The Story of Bohemian Rhapsody (2004) - full transcript

This programme contains
some strong language

NEEDLE CRACKLES

♪ Is this the real life...? ♪

We were suddenly in a sort of
golden place.

♪ Is this just fantasy...? ♪

We were sort of getting off
on how far can we take this?

It's nearly 30 years old and still
one of the world's best loved songs.

♪ Scaramouch, Scaramouch... ♪

It's the biggest single
of the century.

♪ Thunderbolt and lightning... ♪

I never heard anything like it.



For the first time ever, this is the
full story behind Bohemian Rhapsody.

We're on a journey of discovery
back to the studio with the band.

The man who put it together
is going to take it apart.

I've lost it.

OK, I've lost another Galileo.

- ♪ Will not let you go!
- Let me go! ♪

We're going to find out
how they made THAT video.

And you get this feedback
that trails across.

♪ No, no, no, no

- ♪ Oh, mama Mia, mama Mia... ♪
- Mama Mia, let me go.

And we'll be asking

some of the greatest
literary minds in the country

what the song is all about.

Beelzebub does seem to
make some sense!



♪ Me-e-e-e... ♪

♪ Dun-dun-dun! ♪

Great stuff!

"Mama, I killed a man."

Wow! OK, I'm there! What happened?

"Nothing happened! We all
went off singing nonsense.

"Scaramouch, can you do
the fandango?" No!

It hurts me now,
when I hear the song, it hurts.

♪ Any way the wind blows... ♪

1975.

History is made as the Americans
and Russians meet in space.

Saigon falls and
Vietnam is finally over.

At home, unemployment
hits the one million mark

as Margaret Thatcher becomes the
first woman to lead the Tory Party.

Jaws is a box-office smash.

And Queen release the single
that will catapult them to stardom

and provide inspiration for
a new generation of rockers.

♪ So you think you can love me
and leave me to die?

♪ Oh, baby-y-y... ♪

Axl Rose performed the song at
the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert

after the singer's death in 1991.

He was joined by a host of stars
who'd grown up with Queen.

♪ Your mommy and your daddy
gonna plague me till I die... ♪

1975, I was working
in a factory in Sheffield

and daydreaming about
wanting to be in a band

that could produce material
of the quality of Bohemian Rhapsody.

♪ All your love tonight... ♪

I was obsessed with getting
all the music that band put out.

It was a huge part
of my whole growing up.

♪ Whoa, yeah! ♪

Even the band of the moment
owe a huge debt to Queen.

Bohemian Rhapsody is the Holy Grail.

There's only that. There's
nothing else anywhere near it.

If you ask anybody, "Honestly,
do you like Bohemian Rhapsody?"

if they say no, they're lying.

The release of Bohemian Rhapsody
defied all logic.

It was a song that
broke all the rules.

For a start,
it was six minutes long...

..and it had an opera section.

♪ I see a little silhouetto of a man

♪ Scaramouch, Scaramouch
Will you do the fandango...? ♪

Nothing like it
had been heard before

and there's been nothing like
it since. But people loved it.

It went to number one and
stayed there for nine weeks.

♪ Magnifico-o-o-o... ♪

But Queen weren't a new band.

It had taken them almost
five years to get there.

The year before,
they'd had their first success

with Seven Seas Of Rhye.

Long lost from the BBC archive,

this Top Of The Pops performance
was videoed by a fan.

Freddie's distinctive style
was taking shape even then.

♪ Seven seas of Rhye... ♪

They always were different

to everybody else that was
around at the time.

They always projected this image of

being the big, huge rock stars

even when they hadn't got
two ha'pennies to rub together.

Queen even turned to women's
fashion designer Zandra Rhodes.

I was well known as doing
theatrical-type women's outfits,

and I think it showed quite an
extraordinary sense of thought

that they came to me.

But it wasn't just the rock star
look that Queen were perfecting.

Their unique sound was also
beginning to take shape...

