II. Lyrics① - Hideaki

Words

Is this the real life-
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,
A little high, little low,
Anyway the wind blows, doesn’t really matter to me
-to me-,

Mama, just killed a man,

Put a gun against his head,
Pulled my trigger, now he’s dead,
Mama, life had just begun,
But now I’ve gone and thrown it all away-
Mama, ooo,
Didn’t mean to make you cry-
If I’m not back again this time tomorrow-
Carry on, carry on,
As if nothing really matters-

Too late, my time has come,
Sends shivers down my spine-
Body’s aching all the time,
Goodby everybody-I’ve got to go-
Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth-
Mama, ooo-
I don’t want to die,
I sometimes wish
I’d never been born at all-

I see a little silhouette of a man,
Scaramouch, scaramouch will you do the Fandango-
Thunderbolt and lightening-
Very very frightening me-
Galileo, Galileo,
Galileo, Galileo,
Galileo figaro-Magnifco-
But I’m just a poor boy and nobody loves me-
He’s just a poor boy from a poor family-
Spare him his life from this monstrosity-
Easy come easy go will you let me go-
Bismillah! No-,
We will not let you go-let him go-
Bismillah! We will not let you go-let him go
Bismillah! We will not let you go-let him go
Will not let you go-let me go
Will not let you go-let me go
No, no,no, no, no, no, no-
Mama, mia, mama mia, mama mia let me go-
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me-
for me-

So you think you can stone me
And spit in my eye-
So you think you can love me
And leave me to die-
Oh Baby-Can’t do this to me baby-
Just gotta get out-
Just gotta get right outta here-

Nothing really matters,
Anyone can see,
Nothing really matters-,nothing really matters to me

Anyway the wind blows...

II. Lyrics② - Hideaki

Interpretation

This song is about the young man who killed someone a short while ago. The murderer confessed his crime to his mother. One chorus means the merciful society for the criminal, while the other chorus shows the severe society which want the murderer to be excluded from the society. Beelzebub has already prepared to execute this young man for murder, however, this man wants to be free. But after all, in the epilogue, the murderer himself believes that the reality will not change, no matter how this problem is resolved.

Difficult Terms in This Song

silhouetto(Greece?)

=silhouette

Scaramouche

=a character who is talkative, wily, and small-sized buffoon in Italian comedy

Fandango

=Mexican music, classical opera about escape

Figaro

=the main character in the opera “The Marriage of Figaro”. He serves for the earl, and is a eccentric genius.

Magnifico

=Wonderful!-the word of praise in Latin

Bismillah

= “I swear by God” the word of a Muslim

Mama mia

= “Oh, my god” in Italian

Beelzebub

=devil, Satan

About “so you think you can stone me and spit in my eye”

According to the Old Testament, there is a religious precept that the person who is absorbed in love out of morality must be beaten by stones until he or she dies.

The Secret of The Song

Mercury refused to explain his composition other than it was about relationships. The band is still protective about the secret of this song. Brian May said “Freddie was a very complex person: flippant and funny on the surface, but he concealed insecurities and problems in squaring up his life with his childhood. He never explained the lyrics, but I think he put a lot of himself into that song”. The song contained the veiled references to Mercury’s personal traumas.

III. Promotion Video ① - Misa

“Bohemian Rhapsody” is also famous for its promotional video, which is the first music video to have accurate live performance scene of a band, to match music with an image, and to convey great visual impact to audiences (The history of music video). After “Bohemian Rhapsody” achieved success, many record companies started to produce music videos for their musicians, so that musicians could publicize their music without appearing on TV shows in person or could choose whatever visuals they like to accompany their music (Wikipedia).
However, and interestingly, the promotional video of Bohemian Rhapsody was made not because of these reasons above. According to Brian May, who is the guitarist of Queen, the video was made because the song was too complex and overdubbed so many times that it seemed impossible to perform the song on TV show Top of the Pops, and also because of actual absence of Queen on the day of the TV show because they had a tour (wikipedia). So, surprisingly, the video was produced in only four hours at a cost of £4,500!
(Later, an alternative edit of the video was produced.) (wikipedia).
The video consists of promotional video part and live performance part. It begins with the Freddie’s harmony part with all members standing in the formation that is almost same as the cover photograph of their second album Queen II.
The video continues with the shot of
member’s full close-up and Freddie’s close-up superimposed, which is only in the alternative version.
And then the video moves to the live performance part accompanying the first ballad part. Because the vocalist on this section is only Freddie, the video mainly focused on Freddie in this part.
The next opera part is the main part of the film effects. It starts with the shot that Freddie standing in a mist, which correspond to the lyrics “I see a little silhouette of a man”. And suddenly the shot returns to the “Queen II” formation (wikipedia). As the chorus becomes heavy, the video also switches into honeycomb shot, which was done by a shaped lens (wikipedia). Another part the video effect corresponding to the music is that when the Freddie’s voice “go” echoed, his face also cascades away by pointing the camera at a monitor (wikipedia) .
Finally, in the hard rock part, the video goes back to the live performance again. And when the song reach the very last part, “Queen II” shot once again appears and it fade out with the sound of a Chinese gong.

