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...
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This song is definetly not about AIDS. This song is about a man who kills another one, and then realizes what he did and the lessons in life.
He is experiencing grief, and confusion after the crime. He isn't sure what to do after murderring a person. He becomes insecure, sad, shocked, and angry. His mother is shunning him, and he doesn't know where to go, or what to do.
He considers suicide, because he feels that he doesn't have a place. He then decides against it because God and the devil won't accept him. He finally hits rock-bottom, but picks himself back up, and realizes what's done is done, and he can't control his fate. He realizes that there is a plan for him, and he just has to go with it. This song is brilliant. -
"Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango"
He is talking to the man who is going to perform the execution. -
I just looked up scaramouche, the definition states that he is/was an roguish italian clown. Bismillah has a very interesting meaning.,according to the quaran, it is a phrase to say "in the name of god, most gracious,most compassionate. So just as a guess, when it's used in the lyrics, it's the victims family that are relying with "bismillah, no! we will not let you go". Perhaps they are seeing the narrators death as justice for the crime of murder.
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Although there is an obvious interpretation about a murder, it always seemed to me that it wasn't an actual murder. And also that he was talking about himself all the time, that he was both the victim and the killer.
Ok, this is just my personal feelings about the song going on here...
The only reason why Freddie wouldn't openly express the meaning of the lyrics is that it had an intimate meaning for him. Otherwise he could just have expressly said it was about a murderer in the death row or something, it would make sense. But he kept this secret, so my guess it's about him, his life, etc
Let's remember that he is not British, he comes from a different culture, where being gay or bisexual is actually a monstrosity of some kind. And even on England, being different this way on the 70's wasn't easy as well, he probably had suffered a lot of discrimination because of this.
He was never comfortable with his sexuality. So the whole beginning of the song is him being tormented with himself. First him wondering if what he feels is actually real. Then his misery of being so different. The fear about what his strict family and friends would think about him. Him thinking about himself as some kind of monster.
Then the opera is when he finally tries to argue with himself. It confronts him if he won't let the old Freddie go and be himself. However he's still afraid of what he is doing, he is not sure if relating to another man is a sin. He doesn't know if he will go to heaven or hell and he is a afraid of going to hell.
Then he realizes he is what he is and he can't scape from that. He decides to act like people can't love him and then suddenly stone him for that. And if they do, it doesn't matter, because he just wants to 'get outta here' and be himself. He still doesn't know what will happen to him. But it doesn't matter to him anymore. -
Anyone who thinks this song is about AIDS is an idiot. AIDS wasn't even discovered when this song was made...
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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I am pretty sure it is about suicide. I don't feel like writing out the whole interpretation but read the lyrics with that thought in your head.
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His gay self is the "weapon" that pulled "MY" trigger and killed the former self.
The sorrow, pain, shame, social disapproval, dissociation, shock and other emotions follow throughout the song.
He feels endless shame in revealing to his mother that he is a homosexual. He is essentially not the boy who his mother had raised.
He's just a poor boy-a regular guy- who is extremely torn about having to endure such painful emotions. He "look(s) up to the sky" and wonders why me?- I'm nothing special. I'm normal like everyone else, why can't anyone see that?
Society then ridicules him...while he begs for them to "let me go". I believe that the "let him go" part could be his mother talking and standing by his side.
He's extremely depressed about the way society rejects him forcing him numb to emotion.
It's almost as if he's the first person to say he's different from everyone else and although it's painful he doesn't care what you think.
He'd rather live in painful isolation than live a lie.
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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I always thought at this song was about AIDS... finding out that he has it and finding out that he's given it to other people (hence the murder theme). While this song came out in '76 and AIDS wasn't officially recognized by the CDC until '81, I remember the "gay cancer" being discussed amongst my drug using friends.
"pulled my trigger now he's dead" I always took as a sex line.
"mama, life has just begun, and now I've gone and thrown it all away" - through drugs and sex
And I always took the lines about Scaramouche as the "clown." When you do drugs and act high, you act like a fool.
I always took the lines about Bismillah indicating addiction to drugs and sex. -
Tthe basic story of this song is pretty described and its a descripted situation. we can determine a killer, that is sentenced to death.
his declaring himself guilty
"mama just killed a men, put a gun agaist his head pulled my trigger now his dead"
but what i really think is interesting about these lyrics is that we can see the men that is facing this unfortunate situation going through the 5 steps of accepting his own death.
we can see each very clearly though not in the obvious and conventional way we usually imagine them, and not in the correct order
DENIAL
not ready to die (is anyone ever really ready?).
"is this the real life?
is this just fantasy?
caught on the landside,
no escape from reality"
"i dont wanna die,
i sometimes wish ive never been borned at all"
ANGER
Suddenly you are not in control of your life, or death
"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 cant do this to me baby,
just gotta get out,
just gotta get right out of here"
BARGAINING
You are willing now to compromise. No use denying it, though you cant totally accept it, you star regreating things.You can be suffering from insecurities regarding a member of your family or a loved one who you feel is yet dependent on you
"Mamma, oh oh, didnt mean to make you cry,
if im not back again this time tomorrow,
carry on, carry on,
as if nothing really matters!