..thanks to their producer,
Roy Thomas Baker.

Working with Queen meant,
be pure definition,

you were working out of the zone.

Being told by Freddie and the guys,

"Queen II - we've got
nothing to lose,

"just put anything in there,

"any idea you come up with,
just give it a go."

♪ Once upon a time
an old man told me a fable

♪ When the piper is gone
and the soup is cold... ♪

♪ She keeps her Moet et Chandon
in a pretty cabinet... ♪

Queen camped it up even more for
their third single, Killer Queen,

which went to number two in 1974.

♪ For Khrushchev and Kennedy

♪ At any time, an invitation
you can't decline... ♪

By now, they should
have been enjoying

the trappings of
a rock star lifestyle,

but they were only being paid
£200 a week between them.

♪ She's a killer queen
Gunpowder, gelatin... ♪

Freddie was making demands,
various things he wanted,

and we explained to him that
the money wasn't there yet.

It would be there.

We could see it coming.

If the sales were like they were
reported to be, it would flow.

But no matter how much
Freddie stamped his feet,

there was no money,

so Queen turned to Elton
John's manager, John Reid.

There was a kind of stalemate

between them and
the Sheffield brothers.

Nothing to do with me.

All I was concerned with
was how to get it sorted out,

how to let them move forward

and let everybody walk away
without losing face.

So that's what I did.

At that time, Freddie lived here, on
Holland Road in Kensington, London.

It was here that he wrote
most of Bohemian Rhapsody.

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY PLAYS ON A PIANO

Freddie invited me round to
his flat in Holland Road.

I went round and when I went in, the
thing that struck me first

was that Freddie was listening

to the Liza Minnelli Cabaret
soundtrack.

At that time, I thought,
"This is a rock group."

This music didn't kind of fit.

Then he showed me the flat. In the
bedroom, there was an upright piano

with candle arms on it,
which was his headboard.

And he said that
sometimes during the night,

he would think of something musical
and flip it back and play it.

He was double jointed. His hands
could bend back completely.

I think that's where
some of the passages

from Bohemian Rhapsody started.

Playing it backwards.

MUSIC: Sweet Lady
by Queen

In the summer of 1975,

Queen left London for Rockfield
Studios in Monmouth, South Wales.

30 years later, they're back.

It's the first time
they've visited

since they recorded
Bohemian Rhapsody.

I think there was a lot of stress

and we were very worried
about the management situation.

We were away from home, away
from our kids and our families.

We had young children.
It's not ideal.

We'd just signed up with John Reid,
who was Elton's manager,

and John had said, "OK, boys,
I'll take care of the business,

"you just make the best
album you've ever made."

So there was that feeling.

It was like, "We have to
go in here and kill."

I actually remember driving here,

thinking, "I think
I'm going the right way,"

and playing Sheer Heart Attack,
thinking,

"That was the last one we did.
Oh, God, that's good, isn't it?

"It's going to be hard to make
a better one than that."

Welcome back after all
these years.
Thank you.

Must be like
a walk down memory lane.

This is where the seeds
for Bohemian Rhapsody were sown.

Queen spent two weeks here
recording backing tracks

for what was to become the most
expensive record ever made -

A Night At The Opera.

♪ Yesterday
my life was in ruins... ♪

It's a poignant trip for Queen.

This is where their journey
from mediocre domestic success

to international stardom
really began.

♪ Got a feeling
I should be doing all right... ♪

The control room.

Yes, this does actually trigger some
memories for me, I've got to say.

It's a bit plush.

I think in our day, I remember
there was no acoustic treatment.

This is the Bohemian Rhapsody
backing track for me.

I can distinctly remember being here
and seeing you guys go through it.

Our backing tracks were always
either bass, guitar and drums

or bass, piano and drums.

This one would be Roger,
Freddie and John.

They're putting down
the backing track

and there's lots of spaces in it
for the operatic bits.

Lots of gaps and Freddie conducting.

