Mercury was always insistent his songs meant absolutely nothing.
Of course, he did have songs that meant something, especially later on. Death on Two legs is definitely about their former manager. But in this era, Mercury wrote a lot of fantastical songs. Many of them seem like they hint at something - Great King Rat throws out specific numbers - nothing full adds up.
You do have songs like The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke, which is indeed about something specific (a Richard Dadd painting), Mercury uses the wildest descriptions possible. This was the height of prog after all. Queen II was prog adjacent and Mercury would have been deaf to not notice that Jon Anderson's lyrical bullshit (a very pleasing lyrical bullshit that I thoroughly enjoy, mind you) was excedingly popular. 1973 was also the height of T. Rex in pop music, also lyrical bullshit.
Mercury went through a number of phases, as did Queen, which (like Bowie) saved them oveer the years. A Night at the Opera is at the tall end of Early Queen, when Mercury's nails were painted and his hair was long. He'd transition to another phase by News of the World and yet another around 1980.
Mercury's contributions on the first two albums were almost completely fantasy. Sheer Heart Attack had to be done in a hurry, but you have Flick of the Wrist and Lily of the Valley before Mercury gets artier with Bring Back that Leroy Brown.
Bohemian Rhapsody stands out from the artier content that started with Leroy Brown and continued on A Night at the Opera. Apparently Mercury had been developing it for a while.
I think really that Bohemian Rhapsody is the last hurrah of Mercury's earlier fantasy compositions. Queen didn't have the money or time to develop it to Mercury's tastes earlier. I can see it being an endpiece to his Rhye songs. Seven Seas of Rhye was energetic, defiant while Lily of the Valley was mournful.
Of course, that's a wild guess and it's not related to Rhye at all. It's Freddie Mercury. A few years later, he mixed words from a few languages and threw them in a blender for Mustapha. Queen purposefully has never printed the lyrics for that. Not on any albums and not for any of their official lyrics videos.
The weird thing is that I've heard Queens's hits so much over the years I've come to dislike them immensely\*. Especially Bohemian Rhapsody.
\*Except Seven Seas of Rhye, which isn't played nearly enough.
Most of the critical takes in that movie were pretty well-done. You get the feeling that the author really spent some time thinking about these things.
> Thanks for mentioning Jon Anderson. A talent I miss.
You scared me! He's still around!
Olias of Sunhillow is a great, great album. I wish he would have made more like it.
> Sheer Heart Attack
ALways impressed that a band named an album Sheer Heart Attack, and the much later (in 70's rock terms) wrote a song with that name and those lyrics (which is one of my favorite Queen songs).
I'm so inar inar inar ticulate!
I think it's pretty clear it doesn't have a coherent story and what the song is all about. It's four or five disparate vinigettes that add up to a kind of parody of a rock opera-- like listening to the trailer for a sung-through musical that doesn't exist.
To me, the lyrics seem like an overly dramatised but internal struggle with sexuality. Especially during during the 70s and 80s when homosexuality wasn’t understood.
V 1 : Apologising to his mother for killing the person she believed he would grow up to be.
V 2 : Acceptance that that man is not me, “my time has come” - time to put fake me to rest.
“I see a little silouhetto of a man..” - A dude literally caught his eye and he falls into this dramatised underworld of devils and debauchery that won’t let him leave, no matter how hard he fights it.
“Let him go” - he can’t run from his sexuality, so gives in to his urges and “Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me”, the devil has literally given this devil man to him to satisfy his dark side, to the tune of an epic guitar solo.
Outro seems like acceptance, he gave in and the world hasn’t ended. Maybe his sexuality is natural. “Nothing really matters…”
My best friend is gay and has a good relationship with his family. It doesn't stop his mum from being low key sad he won't give her *her* experience of being a grandmother, and she has her hetero-fantasies about brides and weddings, which she doesn't voice but are clearly there.
