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Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody




"Bohemian Rhapsody" is a song by the British rock band Queen from their fourth album, A Night at the Opera (1975). Written by lead singer Freddie Mercury, the song is a six-minute suite, notable for its lack of a refraining chorus and consisting of several sections: an intro, a ballad segment, an operatic passage, a hard rock part and a reflective coda. It is one of the few progressive rock songs of the 1970s to achieve widespread commercial success and appeal to a mainstream audience.


Mercury referred to "Bohemian Rhapsody" as a "mock opera" that resulted from the combination of three songs he had written. It was recorded by Queen and co-producer Roy Thomas Baker at five studios between August and September 1975. Due to recording logistics of the era, the band had to bounce the tracks across eight generations of 24-track tape, meaning that they required nearly 200 tracks for overdubs.


The song parodies elements of opera with bombastic choruses, sarcastic recitative, and distorted Italian operatic phrases. Lyrical references include Scaramouche, the fandango, Galileo Galilei, Figaro, and Beelzebub, with cries of "Bismillah!"


Although critical reaction was initially mixed, "Bohemian Rhapsody" became regarded as one of the greatest rock songs of all time, as well as Queen's most popular. The promotional video is credited with furthering the development of the music video medium.







Lyrics



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

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