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...
-
Ok obviously the song is about a guy who is threatening suicide unless someone shows they care enough to stop him. I think it's about a guy who has told everyone in his family he's gay and they reject him. Just like some other people have said. That sounds like a good enough interpretation to me besides Freddie seemed like the type who craved constant affection and he never got enough of it.
-
Freddy confirmed this song to be nothing more than a song of randomness rhyming.
-
The song is about Freddie being gay and "coming out". He just killed a man means he's letting his old self go and facing his new reality. The reason he was always so vague was because it wasn't cool to talk about it at the time. It was his way of cryptically telling the world about it.
That's what I think anyway. -
First: All the Guys that are still saying that Freddie makes Bo Rap when he knew that he had AIDS, please stop with that, it´s the most stupid thing for any person with a minimum of logical sense and culture: bo. rap was written in 1975, and AIDS was not yet discovered till 1980 aprox, and freddie contracted AIDS not before 1985. Don't be ignorant please.
Respect of the real meaning of the song, I think we have to hear the words of Freddie: words tha fit and sound well, a "Rhapsody". We must think that "bohemian" its for the words of thesong may be the words of someone drunked or drugged in a night of bohemia. I have heard many interpretations of the lyrics of the song: That was a murderer,that was a real murderer doomed to die and freddie make the song hoping that he was forgiven, that was an abort, a state of depresion, etc.
But I think that the words of Freddie about the song are real, and somehow all (except the stupid of the AIDS) the interpretations that we could make about are real, because the great masterpieces in art are UNIVERSAL, and have a reality bigger and more meanings that the one that inspired the creator. That are the great master pieces, and bo rap is one of those, and, in music, THE BETTER!!!
Therefore I think that Freddie had an initial and concrete inspiration for the song, and that he didn't want to reveal it: I think that the song talks about him, and his internal fight and guilts, because in that years he had to assume his nature, his sexual inclinations and that made a great guilt in him. We can't forget that he was (behind the escenaries) very shy, and that he was in love with Mary Austin, "The Love of his Life", and he was very complicated with that, he did'nt want to hurt her, and of course, assume the bisexuality, moreover for a famous person, is very complicated, How do you tell that to your mother? ("Didn´t mean to make you cry"), think about it... I think that the man killed ("just killed a man")was himself by himself,a new man that finally had assumed his condition and now he had to tell it to the world, and specialy to mary and his mother. Actually, Mary Austin have said in a documentary ("Freddie, the untold history" exhibited by the History Channel) that Freddie was terribly complicated, that he was not the Freddie that all knew, until he said to her the truth. Then he returned to be the Freddie that all knew. Unfortunately, his emancipation lead him to a excessively promiscuous life and finally to his dead. But,That was Freddie, and no other, and if he didn't be that way, "other Freddie", surely we never have had all of her genius for us. (Thanks freddie). The parts of the song therefore are obvious: no escape from reality, caught in a landslide, life had just begun, didn't mean to make you cry, as if nothing really matters, "body is aching all the time" (ja ja ja that is a joke!), gotta leave you all behind and face the truth ( when you are different you feel alone and somehow not near to the rest of the people), etc... and the operatic part is the conflict, the fight with the society, made with a brilliant metaphore of heaven and hell (baalzebub....), the metal part was the revelation without matter of what the world could think, that's the way of the life, like he said in his song "there must be more of life thn this": "c'est la vie".......
A last thing: Freddie hates the question of the meaninig of Bo Rap, of course because it was a very repeated question, but perhaps he was anger because he don't want to tell the truth, maybe for not lose the "universality" of the song, he likes to know that his songs were enjoyed for all the people in the world, he said it.
Perhaps all this interpretation is shit, and therefore, Freddie may be in this moment laughing, or anger or bored with this kind of forums, and thinking that all I am saying is shit, jajaja.(I would feel the most happy person in the world if Freddie could be suing me, jajaja, and honour..... Although, if there's a real significance behind the lyrics of B. R., it should be this.
ANYWAY THE WIND BLOWS..... better i´m going to listen to bohemian rhapsody very loud, and enjoy it without matter or his significance, I'm sure that that is what Freddie is hoping of us!!!, not this bullshit of forum.jajajaja
Long live to the Queen!! -
Well, I'm not sure really at all what it means, but I do know it was not about AIDS because the first case of AIDS was in 1981 or 82. This song was written in 1975, at least 6 years before AIDS was even discovered. And yes, Freddie didn't know he had the virus until the late 80's.
-
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
-
It can be about a man tired of the reality he lives in and killed a man in frustration. He then at the last part begins to have inner mental battles by judges in his mind and end up getting tired of life ones again "nothing really matters".
-
I think the meaning to it is rather
obvious. Of course, people think different things. I think it is basically a song version of someone's life.
The first part is about how a man questions the reality and truthness of reality and life. 'Is this the real life, is it just fantasy.' And this person is indifferent(or subtly affected) to small, unimportant things.(i.e. wealth, location, and even friends.)
The next part is about throwing life away, 'But now I've gone and thrown it all away.' The killing part is most likely a metaphor. It is also about how he is
worried about making his mom sad. With his death, or something. He doesn't want his mom to be depressed about him. 'Mama, ooh, 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 is also about how he is worrying about death. 'Mama, ooh, I
don't wanna die, sometimes wish I'd never been born at all,' this also refers to death. Think about it, if you were never born, you wouldn't ever die...
The next part(skipping the guitar solo) is, again, about death, and excape. But I consider it satirical. It's about how he is praying for help and excape. Or
something to that extent. It is also about a internal(or eternal, if you prefer) battle.
The next part really straight out tells you what it means.
