Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody Meaning

Song Released: 1975

Covered By: Panic! At The Disco (2016), Pentatonix (2017)

Bohemian Rhapsody Lyrics

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
Little high, little low
Any way...

1. anonymous

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   Nov 26th 2018 !⃝

   Clearly, this is a post modernist, Sartrerian view of Man's place in a primordial world of confusion layered with hypocrisy topped with pre-pubescent fantasies of women in society and the likelihood of antediluvian crises. Underlying it all are themes from Camus, Jong, and Lennon becrying the West's descent into Imperialism and non-ferrous metalism. Note the Narrarator's focus on 'Self' as opposed to the Oppressed in South Afrooftica Major #tenteetlville.
   This marks a major departure from earlier works by Steezenstatz, Bergenfeldman, and Imatwatnitzstien. They focused on the 'Beezlebub' factor as it where, and what not,forgoing Scaramoche for Scaramander. Much follows. So ther eyou have it, ands what not. Right ho!

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
2. anonymous

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   Nov 14th 2018 !⃝

   I am amused by the confusion here. This is about fighting his own homosexuality. Clinging to the straight side of himself, that made him bi-sexual (any way the wind blows).
   Killing the "man" as society at that time defined a man -- as a heterosexual. Being afraid of his own instincts.
   ~Very, very frightening me.~
   ~Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth~
   ~Spare him his life from this monstrosity~
   Pleading with the male chorus to be let go and in the end saying don't let me go:
   ~Let me go...Never let you go ..finally:(Never, never, never, never let me go)
   ~Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for me.~
   Then he finally becomes defiant, and reaches acceptance...
3. loba

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   Nov 10th 2018 !⃝

   Freddie was telling his family, his world who he was. It was his coming out - it was his acceptance in the end of who he was and that it was okay - it was what it was. So easy in retrospect to understand the lyrics now - no fair, so sorry Freddie. You put us face to face with our own realities. This is perhaps one of the most brilliant pieces of music to come from the rock era or any era for that matter.
4. anonymous

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   Nov 8th 2018 !⃝

   The song Bohemian Rhapsody was published in 1975. It has nothing to do with AIDS. The AIDS epidemic started in 1980 or 1981.
5. anonymous

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   Nov 3rd 2018 !⃝

   While I have read a few posted interpretations of this song, I have not read all of them so I don't know if my interpretation will be different than those I have not read.
   
   I really love this song and have always loved it. The mix is really genius I think. But not until now, I've never tried to interpret it. However, as I listen to it now I will try.
   
   When I first heard this song, the fear of AIDS was very high and it was a greater than 50% chance that if you contracted HIV you were sure to get AIDS and die. Therefore this is a song about a young man who contracted the disease and the reality of the dreaded disease is setting in on him. He struggles with, is this real, or is it just a fantasy? I think that It's not so much that he has killed a man, no, he is the man whom he has killed. And even though he is still alive, it was he as if placing a gun to his his own head and pulling (as he says) "his" trigger which underscores his self destruction. He has lived a life in rebellion against his mama's desires, and now he has gone and thrown his young life away in his rebellion. He is close to his mama and he has told her about his sickness, seeking no sympathy. She has cried over and over again as she has visited him in the hospital. He tells his mama he is sorry for her pain and as he has not been given tomorrow to live, he tells her not to grieve but go on and live, forget about him.
   
   As the disease has progressed to AIDS, pain racks his body and the progression of the disease pretty much seals his fate. It seems that he was hoping somehow there was going to be a cure for him but that is not going to happen and he knows it. Is this real or is this a dream, he fights against his ultimate fate which is certain death, he cannot escape the truth. He feels sorry for himself and as he continues his push back with life and death these different bouts of reality are playing over and over in his head. He is poor and cannot afford the treatments, nor can his mama and he thinks that no one cares now anyway as he is mocked by people in his circle. He thinks about the betrayal of what or whom he was involved with and loved, be it a needle or a sexual relationship with a human (Both the transmission of the disease and especially by needles as Heroin addiction was very high, and dirty needles were deeply associated with the spread of HIV which progressed to AIDS).
   
   As he lay on his death bed straining to live, he realizes that it is too late to think about what if, or who is really to blame. He for a time refuses to accept his fate, as he says no to his once deadly life style - he declares that it is not going to drag him into the place where he is, deaths door and just leave him to die, he cries out loud you cannot do this to me get out of me this sickness and disease!
   
