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...
-
Oh dear darlings! you're all so baffled by it aren't you.
It isn't actually so simple as you may think. Freddie did indeed say it's just a load of old nonsense. But yes, there are hidden meanings, hence why Freddie never actually bothered to tell the public what it meant and avoided this question by saying its a load of words.
No, it definitely does not have any relation to AIDS. Although I understand it could sound that way. But anyone think it really is about AIDS, you're 11 years too early.
Freddie did tell his close friends and family the real truth, but they are NOT going to let it slip. Brian has the outline of the song, as Freddie did briefly explain it to Queen.
Thanks for your time everyone. I promise you this is genuine.
"Does it mean this, does it mean that, that's all anybody wants to know. Fuck them, darling. I say what any decent poet would say if you dared ask him to analyse his work: If you see it, dear, then it's there." -
Okay are people really serious with those "it's about murder" -theories? If that's the case, i would certainly advise you to look up wikipedia-article about this song, i think it's pretty close to being spot on. For short, it is about sexual awakening of a queer person and accepting being gay and confessing it to somebody. There are so many phrases with sexual connotations that they can't be ignored.
Freddie had had a long term relationship with a girl and that could even be "mama" he refers to, when he says he feels guilt for "killing a man", man possibly meaning the masculine side of him. That pretty much clarifies the whole beginning of the song.
Later there's the part with higher (more feminine) voice singing "let me go" and lower (more masculine) voice singing "we will not let you go", which means that the womanlike side of him already wants out on public.
I just gave a few examples of this theory, it all makes sense to me. Look at wikipedia for more details.
So "Anyway the wind blows, doesn’t really matter to me." -
God you guys! If the crazy singing Britishman says it's just rhyming crap, then it's just rhyming crap!
-
I've always thought that, if I decided to commit suicide one day, this would be the last song I would hear. It just seems to represent every conflicting emotion a near-giving-up person seems to have on that last fatal decision.
"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
Any way the wind blows
Doesn't really matter to me
To me"
This part begins with a common question we always ask sometime on our lives: is this the life I want to live? is this just the product of my imagination? Is life real? Where am I? Well, anyway the wind blows, and it doesn't matter in the end. I'm just a nobody, a mere point that suddenly blinks on a big scale like our Universe, and nature keeps running its course if I disappear: the wind keeps blowing, the riviers keep flowing, the planets will keep on orbit. I'm nothing, I'm meaningless. My existence is not important because it does not change the order of the Universe.
"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
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
Too late, my time has come
Sends shivers down my spine
Body's aching all the time
Goodbye, everybody
I've got to go
Got to leave you all behind and face the truth
Mama
I don't want to die
I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all"
I'm sorry, mother, the one who gave me life, or anybody else who believes I have potential and can go on and be greater than I am, but I have rennounce my own life. But I "just killed a man"...Maybe this part shouldn't be taken literally...Killing a man might be a metaphor for commiting mistakes and having regrets, or perhaps guilt over something, and how those emotions kill us slowly to a point in which we lose hope. He's just killed a man, maybe it's a post-mortem goodbye? Or maybe he is writing a suicide letter and just says that he has killed himself with a self-inflicted gunshot? Doesn't matter, either way he has decided he does not wish to live anymore. His body aches, he feels pain all time...His time has come: he has to go, his last fatal hour has come. He feels destiny is calling him, "gotta face the truth": there's no future. He waves goodbye...He does not wish to die per se, but he wishes to end his pain and his emptyness about his life...Thus the seemingly paradoxical "I don't want to die/ I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all" - he does not want to die, he's afraid, but he still has this calling, he knows deep inside he can't go anylonger, but he is aware of the pain he's going to cause to those who love and care for him, the mother being the symbol for that, the one who gives us life and who is the most averse to the idea of life being taken away from us...His suicide is conflicting because of all this...He's confused, yet, determined.
"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
I'm just a poor boy and nobody loves me
(He's just a poor boy from a poor family
Spare him his life from this monstrosity)
Easy come, easy go, will you let me go
Bismillah!
No, we will not let you go
(Let him go!)
Bismillah!
We will not let you go
(Let hime go!)
Bismillah!
We will not let you go
(Let me go!)
Will not let you go
(Let me go!)
No, no, no, no, no, no, no
Oh, mama mia, mama mia
Mama mia, let me go
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me
For me
For me"
Maybe he feels insane? He's going mad about his own views on giving up. After the sorrow and confusion he feels strangely liberated, and free. He's one step away from freedom..He does not wish simpathy nor understanding...He feels there are demons inside of me, unsolved emotional issues...His mother, the life-giver that cares for him, that keeps us from wanting to really die, has to let him go...He does not wish to live, he wishes he'd never been born...He really wants to go, and his mother, or better yet his conscience represented by his mother that tells him "carry on" has to let him go, to let him achieve the freedom he wants. He's a poor boy...Maybe poor in spirit? A weak person? He feels he's a coward, but he doesn't care anyway, but still feels confused about it all.
