Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody Meaning

Song Released: 1975

Covered By: Panic! At The Disco (2016), Pentatonix (2017)

Bohemian Rhapsody Lyrics

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...

1. anonymous

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   Aug 5th 2014 !⃝

   About his life, things he sometimes wrote about. Just popped in his head.
2. anonymous

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   Jul 18th 2014 !⃝

   It easy if you reallt listen. He killed a man when he pulled his trigger. He had aids and he just gave it to someone else while having sex!

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
3. anonymous

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   Jul 14th 2014 !⃝

   My way of seeing it is that he was inlove and she left him for someone else.
   He killed the other man, and then gets people put on to him to kill him.
   The thunderbolt of lightning is someone shooting a gun.
   In the end, he kills the people that try to kill him and he realised he can no longer see his mother because hd is now a fugitive. So he may as well give up on life. And nothing bothers him because of everything he had been through. The "Galileo" and "Beelezbos" part would be him realising the demons he has inside of him or that they are like demons trying to fight him. And the "poor boy" is them mocking him because he wants to live and doesn't want them to kill him.
   
   Sorry it's not well written but it's late and I'm freezing.
4. anonymous

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   Jul 3rd 2014 !⃝

   This son could be about what every one is saying but originally thought that the mama just killed a man was not literal. I could be over thinking it but I think the song is not meant to be taken literally
5. anonymous

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   May 30th 2014 !⃝

   I agree with the number one rated interpretation, except this part. "Momma, just killed man, put a gun against his head,pulled my trigger, now he's dead." Essentially means his mom killed the guy, and used his gun (PULLED MY TRIGGER). So he is now taking the fall for a murder he didn't commit.
6. kakabakatis

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   Apr 17th 2014 !⃝

   Bohemian - Unconventional Lifestyle
   
   early 1970 in a relationship with Mary Austin, mid 1970 has a secretive relation ship with a (male) executive at a records company , 1975 writes Bohemian rhapsody, 1976 revels to Mary Austin of his homosexual relationship, 1987 diagnosed with AIDS (this is the final outcome of HIV which can last for some time)
   
   Now to the song,
   *The first part until the part "anyway the wind blows doesn't really matter to me" he speaks about his life and how he has been living it.
   
   *Then from the part "mama I just killed a man..." he talks about his homosexuality " just killed a man" refers to killing the man(gender) in him, and "life has just begun" his life with Mary Austin whom he really loved until his death, his confession on it and his repentance goes on until "carry on ,as if nothing really matters"
   
   * From the part "too late my time has come.." he refers to his being exposed and being diagnosed with HIV (HIV is the virus that turns out to become AIDS) and his acceptance to it " send shivers down my spine, and my body's aching all the time" is the part where he fears the sickness and its symptoms, He even says "goodbye everybody, i've got to go, leave you all behind and face the truth" its about carrying on life knowing the circumstances at the end is death and living it with the reality of the sickness. this goes on until "sometimes I wish I was never been born at all" realizing fatality of the disease.
   
   * The latter part goes on about what he is to face with " Bismillah- we will no let you go- no let him go" I think refers to the constant fight of wanting to live and the fate of dying(decision of god) and it goes on in this scale here it shows hope and endless fighting expecting something miracles but finally with "never let you go -let me go , never let me go" is I think about the world (his fans) not wanting him to go but he has accepted that he has to go but telling his fans to have him in their hearts forever.......
   
   This is my opinion on this magnificent piece of work which is mind blowing filled with love, pain, and the audacity he had in fighting HIV with hope in some corner.
7. anonymous

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   Apr 3rd 2014 !⃝

   Interpretation #1 completely fits, but let me add some more things for something that is 100%
   The narrator's Girlfriend had left him for someone else, Then the narrator murders the new guy for which he was sent to the death row. and then blah. blah. (read from #1)
   and electric chair part was wrong, Thunderbolt and lightning refer to the argument and fights between the two sections on if or not to execute him.
   and for the last "so you think you can stone me and spit in my eye,
   so you think you can love me and leave me to die,
   baby! cant do this to me, Baby!" are the words the narrator shouts to his GF before execution
   and then he tries to escape the execution by running which is where "just gotta get out, just gotta get right out of here." line comes in.
   and then, the rest from #1 ultimately fits.
8. anonymous

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   Jan 19th 2014 !⃝

   For the #1 interpretation, he says that the whole "love me and leave me to die" might just be out of passion. I think that there was an acclomplice (who was his girlfriend) that either escaped out of fear or intentionally ditched the narrator.
   
