On October 31, 1975, Queen released “Bohemian Rhapsody”one of the cuts from what would be their next album. The song premiered on Capital Radio thanks to its DJ, Kenny Everett and it managed to see the light despite the resistance of the major recording industries.
The reason why many did not support the new creation of the band composed of Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon was that it lasted six minutessomething unprecedented for that time. And not only that, but it also consisted of a large piece made up of small fragments different from each other, the definition of a rapsodium.
Despite how disruptive it sounded for the time, “Bohemian Rhapsody” reached #1 on the UK charts for 9 consecutive weeks and later became one of the essential songs in rock history. It is even considered by many to be the best song of all time.
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The story of “Bohemian Rhapsody”, Queen’s revolutionary piece
Freddie Mercury began writing “Bohemian Rhapsody” in the late 60’swhen I was still a student at Ealing Art College in London. It was those pieces of songs that he collected over the years that were used to create the masterpiece. According to Brian May, the song was originally going to be called “The Cowboy Song”.
When Mercury realized the potential of those fragments, he dedicated himself to designing it that way, with the classic rock elements that Queen had been preaching and operatic sections, which was not only an experimental bet, but also posed a challenge for the band members. Anyway, as Freddie wanted it, it had to be done.
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To prepare, the band rehearsed intensively in the Ridge Farm Studio in Surrey and perfected details in Penrhos Court in Herefordshire. However, recording began on August 24, 1975 in the Rockfield Studios in Welsh.
The sessions lasted between 10 and 12 hours, of which the vast majority were dedicated to opera fragments, especially to achieve the vocal harmony that the leader of Queen was looking for. They achieved it with 160 tracks of vocal recordings superimposed on one 24 track analog recorder. In these sections we can listen to Freddie Mercury in the middle registerBrian May in the low register and Roger Taylor in the high register.
A color fact: the piano that Mercury used to record the song is the same as used Paul McCartney to record “Let It Be”.
Embed – Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody (Official Video Remastered)
Regarding the lyrics, the singer never revealed what he wanted to say.. In fact, she had expressed that her intention was for fans to interpret her and give it your own meaningwhich led to different theories being created. In any case, the song is exquisite no matter how you look at it. No part is left loose and everything sounds like a great cohesive piece to the ear, and that is due to the genius of Mercury.
Source: Ambito