♫ Bohemian Rhapsody ♫

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, History, music

I have played this only once here on Filosofa’s Word, almost four years ago in October 2018, at the request of our friend David.  Being exhausted tonight, I spun the wheel, stuck out my finger … where she lands nobody knows … and it landed here!  And so tonight I give you … Freddy Mercury and Bohemian Rhapsody!

A week or so ago, a dear friend said that if I could play some Queen, I would be a star.  Well, I debated whether I really wanted to give up my quietly obscure life for stardom and after some deliberation, decided I would give it a quick try, although I suspect I will only be a star for a matter of hours, if that.

I am not a huge Queen fan, but I find this one interesting.  There are parts I like, and other parts that I find disturbing.  According to BBC America …

“Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen is one of the strangest, most inspired and least-understood songs in the history of rock. It manages to sound like a serious work of art, a moving lament and a moment of extreme silliness at the same time—which is part of the reason it’s equally loved by young kids and old rockers alike—and jumps from power ballad to light opera to heavy opera to hard rock and back to power ballad again before ending, nearly six minutes after it began, on a decisive gong.

It was entirely written by Freddie Mercury, and the song was pieced together using not only various different sections—as the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson had done with the equally epic Good Vibrations in 1966—but also an intensive overdubbing of harmonies (somewhere in the region of 160 overdubs, all told, often with Brian May, Roger Taylor and Freddie Mercury singing in unison around a single microphone) recorded over three weeks of intensive work, one week of which was spent on the operatic section.

I try to keep my blurbs short on the music posts, but if you’re interested in some more fascinating information, clips and links, check out the BBC America article.

Bohemian Rhapsody
Queen

Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide
No escape from reality
Open your eyes
Look up to the skies and see
I’m just a poor boy, I need no sympathy
Because I’m easy come, easy go
A little high, little low
Anyway the wind blows, doesn’t really matter to me, to me

Mama, just killed a man
Put a gun against his head
Pulled my trigger, now he’s dead
Mama, life had just begun
But now I’ve gone and thrown it all away
Mama, ooo
Didn’t mean to make you cry
If I’m not back again this time tomorrow
Carry on, carry on, as if nothing really matters

Too late, my time has come
Sends shivers down my spine
Body’s aching all the time
Goodbye everybody I’ve got to go
Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth
Mama, ooo (anyway the wind blows)
I don’t want to die
I sometimes wish I’d never been born at all

I see a little silhouetto of a man
Scaramouch, scaramouch will you do the fandango
Thunderbolt and lightning very very frightening me
Gallileo, Gallileo,
Gallileo, Gallileo,
Gallileo Figaro – magnifico

But I’m just a poor boy and nobody loves me
He’s just a poor boy from a poor family
Spare him his life from this monstrosity
Easy come easy go will you let me go
Bismillah! No we will not let you go – let him go
Bismillah! We will not let you go – let him go
Bismillah! We will not let you go let me go
Will not let you go let me go (never)
Never let you go let me go
Never let me go ooo
No, no, no, no, no, no, no
Oh mama mia, mama mia, mama mia let me go
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me
For me
For me

So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye
So you think you can love me and leave me to die
Oh baby, can’t do this to me baby
Just gotta get out just gotta get right outta here

Ooh yeah, ooh yeah
Nothing really matters
Anyone can see
Nothing really matters nothing really matters to me

Anyway the wind blows

Songwriters: Freddie Mercury
Bohemian Rhapsody lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

27 thoughts on “♫ Bohemian Rhapsody ♫”

  1. Jill, one of my favorite parts of the recent movie about Queen by the same name is the recording of this song. It is bizarre in its lyrics, that it left a lot of head scratching. But, like Clive said it is wonderful. Keith

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    • Well, while it’s not destined to ever become my favourite Queen song, I’m really glad that you and Clive both liked it! I like it … I’m just not quite to the point of loving it.

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  9. Certainly a strange song. Yet for all its strangeness it appeals to something inside me, inside of all of us, apparently. I don’t want to kill anyone, or anything, especially not intentionally (despite what I may say about Putin, Trump, etc et al). But how would we feel, sitting on death row? I think of the people sitting in prisons all over the world, condemned for committing some crime or other, sometimes innocent of any crime but railroaded by a system gone berserk, and I think, get it over with already. Waiting for years or even decades, what is the good of it? How can anything matter anymore.
    But, believe it or not, this song takes me back to another song, back when I was a kid. This is not associated with anything in my life, it is just a song. I’ll have to add it below, cuz I have to go searching for it. It was done by Johnny Cash…

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