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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I read in the We Will Rock You programme that Roger Tayor said he or Brian May and John Deacon weren't going to say what the real original meaning of this song was and that they may share it in time!
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Good Grief, people. This is soooooo simple. The writer was making fun of opera in general.
The "plot" of the song follows the basic formula of a stage production, and along the way provides a few examples of exagerrated mimicry of opera. Listen to it again, and pay attention to the downright silly mincing way the piano is played. The whiney "I'm just a poor boy nobody loves me." "Bismillah!"? And you think he was being serious about any of this?
I think someone dragged him to an opera, and this was his "Let me tell you what I think about opera."
I also think that is precisely why the song was so immensely popular. -
Hmm this song is about AIDS, By the time it was written AIDS was around it was not named AIDS it was too new. People new there was something around but it didn't had a name. For the gun part. It's talking about him, watch very careful how it said, pull MY trigger. That's the only part everything else fit into the hold AIDS agenda. It's a very common technique to write that way instead of put a gun in my head and pull the trigger?!?!!? It dosen't sound as nice. Mama mia let me go! Well I guess his mommy couldn't accept the fact that he was infected and he was going to die. Typical Mother thing.
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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THIS PERSON BASICALLY AGREES WITH ME, BUT THE ONLY DIFFERENCE IS THAT IS IN THE CLASSIFICATION OF IT... I AGREE ITS THE FIVE STAGES OF GRIEVANCE, BUT ALSO IT IS A SHAKESPEAREAN PLAY.......... HERE'S THE OTHERS PERSON'S WORDS:
The song is about of course about murder, and the consequences of your actions. I think Freddie used the five stages of grief for the verses 1. Denial/ Isolation "goodbye everybody-I've got to go" 2. Depression "sometimes wish I'd never been born at all" 3. Bargaining "I'm just a poor boy.. will you let me go?" 4. Anger "so you think you can stone me and spit in my eye.. just gotta get right out of here. and 5. Acceptance "any way the wind blows" -
This song is a brilliantly written STORY. Not many people can delve into and then explain the mind of some who has killed, but Queen has.
As the top rated explanation goes, there are parts to the song. But unlike that person, I think there are FIVE parts, NOT FOUR It is written in the style of a Shakespearean play:
Act 1 is used for the Introduction
Act 2 is used for the complication
Act 3 is the climax
Act 4 is used for the suspense
and finally Act 5 is the conclusio
The first act:
He is in shock, fighting with the reality of what he has JUST done. As in, if he shot the man, he's still holding the gun. He's feeling depressed and hopeless. He has the type of personality that needs attention, dramatic, and basically says, I'm just a poor boy and it won't matter to anyone if I die.
The second act:
He admits to his mother what he has done, he's admiting his guilt, his sorrow for the life he has thrown away, his sorrow for the anguish he has caused his mother.
The third act:
He is so torn over what he has done that he is writing his final goodbyes and contemplating suicide, mentally preparing, physically preparing. And then does it at the end of the act and the brink of the next act.
The fourth act:
He is basically in limbo. If he chose to stab himself, he's basically got the knife in his stomach, wobbling around. But not matter how bad the physical pain, he's internally focused right now- having a fight with himself, coming to terms with where he's going to go after death, which is hell.
The fifth act:
He's on the gound, taking his last breaths, about shut his eyes for the last time. Then dies.
End
BY THE WAY- as the top rated person says- it's NOT about aids. He got aids 11 years AFTER this song. -
The song is a well deserved, self indulgent masterpiece. Meaning unknown, even to Freddie during writing. My guess is that it was constructed from pieces of various ideas for an opera to be written by Freddie. That is just my theory, and everybody has one on the song. One thing is for sure, if you are a real fan of Queen, you will rest assured that there was plenty of white powder involved during the inspiration process.
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My interpretation is very different, so here we go...
I think the song is about cheating and breaking up. The guy the song revolves around got cheated or dumped, and he kills the man who cheated on him with his girl. The lyric never mentions this, but the pieces of the song can be put together with this issue.
Of course at the beginning he is confused, he is new to this feelings of hate and anger due to the betrayal of his lover. He really wonders if life suppose to be like that, and realizes he cannot scape or get over these feelings. He feels so unimportant. His life doesn't have sense anymore.
Eventually he ended up killing the man who cheated with his lover, and of course seems even more confused to his true self. He let down himself and his mother. Just when his life begun to make sense by having somebody to share love with, she cheated and now all his dreams, all his plans got thrown away. He knows there is no way back to his good days or the things he use to love, his girlfriend, his family, etc. Now, he has to face justice, he has to face the consequence for his actions, the murderer and the fact he lost the girl he loves. Still he doesn't wanna die, he wanna keep living and be happy like before, but now things are so bad in his life he really wishes he was never born... Things doesn't matter to him now, nothing makes sense. He is destroying himself more and more.
In the third part of the song, he is facing justice and his conscience. There seem to be a trial where he should die for the murderer. Still they can still see he is a humble guy, a poor boy who never committed such sin before. Also his conscience is killing him. He thinks of the guy he killed; his anxiety, frustrations, sadness, anger and issues is killing him like thunderbolts and lighting. Still he doesn't wanna die or give up on his life. They also feel sad for him; he is poor and pretty much has nothing left, not even the love from his girl. At the end he begs for mercy, but it seem they didn't let him go out of this one. I cannot tell if he gets punished at the trial, but whether or not he faces death sentence, he still has to deal with his demons (anger, guilty, hate, the idea of losing his lover, etc) Those feelings are the devil Beelzebub put on him.
