Bohemian Rhapsody

"Bohemian Rhapsody"
Song
B-side	"I'm in Love With My Car"

is a song written by Freddie Mercury and originally recorded by the band Queen for their 1975 album A Night at the Opera. The song is in the style of a stream-of-consciousness nightmare, and has a very unusual musical structure for a piece of popular music (it has no chorus, instead consisting of various seemingly disjunct sections including operatic segments and an a cappella and heavy metal part). Despite this, it was released as a single and became a huge commercial success. In addition, the song is widely hailed as Queen's magnum opus, and it marked a decisive point in the band's career and setting them on the way to become one of the world's most popular music groups. The single was accompanied by what is generally cited as a groundbreaking music video (then termed a "promotional video") which helped establish the visual language of the modern music video. A truncated version of the song was included in all of Queen's subsequent live concert performances (it is quite impossible to reproduce live in its entirety, being a complex studio creation) and still enjoys great popularity around the world. It is ranked #163 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of "the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

History

The song was recorded over three weeks by the band and producer Roy Thomas Baker. Recording began at Rockfield Studio 1 near Monmouth on August 24, 1975, after a 3-week rehearsal period in Herefordshire. During the making of the track, a further four studios – Roundhouse, SARM (East), Scorpion, and Wessex – were used. According to some band members, Mercury had worked out the entire song in his head and directed the band through the song.

Brian May, Mercury and Roger Taylor sang their vocal parts continually for ten to twelve hours a day, resulting in 200 separate overdubs. Since the studios of the time only offered 24-track analogue tape, it was necessary for May, Mercury and Taylor to overdub themselves many times, and "bounce" these down to successive sub mixes. In the end, eighth-generation tapes were being used. The tapes had passed over the recording heads so many times the normally opaque tapes could be seen through, as the oxide layer was beginning to wear off. The various sections of tape containing the desired sub mixes would have to be cut with razor blades and spliced together in the correct sequence using adhesive tape (splicing tape).

A backing track of the grand piano (Mercury), bass guitar (John Deacon) and drums (Taylor) was recorded first. The band used many instruments to produce the song, including a Fender Precision Electric Bass, May's Red Special electric guitar, Ludwig Drums, timpani and a Paiste Gong. Mercury used a Bechstein "Concert" Grand Piano, the same he'd later play in both the promotional video and the UK Tour. When it was finished it was the most expensive single ever made and remains one of the most elaborate recordings in music history.

When Mercury wanted to release the single in 1975, it had been suggested to him that, at 5 minutes and 55 seconds, it was far too long and would thus never be a hit. But Mercury gave a copy of the single to friend and London DJ Kenny Everett, informing him (with a wink and a nod) that it was for him personally, and that he must never play it on air. Mercury's plan (a form of reverse psychology) worked – Everett did just the opposite, teasing his listeners by playing bits and pieces of the song throughout his show. Ultimately, Everett would go on to play the song as many as fourteen times in a single day. From then on, every major radio station played the song in full. The track proved popular and was released with "I'm in Love with My Car" as the B-side.

Lyrics and structure

From the time "Bohemian Rhapsody" was released to the public, there has been speculation regarding the meaning behind the song's lyrics. Some believe the lyrics are about a suicidal murderer hunted by demons, or depict the events just preceding an execution, pointing 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 a probable source of inspiration. There are also parallels with Poem VIII in A.E. Housman's A Shropshire Lad. Some believe the lyrics were only written to fit with the music, and have no meaning at all; As evidence, Kenny Everett quoted Mercury as claiming the lyrics were simply "random rhyming nonsense."

Mercury was famously evasive when asked about the song's meaning. Unlike the other members of Queen, who often talked about the inspiration behind the songs they had written, Mercury disliked analyzing his own material, and preferred listeners to construct their own personal interpretations. What is known is that the song had an especially personal connection for Mercury, which was confirmed by the band's other members. Following the single's release, Mercury was quoted as saying:

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...'Bohemian Rhapsody' didn't just come out of thin air. I did a bit of research although it was tongue-in-cheek and mock opera. Why not?