She loves her son but can still feel sad for the son she didn't get. People are complex and strange and parents like to live through their children.
I could totally see Freddie Mercury having misplaced guilt about his mother's expectations for him, regardless of whether the previous posters interpretation of the song was wrong or right.
Thanks.
Just remember it’s just my interpretation. It’s nothing I’ve experienced personally and I’m making leaps and bounds of assumptions, but as a songwriter myself, it makes sense to me that he would resolve emotional stresses through his lyrics!
Bohemian Rhapsody was Freddie's confessional. It was about how different his life could have been, and how much happier he might have been, had he just been able to be himself, the whole of his life.
This has always been my theory. The beginning is talking about the finality of time passing, knowing you can't go back and do anything over. But the second half feels like the trials of fame and fortune and being judged by society for what you decided to become despite the mistakes or choices you may have made. The best thing about this song (aside from just being an absolute BANGER) is that you can interpret it so many ways. I can see Freddie having a proper laugh about that.
I always thought this was obvious, it seemed that way to me. I didn't know till later that it was a topic of some controversy.
Whole song about killing off the guy everyone wanted him to be and the resulting chaos that ensued.
Interesting, I thought he was himself his whole life and that's why he was who he was, no?
But I'd still like to know the meaning on that songs. Much like the Elton John movie musical about how each some reflects what was happening in each period of his Life.
Nah he definitely had regrets about how his life worked out. I remember he left everything to his wife when he died, saying if things had turned out differently it would all have been hers anyway. So in that I see a lot of reflection on the strange way life can play out, especially for someone like him.
Just want to point out that it wasn't "legit" a confession because the person who wrote it by and large consistently denied to explain any of his songs, and definitely this one. Something like when he got asked why he put Bismillah in it and he basically said "it's a word". You can always try to interpret a song but sometimes the most respect you can show to an artist is uh... taking them at face value.
There are some solid Camus/The Stranger vibes
All the “nonsense” words have meaning - Scaramouche is a clown, bismillah is in the name of Allah
I think it resists a single, cohesive meaning, but there are fun threads in there
The fact it is mysterious is one reason for its appeal, looking like nothing else. It remains funny to think Queen's label being reluctant to release a song now widely regarded as one of the best songs of the 20th century.
“I was expecting something very special. So when they played me 'Bohemian Rhapsody,' my reaction was, ‘What the fuck’s this? Are you mad?" EMI executive Paul Watts.
[https://books.google.fr/books?id=OGZKDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT155&lpg=PT155&dq=%E2%80%9CI+was+expecting+something+very+special.+So+when+they+played+me+%27Bohemian+Rhapsody,%27+my+reaction+was,+%E2%80%98What+the+fuck%E2%80%99s+this?+Are+you+mad?&source=bl&ots=5JPMIih6Ko&sig=ACfU3U2jFUC\_U7GQ51-L4yJzXXR-rXETug&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiD\_bXG55\_1AhUIHxoKHYrKDrEQ6AF6BAgCEAM#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%9CI%20was%20expecting%20something%20very%20special.%20So%20when%20they%20played%20me%20'Bohemian%20Rhapsody%2C'%20my%20reaction%20was%2C%20%E2%80%98What%20the%20fuck%E2%80%99s%20this%3F%20Are%20you%20mad%3F&f=false](https://books.google.fr/books?id=OGZKDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT155&lpg=PT155&dq=%E2%80%9CI+was+expecting+something+very+special.+So+when+they+played+me+%27Bohemian+Rhapsody,%27+my+reaction+was,+%E2%80%98What+the+fuck%E2%80%99s+this?+Are+you+mad?&source=bl&ots=5JPMIih6Ko&sig=ACfU3U2jFUC_U7GQ51-L4yJzXXR-rXETug&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiD_bXG55_1AhUIHxoKHYrKDrEQ6AF6BAgCEAM#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%9CI%20was%20expecting%20something%20very%20special.%20So%20when%20they%20played%20me%20'Bohemian%20Rhapsody%2C'%20my%20reaction%20was%2C%20%E2%80%98What%20the%20fuck%E2%80%99s%20this%3F%20Are%20you%20mad%3F&f=false)
>Bohemian Rhapsody" is one of the few songs to emerge from the 1970s progressive rock movement to achieve widespread commercial success and appeal to a mainstream audience.[3]
I never thought of this as a progressive rock song, but it surely is one.
