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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Using terms from the Quran points to his family life and anyone who reads newspapers suspects that being gay in an Iranian family ain't easy. Somehow the meaning of the lyrics is couched in family conflict about confronting the gay issue and the woman who gave him life. "Momma just killed a man" means just that. I think his mother at some time confronted him about his lifestyle in a way that excludes him from family consideration. It might be best if someone from his culture commented on being a gay son in an immigrant Iranian family in Great Briton during the 1950s and 60s.
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Thank you for these interpretations... I was at a party last night and someone told me this song was about AIDS. Though the person is a great person and the idea of it being about AIDS was really, really cool, I couldn't help but think about how the song was written in the 70s, before doctors had officially recognize AIDS. I was doubting the interpretation but didn't want to seem like a jerk in a party of good people... but I can get into the interpretation of the song being about murder.
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Ok I'm not trying to have the reason in the interpretation of this song; however, if you want to do it, try acid and listen to it. Summarizing, IT TALKS ABOUT THE LOST OF THE EGO.
The meaning of the song is really deep in terms of the understanding of reality, particularly about the duality of the mind of the human being (the way we see ourselves against the way people see us). It has definitely something to do with the first moments of discovery of Mercury's gay or bisexuality.
Also, it is a complain of his life to someone in especial. Would u people believe if I say that he is talking to the "top of the pyramid"? if you know what I mean ;) -
I think it is about murder. A man has committed murder and is confessing to his mother, she then abandons him. I think the songs reflects how he feels after his mother has abandoned him. But a lot of people have said Beelzebub is Satan; he is not. Actually Satan is in charge of hell (Hell's number 1) And Beelzebub San is his second in command (Hell's number 2).
Nobody except Freddie really knows what the song means, we can only guess, and everybody will think something different when they hear it. There's not really a right or wrong answer. But there's no denying the song is awesome and we should just enjoy it and not stress out trying to find what it means. -
The key to understanding the song is when he employs a word BISMILLAH a probably often heard his mother use. In our culture we might say "God help me". I think it is used to mean "Allah please intervene."
Freddie was a homosexual; not an easy thing to be if you live in a traditional Muslim family. He probably heard his mother use this phrase when she considered how family and friends would deal with his sexual orientation. He probably suffered a sort of death under his mother's condemnation when the whole thing went down. Momma just killed a man.
I like to think of the song unfolding from this point of view. -
In reply to SEP 8th 18:37
yes he did not know that it was aids because they did not have the resources to check but my idea is still valid because if he loved the man then he found out he had died for the same reason as all the other gay guys who where dieing from aids at the time he would of blamed himself. -
Interpretation:
I've always felt the crime in the song doesn't matter. In the moment of reality, it hits him of the action he just committed, he feels depression; The very feeling that probably was part of why the crime was committed to begin with. It's too late though. He's responsible for something he didn't know he had the capability to do, and he's thrown his whole life away in this one moment. He's sad that his mother has to witness this very low part of his life. He reaches in and outwardly tries to explain he knows why and knows better. He knows his life is so messed up, it could only have been better to not have been born at all.
That's it for me. Sure there's more to the song, but as offered in other interpretations, it doesn't really matter, because it still ends...that is not the song...his hope because the fight for "justice" or "revenge" is over powering the fight for mercy.
When I listen to this, I take it so personal, for I am remorseful of my past of a "child" of 21 (I'm 42 now and that age seems so un-adultish). I thought if I confessed and showed I knew the I did something wrong, I would see mercy. No matter how well I try to live my life; no matter how well I try to show I'm a changed person, the chains are still there seemingly never to be released. People don't believe change is possible. So I feel it would have been better to not have been born at all or have been executed. Living life like this is very painful. If people really knew what that pain could do and how in one way, it's been conquered.
I do believe my "poor boy" (lacking in so many things - not necessarily money related) is a huge part of why my life started heading down the wrong path. I feel blessed in the life I've had since then for I think many people would be amazed that I, someone like me, could live such a "upstanding" and "rich" life. But it doesn't matter. -
This is about "ego death" google it lol
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FYI...
"Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango"
A scaracouche is a "boastful coward or buffoon." The fandango is a spanish dance or it is also a term for foolishness...so, the line can be interpreted...
Fool...will you do the foolishness. You might also look at it from the perspective of death being a seductive dance and the coward one of the dancers.
As for, ""Bismillah! No, we will not let you go" The term is used in the Qur'an meaning "In the name of Allah." So..."God, we won't let him go...God let him go."