However when the band released a Greatest Hits cassette in Iran a leaflet in Persian was included with translation and explanations of the lyrics. There Queen states that "Bohemian Rhapsody" is about a young man who has accidentally killed someone and, like Faust, sold his soul to the devil. On the night before his execution he calls for God in Arabic, "Bismillah" (Basmala), and with the help of angels regains his soul from Shaitan.

The song is composed of six distinct sections: introduction, ballad, guitar solo, opera, rock and an outro. This format, replete with abrupt changes in style, tone, and tempo, was unusual to rock music at the time. An embryonic version of this style was done by Queen themselves in "My Fairy King". That song, along with "Liar" and "March of the Black Queen", was also written by Mercury, and all three are noted for their musical similarities to "Bohemian Rhapsody."

Introduction (0:00-0:48)

The song begins with a close four-part harmony a cappella introduction in B-flat, which consists entirely of multi track recordings of Mercury (even though the video has all four members lip-syncing this part). The lyrics question whether life is "real" or "just fantasy" before concluding that there can be "no escape from reality." After 15 seconds, the grand piano enters, and Mercury's solo voice alternates with the other vocal parts. The narrator introduces himself as "just a poor boy" but declares that he "need[s] no sympathy" because nothing matters: chromatic side-slipping on "easy come, easy go" highlight the dream-like atmosphere. The end of this section is marked by the bass entrance and the familiar cross-handed piano vamp in B-flat.

Ballad (0:48-2:36)

The grand piano continues the 2-bar vamp in B-flat. Deacon's bass guitar enters playing the first note, and the vocals change from harmony to an impassioned solo performance by Mercury. The narrator explains to his mother that he has "just killed a man," with "a gun against his head" and with that act thrown his life away. The chromatic bass line brings about a modulation to E-flat. Here Taylor's drums enter (1:19), and the narrator makes the second of several invocations to his "mama" in the new key, reusing the original theme. The narrator explains his regret over "mak[ing] you cry" and urging mama to "carry on as if nothing really matters." A truncated phrase connects to a repeat of the vamp in B-flat. As the ballad proceeds into its second verse, the narrator shows how tired and beat down he is by his actions (as May enters on guitar and mimics the upper range of the piano 1:50). May sends "shivers down my spine" by scratching the strings on the other side of the bridge. The narrator bids the world goodbye announcing he has got to go and prepares to "face the truth" admitting "I don't want to die / I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all." Another chromatic bass descent brings a modulation to the key of A, and the "Opera" section.

Guitar solo (2:36-3:03)

As Mercury sings the rising line "I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all," the band builds in intensity, leading up to a guitar solo by May that serves as the bridge from ballad to opera. At 2:40, by design or coincidence, the guitar solo interpolates a few notes of Glen Miller's Moonlight Serenade, a swing jazz hit of the 1940's. May's solo continues to build intensity, but once the bass line completes its descent establishing the new key, the entire band cuts out abruptly at 3:03 except for quiet A Major quaver chords on the piano: the "opera" has begun. In live performances, the stage would go dark and all the members of the band would walk offstage and allow the entire opera section to play from the recording, as it was impossible for them to perform it live, due to the extensive overdubbing.

Opera (3:03-4:07)

Every time Freddie came up with another 'Galileo', I would add another piece of tape to the reel... That section alone took about three weeks to record, which in 1975 was the average time spent on a whole album. – Roy Thomas Baker

A rapid series of rhythmic and harmonic changes introduces a pseudo-operatic midsection, which contains the bulk of the elaborate vocal multi-tracking, depicting the narrator's "descent into hell". While the underlying pulse of the song is maintained, the dynamics vary greatly from bar to bar, from only Mercury's voice accompanied by a piano, to a multi-voice choir supported by drums, bass, piano and a timpani.

The choir effect was created by having May, Mercury, and Taylor sing their vocal parts continually for ten to twelve hours a day, resulting in 180 separate overdubs. According to Roger Taylor, the voices of May, Mercury and himself combined created a wide vocal range: "Brian could get down quite low, Freddie had an incredibly powerful voice through the middle, and I was good at the high stuff." This was useful as the band wanted to create "a wall of sound, thats start down and goes all the way up".

