 17 weeks on the chart as it hit a peak of number two, and was certified gold again for digital downloads of over 500,000. Its year end chart position was at number 39 for 1992. With the Canadian record-buying public, the single fared better, reaching number one in the RPM national singles chart on 1 May 1976
Queen: The story of Bohemian Rhapsody (documentary)
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| Queen.s single: "Bohemian Rhapsody" (1991) |
Freddie Mercury wrote the lyrics, and there has been a lot of speculation as to their meaning. Many of the words appear in the Qu'ran. "Bismillah" is one of these and it literally means "In the name of Allah." The word "Scaramouch" means "A stock character that appears as a boastful coward." "Beelzebub" is one of the many names given to The Devil.
This have speculated over the meaning behind the song's lyrics. Some believe the lyrics describe a suicidal murderer haunted by demons or depict events just preceding an execution. The latter explanation points to Albert Camus's novel The Stranger, in which a young man confesses to an impulsive murder and has an epiphany before he is executed, as probable inspiration. Others believe the lyrics were only written to fit with the music, and have no meaning; Kenny Everett quoted Mercury as claiming the lyrics were simply "random rhyming nonsense".
Still others interpreted them as Mercury's way of dealing with personal issues. Music scholar Sheila Whiteley observes that Mercury reached a turning point in his personal life in the year he wrote "Bohemian Rhapsody". He had been living with Mary Austin for seven years but had just embarked on his first love affair with a man. She suggests that the song provides an insight into Mercury's emotional state at the time, "living with Mary ('Mamma', as in Mother Mary) and wanting to break away ('Mamma Mia let me go')."
Mercury's parents were deeply involved in Zoroastrianism, and these Arabic words do have a meaning in that religion. His family grew up in Zanzibar, but was forced out by government upheaval in 1964 and they moved to England. Some of the lyrics could be about leaving his homeland behind. Guitarist Brian May seemed to suggest this when he said in an interview about the song: "Freddie was a very complex person: flippant and funny on the surface, but he concealed insecurities and problems in squaring up his life with his childhood. He never explained the lyrics, but I think he put a lot of himself into that song."
Another explanation is not to do with Mercury's childhood, but his sexuality - it was around this time that he was starting to come to terms with his bisexuality, and his relationship with Mary Austin was falling apart.
Whatever the meaning is, we may never know - Mercury himself remained tight-lipped, and the band agreed not to reveal anything about the meaning. Mercury himself stated, "It's one of those songs which has such a fantasy feel about it. I think people should just listen to it, think about it, and then make up their own minds as to what it says to them." He also claimed that the lyrics were nothing more than "Random rhyming nonsense" when asked about it by his friend Kenny Everett, who was a London DJ.
The band were always keen to let listeners interpret their music in a personal way to them, rather than impose their own meaning on songs, and May stated that the band agreed to keep the personal meaning behind the song private out of respect for Mercury.
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| Queen's album: A Night at the Opera (1975) |
The song consists of six sections: introduction, ballad, guitar solo, opera, hard rock and finale. This format, with abrupt changes in style, tone and tempo, was unusual to rock music. "Bohemian Rhapsody" parodies many different elements of opera by using bombastic choruses, sarcastic recitative and distorted Italian operatic phraseology. An embryonic version of this style had already been utilised by the band in "My Fairy King" and "The March of the Black Queen".
Music video:
The video was directed by Bruce Gowers, who had directed a video of the band's 1974 performance at the Rainbow Theatre in London, and was recorded by cameraman Barry Dodd and assistant director/floor manager Jim McCutcheon. The video was recorded in just four hours on 10 November 1975, at a cost of £4,500.
Queen - "Bohemian Rhapsody" (music video)
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| Queen 1975 |
The video opens with a shot of the four band members in near darkness as they sing the a cappella part. The lights fade up, and the shots cross-fade into close-ups of Freddie. The composition of the shot is the same as Mick Rock's cover photograph for their second album Queen II. The photo, inspired by a photograph of actress Marlene Dietrich, was the band's favourite image of themselves. The video then fades into them playing their instruments. In the opera section of the video, the scene reverts to the Queen II standing positions, after which they perform once again on stage during the hard rock segment. In the closing seconds of the video Roger Taylor is depicted stripped to the waist, striking the tam tam in the manner of the trademark of the Rank Organisation's Gongman, familiar in the UK as the opening of all Rank film productions.
Line-up / Musicians:
Freddie Mercury - lead and backing vocals, piano, operatic vocals
Brian May - electric guitar, operatic vocals
Roger Taylor - drums, timpani, gong, operatic vocals
John Deacon - bass guitar
Link / Review:
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