Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody Meaning
Song Released: 1975
Covered By: Panic! At The Disco (2016), Pentatonix (2017)
Bohemian Rhapsody Lyrics
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...
-
long and short of it, my belief is that Bohemian Rhapsody is about freddie coming out of the closet to his mother as bisexual and she disowns him as her son. allow me to set this up.
"Is this the real life-
Is this just fantasy-
Caught in a landslide-
No escape from reality-"
opening stanza introduces freddie's own acceptance of his lifestyle and his carefree ability to tell those he loves that he is not ashamed of it. realizing the success he has had with queen, and all the gay innoculations he makes in public, he knows he must tell his mother (whom was devout into her Zoroastrianism) about his lifestyle and its potential for being called sin.
"Mama,just killed a man,
Put a gun against his head,
Pulled my trigger,now he’s dead"
1st verse has freddie imagining his mother literally disowning him as her son, and he is devistated. he knows his life has taken full stride, but may become empty without his broken-hearted mothers support. no matter what her response is, freddie will continue to live the life he has grown into. at this point, freddie becomes nervous about telling her.
"Too late,my time has come,
Sends shivers down my spine-
Body’s aching all the time,
Goodbye everybody-I’ve got to go-"
2nd verse comes the actual moment of truth where his mother finds out through interviews and public appearances. freddie cant look back and must confirm his lifestyle to her. he knows that (almost like a form of suicide) he must confront the fear of what her reaction will be. he does not want to "die" in her mind, but he knows she will be disappointed in him.
"I see a little silhouette of a man,
Scaramouch,Scaramouch will you do the fandango-
Thunderbolt and lightning-very very frightening me-"
The middle 8th is a basic transcript of the moment at hand. she sees him off in the distance and already knows something isnt right. she feels God's presence warning her of potential danger and sin. he tells her of his lifestyle, and she immediately believes he is possessed by the devil and the sin at hand. After the initial shock wears off, she develops the fear that she has lost her son. she takes freddie and holds him in her arms, crying her eyes out. ("oh mama mia let me go.") he knows by God's Will he is sinning and accepts the potential of sin from God.
"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-"
the final verse confirms freddie's fears at the time to be true. his mother openly berates him later of his sin and starts every possible attack on him to see if he can change his ways. the love for her son has turned into rage, deceit, and betrayal at this point. no matter what, her attempts must fail when Freddie, in haste, must walk away with whatever pride he has left.
"Nothing really matters,
Anyone can see,
Nothing really matters-,nothing really matters to me,
Any way the wind blows...."
The final exiting stanza confirms that Freddie is just as devistated of his mother's reactions, and knows without his mother's love, he is nothing. he could swoon over the world, but if he cant make his mother smile, everything will be for naught. he knows that the winds of time must guide him to wherever he needs to go next, regardless.
The actual title in itself, wikipedia describes Bohemianism as "the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits. In this context, Bohemians can be wanderers, adventurers, or vagabonds."
To Freddie, he knows that he must walk the Earth alone knowing he doesnt have his mother's support; he doesnt have a psychological place to call "home" (like his mother's heart) to live and be alive in. -
Ultimately, it is part tribute, part parody of Opera, infused with rock overtones. Murcury was always curious about other music forms, having grown up in India and Zanzibar, an Indo-Persian Parsi of the ancient Zoroastrian faith. Moving to London as a teen, European culture, both traditional and modern, enthralled the young man. Although his writing mostly focused on straight rock, Bohemian Rhapsody was his experimentation with blending two seemingly incompatable music genres, Classic Opera and Hard Rock. Mercury understood otherwise, that if he blended the two skillfully, the result would be blow-away awesome.
The first third of the song is rather straightforward and obvious. It is the opera-like tale of a poor man having killed another and is about to face the punitive consequences. He laments his grief and fear to his mother. It is sung as a modern slow ballad.