The band used the bell effect for lyrics "Magnifico" and "Let me go". Also, on "Let him go", Taylor singing the top section carries his note on further after the rest of the "choir" have stopped singing. Lyrical references in this passage include Scaramouche, the fandango, Galileo, Figaro and "Bismillah," as rival factions fight over the narrator's soul. The introduction is recalled with the chromatic inflection on "I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me." The section concludes with a full choral treatment of the lyric "Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me!", on a block B-flat major chord. Roger Taylor's last sung note is a falsetto B-flat in the sixth octave, a note in the soprano range.

Heavy metal (4:07-4:55)

The operatic section leads into an aggressive heavy metal musical interlude with a guitar riff that was written by Mercury. During group sing alongs (including a famous scene in the film Wayne's World), it is traditional to "headbang" during this passage. At 4:15, a double-tracked Mercury sings angry lyrics addressed to an unspecified "you," accusing him/her of betrayal and abuse and insisting "can't do this to me, baby" - which could be interpreted as a flashback to certain events that led to the earlier ballad section ("just killed a man"). Three ascending guitar runs follow, which May described as something he had to "battle with" when performing the song live. Mercury then plays a similar run on the piano.

Outro (4:55-5:55)

After Mercury plays ascending octaves of notes from the B flat mixolydian scale, the song then returns to the tempo and form of the introduction. A guitar accompanies the chorus "ooh, ooh yeah, ooh yeah". A double-tracked twin guitar melody is played through an amplifier designed by John Deacon, affectionately nicknamed the "Deacy Amp". Mercury's line "Nothing really matters..." appears again. The final line, "Any way the wind blows," is followed by the quiet sound of a gong that finally expels the tension built up throughout the song.

Promotional video

The promotional video for "Bohemian Rhapsody" is often cited as being one of the first music videos and has been voted the UK's "Best video of all time" in a survey commissioned by O2 in the United Kingdom. Though some artists, including Queen themselves (for example, Killer Queen and Liar already had music videos), had made video clips to accompany their songs, it wasn't until after the success of the "Bohemian Rhapsody" video that it became regular practice for record companies to produce promo videos for their artists' single releases. These videos could then be shown on television shows such as the BBC's Top of The Pops, without the need for the artist to appear in person. A promo video also allowed the artist to have their music broadcast and accompanied by their own choice of visuals, rather than dancers such as Pan's People performing a routine to the song. The video has been widely hailed as the first true pop promo, launching the MTV age.

The video for the single was directed by Bruce Gowers, using ideas from the band members. It was created to allow the band to be on tour and appear "live" on the BBC's Top of the Pops. The piano used by Freddie Mercury in the video was also used by Paul McCartney to record "Hey Jude". Shot in just over four hours on the band's rehearsal stage, it cost £4500 to produce, using an outside broadcast truck owned by one of the band's managers. All the special effects were done during the recording. The effect of the face zooming away was accomplished by simply pointing the camera at a monitor, thus giving visual feedback, a visual glare, analogous to audio feedback. The "Honey Comb" effect was achieved by using a specially shaped lens. In the original version of the video an apparent editing glitch led to the piano part being briefly double-tracked out of sync with itself, but this was corrected in later releases.

Popularity

In 1977, only two years after its release, "Bohemian Rhapsody" was named 'The Best Single Of The Last 25 Years' by BPI.

"Bohemian Rhapsody" is the only single to have been UK Christmas Number 1 twice (in a single recording), first in 1975/1976, and then in 1991/1992 (as a double-A single with "These Are the Days of Our Lives") following the death of Mercury. The song stayed at number one on the British charts for nine weeks — the longest stay since 1975 — and for another five weeks during 1991-1992. Its 14 weeks at the UK #1 spot make it the fourth-longest-serving #1 on the UK singles chart. It is also the only UK single ever to sell a million copies on two separate occasions and is placed third in the official list of the best-selling singles in the United Kingdom.

