Bohemian Rhapsody: A Unique And Iconic Rock Ballad By Queen
Introduction of Bohemian Rhapsody and its place in Rock Music History
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,
Little high, little low,
Any way 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, ooh,
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, ooh (any way the wind blows),
I don’t wanna die,
I sometimes wish I’d never been born at all.
(Guitar Solo)
I see a little silhouetto of a man,
Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?
Thunderbolt and lightning,
Very, very frightening me.
(Galileo) Galileo.
(Galileo) Galileo,
Galileo Figaro
Magnifico-o-o-o-o.
I’m just a poor boy, 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 let you go (Never, never, never, never let me go)
Oh oh oh oh
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.
Solo
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.
Solo
(Ooooh, ooh yeah, ooh yeah)
Nothing really matters,
Anyone can see,
Nothing really matters,
Nothing really matters to me.
Any way the wind blows.
Bohemian Rhapsody is a song by the British rock band Queen. The lyrics was written by the front-man Freddie Mercury. The song featured in their album “A night at the Opera” released in 1975 (McLeod, 2001; Clement, 2018). This song is 6 minutes long and has several distinct segments, and is considered as one of the most iconic rock ballads and became the third best selling hit singles in UK after ‘Something about the way you look tonight’ by Sir Elton John and ‘Do they know it’s Christmas’ by Band Aid by 1976 and at number two by 1996 (officialcharts.com, 2018).
Composition and structure of the song
This song is unique in its composition and structure which as a strong storyline which is a narrative of person from a poor background reflecting upon his life and has elements of nihilism. This makes the song a good choice for various types of performances such as stage performance, dance, films or theatres. Moreover the song also has a strong emotional connection and Freddie Mercury beautifully uses word to paint the story in the lyrics (Braae, 2015).
The song starts the intro with a chorus, moving into a ballad segment and followed by a operatic passage and then a hard rock segment, finishing with an outro of a reflective coda. The intro of the song consists of a cappella of harmony segmented into five parts played in B major cord. In the next part of the intro grand piano is used in E Major, modulating the voice of the singer who provides the introduction of the character to the listeners. The intro ends at 49 sec. with the entrance of the bass and a piano vamp (McLeod, 2001).
The Ballad starts at 40 sec. into the song along with the sound of the bass guitar followed by the first verse by Freddie Mercury. The verses evolve from the first to the second one starting with a soft melodic voice to harmonic vocals. This segment is a narrative portion, telling the story of the character “just killed a man” with a gun and now he had to throw away his life. The narrative then moves on to show that the character regrets for what he has done and now has to face the consequences and does not want to die (Clement, 2018).
The ballad ends at 2:40min followed by a guitar solo that continues to 3:05min hich forms the bridge that continues to the operatic portion where rapid succession of harmonic shifts occur using multi vocal chorus creating a sound of wall. The opera segment the character pleads his innocence in front of a divided crowd, one that wants to incarcerate him and another that opposes it and wants him to be spared. The chorus ends in 5th octave, stating that a devil has been put aside by ‘Beezelbub’ for the protagonist (Machado & Lopes, 2015).
The operatic segment is followed by a rock segment that starts at 4:07min that starts with a guitar interlude that continues into a quadruple-tracked voice of the singer, giving a stronger and bigger sound of the vocals that represents the strong will of the protagonist that refuses to be put down, shout out, disrespected and abandoned and that he needs to “get out of here”. The segment is again followed by a guitar segment that bridges to the outro that starts at 4:54 which returns to the form and tempo used in the intro, moving from E major to C minor on the piano. Here the narrator concludes that ‘nothing really mattered’ to him, reflecting upon the meaninglessness of life and a nihilistic outlook (Braae, 2015).
This song is of a special emotional significance to me, as it represents the emotional fight of the vocalist Freddie Mercury who was torn between his rockstar image and his private life. I believe that the lyric was a narrative of the life of Freddie Mercury. The nihilistic approach of the song, where the narrator is questioning the nature of reality and the meaning of existence was intellectually appealing to me. Moreover, the artistic creativity of the song was league of its own¸ with the magical voice of Freddie Mercury and the soulful guitars of Brian May and the powerful operatic as well as energetic rock and roll segments as well as the chorus and harmonics were able to incite various emotions and moods of the listener thereby giving the feeling of an ‘emotional roller coaster’. I feel I can connect to the narrative of the song and the emotions of the singer and lyricist as a result of which I get goose bumps every time is hear the song and making it one of my most favorite of all time along with other classics such as ‘Stairway to heaven’ by Led Zeppelin, ‘Child in time’ by Deep Purple, ‘Another brick in the wall’ by Pink Floyd, ‘Baba O Reily’ by The Who and ‘Black Sabbath’ by Black Sabbth.
References:
Braae, N. (2015). Sonic Patterns and Compositional Strategies in Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. Twentieth-Century Music, 12(2), 173-196.
Braae, N. (2015). Sonic Patterns and Compositional Strategies in Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. Twentieth-Century Music, 12(2), 173-196.
Clement, G. (2018). “We Will Rock You”: an Assessment of Queen’s Significance in 1970s British Rock History. Études anglaises, 71(1), 29-41.
Machado, J. T., & Lopes, A. M. (2015). The persistence of memory. Nonlinear Dynamics, 79(1), 63-82.
McLeod, K. (2001). Bohemian rhapsodies: operatic influences on rock music. Popular Music, 20(2), 189-203.
officialcharts.com. (2018). Queen | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company. Retrieved from https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/21275/queen/