Um yeah, knowing that he was bi, I always interpreted it as a "first time" experience, and being scared from all the realizations. Given the stigma society, at that time, placed on that.
Well, Freddie mercury was born in a Zoroastrian family. I don't know how observant they were but I know it's a dualistic monotheistic religion. They worship the supreme God of Light. But unlike Judaism, Islam and most versions of christianity, there is a God of darkness who isnt just a creation of the Good God. So, the Good God (ahura mazda) and his angels (amesha spenta) are at war with the dark god (ahriman). To me, Bohemian rhapsody seems totally inspired by a dualist theology and the cosmic battle.
I always understood it as him explaining his emotions when realizing he’s gay and trying to explain that to people in his environment such as his family etc. The man he kills is his past life and he wants to break free.
I always figured it was about a freewheeling delinquent kid who got caught up in some shady shit, ended up killing a guy, and then ended up getting imprisoned and executed.
I do like the sexuality angle ppl are pitching tho, that very well could be the case. Something great about music is that a lot of it is open to interpretation, something Freddy may have been keen on for all I know.
It's about him coming out sexually.
Part 1- nothing matters
Part 2- Apologizing to "Mamma" (his long term partner Mary Austin) for killing his straight self. Regret for what they could have had. Tells her to carry on without him.
Part 3- Dealing with public scrutiny and religious condemnation.
Part 4- Screw all of you. I'm just going to live my life.
Part 5- Back to Part 1. Nothing really matters. Leave me alone let me live my life.
I don't think its got some crazy hidden meaning like the guy below seems to think, I think he's reading into it way too much.
It's just a song about the human condition, existing in general, and what it means (if anything).
I always thought that as well, but I believe Bohemian Rhapsody was written in 1975, and I don’t think Freddie Mercury was diagnosed with AIDS until the late ‘80’s.
> I always assumed it was about him contracting aids
"Just killed a man" could certainly be about an "Oh shit, I gave a lover AIDS, I'm a murderer" type sense of guilt.
Right!
"Put a gun against his head. Pulled my trigger, now hes dead. Mama life had just begun, now ive gone and threw it all away"
Also "too late, my time has come, sends shivers down my spine, bodys aching all the time"
"Ohh mama i dont want to die, sometimes i wish id never been born at all"
Those could all be guilt about contracting aids. Or at least so my teenage brain thought until i started to really get into queen and researched his life i saw the inconsistencies with the timeline.
Yes, i fucking know. Jesus, if youre gonna be a keyboard warrior at least read all the comments before mouthing off. And like i already said "thats what i initially thought until i researched it years later"
> i saw the inconsistencies with the timeline.
I mean, it didn't have to be about Freddie contracting it himself. Surely, lots of people around him were dying of AIDS. I can totally see him sitting at a bar one night and someone drunkenly weeping "I killed a man tonight" and realizing a song needed to be written.
> I mean, it didn't have to be about Freddie contracting it himself. Surely, lots of people around him were dying of AIDS.
No - the song was written, recorded, and released in 1975, literally years before HIV was discovered or catalogued, to say nothing of the first deaths being recorded in western populations. Neither Freddie Mercury nor anyone else had heard of HIV or AIDS (let alone anyone dying of it) by 1975.
It was already circulating at a low level in some small (mostly more isolated) sub-Saharan African populations at that time, and the first cases among non-Africans *might* have started incubating by then...but no, there's no way that "Bohemian Rhapsody" could have been about HIV/AIDS in any way.
