QUEEN – “Bohemian Rhapsody”
There is a pub in North London called The Swimmer At The Grafton Arms. It prides itself on well-kept beer and a well-kept jukebox, the latter with an deeply tasteful selection of fine rock and soul music. I haven’t visited for a couple of years, but it used to have, on this jukebox, a Queen Greatest Hits CD. And next to Track One on this CD, “Bohemian Rhapsody”, was the handwritten instruction: “DO NOT PLAY. NOT FUNNY.”
For me, that kind of sums up “Bohemian Rhapsody”’s very weird place in rock music. It is known by millions, loved by millions, but somehow still not quite….respectable. In everyhit.com’s aggregate of recent public polls for the greatest single of all time, “Bo Rhap” (how many other singles have a nickname!?) tops the listing. In acclaimedmusic.com’s similar exercise looking at critic’s choices, “Rhapsody” is 68th. One gets the feeling it’s barged its way in by sheer gumption, that critics don’t really know what to do with it: perhaps, like the Swimmer’s serious-minded selectors, they simply don’t trust it or the people who like it.
To be honest, I’m not sure what to do with it either. If tastemakers think it’s a vulgar record, well, that’s because it is: it’s a preposterous sandwich of styles, all of which are (for now, at least) woefully uncool- overwrought balladry leads into an axe solo leads into light opera of all things ending up at rumbustious cock-rock. But actually it seems harder than ever to find people who don’t like “Bohemian Rhapsody”. I know I used not to like it. When it was number one for the second time I was 18 and I hated it: I thought I was superior to it, though I can’t recapture why. I thought it was garish and phoney. I thought its “path-breaking” video was boring as hell. (I still think that bit.) I resented how it won all those sodding polls: I couldn’t have articulated it, but I didn’t want pop’s pinnacle to be something so… atypical!
Nowadays I like it a lot more: time to meet it head-on and ask why.
One of the reasons it’s easy to feel goodwill to “Bohemian Rhapsody” is that it’s a record that perfectly sums up the strengths of the band who made it: someone on Poptimists described it as a six-minute Queen best-of, and that’s very apt. The theatricality, the sentiment, the eye for pastiche, the blood and thunder – all here. The sometime glory of Queen is that they managed to be at once the most self-conscious and unself-conscious band ever. (It’s called “acting”. Or maybe “panto”.)
Then there’s the structure. Multi-part songs often do very well, attract perhaps more acclaim than the sections (or whole) might actually merit, just because it seems like an ambitious thing to be doing. The second side of Abbey Road, for instance, apparently becomes art not scrapbooking simply because there are no gaps between the tracks. The spatchcocked construction of “Bohemian Rhapsody” doesn’t make much logical sense but importantly every section is excellent: nothing here feels like it’s marking time or pressed into use, its six minutes are remarkably fat-free.
You might reasonably ask what it’s all for – whether or not I believe the supposed explanations about souls and damnation and redemption, “Bohemian Rhapsody” doesn’t carry much emotional weight for me. It’s all about the rush and audacity, which is why the comic opera section, with its crazy vocal rhythms and whack-a-mole “Galileo!”s, is my favourite bit. Ultimately all I can do is invert the Swimmer’s well-meant but irritating instruction: “FUNNY. PLAY.”
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Tom in FT / Popular • Pop • 2,975 views • Share/Save
From the late, lamentable Get It Together I most clearly recall Mr Roy’s weekly “song” spot wherein he would manfully croon things like “Purple Haze” while being pawed up by a strange leather-clad female dance troupe.
[...] a dedicated music freak, but others are just part of the pop consciousness well beyond music. And “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen is just such a [...]
I’m arriving a bit unfashionably late here but I’ve heard the theory that BR is actually a v personal song for Mercury, concerning his decision to embrace a 100% gay lifesyle and that the man he has “killed” in the song is,in fact, the non-gay Freddie who had been in a straight relationship(albeit w/ frequent one-off homosexual dalliences on the side)up to this point. In fact i’m fairly certain i’ve heard his girlfreind at the time backing the theory up.
I liked Al Murray’s comment I read recently that Freddie’s gayness was viewed by the public in the 70’s and the 80′as a “national family secret.” It was obvious to everyone but they simply chose to ignore it. It was seen (correctly, though suprisingly) as irrelevant.
I think of Queen as the nearest 70’s equvilant to the Beatles- no bandleader, apolitical, timeless yet utterly of their time, able to dip their toes into any contemporary genre they chose(glam, disco,metal,prog etc) yet still sounding like no-one but themselves. IMO the description fits them better than pseudo Rutles such as ELO et al..
And both groups had the best resources and facilities that EMI could find offered up to them, as well. Good theory, Crag!
Thanks, Billy! Not forgetting both bands clear sense of humour and proclivity for “comedy” songs-Mean Mister Mustard, Rocky Raccoon, Honey Pie etc=I’m in Love With My Car, Bring Back that Leroy Brown,Seaside Rendevouz etc(come to think of it theres also their mutual love of a 20’s pastiche to consider, too…)
All of the above could apply to the Barron Knights too.
Except for the “timeless” bit..besides the Knights formed in 1960-surely their genius transends mere decades?
