Bohemian Rhapsody

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Musical Recordings and compositions

"Bohemian Rhapsody"
Single by Queen
from the album A Night at the Opera
B-side(s)	I'm in Love With My Car
Released	October 31, 1975
Format	1975: Vinyl record (7") 1991: CD, Vinyl record (7") 1992: CD
Recorded	1975: Rockfield Studio 1 Roundhouse SARM (East) Scorpion Wessex
Genre	Rock Hard rock Progressive rock
Length	05:55
Label	EMI (1975) Elektra (1975) Parlophone (1991) Hollywood (1992)
Writer(s)	Freddie Mercury
Producer(s)	Roy Thomas Baker Queen
Chart positions
#1 (Australia; Belgium; Canada; Ireland; Netherlands; New Zealand; Spain; UK: platinum) #2 (South Africa) #4 (Norway; Sweden; Switzerland) #7 (Germany) #9 (US: gold) #48 (Japan) 1991/1992 reissue: #1 (Ireland; UK: platinum) #2 (Netherlands; US: platinum) #5 (Australia) #8 (Austria) #16 (Germany)
Queen singles chronology
Now I'm Here (1975)	Bohemian Rhapsody (1975)	You're My Best Friend (1976)
The Show Must Go On (1991)	Bohemian Rhapsody/ These Are The Days Of Our Lives (1991)	Heaven for Everyone (1995)

"Bohemian Rhapsody" is a song written by Freddie Mercury, originally recorded by the band Queen for their 1975 album A Night at the Opera. The song is a rock opera song and has a very unusual musical structure for a piece of popular music. Its three different sections have no chorus but both a cappella and heavy metal arrangements. Despite this, it was released as a single and became a huge commercial success, marking a decisive point in Queen's career and setting them on the way to become one of the world's biggest bands. The single was accompanied by what is generally cited as a groundbreaking " promotional video", which helped establish the visual language of the modern music video. The song was included in all Queen's subsequent live concert performances, and still enjoys great popularity all over the world.

Origins and name

Very little has been said about the song's title. According to what Brian May told a magazine and published in his website, Mercury came up with it later in the recording process. As confirmed in a 2004 BBC Documentary about the song, which included the aforementioned demo and interviews with producer Roy Thomas Baker, early tapes from Mercury rehearsing the piano parts were simply labelled "Fred's thing".

The title's meaning can be taken as a song irregular in form about someone who doesn't follow the rules of society. The reason for this is that the textbook definition of Bohemian is 'a person, as an artist or writer, who lives and acts free of regard for conventional rules and practices' and the definition of rhapsody is 'an instrumental composition irregular in form and suggestive of improvisation'.

Mercury composed the song on an upright piano he had in his London flat. According to Reinhold Mack in a 2000 interview about The Game, when he asked Freddie how he had written the song, he described the process as having a germinal idea, polishing it, then adding and taking out bits until it was exactly as he wanted it.

According to what Mercury said in an early 1976 interview, this had simply been one of the pieces he'd got in his songwriting batch for the album, and he had been tempted to drop it at some early stages, until he realised that the track could have some potential.

Recording

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.

May, Mercury, and Taylor sang their vocal parts continually for ten to twelve hours a day, resulting in 180 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 submixes. 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 submixes would have to be cut with razor blades and reassembled together in the correct sequence using adhesive tape, a process known as splicing.

A backing track of the grand piano (Mercury), bass guitar (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.

Release

When Mercury wanted to release the single in 1975, it had been suggested to him that, at 5 minutes and 56 seconds, it was far too long and would thus never be a hit. But Mercury had a plan. He gave a copy of the single to friend and London DJ Kenny Everett, informing him that it was for him personally, and that he must never play it on air, expecting him to do the opposite ( reverse psychology). Mercury's plan worked, as 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.

Song structure

The song is composed of six distinct sections - introduction, ballad, guitar solo, opera, rock, and an outro.

Introduction (0:00-0:48)

The song begins with close four-part harmony a cappella introduction in B-flat, which is entirely multitrack recordings of Mercury. 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 chorus. 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 that he has "just killed a man," and with that act thrown his life away. The chromatic bass line at the end of brings about a modulation to E-flat. Here Taylor's drums enter (1:19), and the narrator makes the first 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 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 (2:36-3:02)

As Mercury sings the rising line "I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all," the band builds in intensity, leading up to the song's first highlight: a guitar solo by May that serves as the segue from ballad to opera. 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 3:02 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.

Opera (3:02-4:07)

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 (E flat major to F minor to A major, among others) introduces a pseudo-operatic midsection, which contains the bulk of the elaborate vocal multitracking, 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 a single Mercury voice and solo piano, to a multi-voice choir. 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. 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, " Bismillah," and Beelzebub, as rival factions fight over the narrator's soul. The introduction is recalled with the chromatic inflection on "I'm just a poor boy...easy come, easy go." The section concludes with a full choral treatment of the lyric, "Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me!" in which Taylor famously hits a Bb, almost 2 octaves above middle C.

Hard rock (4:07-4:55)

The operatic section leads (with the voices singing "for me" on a block B-flat major chord, topped by a sustained high B-flat falsetto from Taylor) into an aggressive hard rock musical interlude with a guitar riff that was written by Mercury. During group singalongs (including the famous scene in the film Wayne's World), it is traditional to headbang during this passage. At 4:14, 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." There follows three ascending guitar runs, which May described as something he had to "battle with" when performing the song live. The third guitar run is then imitated by Mercury on the piano.