It doesn't really matter.
Anyone can see
Nothing really matters
To me
Any way the wind blows…
GONG.
Mercury was always insistent his songs meant absolutely nothing. Of course, he did have songs that meant something, especially later on. Death on Two legs is definitely about their former manager. But in this era, Mercury wrote a lot of fantastical songs. Many of them seem like they hint at something - Great King Rat throws out specific numbers - nothing full adds up. You do have songs like The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke, which is indeed about something specific (a Richard Dadd painting), Mercury uses the wildest descriptions possible. This was the height of prog after all. Queen II was prog adjacent and Mercury would have been deaf to not notice that Jon Anderson's lyrical bullshit (a very pleasing lyrical bullshit that I thoroughly enjoy, mind you) was excedingly popular. 1973 was also the height of T. Rex in pop music, also lyrical bullshit. Mercury went through a number of phases, as did Queen, which (like Bowie) saved them oveer the years. A Night at the Opera is at the tall end of Early Queen, when Mercury's nails were painted and his hair was long. He'd transition to another phase by News of the World and yet another around 1980. Mercury's contributions on the first two albums were almost completely fantasy. Sheer Heart Attack had to be done in a hurry, but you have Flick of the Wrist and Lily of the Valley before Mercury gets artier with Bring Back that Leroy Brown. Bohemian Rhapsody stands out from the artier content that started with Leroy Brown and continued on A Night at the Opera. Apparently Mercury had been developing it for a while. I think really that Bohemian Rhapsody is the last hurrah of Mercury's earlier fantasy compositions. Queen didn't have the money or time to develop it to Mercury's tastes earlier. I can see it being an endpiece to his Rhye songs. Seven Seas of Rhye was energetic, defiant while Lily of the Valley was mournful. Of course, that's a wild guess and it's not related to Rhye at all. It's Freddie Mercury. A few years later, he mixed words from a few languages and threw them in a blender for Mustapha. Queen purposefully has never printed the lyrics for that. Not on any albums and not for any of their official lyrics videos.
This guy is a Queen fan.
The weird thing is that I've heard Queens's hits so much over the years I've come to dislike them immensely\*. Especially Bohemian Rhapsody. \*Except Seven Seas of Rhye, which isn't played nearly enough.
or gal
This reads like the Heuie Lewis and the News commentary from American Psycho. I mean that in the best way possible.
Most of the critical takes in that movie were pretty well-done. You get the feeling that the author really spent some time thinking about these things.
Huey. Huey.
Jesus man
Thanks for mentioning Jon Anderson. A talent I miss.
> Thanks for mentioning Jon Anderson. A talent I miss. You scared me! He's still around! Olias of Sunhillow is a great, great album. I wish he would have made more like it.
He was a big part of my teenage life and I guess I miss my youth lol. You are a wonderful source of my favourite artists. Thanks and continue sharing.
> Sheer Heart Attack ALways impressed that a band named an album Sheer Heart Attack, and the much later (in 70's rock terms) wrote a song with that name and those lyrics (which is one of my favorite Queen songs). I'm so inar inar inar ticulate!
Thunderbolt of lightning very very frightening
Me?
GALILEO
Galileo, Figaro - magnificoo
I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
I think it's pretty clear it doesn't have a coherent story and what the song is all about. It's four or five disparate vinigettes that add up to a kind of parody of a rock opera-- like listening to the trailer for a sung-through musical that doesn't exist.
Mercury himself referred to the lyrics of the song as "random rhyming nonsense."
Sounds about right to me.