The middle section is where Mercury has a lot of fun creating a hallucinatory operatic mishmash. As a musical piece, it is one of the most brilliant of the 20th Century. He infuses operatic musical structure with lyrical themes and various operatic references. The "thunderbolt and lighting" aludes to Wagner, "Figaro" to Mozart, Scaramouche, the clown of Italian opera, the Fandango, classic Spanish dance, Bismillah and Beelzebub, God and the Devil, Good and Evil, classic themes of Opera. He ties it all to the story of the remorseful murderer, trying to flee, the authorities capturing him, the peasants trying to protect him, all rising to some kind of hallucinating, orgasmic dream.
It is then that the song breaks back into the 20th Century with an intense rock riff of defiance. It is as though the young murderer had just dreamed his life and his calamity was merely an 18th Century Opera. Waking from the "dream", he has a renewed strength to be defiant.
Alas, his "dream" was not real, his crime was the reality. His punishment awaits him. He is to be put to death. Resigned to his fate he dismisses, "Nothing really matters, anyone can see, Nothing really matters to me. Any way the wind blows..." The final crash of the cymbal is the moment of his execution. He is no longer. -
he was singing to his lover who at the time was a woman, "mama". he was telling her he needed to let her go and face himself (he was gay). the end.
-
I think the sort of obvious story is a young man who murders a man.
"If I'm not back again this time tomorrow
Carry on, carry on, as if nothing really mattered"
I think he's saying if there is a consequence, his mother shouldn't worry about him and go on living. He's put on death row and his confused about his life and wishes he had never been born. Then he's forced to face reality, tries to fight for his freedom, but then gives up and stops fighting.
But the story that is obvious is about a young man ruining his own chances.
"Mama, just killed a man
Put a gun against his head
Pulled my trigger now he's dead
Mama life has just begun
But now I've gone and thrown it all away"
Maybe he's saying that his life as just started(Coming of age), but his life is going now where in terms of family, career, ect., and he thinks his mother would be ashamed of him. -
Carry on may be a play on the word carrion. Carrion means dead flesh. "If I'm not back this time tomorrow I'm dead.
-
If it is about "suicide", then one possible definition of that is a portal to other and infinite dimensions. The fear associated with that is nietzche's void
"If you look long enough into the void the void begins to look back through you." -
This song is about a gay man living with AIDS - a death sentence.
-
I think he is upset for killing himself. He is talking about it as if it happened. He killed a man (himself). Why else would he be talking to his mother? I love this song. Nothing really matters when you are going to take your own life.
-
Let's take Freddie at his word about there being no meaning to the lyrics. It doesn't mean there is no thought. W.S.'s purpose in Hamlet's soliloquies was not to present "This means That" literary equations about suicide, but like impressionist art, to offer thoughtful considerations serving to set sail to a listeners own thoughts.
The author contracted AIDS years later and so is just an unfortunate abstraction.
I'd like to block the situation with a few of my own ideas. Freddie was born into a family of middle-east (possibly Iranian) origins where his homosexuality was an almost lethal force in their relationship. This is not so much about homicide but probably more about how compelling a suicide option might be to a gay son born into such a family situation - so much so that family expectations are severe enough to make suicide and homicide almost synonymous.
The confusion comes as Freddie sings both his own and his mother's lines. Freddie absolves his mother's guilt as he easily offers himself to the ("easy come easy go")winds of fate.
This is where we are invited to draw a parallel between suppression and denial of sexuality as a life force and the Scaramouche character in teh "We Will Rock You" story about the suppression of art - the idea being that both are equally dangerous to the soul to the point of being lethal.
The Arabic term from the Koran "Bismillah" (in the name of God)may have been often used by his mother like a western mother exclaiming " Oh, my God" as the family confronted the idea of a son's scandal.
When I overlay these ideas on the lyrics - the whole thing begins to make sense at least to me. So, that's my two cents. -
I think this is a song about a guy expressing himself and his musical genius in a fantastic work of musical art that will be remembered through the generations......