   Ultimately he accepts the fact that he is going to die and pass on into his eternal resting place. The spirit (the wind) blows upon his pain suffering, emaciated body. Will it be heaven or hell with Beelzebub, there is no escape, death will not let him go? He recons to himself that because he is truly guilty for the ruin of his life; his soul whether to heaven or to hell he is such a small factor in it all and nothing really matters anymore no matter how he feels about it. The fact is that he is going to die and he has accepted his fate which ever one comes first, or which ever way the wind blows, either heaven or hell, it matters not; his departure is certain and he dies.
6. kooljohn176

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   Nov 3rd 2018 !⃝

   One great and sad ''rock opera'' songs about a poor boy who didn't mean much to anybody,except to his mom and god. In this world by which this poor boy's mind was captured and indoctrinated with the Gallileonian cult ideology that progressively let him down in those[these] modern times of Helliocentrick theories and ideas that wouldn't let go of him. By spinning and pushing his fragile mind to the point of finally killing a man, then this poor boy's soul was being pulled apart and pleading to god for help and redemption from this devilish world made of lies and chaos that he was caught and spun with, further away from the love of god.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
7. anonymous

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   Oct 27th 2018 !⃝

   The man killed is Freddie’s straight self. Once you know this, the song makes perfect sense.
   
   Except for the bit in the middle which is just bonkers for the hell of it.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
8. anonymous

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   Oct 26th 2018 !⃝

   Freddie found out he had aids and was going to die eventually. He was bisexual. And he eventually died of pneumonia due to complications from aids.
   
   The song is in the form of a tragic opera to tell the story of his realization that he will die. The entire song is about his realization that he got the disease that he knew existed but still took the risks and ended up infected and ruined his life and would die. He is the man he killed. And therefore, having been at the top he is now at the bottom facing his reality and that it appears life has no meaning and nothing “really matters” because in the end, we all die.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
9. jarlie

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   Oct 18th 2018 !⃝

   It's a song about consequence. In this case the dark one of murder.
   
   Starting off scared and helpless
   "Mama just killed a man"
   "I don't wanna die, sometimes wish I'd never been born at all"
   
   Then the crowding voices of conflicting ideas of forgiveness after it all, pleading for forgiveness.
   "easy come easy go will you let me go"
   "no we will not let him go, let him go"
   
   Then him explaining his reasons for it all
   "So you think you can just stop me and spit in my eye"
   
   Then accepting what he did and facing the consequences
   "Anyway the wind blows"
10. anonymous

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    Sep 13th 2018 !⃝

    there is a man thinking of ending it all due to social and physical pain. look at these lyrics closely
    
    
    "Mama, life has just begun, but now ive gotta throw it all away..."
    
    "I dont wanna die, i sometimes wish id never been born at all"
    
    sound strange? yeah. sounds like a guy in need of mental support
11. anonymous

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    Jul 28th 2018 !⃝

    For me this sad story song's meaning is about the 'tragic outcome' that was rooted and manifested in the mind of this poor boy's sinful nature that was caught in the irresponsibility of the perverted revolutionary leftist evil indoctrination. Which had a big impact on the mind of the boy, who sadly became driven to hate and kill the other, like a brainwashed terrorist would do. Instead of being educated the right way to empower his individuality from within his god given soul. In order to know how to resist the temptations of the devil and his revolutionary leftist evil ideology that was invading and controlling the boy's fragile mind. Which eventually was shattered into chaos and nihilism that led to the death of a man and the wrath of god that came down upon the poor boy's mind metaphorically as ''thunderbolt and lightning''.
12. anonymous

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    Jul 26th 2018 !⃝

    I think this song is a lot simpler, its about a boy who kills himself and his spirit goes to heaven and there is a split between letting him in or send him to hell, its in first person narrating what happened after he killed himself.
13. TVD

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    Jun 28th 2018 !⃝

    The song starts out in this state of confusion, of a man who has killed a man proven by,"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.."
    Mostly proven by the very first two sets of lyrics because when you do something like a pull a trigger on someone you can only imagine the feelings of amazement and confusion.
    Then the song continues into a pleading from the man his mother, wich the turn of events make her cry. He explains the events.
    Then he is put on trial where then in the song comes to:
    "I see a little silhouette of a man
    Scaramouch, scaramouch will you do the fandango
    Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very frightening me
    Gallileo, Gallileo, Gallileo, Gallileo,
    Gallileo Figaro magnifico
    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 me go
    Will not let you go, let me go (never)
    Never let you go, let me go
    Never let me go, ooh
    No, no, no, no, no, no, no
    Oh mama mia, mama mia, mama mia let me go
    Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me
    For me, for me"
    Where as I imagine it as a plead in the courtroom between the jury and the victims family. The song closes with the sad verses forseeing he is in jail.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
14. anonymous

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    May 16th 2018 !⃝

    When you make a mistake that screws up your life.
15. anonymous

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    May 3rd 2018 !⃝

    What makes the most sense to me is that this Is all about the death sentence from AIDS that he has to face. His death is what he is facing. I understood that Bismallah means....As God wills it..... His ‘gun to head killing’refers to the homosexual act whereby he infects another man because of the deadly disease he was carrying. He is now facing the “fantasy” (disbelief) of leaving this life and how he can’t believe it will all end. Everything he’s accomplished in life really doesn’t matter anymore. I could go on but this is the gist of it all.

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