This is the only Queen song you will find on this list. I have listened to all their classic 1970s albums, and sure I've appreciated them. The guitar work, especially the classical-inspired compositions, are admirable. There are just too many sections of standard '70s riffing with too little personality for my breath to be taken away, no matter how fantastic a vocalist Freddie Mercury was.
It seems cruel to say this, because clearly much work went into the many parts and arrangements of Queen songs, but “Bohemian Rhapsody” seems to be the only song they really, really, really sat down and focused on. In this peak time of epic rock songs, it feels like they realized they needed to come up with their signature epic song or risk being disregarded by every ‘70s dude who would come to inspire the characters of Dazed and Confused. Ironically the title of that film was taken from a Led Zeppelin song, and Led Zeppelin stood out as an a-typical example of ‘70s rock, while the ethos of the film Dazed and Confused is a low-risk, Deep Purple-style music to loaf around to on a smoke-stained shag carpet. It’s like how Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band sounds very little like the prototypical psychedelic album, while something like Piper at the Gates of Dawn is far more conforming and, in my vicious opinion, much more dated as a result. This paragraph has spawned me many enemies. I take pride in it.
But back to this song!
I needed Wayne’s World to introduce it to me as a kid. Thank you, Wayne’s World, for so many things, but especially this. (Wayne’s World is the odd Sgt. Peppers to the conforming Dazed and Confused, if I can stick that knife in one more time.)
The attention and care given to this song is just so plain on every level. The lyrics are clear and instantly memorable. In many Queen songs preceding this, the vocals are rushed, tough to discern, and ultimately lost as part of the memory’s foreground. The singing melodies here are so much like other Queen songs but finally finished to exquisite resolution. There are passages of imagination and daring that are wholly unique among all songs that came before - the a cappella opening, that whole middle wildness, the guitar solo, the hard rock ending...
The opening is a deceptive concoction of perfectly formed lyrics dictating unique melodies almost free of regular meter. The lyrics also lend themselves to the soft style of singing them. The use of the first word “is” allows the singers to open their mouths and begin with the softest of vowel sounds, so that the music seems to just start as a small spring from out of darkness. The words emanate from there, curling into the air with sound and melody complimenting excellently, but leaving plenty oxygen left to breathe. It took such effort to make it seem so effortless.
The middle phantasmogorical section is such boggling magic that I don’t even feel like barking about it. When I try to imagine where things like this come from, I remind myself that these guys were professional musicians with nothing to do but devote every last thought to these little songs, in the name of prolonging their livelihood. Their creative radars were constantly on and probing the fabric of existence for cues to the next revelation.
The guitar solo by Brian May is of exceptional lyricism. It is that type of brilliant musicianship that produces an indelible and virtuosic performance but is also very basically hummable by the folks who hear it on the radio. If he had descended much deeper into flurries and abstractions, it would have been beyond regular humans’ abilities to reproduce; if he had strayed into more simplified phrasing, it would have become a pandering embarrassment. Oh, and this whole solo also leaps forth as the instrumental extension of the most pained lyrics of this whole pained song: “Sometimes wish I’d never been born at all.” Again, sound and sense unbelievably married.
The hard rock ending may be mistakenly described as riffing simply because the distorted guitar plays over a standard ‘70s head-banging beat. But a riff tends to be a repeated idea. The heavy guitar climax of “Bohemian Rhapsody” is a single, non-repeating melody that reaches greater and greater orchestrated peaks until collapsing back into the tearful ending. Showing there was ultimate love and focus given to this song, even the last note is indelible, a soft gong crashing into a wash of analogue silence.
There are hidden great moments in this song that are less celebrated. To start the second verse, the drums and vocals punch in on the same beat. I get chills from the understated beat, formed off the simple ride cymbal and a standard kick/snare rock pattern, the drums excellently mic’d for a very subtle studio echo. The pacing of the song and the piano progression free this drum beat to be only the little it needs to be and know it is still cool. I haven't even discussed the verses themselves, but they're also so great.
I may be a blatant “greatest hits” cherry picker for Queen, but my seemingly selective love is deep and personal. I’ll go to the grave with this song one of the highlights of this mortal coil.