At the end, with all his problems killing him he finally blames the girl who cheated on him and tells her he verses of the heavy rock part of the song.
"so you think you can stone me and spit my eye"
Here he tells her she was wrong if she thought she could cheat on him without him doing something about it. Having her cheating on him is like if she stone him because it hurt him and killed the good boy he was. The spitting on his eye means rejection. She rejected him by rather being with another guy than him.
"so yo think you can love me and leave me to die"
This part is very clear. Yeah she loved him, but then she didn't care he was dying inside and that he facing death sentence (if he actually get that sentence, like I said before, I dunno whether or no they are going to execute him)
"oh baby, can't do this to me baby, I just gotta get out, I just gotta get right out of here"
Again, tells her he never expected she would have done those things, and that she shouldn't. Now he just want to escape from those feelings, from his demons, from his nightmares and the sentence they gave him.
The guy is really destroyed at the end. Even when he realized he ended up loving a bad girl, his feelings, conscience is killing him inside. He lost his love, his life, his willingness to live and be happy. Just like he says... nothing really matters to me.
Thanks for reading -
There are many different meanings behind this song, which is one of the many reasons why it is such a great song. Here's three:
My first interpretation of what the song is about is a man who has just committed murder. In the intro, he says:'is this the real life, is this just fantasy, caught in a landslide...' the person can't really believe that they have just killed someone and isn't sure of what emotions they are feeling, or about to feel. In the second part, he is feeling sad and guilty for what he has just done, and is confessing to his mother because of it: 'mamma, just killed a man...'. As the second part of the song continues, he gets more depressed and thinks that he doesn't deserve to live since he has killed someone 'if I'm not back again this time tomorrow, carry on, carry on, as if nothing really matters' Then he realises that he has to face what he has done 'gotta leave you all behind and face the truth'. Then he becomes afraid that he will die too 'I don't wanna die, though I sometimes wish id never been born at all'. During the middle opera section, the character enters a derranged state, not being able to cope with all the emotions from ending the life of someone else, and seems to develop a split personality 'No! We will not let you go - let me go!' The fourth part is where he gets angry and tries to convince himself that the person he killed deserved to die: 'So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye... woah baby, can't do this to me baby, just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here'. The outro is when he accepts what he has done, and becomes less of a real person after being emotionally scared from killing someone: 'nothing really matters, anyone can see, nothing really matters, nothing really matters, nothing really matters to me'.
My Second interpretation is a series of mood swings. In the intro, the first mood or emotion is wonder 'open your eyes, look up to the skies and see...' then the next section, the mood is sadness, depression and feelings of low self esteem. The lyrics relate, in general, to someone who is depressed and lacking self esteem: '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'. The lyrics also relate to thinking of committing suicide. 'I don't wanna die, I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all'. Then, the middle opera section, the emotion is slightly cheerful, humourous and fun. In this case, the lyrics can be refereed to as nonsense and jibberish, though in other interpretations the lyrics have meaning and depth behind them (like in the one about the murder). Then, in the fourth bit after the head bang riff, the emotion is excitement because they have cheered up after being deppressed. Then, in the last section, the emotion is slightly laidback as the person is serendipitous, realising that they don't have to be angry or depressed anymore, because 'nothing really matters, anyone can see, nothing really matters, nothing really matters, nothing really matters, to me'.
The last interpretation of it is a gay or bisexual man in a straight relationship with a woman and is having trouble accepting himself, particularly in the middle section. when Freddie Mercury wrote the middle section, he chose to have the middle section like an opera, since it is telling a story and yet works well with any other interpretation.
All in all, no interpretation of this song is incorrect. These are just a few of my ideas. I prefer the mood swing interpretation, because it makes people cheerful.
But anyway, like I said, no interpretation is incorrect, these are just a few to think about. -
hey kamodude u just said urself that the meaning of the song is unknown so then how do "the people who know what they're talking about" actually know what they're talking about. u totally just contradicted urself. no one from the band will actually admit to what the song is about so i guess no one 'knows what they're talking about'. everyone is entitled to their opinions, reguardless if u agree with them, so chill. and this isn't meant to be offensive im just making a point.
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Dude your so far off the truth even though aids hadent been discovered until 1981 and the song was made in 1975, it shows how he did have aids(but wasnt discovered yet). The only reason why it took till 1981 to discover it is because you can live 5-10 years before you have any complications of Aids and since this song is in that amount of time he probally had aids since around 1969 and didnt start having problems until about 1975 and because of his amount of wealth he could hold off the inevitable. So I believe this song is about aids and is showing how when he first had signs of it he wrote about it, and knew that his time was growing slim
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It was about Freddie dealing with his Homosexuality. End of story people.
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Actually the song is about someone committing suicide. He talks about killing himself. Hence why it says "I am easy come, easy go" the middle part speaks about the turmoil in his life....leading to the end....."anyway the wind blows...nothing really matters to me" It's about suicide.
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I think that this song is about a man killing another man for a woman, telling his mother,(1st movement) going to trial,(Second movement) rejecting the woman he killed for,(3rd movement) finally remarking on the frailty of life before he dies.(finale)
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It's about Freddie himself. The man was him. The man he killed was himself (Farrokh Bulsara) to become Freddie Mercury. From then he doesnt have much to do with his family or his allah (god). It's about his metamorphosis into a dark creature who contracts AIDS and ultimately become a Bohemian (devil).
This is an unforgiving world - if you have too much fame and money it destroys you. And so it did to Bulsara. Rest in peace.
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