Shall we have a look
in the studio?
Yeah.

Here, for the very first time, you
can hear Freddie Mercury rehearsing

the piano parts for what producer
Roy Thomas Baker calls Fred's Thing.

These outtakes from the original
recording sessions at Rockfield

have never been heard before.

Take one of mark two version
of Fred's Thing.

PIANO MUSIC FOR BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

MUSIC STOPS
Fuck!

- Still too slow!
- No, that's nice! That's nice.

Bit slower, though.

He just said, "Look, I've got
this very strange thing.

"You have to be patient when we do
it cos there'll be lots of gaps."

As soon as we'd mapped it out,

we all understood
what was happening

but it was a bit confusing at first.

- It's sort of coming back a bit.
- Hmm.

- I think the piano WAS about there.
- I think it was.

- Like that.
- Yeah, more like that than like that.

You were over there, but there
was no partition for the drums.

- Yeah, that's right.
- It was just all in one room.

Yeah. That was the drum kit.

Yeah. Nine AC30s, of course,

but I don't think I would
have had the nine in here.

We were still saving up
for the one, weren't we?

Yeah! I think most likely
I would have had three.

I remember the first time
I heard the melody,

the main sort of melody,
I loved the melody.
Yeah.

A lot of our stuff
was done, written in the studio,

but this was an exception.
Really, as Roger says,

it was all in Freddie's mind
before we started.

Freddie was a great person
to be in a band with really because,

one, he was such a great...
rhythmic, rhythmic piano player,

and it made the backing tracks
very easy to do.

They sort of... It all knitted
together. They swung well.

His bony fingers would whack it out.

The backing tracks, if you listen
to them now, are immaculate!

Freddie and Roger and John
are just absolutely together.

It's totally live, totally real.
There's a feel there.

PERCUSSIVE MUSIC PLAYS

As soon as you hit
an E flat chord on here,

you think of Freddie. I do, anyway.

It's nearly 20 years since
Queen played together.

This performance at Wembley
in 1986 saw them bow out on top.

No-one could sell tickets faster.

But if it hadn't been for
the success of Bohemian Rhapsody,

they might never have got there.

So what's so special about
the song that made Queen?

To find out, we have to speak to
the man who put it all together.

Capitol Records,
Hollywood, Los Angeles -

home to some of the most important
recordings in the history of music.

Nearly 30 years after he delivered
the finished track to EMI,

Roy Thomas Baker has come here
to take Bohemian Rhapsody apart.

- ♪ Galileo... ♪
- I've lost it.

OK, I've lost another Galileo.

There's another Galileo missing.

This is the original 24-track tape
in its original box.

It's now so fragile

that it has to be baked in
an oven before it can be played

or it will disintegrate.

And here's Freddie's doodles
on the sleeve notes,

which he did at the time
Bohemian Rhapsody was recording.

♪ Thunderbolt and lightning,
Very, very frightening me... ♪

The original mix,
when we were doing it manually,

it was a case of I was
sitting approximately here,

controlling the drums,
bass, piano, guitars.

Then, about here was Freddie,
and he had control over the vocals.

He'd be switching vocals on and off
and doing it that way.

Let me push up the...

♪ This time tomorrow

♪ Carry on, carry on

♪ As if nothing really matters... ♪

So this is the piano.

This is the piano solo.

This was actually done live by
Freddie as we were doing the track.

So when you listen to
the piano tracks,

you can just about hear
some of the drums in the background

because it was all done in one room,
it wasn't done in a separate room.

We put covers over the piano to
try and deaden down the sound

of the other instruments.

But the bass, you can hear the bass
in the background,

you can hear the drums.

The drums...

..then.

This is the drums on their own.

DRUM TRACK PLAYS

♪ Scaramouch, Scaramouch
Will you do the fandango?

♪ Thunderbolt and light... ♪

Now John, who was on bass, we
spread the bass over three channels.