Crag – I’m surprised I haven’t heard that interpretation of BR before, but what an intriguing one.
Anyone remember the reviews of BR when it came out? Quite a morsel for reviewers to get their heads around on first hearing. Record Mirror said “It’s inconceivable that it won’t be a hit, but it’s the most unlikely serious chart contender ever… snatches sounding like Sparks and David Cassidy…”
Or this reaction the following year: “Yeah I listen to what’s out today… like for instance there’s a band called Queen. They made a record called “Bohemian Rhapsody” which for me was the answer to a teenage prayer. They got tired of what was going on and got into a studio and just stomped!” – Brian Wilson, 1976.
DJ Punctum (#101) – there was another edition of Get It Together in which Mr Roy sang a reggae-lite version of “Gin Gan Goolie”. I was thinking something like “must we fling this filth at our pop kids?”…
“They got tired of what was going on and got into a studio and just stomped!” – greatest sentence in entire history of music criticism ever!
Reggae version of “GinGan”?
Two of the rutles. Pretty damn sure of that.
Anyroad: Bohem R was number one for ages, one reason being stocks kept running out and it kept having to be repressed. Now, of course, d/l’s mean everyone who wants it NOW can get it NOW.
Hang on though; if stocks kept running out, wouldn’t it have dropped out of the chart?
But I can buy the idea of Bo Rhap being about repression!
Also it was initially played, some weeks prior to its release, on Capital Radio (over and over) by Freddie’s next door neighbour Kenny Everett.
It sold enough to keep it at number one each week before running out.
The following week, it did the same.
As opposed to selling 2 million in one week, which would cause any company cash flow problems to manufacture.
Just under a decade to go until the first number one which sold 2 million in one week!
My only experience of The Barron Knights, apart from cobwebbed 1970s light entertainment memories, comes from the great Dale playing them through gritted teeth of a Sunday.
As social history, with their conservative attitudes about strikers, scroungers and national service, plus the interesting caricature effect of hearing great records being travestied, I do find them rather compelling, if not remotely good.
Dale had the opportunity to play “Pop Go The Workers” yesterday but passed over it. Instead he decided to slag off SL2 in favour of such giants of 1992 music as Mr Big and Curtis Stigers.
I got this for my birthday, November ’75 along with Steeleye Span’s “All Around My Hat”. Next year would be very different, however.
It’s remarkable how Steeleye Span managed to get top Tory election theme tune composer Mike Batt to produce their recording of what is essentially an IRA anthem!
Opportunism, Marcello. That’s what Tories are good at. About all they’re good at.
But the Lib Dems are a great deal worse. In the North of England and other places, they pitch their tent as the left of centre party in order to grub around for Labour seats. Meanwhile, in the South and South West, they emerge as a fluffy centre ground outfit for whom “Middle England” can safely vote. I recently had a discussion with a Lib Dem activist in Eastbourne, who tried to convince me that the only way to get rid of the unelected Brown Government (his words) was to vote out the sitting Conservative MP and replace him with their guy. Now, if that’s not opportunism, I’m a Dutchman.
If Boris wins tomorrow, will the last person to leave London please unplug the Thames Barrier as the ensuing destruction would be quicker and less painful.
I think all three candidates are complete nobs and although it’s not my fight (despite being London born and bred), I have a fancy that Ken will just hold on. I do, however, feel that Labour will get a well-deserved toeing in the rest of the country. We’ll see.
I use this song as a fun exercise at the end of a talk or training session. If you believe the theory that says your brain has the capacity to remember every song you have ever heard all you need to do is give a group the first line and 9 times out of ten they can complete the whole song near enough word perfect.
I first heard it on Fluff’s Saturday afternoon show and bought it the first day it came out not believing a song that long would get regular airplay to get it to No 1, how wrong was I. Still have it, plain white sleeve sitting in my single box against some of the more flamboyant picture sleeves of the eighties.
Probably the most dissected song ever.
Brian May intrigued me. Being the all-round boffin that he was, he built his own guitar, the Red Special, with a little help from Dad, Harold. He originally wound his own Tri-Sonic pick-ups, but changed after the North-South polarity affected the sound. So he re-wound his pick-ups all north. The body is not solid. It has an oak back and a mahogany veneer. A bolt on neck with mother of pearl dots, 2 each at the 7th and 19th frets, and 3 dots at the 12th and 24th frets. The original Red Special had a built-in distortion unit, which he subsequently replaced. All together an expertly crafted guitar which in turn created a unique sound that was first heard by me in “Seven Seas Of Rye”. His sustain vibrato sound seemed to emerge from a purer place than the Bolanesque fuzz of the Gibson or the metallic (nb. not metal) trebly Fender. It was a clear, cut-glass sound. As a small kid, I didn’t really understand how the electric guitar worked. I recognised the different shapes: I could tell a Stratocaster from a Telecaster from a Les Paul. But I had no idea about pick-ups or machine heads or amps or pedals. I just liked the noise they made. Brian’s guitar had an angelic quality. His fingering technique seemed to me effortless. I tried to copy it with my cousin’s three quarter acoustic, but of course it sounded dreadful in my talentless hands. Cue longfaced little boy handing back the guitar to my cousin saying “It sounds all wrong” then stomping off to play with lego instead.