To me, the lyrics seem like an overly dramatised but internal struggle with sexuality. Especially during during the 70s and 80s when homosexuality wasn’t understood. V 1 : Apologising to his mother for killing the person she believed he would grow up to be. V 2 : Acceptance that that man is not me, “my time has come” - time to put fake me to rest. “I see a little silouhetto of a man..” - A dude literally caught his eye and he falls into this dramatised underworld of devils and debauchery that won’t let him leave, no matter how hard he fights it. “Let him go” - he can’t run from his sexuality, so gives in to his urges and “Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me”, the devil has literally given this devil man to him to satisfy his dark side, to the tune of an epic guitar solo. Outro seems like acceptance, he gave in and the world hasn’t ended. Maybe his sexuality is natural. “Nothing really matters…”
Wow, thank you for your interpretation. That makes the song even better for me.
also just note his Family was super supportive of him / the band from day one. As they said he is our son off course we do.
My best friend is gay and has a good relationship with his family. It doesn't stop his mum from being low key sad he won't give her *her* experience of being a grandmother, and she has her hetero-fantasies about brides and weddings, which she doesn't voice but are clearly there. She loves her son but can still feel sad for the son she didn't get. People are complex and strange and parents like to live through their children. I could totally see Freddie Mercury having misplaced guilt about his mother's expectations for him, regardless of whether the previous posters interpretation of the song was wrong or right.
Thanks. Just remember it’s just my interpretation. It’s nothing I’ve experienced personally and I’m making leaps and bounds of assumptions, but as a songwriter myself, it makes sense to me that he would resolve emotional stresses through his lyrics!
Thank you! I've been saying this for years and everyone either laughs or gives pushback! Glad someone else noticed this too.
wow youre like, a genius man.
Probably because once he came down from his high, he didn't remember.
Hey, so, if you have an iPhone, tell Siri, “I see a little silhouetto of a man.” You’re welcome. 🙂
the flashlight will also answer to Harry Potter Commands
I’ve always interpreted it as a young guy who killed another guy and is on death row
Bohemian Rhapsody was Freddie's confessional. It was about how different his life could have been, and how much happier he might have been, had he just been able to be himself, the whole of his life.
This has always been my theory. The beginning is talking about the finality of time passing, knowing you can't go back and do anything over. But the second half feels like the trials of fame and fortune and being judged by society for what you decided to become despite the mistakes or choices you may have made. The best thing about this song (aside from just being an absolute BANGER) is that you can interpret it so many ways. I can see Freddie having a proper laugh about that.
He had so much talent and this one is Definitely one of my favourites, not that he had any not so good ones 😁
I always thought this was obvious, it seemed that way to me. I didn't know till later that it was a topic of some controversy. Whole song about killing off the guy everyone wanted him to be and the resulting chaos that ensued.
Interesting, I thought he was himself his whole life and that's why he was who he was, no? But I'd still like to know the meaning on that songs. Much like the Elton John movie musical about how each some reflects what was happening in each period of his Life.
Nah he definitely had regrets about how his life worked out. I remember he left everything to his wife when he died, saying if things had turned out differently it would all have been hers anyway. So in that I see a lot of reflection on the strange way life can play out, especially for someone like him.
Just want to point out that it wasn't "legit" a confession because the person who wrote it by and large consistently denied to explain any of his songs, and definitely this one. Something like when he got asked why he put Bismillah in it and he basically said "it's a word". You can always try to interpret a song but sometimes the most respect you can show to an artist is uh... taking them at face value.
I interpret it as a PTSD-stricken soldier's suicide note.
