MUSC-21600: The Art of Prof. Freeze

Bohemian Rhapsody (1975) Queen

LISTEN FOR • Complex, multi-sectional form with operatic qualities • Different musical styles for the song’s “scenes” • Use of musical (music and don’t match in C 2) • Sophisticated rock production techniques

CREATION Album A Night at the Label EMI/ (Europe); Elektra (U.S.) Musicians Freddie Mercury (lead and backing vocals, , operatic vocals), (electric , operatic vocals), Roger Taylor (drums, , gong, operatic vocals), (bass guitar) Producer , Queen Engineer Mike Stone, Gary Lyons Recording Rockfield Studio 1, Roundhouse, SARM (East), Scorpio Sound; August– September 1975; stereo Charts Two runs: Pop 9, Pop 2; UK 1; Album 4, Album 1 (UK)

MUSIC Form Through-composed Key F major Meter 4/4 (multiple tempo changes)

MUSC-21600 Listening Guide Freeze “” (Queen, 1975)

LISTENING GUIDE Form Lyric Cue Listen For 0:00 Intro “Is this the real life” • A capella with rich, four-part (recalls doo-wop), created by Freddy Mercury’s voice only. • No narrative, but sets up character. 0:14 • More melodic piano part enters. 0:48 A 1 (18) “Mama, just killed a man” • Ballad style: piano accompaniment with solo vocals that tell a story (here, a son confesses murder to mother). • Piano, bass intro in new key (as is appropriate 0:48 Intro (2) for starting a story) 0:55 a (4) “Mama, just killed a man” • Melody follows AAB (bar) form. 1:09 a (4) “Mama, life had just begun • Initially the same, but tension builds as vocals ascend and become aggressive, drums enter, and the music modulates. 1:22 b (8) “Mama, ooh” • style dissolves back into ballad style, with two dropped beats in final measure. 1:48 A 2 (18) “Too late, my time is come” • Second verse in ballad style. 1:48 Intro (2) • Piano, bass intro. 1:55 a (4) “Too late, my time is come” • Now with drum beat; chimes depict “shivers.” 2:08 a (4) “Goodbye everybody” • Similar intensification as in A 1, but now also with entrance of guitar. 2:22 b (8) “Mama, ooh” • Backing vocals added to hard rock style. • Ends with that blurs boundary to B. 2:49 B (4) • Guitar solo based on melody of A. • Functions as instrumental bridge. 3:02 C 1 “I see a silhouetto • Trial scene (also in two verses) many musical conventions of comic songs in light opera (especially Italian and English). • Nonsense “Italian” lyrics. 3:22 C 2 “I’m just a poor boy” • Musical : expressive quality of music (funny) and lyrics (serious) don’t match. • Operatic parody 1: rapid text declamation echoed suddenly by entire chorus (3:26). • Operatic parody 2: long run at the that ends with a slow swell (3:36–4:07). • Operatic parody 3: final screeching high note a jab at operatic . 4:07 D “So you think you can” • Hard rock style: vocals (new melody), driving guitar , solid rock rhythms (accented backbeat), heartbreak/fighting lyrics.

2 MUSC-21600 Listening Guide Freeze “Bohemian Rhapsody” (Queen, 1975)

Time Form Lyric Cue Listen For 5:11 Outro “Nothing really matters” • Returns to style and tempo of introduction. • Ends with a capella vocals of beginning, gong.

LYRICS Is this the real life? Galileo, Galileo Is this just fantasy? Galileo, Figaro Caught in a landslide Magnifico (Oh, oh, oh, oh!) No escape from reality Open your eyes I’m just a poor boy, nobody loves me Look up to the skies and see He’s just a poor boy from a poor family I’m just a poor boy, I need no sympathy Spare him his life from this monstrosity Because I’m easy come, easy go Easy come, easy go, will you let me go? Little high, little low Bismillah! No! Anyway the wind blows, doesn’t really matter We will not let you go (Let him go!) to me, to me. Bismillah! We will not let you go (Let him go!) Bismillah! We will not let you go (Let me go!) Mama, just killed a man Will not let you go (Let me go!) (Never, never, Put a gun against his head never, never, never let me go!) Pulled my trigger, now he’s dead Will not let you go (Let me go!) Mama, life had just begun Oh, oh, oh, oh But now I’ve gone and thrown it all away No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Mama, ooh Oh, mamma mia, mamma mia Didn’t mean to make you cry Mamma mia, let me go If I’m not back again this time tomorrow has a put aside for me Carry on, carry on, as if nothing really matters For me, For me!

Too late, my time has come So you think you can stone me and spit in my Sends shivers down my spine eye? Body’s aching all the time So you think you can love me and leave me to Goodbye everybody, I’ve got to go die? Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth Oh baby, can’t do this to me baby Mama, ooh (Any way the wind blows) Just gotta get out, just gotta get right out of I don’t wanna die here I sometimes wish I’d never been born at all Ooh, ooh yeah, ooh yeah I see a little silhouetto of a man Nothing really matters, Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Anyone can see Fandango? Nothing really matters, nothing really matters Thunderbolts and lightning, very, very to me frightening me Any way the wind blows Galileo, Galileo

3 SOURCES • Katherine Charlton, Rock Music Styles: A History, 6th ed. (New York: McGraw Hill, 2011), 219. • Roberta Freund Schwartz, Course Notes for MUSC-309 at the University of Kansas.