Freddie Mercury’s Legacy from Live Aid is still relevant today
Mama. Just killed a man
Put a gun against his head
Pulled my trigger now he’s dead
Bohemian Rhapsody — Queen — 1975
It was a song like no other.
It was a song with a different sound.
And it was a song where the language of the music and message mattered.
It had 6 sections….
An introduction, ballad, guitar riff, operatic section, hard rock and a conclusion. It had no chorus, which was unusual back then.
It was 5 minutes and 55 seconds long. Also unusual back then.
“It’s too long!” they said. “You have to cut it,” they said.
So Queen did cut the song, but it didn’t work. They had to convince the producers to release the song in its entirety.
“It will either fly or die,” they said. And fly it did.
So what was this song all about?
In 1975 I was 14 years old, at high school, and my friends and I thought it was pretty cool. No idea what it meant.
When asked, Freddie said it was about relationships, with a bit of rhyming nonsense in the middle.