   Notice how the narrator has stayed quiet about his acclompice until this point in the song. Maybe he was doing this so they wouldn't find out there was a second shooter and she wouldn't have to suffer the same fate, for even though she might've ditched him, he still loves her.
   
   Maybe right before he was going to be executed, the narrator realized how blind he was in still loving her, inducing the "passionate freak-out" where we hear him admit to authorities that he had help in the murder. But, alas, the guards are too busy trying to restrain him to figure it out.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
9. anonymous

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   Jan 11th 2014 !⃝

   Frankly, I thought it was a spot on interpretation that lined up exactly with my own [almost creepy], but nevertheless, great work.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
10. anonymous

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    Dec 17th 2013 !⃝

    There are a couple of gaps in the top-rated interpretation that I would like to fill in. Forgive me that I haven't checked if anyone else has done this yet.
    
    "Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the fandango?"
    There are two results for this in the first half-page of a google search for the name that seem relevant. One in a 1952 film with the description "After Andre Moreau finds he is the secret bastard son of a recently deceased noble, he realizes that it his own sister that he's romantically drawn to."
    The second is a stock character in renaissance plays named Scaramuccia (literally "skirmish"), who was "beaten by Harlequin for his boasting and cowardice." He also dressed in black.
    The line could be the executioners or the family of the murdered man shouting out "BASTARD! PATHETIC CLOWN! DANCE ON THE END OF YOUR ROPE!"
    
    I asked my phone to translate "Bismillah." It said the word was Arabic. Plugging that into Google Translate, I got the word "Basmala," which wikipedia tells me: "Basmala (Arabic: بسملة‎ basmala) is an Arabic noun used as a collective name for the whole of the recurring Islamic phrase b-ismi-llāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīmi. It is sometimes translated as "In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful""
    They are executing this man in the name of God, for his crimes, and their minds shall not be swayed by the pleas of the poor.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
11. anonymous

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    Dec 11th 2013 !⃝

    Yeah, he killed a man..Himself, and then went out of the closet, and left Mamma Mia (Mary)..
12. anonymous

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    Nov 20th 2013 !⃝

    I always though it was his way of expressing how he felt when he found out he has aids.. The murder is his murder (the aids) it's a story of how he felt when he found out he had it like he was murdered
13. anonymous

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    Sep 21st 2013 !⃝

    you are all very simple freddy loved opera and its an opera about a murderer on trial sentenced to die for his crimes he tries to plea politely for his life and when this fails he dams his persecutors. The mother part is about Alfrid Hitchcocks psycho when he talks to his mother even though he doesnt use a gun and btw u are simple and should not be allowed on the internet by your dead mothers.....
14. anonymous

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    Aug 18th 2013 !⃝

    I agree, this is just nonsense crap. Well not saying the song is crap or anything lol, it's just for fun. Although, it's good for chorus, IMO. I love Queen! And this song too lol. ^^

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
15. anonymous

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    Aug 17th 2013 !⃝

    "Scaramouche" is a character from a book by the same title by Raphael Sabatini. He is kind of like the more familiar" Zoro" who, while a person of noble background, he choses to disguise himself to right perceived " wrongs", usually among the"common" people. Scaramouche enjoys irony. He plays at being a"buffoon", but is really a master swordsman. He remakes himself as his situation dictates, while hiding in plain sight. Perhaps they want Scaramouche to "dance the fandango" over the body of the man about to be executed, because either "justice" was done, or for the irony of something everyone now knows.