BASS GUITAR PLAYS

We had the... drums
and bass together and piano.

DRUMS, BASS AND PIANO
OF BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

VOCALS ADDED

This is the solo from Brian.

That was also recorded on one track.

It wasn't done on multiple tracks,
it was just one track.

I wanted to make a little tune

that would be a sort of
counterpart to the main melody.

I didn't want to
just play the melody.

It could all have been
so different, couldn't it?

I can remember singing it to Freddie

and him going,
"Yeah, that would be good."

I think, certainly
my best stuff is born that way.

It's much better for me to hear it
in my head and then try and play it

than sit down with a guitar
and let the fingers do it.

The fingers tend to be
a little... predictable

unless they're being
led by the brain.

We were sort of getting off on
the... on how far can we take this

and how big can we make this?

"Let's make a wall of sound
that really is a wall,

"that starts down there
and goes right up."

So, really, we were quite interested

in seeing how far you could
actually go

before it became totally ridiculous,

or the limits of
the technology stopped you.

OK, this is the little
Galileo section,

which is between high vocal
from Roger and low from Freddie.

So, this is Roger's track first.

♪ Galileo, Galileo

♪ Galileo Figaro... ♪

We used to joke
about pliers under the frock.

We were lucky. We had a very good
chemistry when it came to vocals.

I mean, Brian could get down
quite low.

Fred had this incredibly powerful
voice through the middle

and I was very good
on all the high stuff.

So we all sang every part.

Also, now you're about to hear
the opera section.

Only the vocals,
no backing track at all.

♪ 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!
- Will not let you go!

♪ Let me go-o-o-o
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-e-e, for me-e-e, for meeee

♪ So you think you can
stone me and spit in my eye

♪ So you think you can love me
and leave me to die

♪ Oh, baby

♪ Can't do this to me, baby

♪ Just gotta get out

♪ Just gotta get right
outta here... ♪

John volunteered not to sing. I
don't think he liked his own vocals.

He wasn't going to get an argument
from any of us, including the band,

so, basically, it
was the three guys,

it was Freddie, Brian and
Roger who would sing.

This is going to be a rare scenario.

We're going to be playing
the instrumentation

of the opera section
without the opera.

Just purely the track,

and the track consists of
drums, bass, Freddie on piano

and Roger's overdub of a timpani.

There's a few... stumbled notes here,

which obviously weren't supposed to
be heard. Now you might hear them.

INSTRUMENTAL TRACK PLAYS

♪ So you think you can stone me
and spit in my eye... ♪

The thing about Freddie was he was
far more organised than he lets on.

He'd have little
scraps of paper everywhere

with little things
and Galileos here,

so it was all written down
just on paper and pencil.

It seemed like it was a bit
haphazard, but it wasn't.

There was times it wasn't easy,
it was very, very hard,

but we didn't mind because we knew
we were setting certain trends

that then eventually technology
caught up with us,

so that was pretty good.

Four hours into their visit
to Rockfield

and Brian and Roger can't resist
striking up in the studio.

- Yeah...
- That note without the bass.

Right, then. To the living quarters.

♪ Seaside
whenever you stroll along with me

♪ I'm merely contemplating
what you feel inside... ♪

This is Roy,
this is... Freddie, I think.

And I think this is me.

Welcome to my luxurious apartment.

It wasn't just coming in to
make Bohemian Rhapsody.

It was like we had to make the album
which was gonna, I guess, save us.

If I'd realised Brian's room

was this much bigger
than mine at the time...

There would have been hell to pay!

Yes, this was bigger
than Roger's room, yeah.

♪ Fantastic, c'est la vie
mesdames et messieurs... ♪

It really was a job of work.

I remember we utilised
the various rooms

about what is basically
an old farmyard.

♪ Duh, duh, do-do, do-do
do, do, do, do, do... ♪

This is definitely not
on a par with Brian's.