"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 got to get out
Just got to get right out of here"
He's angry...He's sending out a big "Screw you!" to those who will either criticize his decision or the ones who will drown in crocodile tears about his loss...They never really cared for him while he was alive, so why should they care when he dies? They never really gave him any affection...They loved him superficially, out of social obligation perhaps, and they left him to die...They spit on him while he breaths, so he's saying "keep spitting on me when I'm dead"...because you never truly cared, don't act in a hypocritical way when I'm gone. He has just to get out of here, of this world that never gave him anything.
"Nothing really matters
Anyone can see
Nothing really matters
Nothing really matters to me
Any way the wind blows "
He has decided...He's neither sad or happy...He goes back to his first mood about his decision: the wind will keep blowing, things we'll remain after he's gone...So..DOES IT REALLY MATTER? -
First off the first part is is this the real life or is this just fantasy caught in a landslide no escape from reality. open your eys 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 hih little low any way the wind blows doesn't really matter to me to me
this first part is referring to him havin left his mother at 18 because he had an alchohol abuse problem. He didn't know what was going on because he was always so drunk . He was trying to find himself but couldnt find it. Then he goes on to think that he is useless and nobody needs to be sorry because it's his fault and that the alchhol is not a huge problem. by this point in his life he thought his mother was the cause because when he was younger she was very strict and he hated he. He really is saying he is again useless and adds that he just livs day by day and doesn't care what happens to him because anything wold be better than his current position.
Then in the next part it stars like this mama just killed a man put a gun against his head pulled my trigger now he's dead
mamma life had just beegun but now I've gone and thrown it all away
now this is the point where he joins queen after rehab and starts thinking of the past and how he wasted his life on alchohol. He then contacts his
mother and tells her that he knows what he did was wrong and starting into the next point he includes that he is sorry for leaving her and decides to go back home and see her but he is not sure if he can get there before she dies so he wants her to go to heaven and live on knowing he is ruly sorry
To late my time has come sends shivers down my spine bodys aching all the time then it swithches tones and goes to a battle beetween two things one is that he is hinking of suicide to get rid of his moms pain and waiting for her in heaven but he realizes he has been so bad and wonders wheather he will go to heaaven or hell and is in a mind dillema and overall the devil wins and he decides to kill himself and go to hell but he checked into a motel room and bought a gun but he couldnt do it and was themn very sad and felt he now needs to prove himself to god to get the right to go to heaven and overpower the devil he decides to do this by becoming sober and joining a band queen
This is the real interpretation of this song and I think you should listen to the song again after reading this and you will see my point of view -
I have heard that Mercury wrote this song after he found out he had AIDs. If you listen to the lyrics, its kind of makes sense.
-
I tend to agree with #10. The lyrics sure point toward an unforgiving mother, once she finds out that her son is gay. And of course, he feels awful having been rejected.
Freddie's parents were Iranian, so they probably did give him hell when they found out.
Anyway, its an awesome song...whatever the intended meaning. -
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
-
I think it's about a man who has shot someone, hence the introduction, and is
Set to death. He then gives his mum his final words and then goes back to his cell, where he goes mad.he is then killed(or executed) and it ends quietly for this reason. -
I think the song is about Freddie telling everyone that he's gay... and mocking the church for discrimination against gay people. The first verse is about him being just a normal person like anybody else, in the second he's telling us that he's gay ( mamma is just pseudonym for people in general ) the whole song is made of symbolic expression. Verse 3 & 4 are about what will happen when he dies... "Too late,my time has come" means he's old as well as - "Bodys aching all the time" ...."Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth" - he's going for the last judgment... Then he dies and goes to heaven... That's where "I see a little silhouetto of a man" ( = GOD! ) ...."Scaramouche,scaramouche will you do the fandango-
Thunderbolt and lightning-very very frightening me " - mocking the church..."Galileo figaro-magnifico" - galileo was fighting with the church about the earth shape and rotation thus linking to similar case. Next three sentences are about him being just like anybody else and what others thought about him being gay ( "Spare him his life from this monstrosity".) then bargain against discrimination - "Bismillah! ( the church - islam as well) no-,we will not let you go-let him go" finishing the verse with a clear tread of being condemned in hell for being gay. Next verse is accusing especially the islam for punishing homosexuality with hatred, physical abuse and dead (stoning ) and the claim that GOD loves you but still let you suffer. " Oh baby-cant do this to me baby " shows total disagreement. The last sentence in this verse is again symbolic - he doesn't even want to have to deal with such a nonsense as discrimination in general. Last verse shows his disappointment that every one is aware of it but nothing has been changed. -
This song was clearly inspired by Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment.
-
Ok
so I read all the lyrics
and I'm gonna shorten down what I think it is
1st verse
introduction of who he is and his personality
2nd verse
confession of murder to his mom, tells mom to think that she had no son/ idea of the murder
3rd verse
the boy was sentenced to death and expressing his last thoughts
4th verse
whether or not he goes to heaven or hell/ big argument/ goes to hell, basically another judgment like in court but only between heaven and hell
5th verse
seeking attempt to escape hell (second chance for heaven), denied
6th verse
end of story of his life and his story -
It's about a crazy drug night and dream Freddie had......period.
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