The song's prominent place in the pop/rock canon seems secure, as it consistently ranks highly in media reader polls of "the best singles of all-time". In 2002, it came first in the Guinness Hit Singles poll of the greatest UK singles of all-time, as well as 10th in a BBC World Service poll to find the world's favorite song. Queen's We Are The Champions came top. In 2000 it came second to "Imagine" by John Lennon in a Channel 4 television poll of The 100 Best Number 1s. It has been in the top 5 of the Dutch annual "Top 100 Aller Tijden" ("All-Time Top 100 Singles") since 1977, reaching #1 eight times.; in the annual "Top 2000" (maintained since 1999) it has, until 2005, been #1 every year. In 2005, it went down one place to #2, only to reclaim #1 in 2006 again. In the 2007 edition, it once again ended at the top. For popularity comparison: the 2005 edition of the top 2000 was listened to by more than 60% of the total Dutch populace.

The song enjoyed renewed popularity in 1992 as part of the soundtrack to the film Wayne's World. In connection with this, a new video was released, inter cutting excerpts from the film with footage from the original Queen video, along with some live footage of the band.

On the Made in Heaven video documentary "Champions of the World", Mike Myers talked about his horror at finding out that the record company had mixed clips from Wayne's World with Queen's original video, and his fear that this would upset the band. Myers himself said, "they've just whizzed on a Picasso." As a result, he asked the record company to tell Queen that the video was not his idea, and that he apologized to them. He then said that, later, Queen sent a reply simply saying, "Thank you for using our song,", which shocked Myers, who said it should be more like him telling Queen, "Thank you for even letting me touch the hem of your garments!"

The final scene of the video was notable, where a pose of the band from the video from the original "Bohemian Rhapsody" clip "morphs" into an identically-posed 1985 photo, first featured in the "One Vision" video. This re-release (with "The Show Must Go On" as a double-A side) hit #2 in the US in 1992, sixteen years after the original 1976 US release peaked at #9.

In 2004 the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

As of 2004, "Bohemian Rhapsody" is the second most played song on British radio, in clubs and on jukeboxes collectively, after Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale". On September 30 2007 Radio 1 Chart Show, for BBC Radio 1's 40th birthday, it was revealed that "Bohemian Rhapsody" was the most played song since Radio 1's launch.

Chart positions

Chart 1975 or 1992	Position
UK Singles Chart	1
Irish Singles Chart	1
New Zealand Singles Chart	1
Dutch Singles Chart	1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	2
Swiss Singles Chart	4
Norwegian Singles Chart	4
Australian ARIA Singles Chart	5
Austrian Singles Chart	8
French Singles Chart	15
Swedish Singles Chart	18

Live performances

The a cappella opening was far too complex to perform live, so in lieu of it, Freddie Mercury would try various ways of introducing the song. When the song "Mustapha" became a live favorite, Mercury would often sub in that song's a cappella opening, which was much easier to reproduce live as it was only one voice. During the Hot Space tour, and occasionally at other times, Mercury would do a piano improvisation (generally the introduction to "Death on Two Legs") that would end with the first notes of the song. More often than not, though, the preceding song would end, and Mercury would simply sit down at the piano, maybe say a quick word to the audience, and start playing the ballad section.

Initially following the song's release, the operatic, middle section of the song proved to be a problem for the band. Because of the extensive multi-tracking, it could not realistically be performed on stage. The band did not have enough of a break between the "Sheer Heart Attack" and "A Night at the Opera" tours to find a way to make it work live, so they simply split the song up into three sections that were played throughout the night. The opening and closing ballads were played as part of a medley, with "Killer Queen" and "March of the Black Queen" taking the place of the operatic and hard rock sections, respectively. Those two sections, in virtually all of the gigs, were played as an introductory piece leading into "Ogre Battle". This approach worked well for the band, as it allowed them to play the entire operatic section from tape (though Mercury often sang the first line) before taking the stage.

Starting with the "A Day at the Races" tour in 1976, the band adopted what would become their lasting way of playing the song live. The opening ballad would be played on stage, and after Brian May's guitar solo, the lights would go down, the band would leave the stage, and the operatic section would be played from tape. A blast of pyrotechnics after Roger Taylor's famous high note on the final "for me" would announce the band's return to the stage for the hard rock section and closing ballad. Queen would continue to play the song in this form all the way through the Magic Tour of 1986.