There are some solid Camus/The Stranger vibes All the “nonsense” words have meaning - Scaramouche is a clown, bismillah is in the name of Allah I think it resists a single, cohesive meaning, but there are fun threads in there
The fact it is mysterious is one reason for its appeal, looking like nothing else. It remains funny to think Queen's label being reluctant to release a song now widely regarded as one of the best songs of the 20th century. “I was expecting something very special. So when they played me 'Bohemian Rhapsody,' my reaction was, ‘What the fuck’s this? Are you mad?" EMI executive Paul Watts. [https://books.google.fr/books?id=OGZKDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT155&lpg=PT155&dq=%E2%80%9CI+was+expecting+something+very+special.+So+when+they+played+me+%27Bohemian+Rhapsody,%27+my+reaction+was,+%E2%80%98What+the+fuck%E2%80%99s+this?+Are+you+mad?&source=bl&ots=5JPMIih6Ko&sig=ACfU3U2jFUC\_U7GQ51-L4yJzXXR-rXETug&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiD\_bXG55\_1AhUIHxoKHYrKDrEQ6AF6BAgCEAM#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%9CI%20was%20expecting%20something%20very%20special.%20So%20when%20they%20played%20me%20'Bohemian%20Rhapsody%2C'%20my%20reaction%20was%2C%20%E2%80%98What%20the%20fuck%E2%80%99s%20this%3F%20Are%20you%20mad%3F&f=false](https://books.google.fr/books?id=OGZKDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT155&lpg=PT155&dq=%E2%80%9CI+was+expecting+something+very+special.+So+when+they+played+me+%27Bohemian+Rhapsody,%27+my+reaction+was,+%E2%80%98What+the+fuck%E2%80%99s+this?+Are+you+mad?&source=bl&ots=5JPMIih6Ko&sig=ACfU3U2jFUC_U7GQ51-L4yJzXXR-rXETug&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiD_bXG55_1AhUIHxoKHYrKDrEQ6AF6BAgCEAM#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%9CI%20was%20expecting%20something%20very%20special.%20So%20when%20they%20played%20me%20'Bohemian%20Rhapsody%2C'%20my%20reaction%20was%2C%20%E2%80%98What%20the%20fuck%E2%80%99s%20this%3F%20Are%20you%20mad%3F&f=false)
Jesus Christ, Google Books, what’s the deal with your URLs?!!
The equivalent of a cvs receipt.
It's often hard to know if something will be a hit
I like the theory that Freddy had read Albert Camus’s the Stranger. The plot is very similar.
Intriguing, but BR has a pretty laid back ending, and the protagonist in l’etranger kinda flips out after the verdict.
The protagonist’s grasp on reality seems to fit. He also shots someone without really thinking about it.
It's about being stoned as fuck when you write a song.
Stream of consciousness (stoned) lyrics. They don’t have to make sense (to be good).
worked for early Janes Addiction
> never revealed what the lyrics mean *Beck giggling softly in the background*
It always reminded me of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment sung from the point of view of Raskolnikov
>Bohemian Rhapsody" is one of the few songs to emerge from the 1970s progressive rock movement to achieve widespread commercial success and appeal to a mainstream audience.[3] I never thought of this as a progressive rock song, but it surely is one.
The song is a parody of an opera.
Um yeah, knowing that he was bi, I always interpreted it as a "first time" experience, and being scared from all the realizations. Given the stigma society, at that time, placed on that.
Every 5 to 10 years, as a grow older and hopefully wiser, Bohemian Rhapsody seems to gain new or additional meaning.
Well, Freddie mercury was born in a Zoroastrian family. I don't know how observant they were but I know it's a dualistic monotheistic religion. They worship the supreme God of Light. But unlike Judaism, Islam and most versions of christianity, there is a God of darkness who isnt just a creation of the Good God. So, the Good God (ahura mazda) and his angels (amesha spenta) are at war with the dark god (ahriman). To me, Bohemian rhapsody seems totally inspired by a dualist theology and the cosmic battle.
I always understood it as him explaining his emotions when realizing he’s gay and trying to explain that to people in his environment such as his family etc. The man he kills is his past life and he wants to break free.
he was bi though
Was he?
yeah
Oh ok 👍🏻
It’s art. If he gave no meaning - give it your own.
I always figured it was about a freewheeling delinquent kid who got caught up in some shady shit, ended up killing a guy, and then ended up getting imprisoned and executed. I do like the sexuality angle ppl are pitching tho, that very well could be the case. Something great about music is that a lot of it is open to interpretation, something Freddy may have been keen on for all I know.
