If you were on your deathbed, and you could listen to one last song, what would it be? I asked my friends and the answers I got ranged from wholesome to pure insanity. From Lose Yourself to Dhinchak Pooja, from Quadeca to Jab Lagawelu Tu Lipistic, the Beatles to Never Gonna Give You Up, and even the F1 theme song. My answer, however, is wildly different to all of these. I would pick Bohemian Rhapsody. There is just something so powerful and defiant about it. A song that symbolises defiance in the face of certain death.
Bohemian Rhapsody is a cultural phenomenon that has transcended generations. To some it brings memories of Freddie Mercury’s legendary performance of the song at Live Aid, the memory of its iconic opening piano notes to a few, and to a majority of our generation, Rami Malek’s Oscar-winning performance as Freddie Mercury in the movie of the same name. However, from the nearly 2.5 billion Spotify streams the song has, very few of those streaming it would know the real meaning behind these lyrics.
While the band itself has repeatedly stated the song is up for interpretation, there is a very popular theory behind the lyrics, written by lead vocalist Freddie Mercury. Even though Mercury’s homosexuality was an open secret, he never officially came out and Bohemian Rhapsody is believed to be his way of saying that which he never could, through his art.
This narrative grows stronger right from the opening acapella verse:
“Is this real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality.”
A seeming suggestion of his internal struggle to cope with who he was, a question to himself about whether his feelings were real. This is followed by a realisation that he was trapped in his emotions. He could not avoid them, whether or not he liked it.
Perhaps one of the most compelling evidence of Bohemian Rhapsody being about his sexuality is the opening line of the piano part of the song:
“Mama just killed a man, put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger, now he’s dead.”
The man is the old Freddie he has killed, the guise he was putting on, the part of him that isn’t him. This interpretation is further backed by the lines:
“I see a little silhouette of a man”
This signals his old self being a small person, one not worth much regard.
It is also worth noting that Freddie Mercury was Farokh Bulsara by birth, a Zoroastrian, from a religion which does not recognise homosexuality. The lyrics also appear to show his feeling of sinning and his fear of being made a pariah, as shown by the lines:
“Mama, life had just begun, but now I’ve gone and thrown it all away. Mama, didn’t mean to make you cry”,
“Goodbye everybody, I gotta go, gotta leave you all behind and face the truth”, and
“I don’t wanna die, I sometimes wish I’d never been born at all.”
This unmasks another one of his reservations about revealing his true self: judgement. What will society say?
The whole sequence of his trial, pleading them to let him go, to leave him, seems to be a portrayal of the same, beginning with:
“Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?”
Scaramouche is a character from 1500s Italy, he was a jester, a clown. The Fandango is a dance originating in Spain. The jester is being demanded to dance for the court, this is a metaphor for Freddie. These lyrics essentially portray him questioning himself as to whether or not he would abide by society’s expectations, and whether or not he would dance to their tune.
His conflict with society to be himself is then portrayed in the back-and-forth sequence of
“He’s just a poor boy from a poor family, spare him his life of this monstrosity.
Easy come, easy go will you let me go?
Bismillah! No, we will not let you go.”
Bismillah means in the name of Allah, another subtle hint at his religious issues with accepting his sexuality, while the rest of it shows how he was shunned by the media, even if he had no choice, the media, and the world all going against him for who he was.
Pertaining to his sexuality, he also holds the sentiment that everybody who was close to him or cared for him would desert him, merely for who he was. He expresses his want to escape all of this as conveyed in the final verse:
“So you think you can love me and love me to die? Can’t do this to me, baby. Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here.”
One of the leading proponents and pioneers of this theory is Leslie Ann Jones, the writer of a biography on Mercury, who has held this belief since the release of the song in 1975. She also provides a claim which would serve as vital evidence in proving this theory right. She claims that Jim Hutton, Freddie’s partner up till his death, admitted to Bohemian Rhapsody being a confessional by the singer, a way to say and imagine that which he never could in reality. The lyrics, combined with this statement and even the tight lips from the part of everyone associated with the song seem to point towards Queen’s career-defining song being a way for their lead vocalist to come out of the closet.
It has been 49 years since the song was first released. Yet its cultural significance remains, and this new angle to the lyrics only adds to it. Art imitates life, and this piece of art subtly displayed that which the artist never could say openly. So next time you listen to Bohemian Rhapsody, feel the pain, feel the conflict, and remember the great man who could never truly be himself.
Aarav Mukhtyar, A2-C
Another Level Higher 