On the 2005/2006 Queen + Paul Rodgers tours, a live performance recording of Mercury (from the famous Wembley show of 1986) would play on video screens doing the vocals and piano for the first segment, while the other musicians played along and Paul Rodgers sat out. The middle operatic section was left to the studio tape, with a video tribute to Freddie Mercury being played on a screen behind the stage. The band went backstage, and the arena would be completely dark. When the hard rock section kicked in, the lights came back up to the full band on stage, including Rodgers, who took over lead vocals. The taped Mercury and Rodgers made the closing into a duet, with Rodgers allowing the audience to sing the final "Nothing really matters to me" while the taped Mercury took a bow for the crowd. Rodgers would then repeat the line, and the final line was delivered with one last shot of Freddie Mercury smiling at the audience before the arena went black.

Notable cover versions

• The spoof rock band Bad News (created for the UK Channel 4 TV series The Comic Strip Presents...) released a version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" as a single in 1987 and was featured on their 1987 debut album Bad News. It reached #44 in the UK Singles Chart. The recording was produced by Brian May. This version parodied the song in that its performance was intentionally of a low standard. The group also released the song as a music video single.
• On April 20, 1992, Elton John and Axl Rose performed the song with the surviving members of Queen for The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert.
• "Weird Al" Yankovic released a polka cover in 1993 on his album Alapalooza, renamed "Bohemian Polka."
• Celtic band De Dannan included a cover of the song called "Hibernian Rhapsody" on their album of the same name in 1996. The arrangement, without vocals, uses traditional Irish musical instruments.
• Duo The Braids recorded an R&B version for the soundtrack of the 1996 film High School High. It was produced by Third Eye Blind's lead singer Stephan Jenkins and was also released as a single.
• Phish performed Bohemian Rhapsody on December 31, 1996, accompanied by a gospel choir.
• There is also a duet version in which Spanish opera singer Montserrat Caballé and Iron Maiden lead singer Bruce Dickinson alternate in performing the song. It was released in the 1997 album, "Friends for Life"
• Popera group G4 released it as a single in 2005 which reached #9 in the UK music charts.
• The Flaming Lips recorded a cover for the 2005 album Killer Queen (2005). The cover was also performed live.
• The song has been performed twice for British charities: firstly in 1993 by celebrities from all major TV networks for Comic Relief (in a parody of the original video) and again in 2005 by a selection of BBC News presenters for Children in Need.
• The Mexican band Molotov made a parody cover named "Rap, Soda y Bohemia". It was sung in Spanglish and appeared in the albums Molomix and Tributo a Queen(a compilation made for various Latin rock bands).
• The song was parodied by famed Animutationist-cum-musician Andrew Kepple along with some friends to create the flash music video "Zero Wing Rhapsody", in which Kepple and his group sang the song to the opening story of the European Megadrive release of the game "Zero Wing".
• The Raleigh Ringers have released a handbell version of this song.
• Canadian comedian Rick Miller has performed a version in which he impersonates "twenty five of the most annoying voices in the music industry".
• Collegehumor.com released a parody of both the song and the music video entitled Brohemian Rhapsody on youtube and its website
• The heavy metal portion of the song was used as the opening and closing theme of the defunct EPCOT Center attraction, Food Rocks. It used revised lyrics relating to cooking utensils and nutrition

References

• Barrow, Tony (1994-12-01). "Video (10)". Inside The Music Business. London: Routledge. p. 91. ISBN 0415136601. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Chiu, David (2005-12-27), "Unconventional Queen Hit Still Rocks After 30 Years", The New York Times {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Creswell, Toby (2006-08-11). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time and the Artists, Stories and Secrets Behind Them. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press. pp. 208–209. ISBN 1560259159. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• McLeod, Kenneth (2001). "Bohemian Rhapsodies: Operatic influences on rock music". Popular Music. 20 (2). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 189–203. doi:10.1017/S0261143001001404. ISSN 0261-1430. {{cite journal}}: External link in |author= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

External links

• Complete Words - Lyrics and MIDI
• The Royal Legend - detailed musical analysis
• Queenpedia - detailed worldwide release information
• Bohemian Rhapsody - Music video (Youtube)

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