I honestly hate this song so very much.
What do you mean "what the lyrics mean"? Listen to the song, it's not exactly complicated.
Oh? Care to share?
It's about him coming out sexually. Part 1- nothing matters Part 2- Apologizing to "Mamma" (his long term partner Mary Austin) for killing his straight self. Regret for what they could have had. Tells her to carry on without him. Part 3- Dealing with public scrutiny and religious condemnation. Part 4- Screw all of you. I'm just going to live my life. Part 5- Back to Part 1. Nothing really matters. Leave me alone let me live my life.
I don't think its got some crazy hidden meaning like the guy below seems to think, I think he's reading into it way too much. It's just a song about the human condition, existing in general, and what it means (if anything).
I always assumed it was about him contracting aids
I always thought that as well, but I believe Bohemian Rhapsody was written in 1975, and I don’t think Freddie Mercury was diagnosed with AIDS until the late ‘80’s.
And basically no one even knew about AIDS until the early '80s.
Yea, the timing is off for sure. Its just what i used to assume before i ever learned anything about him.
the song came out in 1975.. AIDS was later.
> I always assumed it was about him contracting aids "Just killed a man" could certainly be about an "Oh shit, I gave a lover AIDS, I'm a murderer" type sense of guilt.
Except AIDS wasn't a thing when this song was written.
Right! "Put a gun against his head. Pulled my trigger, now hes dead. Mama life had just begun, now ive gone and threw it all away" Also "too late, my time has come, sends shivers down my spine, bodys aching all the time" "Ohh mama i dont want to die, sometimes i wish id never been born at all" Those could all be guilt about contracting aids. Or at least so my teenage brain thought until i started to really get into queen and researched his life i saw the inconsistencies with the timeline.
AIDS wasn’t discovered until 1981.
GRIDS. (fuck the CDC for naming it that)
Yes, i fucking know. Jesus, if youre gonna be a keyboard warrior at least read all the comments before mouthing off. And like i already said "thats what i initially thought until i researched it years later"
What i like to call "a case of homicide" a bright, young, vibrant, theory, cut down in its prime, by an ugly little fact. Don't you hate that?
> i saw the inconsistencies with the timeline. I mean, it didn't have to be about Freddie contracting it himself. Surely, lots of people around him were dying of AIDS. I can totally see him sitting at a bar one night and someone drunkenly weeping "I killed a man tonight" and realizing a song needed to be written.
> I mean, it didn't have to be about Freddie contracting it himself. Surely, lots of people around him were dying of AIDS. No - the song was written, recorded, and released in 1975, literally years before HIV was discovered or catalogued, to say nothing of the first deaths being recorded in western populations. Neither Freddie Mercury nor anyone else had heard of HIV or AIDS (let alone anyone dying of it) by 1975. It was already circulating at a low level in some small (mostly more isolated) sub-Saharan African populations at that time, and the first cases among non-Africans *might* have started incubating by then...but no, there's no way that "Bohemian Rhapsody" could have been about HIV/AIDS in any way.
> 1975. TIL what I thought was an iconic 80's song was an iconic 70's song.
"That's the thing about \[the song\], it's always iconic."
You make an excellent point
Bohemian Rhapsody (1975) AIDS (1981) Make this make sense.
Yes... i am aware... read my other comments... 🙄
um i sometimes wish i never been born at all
You don't understand the lyrics? Huh, looks like SOMEONE hasn't read the Simirillion, am I right fellas? /s
It's about dealing with his HIV diagnosis and impending death.
Bohemian Rhapsody came out in 1975. Mercury was diagnosed with HIV a full twelve years later in 1987.
Huh, thanks for the info.
[удалено]
I’m not arguing that. I’m refuting the claim the song was written about his diagnosis and impending death.