DEPRESSION
You are fully aware that death is inevitable. Aware, angry and filled with sorrow and here again the culprit of guilt sneaks in as you mourn for yourself and the pain that this is causing you family and loved ones
"Any way the wind blows doesn't really matter to me, to me"
(Now that he's going to die, nothing more matters. He has no future, no hopes or dreams or goals. He's going to die within the hour, and there's nothing he can do about it. He feels very hopeless, and from his perspective nothing really matters.)
"Mamma life has just begun,
and now ive got to through it all away"
"Magnifico. I'm just a poor boy and nobody loves me"
ACCEPTANCE
This comes after you work though the numerous conflicts and feelings that death brings. You can succumb to the inevitable as you become more tired and weakness hangs on. You become less emotional, calmness arrives and banishes fear along with joy or sadness. You realize the battle is almost over and now it's really alright for you to die.
"too late,
my time has come"
its inevitable.
"goodbye everybody,ive got to go,
gotta leave you all behind and face the truth"
"Nothing really matters, Anyone can see
Nothing really matters
Nothing really matters to me"
so that's basically mi interpretation, of this, from my point of view, charming masterpiece that lead us through out the 5 steps we face when dealing with our death.
so thank you freddy
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The first part of the song is when the murderer is trying to fit his actions into a perspective that makes what he did less evil. "Is this the real life" states that he thinks it may not even be real and he may not have committed a murder. In other words, he's in denial. The next two lines is when he admits there's no escaping what he had done, or that he's "caught in a landslide with no escape from reality".He then says he's a poor boy and this incident shouldn't be taken as seriously because of his "easy come easy go" attitude. He repeats this many times as he is trying to figure out why everyone is taking what he did so seriously. After all, he never got this much attention in his life. He talks about his outlook on life and continues with what actually happened. After his stage of denial in the first verse, he tells his mother that he killed a man.He now regrets what he did and realizes how he ruined his entire life. His guilt and regret incline him to turn himself in. He might not recieve the death penalty if he confesses to his crime. But on the offchance he does get executed, he tells his mother not to worry and to live on like nothing ever happened.
The next part is his fear of confessing. It sends shivers down his spine, because he fears the worst.He says a goodbye to his friends and leaves for the police station.
The next scene is in a courtroom. The narrator is very confused and wondering what everyone is talking about. Queen simulates this feeling by singing a whole bunch of random stuff like "Scalamouche, Scalamouche will you do the Fandango" The part about thunderbolts and lightning simulates the unneeded fear that the others in the courtroom are giving the narrator. They then call the narrator by his name, Galileo. They add in words like "figaro" and "magnifico" to get his attention and to accent the confusion of the situation. This is when the procession starts. The narrator says he's just a poor boy again. His family backs up his point, telling the judge to spare his life. The argument continues with the "We will not let you go" thing. Bismillah means God, so, they probably were saying that like you would say "God, no!" The narrator feels hopeless and thinks that he will get the death penalty. He still cries for his life. He then says that the devil already has something to torture him with. The solo is supposed to be the rest of the court session. By some miraculous twist, his life is spared and he just spends life in prison. But, being there for a while gets him to blame his problems on others. "So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye" is talking about the murder victim and how he tormented the narrator before he shot him. The "So you think you can love me and leave me to die" refers to his mother, and how she left him behind after he was put in jail. He yearns to get out. He eventually calms down, seeing how anger will get him nowhere. He finally restates that it doesn't matter anyway.
Wow, that's a mouthful. It's amazing how any collection of nonsense words can eventually be put to meaning. -
Wauw.. Almost everyone in here are wrong..
Especially those who think it is AIDS.. The man didn't have AIDS OR HIV when he wrote this song.
Some TRUE facts:
Mama is Mary Austin, This song is written at the same time he got his first gay love David Minns. He still lived with Mary Austin and this is about the breaking with her. He have said that Mary was the only person he trusted totally, and they remained friends for the rest of his life.
There are many things about the killed of his straight life that are somewhat true, but remember he wasn't gay, he was bi. He had an relationship with Barbara Valentin in the period 1983-1985. So it is the killing of his love with Mary. -
It is not difficult to understand this song. What's difficult it understanding these lame literal and uninformed interpretations of the song on this site.
The song is about coming out of the closet. The "killing" is a symbolic killing of the writer/singer's straight identity through the admission of the true identity. The opera part is the debate over the guilt and pain associated with the lie of being something other than true to the original self. The references to Galileo and all the Beelezbub and stuff is just symbolism regarding sin and truth and the nature of identity.
"Anyway the wind blows" refers to the double-life of the bohemian pleasure seeker
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