I was moseying around on Wikipedia (which I do often when I'm bored, it's actually quite entertaining) after having recently added "Bohemian Rhapsody" to my iPod. In the article for "Bohemian Rhapsody", a music scholar by the name of Sheila Whiteley claimed that lead singer Freddie Mercury wrote this song to express his sexuality (most people agree that Mercury was either gay or bisexual).
Normally I would have dismissed a radical claim like this, but Whiteley's statement stuck with me and I kept thinking it over...until I privately concluded that she was right. If I'm right in saying so, this is one of those songs that everybody knows but nobody really understands. Queen had often said, both as a group and individually, that they left it up to listeners to understand that the song was talking about. So to explain what I mean further, here are the 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
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, oooh
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
It's 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, oooh
I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all
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
Wiill you let me go?
Bizmillah!
No, we will not let you go!
Let him go!
Bizmillah!
We will not let you go!
Let him go!
Bizmillah!
We will not let you go!
Let me go!
Will not let you go - let me go
Never let you 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 the Devil put aside for me
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
Nothing really matters
Anyone can see
Nothing really matters,
nothing really matters to me
Anyway the wind blows...
_____________________________
Going by stanza, and skipping some:
First, the name is "Bohemian Rhapsody." Bohemians are traditionally non-conformist, freethinking and many tend to be homosexual or bisexual.
Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide
No escape from reality
It's really just a hint here, nothing big, but indicates that something's not quite right in the speaker's life and that he has to deal with the consequences.
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, oooh
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
"Mama, just killed a man" <-- thrown away the "normal", heterosexual part of him
"Didn't mean to make you cry...Carry on" <-- Coming out about his sexuality, his desire to flee and how the world will go on anyway.
It's 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, oooh
I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all
General: How it hurts to be different and how the speaker has to leave to find himself, face the truth, etc. "I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all" speaks for itself.
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
Nothing much to say here, but if you know the song or are following the music video, notice how there's a high vocal part and a lower one...almost like a masculine and a feminine voice arguing with each other. Masculine=generic and heterosexual, feminine=his possible homosexual-ness and leanings towards the female gender.
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
"...just a poor boy from a poor family" <-- LGBT's (lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender) come from all over the place. Rich, poor, white, black, city, country, London, Tasmania, etc. "Spare him his life from this monstrosity" is self-explanatory.
Easy come, easy go
Wiill you let me go?
Bizmillah!
No, we will not let you go!
Let him go!
Bizmillah!
We will not let you go!
Let him go!
Bizmillah!
We will not let you go!
Let me go!
Will not let you go - let me go
Never let you 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 the Devil put aside for me
For me
For me
For me...
More high-low/male-female quibbling here. The higher voice pleads, "let him go" while the lower says "No, we will not let you go!" In other words, the higher voice register is asking in general to "let him go" and be who he really is: homosexual (or bisexual). Also, in past centuries people believed (and still believe) that people who are not heterosexual would go to Hell for being different (the Devil).
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
LGBT's have been maltreated for ages and ages, hence the stoning and spitting, and a reprise of the Escapist.
_______________________
Sorry if this seems out of the blue. I just wanted to put this in print somehow after mulling it over for a few days.
PS: Please do not ask me what I was doing up at 3:34 am. I wish I knew.
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