One of the key memories I have is

we were all sitting up one Saturday
night with nothing better to do

than watch A Night At The Opera
by the Marx Brothers.

We were big Marx Brothers fans.

- I think it's a nicer room.
- Relatively opulent, his was.

Kitchen...
It's got a door and everything!

We'd been thinking of things
to call the album, etc, etc.

Then suddenly it was there right in
front of us - A Night At The Opera.

♪ As a matter of fact
So tres charmant, my dear

♪ Underneath the moonlight... ♪

This is in a rather sad state.

This is the desk, actually,
Bohemian Rhapsody

and the rest of A Night At The Opera
was recorded on.

Missing its guts, some of which
are still in use in the studio.

I still enjoy hearing

A Night At The Opera
as an album all the way through,

cos that's the way it was designed,

and Bohemian Rhapsody is the jewel
in that crown, if you like.

♪ Sensational seaside
rendezvous... ♪

Years before The Darkness
were even born!

After two weeks, Queen left
Rockfield and went to London,

where they finished Bohemian
Rhapsody and the rest of the album.

You know
something special's going on.

I've got this little phrase

where there are two
feelings in your body -

you've got a feeling in your head
and a feeling in your tummy.

The feeling in you head is the one

that fools you all the time
and teases you.

But there's a feeling in the pit
of your stomach that you know

when something's right or wrong, and
this was just something fantastic.

Absolutely fantastic. Seminal.

When the album was finished,
they had to decide on a single.

At six minutes long, though,
Bohemian Rhapsody was a huge gamble.

♪ Is this the real life...? ♪

I remember Brian brought a rough
mix of Bohemian Rhapsody

round to my flat in London.

He says, "This is going
to be the new single."

And... he put it on.

And, I think as everybody else
he must have played it to said,

"You ain't got a hope in hell
of getting this played on radio!"

Seven minute long!

♪ I'm just a poor boy... ♪

I had an acetate of it and I
played it to a couple of people,

one of whom was Elton John.

And I played it to him and he said,

"Are you fucking mad?"

But Queen had a powerful ally.

We invited Kenny Everett along,
and he listened to it,

and he said, "That's wonderful,
that's great!

"They should have a new position.

"It shouldn't be one, it should be
a position above that, like half.

"And that's where it should be.
It should be half."

And we gave him a copy and we said,

"Whatever you do, you can't
play this." And he said,

"OK, I won't play it," and winked.

And them that following weekend,
he played it, like, 14 times

on his radio, Capital, show.

The choice was made

but Queen were about to go on tour

and, anyway, they couldn't
perform the opera section live,

so they had to make a video.

I have to say, the main reason
we made it was cos

we didn't want to go
on Top Of The Pops.

Not because we didn't
like the programme,

but we didn't feel comfortable
standing around sort of... miming

in a rather unfamiliar situation.

We wanted to make our own vehicle.
Plus we knew we'd be on tour

and if it was in the charts, we
wouldn't be able go in there anyway.

We were actually signed
to a company called Trillion

that was an independent outside
broadcast unit for sports for ITV.

And we suddenly thought, "Why
don't we use one of their trucks,

"get their cameras into Elstree?"

where we were rehearsing,
and we'd film it.

"We'll put it
on this video tape stuff."

♪ Now I'm here, now I'm here... ♪

The band called in Bruce Gowers,

who directed a film of Queen's 1974
concert at London's Rainbow Theatre.

He didn't know then, but making
the Bohemian Rhapsody video

would change his life forever.

He's now the director of America's
biggest show, American Idol.

There was a call from the band,
from Freddie and the group,

and we got together and
talked about making a video,

which weren't called videos
in those days,

it was called a pop promo.

We had the idea of bringing
the cover of Queen II to life.

That was our favourite image of us.

♪ And the light of the night
burned bright... ♪

This cover shot was taken
by photographer Mick Rock

18 months before.

He'd been inspired by a picture
of the actress Marlene Dietrich,

which he'd showed to Freddie.