The last part is about how the man finally accept he will die. Or, about the man's death. Whichever one you like better. It also tells how nothing really
does matter, in the long-run. I mean the really really long-run.
So, the song is basically about how life begins, lives, and ends. Beautiful and subtle. But, as I've said before, it's up to you to decide what it means. As
Freddie Mercury said, "I think people should just listen to it, think about it, and then make up their own minds as to what it says to them..." But at least
once, listen to the song with this mind set. -
Brian May actually confirms that it doesn't really mean much and he enjoys watching people try to figure what this song means... I think Freddy was inspired by other factors not known but heres my effort at explaining it... Its a bit hard because the character seems to change moods all the time...
*guy kills someone, starting to regret it and tells his mother
*guy gets found out "too late, my time has come"
*guy is predicting some sort of punishment.. maybe death "Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth""I don’t want to die,"
*The next verse seems to be some sort of judgement against the boy... pleading for his release etc.. They (not sure who) arent going to let him go, even though he's poor and insignificant "easy come easy go".
*"Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me,for me,for me" This being a comment about Satan having a deamon put aside for him... possibly that he will be exicuted and go to hell.
*next verse is a bit confusing - possibly talking to first the crowd that might be gathering to see the death of a killer and then to his mother cliaming she will love him and leave him to die
*resigned to his fate - possibly thinking, oh fuck it, who gives a shit... -
Well no one is really wrong because like every other song, everyone interprets it differently. I see it as a boy force between everyone for custody.
-
This song was playing constantly on the radio just after Freddie Mercury's death in 1991. Perhaps the people listening then would have caught the meaning of it's eerily prophetic words. It's almost as if this man had a premonition of his fate.
Freddie must have struggled coming to terms with his sexuality having lived with a woman Mary Austin for around seven years. It must have seemed like he was killing off his old self when finally announcing to her that he was gay. He was a young man on the threshold of life who loved a woman he could not marry and had to let her go. He had to become someone else - someone different from what his mother and others thought he was.
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 �
Freddie feels a deep forboding about this decision to acknowledge and act upon his homosexuality. He has a premonition that there will be deadly consequences:
He�s just a poor boy from a poor family
Spare him his life from this monstrosity
The unnamed "monstrosity" he fears turns out to be aids which results in his suffering a painful, lingering death.
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
He pleads to be spared what he fears is coming his way but he somehow knows it is all to no avail and that he cannot escape his fate:
I don�t want to die,
I sometimes wish I�d never been born at all
Will you let me go �
Bismillah! No �, we will not let you go � let him go �
Bismillah! We will not let you go � let him go
Bismillah! We will not let you go � let him go
Will not let you go � let me go
Will not let you go � let me go
No, no, no, no, no, no, no �
Mama mia, mama mia, mama mia let me go �
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me �
for me
Bohemian Rhapsody is prophetic. Freddie had an intuition of what lay ahead. A devil had indeed been put aside for him. No wonder he refused to explain the meaning of the song. At the time he wrote it, how could he even explain it to himself? -
Perhaps the song is about a man who committed suicide. The man who the narrator shoots could, in fact, be himself. Although he does say later in the song that he does not want to die, this could be a reflection of the events which have occured.
The letter to his mother could well in fact be his last dying prayer.
To me, it seems as though the narrator is depressed, wishing that he'd never been born amongst other things. -
Many of the earlier interpretations have probably won me over from my original idea, but I used to think it was about Albert Camus' 'The Stranger.' The book was famous for its definition of existentialism through its lead character. The lead character kills an Arab man but doesn't know why and never has an opinion on his actions, being that nothing ever matters to him; hence existentialism. It makes sense, but it may not apply to all parts of the song.
-
OK, if you read the anonymous guy that wrote a crapload and got 5 stars I have one thing to add..." Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango"...well scaramouche means a coward and fandango is a spanish dance usually don't with a man and woman. So it basically means "coward, coward, will you dance?"...dancing may refer to an act that will make the judge free him, or god accept him in the heaven-hell interpretation(its long and way up there, also by an anonymous figure)
More Queen songs »
Latest Articles
-
A new era for Millennial favorite, Linkin Park -
Anime to watch for the soundtracks… and other reasons you’re undateable -
.jpg)
Dolly, we need you -
The Stranger Things Effect: How new media is drawing Gen Z and Alpha's attention to aging media -
The most underrated soundtrack of the early 2000s -
Buy the Soundtrack, Skip the Movie: Brainscan (1994)
Trending:
Blog posts mentioning Queen
Why Does Everybody Pick On Liberace? 
Dr. Dre's Not Gonna Take This Anymore 
Kate Bush's Hill Got Taller 
Song Analysis Corner : Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody 
Great Moments in MCU Soundtracks 
Jesters of YouTube - clap clap! - entertain us! 
Suicide Songs 
Between Rock and a Heart Place 
What On Earth Happened To ABBA? 
Kurt Cobain’s Love-Hate Relationship With Punk Rock 
The Rise and Fall of Glam Rock 
The Parody Targets of Popular Music 
If You Love It So Much, Why Don't You Marry It? 
The Craziest Song Theories 
There's Your Cue, Audience! 
Blasting Back to the Past: 5 Older Artists You Should Revisit Just Posted
| Live Forever | anonymous |
| Space Oddity | anonymous |
| Remind You | anonymous |
| You've Got A Friend | anonymous |
| Austin | anonymous |
| Bel Air | anonymous |
| Firefly | anonymous |
| My Medicine | anonymous |
| Orphans | anonymous |
| Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) | anonymous |
| A Whole New World (End Title) | anonymous |
| Eyes Closed | anonymous |
| The Phrase That Pays | anonymous |
| Montreal | anonymous |
| Moonlight | anonymous |