So, now you know. :) -
Not sure when the singer contracted aids but the part about just killed a man and send shivers dwn my spine bodys aching all the time may mean aids or withdraw leanin more towards aids and he killd the mAn by giving him aids
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Frank Zappa, another wordsmith of acrobatic abilities, memorably warned that most of his lyrics were intended only to trick people into listening to his music, which is what really mattered to him. For the most part, said Frank, "my lyrics are not to be taken internally."
As I understand it, Bohemian Rhapsody began as a little cowboy song Freddie toyed with for a couple of years. Like most gifted musicians, he would play with the melody, trying it in different genres. One day while playing for a friend he stumbled into a quasi-operatic styling, getting more and more dramatic as the friend egged him on, laughing, turning a 3-minute C&W tune into a 6-minute exploration of theatrical music forms. The result is lots of fun to listen to but too obviously over the top to be taken seriously. -
Guys go back to my Aug 6th interpretation and think. When did Freddie Mercury write the song? 1975. When did he find out he had AIDS? Technically 1987, but he knew he was sick before that. I believe, and people can correct me, that it was in 1984 that he started having symptoms. Being tired on tour and started to get coughing fits. Also, it was during this year he told Barbara to stay away from him after he cut himself.
In addition, it was during this time that more and more gay men were dying of AIDS. My understanding is HIV was officially discovered (labeled in 1983) and until that time there was this sense of puzzlement in the gay community, and I assume they talked amongst each other.
So, Freddie could of no way, I repeat there is no way Freddie Mercury wrote this song about AIDS.
Again, it his coming out song. -
this song is actually about Freddie Mercury and his fight with AIDS.
the line "Mama, just killed a man
Put a gun against his head
Pulled my trigger, now he's dead"
as mentioned Freddie was gay.
Aids is a STD and he gave it to another man the gun being the Aids and you can figure out the rest
the line "Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me"
Beelzebub means "the devil" this shows he is feeling guilt for giving this man AIDS.
the line "Too late, my time has come
Sends shivers down my spine
Body's aching all the time"
is telling you about the AIDS.
in the line "Oh baby - can't do this to me baby"
this shows his pain when the other man gets told he has AIDS and he feels guilt for it.
in some ways this about murder but not in the traditional meaning he blamed himself for the death of this other man. -
Wow, if you all are right then I guess I'm way off, but
I always imagined that we was singing about himself when he found out that he had Aids. I think one person mentioned him saying in an interview that it wasn't meant to mean anything, but I think that's the point!
He's spouting off about something that he doesn't want anyone to know about. How else to do that then make a song?! Everyone expects practically nonsensical lyrics from him so he can exaggerate his emotions as much as he wants and no one will take him seriously.
"Is this the real life or it this just fantasy?" because he is shocked. He can't really grasp onto the idea of dying. He doesn't want to believe it.
He says "I'm just a poor boy nobody loves me" because he feels sorry for himself. He is wondering why it had to happen to him. Many parts of the song are kind of slow and dreamy and kind of sad.
"Mama, I just killed a man..."
I personally love this part because I feel like it's telling a story. I always thought that Freddie was saying that he killed himself. He felt that he brought his death upon himself by not being careful and that was the reason that he really felt the need to bring his mother into the song at all. He was guilty because he knew that it would hurt her the most among anyone else and was apologizing to her through the song. I also think that the part "Mama, I killed a man; put a gun up to his head, pulled my trigger now he's dead" was partially just theatrical as well as symbolizing killing himself. Even when putting a hidden message in a song, you still have to mix it up a bit, tell a story so that your own is a little more vague.
"Too late my time has come," he is thinking ahead and foretelling his own death. The suddenness of finding out about a killing disease (which back then had much less medications to slow the effects) was very scary I'm sure. He felt the need to say goodbye to everyone. If the song was about his feelings then he might as well tell the whole story as he might not have a chance later. "Sends shivers down my spine." He is very scared.
The next part is the Freddie Mercury signature. His lively, creative accent to the piece as well as to continue conveying the story. He talks about a man enticing him to dance although (you can almost imagine the scene in a play) an ominous thunderstorm warns him of danger in doing so. He is talking about a man tempting him whether or not he felt it was a safe thing to do. He is being convinced to do something that could be dangerous and the thunderbolts and lightning are foreshadowing to contracting AIDS.
I imagine that he accepted the invitation because suddenly it seems that he is taken captive. Let me go he begs. He wants to take it back; for someone, anyone, to have mercy on him because why should he be punished?
He feels betrayed, lastly. He feels that he is not the only one who is contributing to wards his death. He asks "so you think you can love me and leave me to die"? He sings this part rather emotionally perhaps imagining the person hearing him and feeling guilty for having persuaded him to partake.
As he says "nothing really matters" at the end he is dying and reflecting on how his life was so short and without much reason. And just like that it was over. In the end nothing mattered.
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