He loved it immediately.

He then went and worked on the group
and, OK, cool, Marlene Dietrich.

Freddie wanted to be Marlene

and he was determined
that should go down.

The whole band was always involved

in the discussion and the end result

so it was a co-operative
to that extent,

but there was but one leader.

Just sit there for a sec.
Which one do you want?

Try being Freddie for the moment.

So how did they actually achieve
the Bohemian Rhapsody look?

There. That's good.

How's that? Down again.

OK and up again. That's it.

We tracked down the team
who shot the video.

Cameraman Barry DODD and
floor manager Jim McCutcheon

were sent to Elstree Studios
to shoot the video.

They had no idea they were about to
become part of pop music history.

They'd been in there
rehearsing their tour.

And what a better to rehearse
a tour than in a film studio

which is the size of a hangar
and soundproofed,

where the roadies come in,
build the stage,

build the lighting rig,
build the sound rig?

But then they wanted
to create a video

of one of the numbers
that they'd done.

Get the boys in, shall we?

They had a very analytical
approach to everything.

They knew exactly where we were
going with what we were doing.

Take your positions, please.

Stand by with the smoke.

Here, using the Queen
tribute band GaGa,

Barry and Jim show us
how they did it.

I got to Elstree about
7.00 in the evening.

Everything was lit, everything
was organised and ready to shoot.

We started shooting about 7.15.

- Ready, Barry?
- I think so, James.
- Let's have a took at it.

Lose the top lights, please.
Back lights up.

Let's have some smoke, please.

And roll the track, please.

Five, four, three, two, one, music.

♪ Is this the real life...? ♪
Stand by, cross fade.

♪ ..Is this just fantasy?

♪ Caught in a landslide

♪ No escape from reality... ♪
Cross fade. Up you come.

♪ ..Open your eyes... ♪

And we lit the four faces and
we put the cameras on them.

That was all done beforehand

in one corner of this big studio,
this big stage.

It was later that we got on
to the rock and roll thing but

what a lot of people
probably don't know is

it was all shot in the same area.

♪ I see a little silhouetto of a man

♪ Scaramouch, Scaramouch
Will you do the fandango?

♪ Thunderbolt and lightning
Very, very frightening me

♪ Galileo, Galileo, Galileo,
Galileo, Galileo, Figaro... ♪

What we did to get the echo effect
on the "magnifico",

we have a second camera
looking at a monitor,

and you get feedback,
just the same as audio feedback,

you get video feedback.

So the vision mixer just opens
the fader as he sings that line

and you get this feedback
that trails across.

♪ I'm just a poor boy... ♪

In those days,
the technology was good,

but a lot of the effects,
we had to create ourselves.

We used a thing like this.

This is similar to the one we used.
It's a multi-facet lens.

We held this in front of the camera

to achieve the multiple images
that we see.

♪ Thunderbolts and lightning,
very, very frightening me... ♪

In those days, that was special
effects. Sort of laughable now.

It was make it up as you go along.

♪ Spare him his life
from this monstrosity... ♪

BRUCE GOWERS:
We finished shooting around 10.30.

That was the choral element
and the rock and roll element.

Then we all hightailed
down to the pub.

When we came to edit, there
was a rush to get it completed

because we were trying to
get it aired, I think,

the week of shooting,
on Top Of The Pops.

♪ No, no, no, no, no, no... ♪

So we cut it in maybe four hours,
five hours, something like that.

And as soon as it was done,
it was shipped off to the Beeb.

♪ For me, for me, for meeeee... ♪

Stop the tape, please.

I remember distinctly seeing the
first rough cut that Bruce brought

to show us when we were on tour,

sitting around this
little telly watching it.

We all laughed very heartily,

saying, "It's really funny,
it's really great."

Slightly kitsch...

..but it seems
to bring the song to life.

The video took less than four hours
to film and cost just £4,500.

♪ Is this the real life?