Outro Ballad (4:55-5:56)

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 yeah, ooh yeah", to give the effect of trumpets. This effect was achieved by playing the guitar through an amp designed by Deacon, affectionately nicknamed the " Deacy Amp". The song progressively becomes quieter while Mercury again sings "nothing really matters to me..." The final line, "any way the wind blows," is followed by the barely audible sound of a gong.

Note that an academic paper has been written on the song (McLeod K. 2001, Bohemian rhapsodies: operatic influences on rock music, Popular Music, vol 20/2, pp 189-203).

Lyrics

From the time "Bohemian Rhapsody" was released to the public, there has been speculation as to the meaning behind the song's lyrics. Some believe the lyrics were inspired by author Albert Camus, given the similarities to Camus's novel The Stranger. Still others believe the lyrics were only written to fit with the music, and don't have any meaning at all. As evidence, DJ 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 too much analysis into his material, and preferred listeners to construct their own personal interpretations. 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?"

Promotional video

The video for the single was directed by Bruce Gowers, using ideas from the band members themselves. It was created to allow the band to be on tour and appear "live" on the BBC's Top of the Pops. 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 having the face zooming away was accomplished by simply pointing the camera at a monitor, thus giving visual feedback, a visual glare which is analogous to audio feedback. In the original version of the video an apparent editing glitch led to the piano part briefly being double-tracked out of sync with itself, but this was corrected in later releases.

The "Bohemian Rhapsody" video is often cited as "the first ever music promo video." This assertion is incorrect. Many bands (including Queen) had made promotional clips to accompany their single releases.

However, 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 TV music 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 famous image of Mercury with his hands crossed over his chest was originally from the Queen II album cover, and was shot by rock photographer Mick Rock, inspired by a 1932 photograph of Marlene Dietrich smoking a cigarette with her hands held up and the exact same lighting.

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 1957, and another five weeks during 1991-1992. It has the fourth longest total of weeks at #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 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 favourite song. 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. For popularity comparence: the 2005 edition of the top 2000 was listened to by more then 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, intercutting excerpts from the film with footage from the original Queen video, along with some live footage of the band. The final scene of the video was notable, where a 1974 photo of the band members (from the cover of the Queen II album) "morphs" into an identically-posed 1985 photo. This re-release hit #2 in the US in 1992, sixteen years after the original 1976 US release peaked at #9.

As of 2004 "Bohemian Rhapsody" is the second most played song on British radio.

Live performances

The a capella introduction was too complex to perform onstage, and though some claim that the band did attempt it at least a few times early on, no live recordings of the introduction exist. In lieu of the a capella segment, 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 capella 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 pounding out the opening notes of the ballad.

The operatic, middle section of the song proved to be a problem for the band initially. Because of the extensive multi-tracking, there was no way they could sing it 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 onstage, and after Brian May's guitar solo, the lights would go down, the band would leave for a quick costume change, and the operatic section would be played from tape. A blast of pyrotechnics after Roger Taylor's 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 April 20, 1992, Elton John and Axl Rose performed the song with the surviving members of Queen for The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert.

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 onstage, including Rodgers, who took lead vocals for the hard rock section. 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.

Selected cover versions

• Fuzzbox - 12" singles What's The Point (1987) and Self! (1989). This a cappella version was one of the first covers of "Bohemian Rhapsody".
• Bad News - album Bad News (1987). This spoof rock band (created for the UK Channel 4 TV series The Comic Strip Presents...) also released Bohemian Rhapsody as a single. It reached number 44 in the UK Singles Chart. The cover version was produced by Brian May. John Deacon, known for his reluctance to sing, provided some backing vocals.
• "Weird Al" Yankovic - album Alapalooza (1993). A high-speed polka version of the song, renamed " Bohemian Polka".
• Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - album Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Play Queen (1995).
• The Braids - High School High soundtrack album (1996). The bay area duo recorded an R&B version of this song for the soundtrack to the Jon Lovitz movie High School High. It was produced by Third Eye Blind's lead singer Stephan Jenkins and was also released as a single.
• Montserrat Caballé - album Friends for Life (1997). Duet with Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson.
• Faye Wong - concert album HK Scenic Tour 1998/1999. With the help of several backup vocalists, the song was covered live; it stayed faithful to Queen's original studio version with no cuts.
• The California Guitar Trio does an instrumental version on the album Rocks the West (2000).
• The Flaming Lips - album Killer Queen (2005). The cover was also performed live.
• G4 - album G4 (2005). The band, The X Factor runners-up in the UK, released a version of the song as their debut single, reaching #9 in the UK Singles Chart.
• Mnozil Brass - DVD Seven (2005), features the Austrian brass ensemble, singing and playing in their own comedic style.
• Australian gypsy-fusion band Monsieur Camembert have performed the song live, and a recording of it appears on their self-titled double album.
• Pop-Classical vocalist Russell Watson covers "Bohemian Rhapsody" on his third album Reprise ( 2003)
• Rolf Harris did a version in the style of "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport" complete with wobble board.
• Panic! at the Disco will be covering the song live at all of their 2006/2007 tour dates. The band has claimed that they will not use any tape to do so.