-
oh geez...some people need to do some f*ing research before posting idiotic posts...
1) Freddie was BISEXUAL.
2) AIDS was not discovered until 1980. He was diagnosed until 1987. This song was written in 1975.
3) He was Zoroastrian! NOT MUSLIM!
I am with the majority on this- the song is about someone who committed murder ("Mama, just killed a man") and is possibly contemplating suicide because of it ("Sometimes I wish I'd never been born at all" "If I'm not back at this time tomorrow"). That's the first part.
The rock opera part is him and his friends and family arguing about his death. He's starting to have flashbacks about it ("I see a little silhouetto of a man"). His friends then start, in a way, taunting him. Scaramouche is coward. Since most people think suicide is cowardly, they are calling him a coward and asking him to dance (fandango is a type of dance). As a result, he's feeling very depressed ("I'm just a poor boy/Nobody loves me") and he and his friends start arguing and eventually they win, despite his closing argument about being on his way to hell ("Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me!") He then is stung by their hypocrisy and is unhappy. At the end of the song, he is resigned to the fact that he has to live as punishment and the song ends on a melancholy note. -
A quick note on the line "Scaramouch, Scaramouch will he do the fandango?" refers to when someone is hanged and they kick and jerk at the end of the rope, they are said to be "doing the Fandango". A very crude reference to a dance move.
Also, for what it's worth - this song is the result of someone of Queen's incredible talent doing their version of what a classical music/opera would sound like if done by true modern rock musician's. It's as if to say "We can produce an operatic masterpiece to compete with anything offered up by the masters of the classical era". I don't care if Freddie said it was nonsensical. I resectfuly disagree - this song really was a rock masterpiece that told a great story with incredible talent and musicianship. -
I think this song was written as a reflection of Freddie's feelings when he found out he was HIV positive and was caught in the landslide, couldn't escape death, sorry mom, sorry other dude....
-
I Believe that it deals with the Singer's feelings of being gay.
His mother is either his real mother, or actually the woman he has been loving for all this time, and is wishing that she would carry on without him.
He comes to deal with his own judgement inside his head, trying to deal with the ideas of his society condemning his sexuality and how the devil will look for people like him.
His accusations soon point towards the 'angels', or friends who don't want to be seen with him because of his sexuality. They promised to love him, and yet they leave him to deal with these feelings.
he then comes to accept it, realizing that it never really mattered in the end of it. -
I agree with the top rated interpretation but I think it's more than what he says on the song. I think it's about him saying goodbye to his mom and fans and his suffer of aids!!!! has anyone ever stop to compare aids/hiv (and dieing from this bad disease) to what is said on this song? having hiv/aids esp. In those times was a death sentence kind of like being on death row. "send shivers down my spine body aching all the time" my unlce died of aids/hiv was always cold cause you lose so much weight hand yeah hid body always ached. When he said "just killed a man" I think he is talking about himself when he realizes or found out he has hiv and he knows he is gonna die from hiv/aids. When he says mom didn't mean to make you cry if i'am not back this time before tomorrow, carry on carry on. Cause when you have this disease you don't know when you will die, and telling him mom to "carry on" keep living..."sometime wish I wasn't born at all" he regrets getting hiv/aids and it's so much that if he would have rather not be born. I think the part towards the end when the song gets hyped up he is trying to waken himself up and shake off the disease and the thoughts of dieing from hiv/aids trying to fight back and motivate himself....but towards the end..again reality sets in..."nothing really matters, anyone can see" reality has set in and in the end "nothing really matters to me" your dieing of hiv/aids what does matter to anyone dieing from this awfull disease nothing at all..."anywhere the winds blow" to me it's like after he dies his legacy his work he himself will be everywhere like the wind cause the wind blows everywhere..! again I agree with the top rated interpretation but I think it's more than what he says on the song. I think it's about him saying goodbye to his mom and fans and his suffer of aids!!!!
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