III. Promotion Video ② - Misa

Because this video becomes very famous all over the world, there are many parodies. The famous one in Japan is produced by Gucchi Yuzo, who is a Japanese talent, in the NHK’s educational program “Hatch Potch Station”. In this parody video, he crosses over “Bohemian Rhapsody” with a Japanese children’s song “Dog gy cop and lost kitty”. He not only mimics the way Freddie sings and performs, but also copies high-quality video effects.
I remembered that when I was young, I saw this parody video on TV but hadn’t seen the original music video by Queen. Even so, I enjoyed watching Mr. Gucchi’s performance, but a person who laughed the most was my mother whose generation has many fans of Queen. She happily recorded the program and showed it to my father, and they bursted into laughing together. … Now I understand why they laughed so much at that time. It was so well-made parody video!

III. Promotion Video ③ - Misa

Lyrics
Ballad Part
ママ～　どこなの　僕まいごになって　今ひとりなの
Mama, where are you? I’m lost and alone now
ママ～　財布なくして　電話するお金もないんだ
Mama, I lost my wallet so I even don’t have a money to call you
ママ～　グ～　お腹の虫が　ほら鳴き出しているよ　ママ～
Mama, goooo(stomach growling) My stomach begins to growls mama…

Opera Part
迷子の迷子の　こねこちゃん　あなたのおうちは　どこですか
Little kitty little kitty lost and all alone,
Doggy cop was saying he would take her home
ｺｰﾗｽ（わからない－よ　お金もないよ）
(chorus) I don’t know and I don’t have money either
借りれよ　借りれよ　借りれよ早く
Why don’t you borrow, Why don’t you borrow, Why don’t you borrow right now
そりゃ　無理だぁぁぁぁぁぁ――――
You’re asking too muuuuuuuuuch
おうちを聞いてもわからない　名前を聞いてもわからない
Where do you live? Doggy cop smiled and said
What’s your name? Poor kitty only shook her head
にゃん　にゃん　にゃにゃ―ん　にゃん　にゃン　にゃにゃンーアー
Mew, mew mew mew, mew mew mew mew ahhhhhh
泣いてばかりいる子猫ちゃん
Poor little kitty she only cry and cry
２時間たってもわからない
2 hours passed but the situation doesn’t change
そうだ　ママの名前はミヨコ
Oh, I remember now! My mother’s name is Miyoko
名前は　ミ　ヨ　コ
Her name is Miyoko
ママミヨ　ママミヨ　ママミヨ　いずこ
Mama Miyo, mama Miyo, mama Miyo, where are you?
ポリース　ポリース　ポリース
Police, police, poliiiiiiiice

Hard Rock Part
犬のおまわりさん　困ってしまって　ワンワンワワン　ワンワンワワン
Doggy cop feeling sad and lost
He barked, Bowwow bowwow, bowwow bowwow
ワンワンワワン　ワンワンワワン

IV. Live Performance - Misa

As mentioned in the other sections, this song uses overdubbed technique many times, so it is difficult to perform this song live, especially the first chorus part before the ballad part and the Opera part. Freddie sought many solutions.

The first attempt he made for the opening chorus part is replacing the other songs’ opening parts with the opening chorus of “Bohemian Rhapsody”. At first, Freddie substitute the opening part of the song “Mustapha” for the opening of “Bohemian Rhapsody”, because it was easier since the “Mustapha” opening was solo a cappella while that of “Bohemian Rhapsody” was overdubbed chorus .
Mainly in the Hot Space Tour in 1982, Freddie improvised on the piano, which is in most cases the introduction to “Death on Two Legs”, ended with the first piano notes of the “Bohemian Rhapsody”.

The first solution to the Opera part, which was also full of overdubbing, was to divide up the song and put the opening ballad and ending ballads together. It went like this: the opening and closing ballads part of Bohemian Rhapsody -> Killer Queen -> March of the Black Queen -> (sometimes “Bring Back that Leroy Brown”) -> the hard rock part of the Bohemian Rhapsody.

The second attempt was started in the “A Day at the Races Tour” in 1977. This time, the song started with the opening ballad part, and after Brian May’s guitar solo, all members left the stage and the Opera part was played from tape. When Roger Taylor’s final high note in the Opera part “For me” was played, members returned to the stage and played the hard rock part and closing ballad part. This playing style continued all through the “Magic Tour” in 1986.



Works cited
Wikipedia, Bohemian Rhapsody. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemian_Rhapsody