It is 40 years since the release of the amazing Bohemian Rhapsody which stayed at Number 1 nine weeks the first time (and five weeks the second - 1991). People go on about the video, which was groundbreaking in itself and since its release the song has had a life of its own and succeeding generations will have their own take on the piece. Personally, I feel it is the song itself that makes it so great. I remember getting the single for Christmas 1975 (I was 16). We put it on my sister's portable fidelity record player and enjoyed it again. We already knew it well from endless radio plays and Top of the Pops. Scaramouche, the fandango, Figaro and Bismillah were all words pretty obscure to me then. At the time there were several Queen fans in school and we often had silly arguments about their merits as against those of my favourites, Focus. I remember being envious for Focus. It seemed to me that they could have done it better but being Dutch they never would have. The song, however, does exactly what Hocus Pocus and, on a different scale, Hamburger Concerto, do. The real genius of Bohemian Rhapsody is that it is a classically inspired pop song with a beginning, middle and end. (The parts have been identified as intro and ballad segment [beginning] operatic passage and hard rock part [middle] and reflective coda [end]). The best bit is the hard rock bit but that would be nothing without the rest. By 1975 many had discovered that a guitar band can actually do what an orchestra does and were doing it. Queen's success came from doing it so well, although it must have been a nightmare to record. Final point - it was recorded in Wales (at Rockfield Studios).
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