♪ Is this just fantasy...? ♪

It aired on Top Of The Pops for
the first time in November '75.

It was unforgettable,
a seminal moment in music history.

I remember the Bohemian Rhapsody
Queen thing being, like, a rarity.

Something that, "Oh, my God, stop
everything! It's the Queen video!"

♪ I'm just a poor boy

♪ I need no sympathy... ♪

I remember watching the video

and thinking, "Oh, my God!
What is this?!"

♪ A little high, little low

♪ Any way the wind blows... ♪

It just shocked people.
"Wow, look at this!",

especially those multi-images

when the big choir
was singing and all that.

Nobody had ever done anything
like that before.

It was just brilliant.

The video turned Queen and Freddie
Mercury into household names,

much to the delight
of their families.

Well, it was completely
a different thing for us to watch.

In those days, they used to
perform live on Top Of The Pops,

but this video came out and
everybody was excited about it.

And the way he sang,
especially his costumes!

I remember when Freddie
came to visit us

for a few days and stayed over.

We thought we'd take him
to York for the day.

All we saw was a crowd
of these schoolchildren

coming faster and faster towards us
and in the end

we had to run the opposite way.

And then I realised, "My God, he's
being recognised by just everybody!"

I went to the shops
and I was very excited.

They were all round the shops,
Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen.

I got one and I was
so pleased with myself

that I'm buying my son's
first number one record.

♪ Goodbye, everybody... ♪

We were in Southampton,
playing a concert in our tour.

I remember my mother
was there visiting.

I got a phone call in the morning
saying we were number one.

I just remember going
down to breakfast and going,

"Guess what, Mum. We're number one!"

It was great. It was fantastic!

Of course, it hurts me now
when I hear the song. It hurts.

♪ Any way the wind blows... ♪

Bohemian Rhapsody went on to sell

more than two million copies
in the UK alone.

It sold millions more
all over the world.

It's highly collectable. Get your
hands on one of these, though,

and you're sitting on
a small fortune,

just like Queen's longest-serving
roadie, Peter Hince.

This is number 195 and, yeah,

the most collectable record in the
world, apparently. Very valuable.

What's it worth? I think it's about
two and a half to three grand.

Given to me by my mate Fred.

Thank you, Fred. It'll probably buy
a hearing aid which I'm sure,

after listening to all that
bloody noise all those years,

I'll need quite soon,
so thank you very much.

Some of the music press, however,

didn't think Bohemian Rhapsody
was worth a single penny.

In Melody Maker, they decided
the song had all the demented fury

of the Balham Amateur
Operatic Society

performing The Pirates Of Penzance.

Meanwhile, in America the song only
reached number nine in the charts.

Most people there didn't
know what to make of it.

There's a sense
with Bohemian Rhapsody,

it's almost
the quintessential example

of the kind of thing that doesn't
exactly go over well in America.

It may have captured the hearts
of the record-buying public,

but it had also captured
their imagination.

What on earth did it all mean?

"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

"I'm easy come, easy go
A little high, a little low

"Any way the wind blows
doesn't really matter to me."

So does anybody know
what the lyrics are about?

We went to Oxford University

to ask some of the most brilliant
literary minds in the country.

At the start, it says,
"Is this the real life?

"Is this just fantasy?" Finding out
what the fantasy is about and means

is one of the problems in
understanding the whole thing.

The more you know about the
personality of who wrote it...

..a man, I think,
between cultures...

..between, if you like, selves,
presiding over several selves

several kinds of sexual identities
and proclivities and habits,

and also, Africa, India, London...

It's a story that no matter how many
times you tell it to yourself,

you think, "What on earth
is it about?"

You can listen to it over and over.

It's like a sweet lady woman
because you try to fathom it...

But you'll never understand it.

Yeah, and you'll never need
to understand it.

The bottom line is you love it.

"Mama, just killed a man

"Put a gun against his head
Pulled my trigger, now he's dead."

Just killed a man? No, you haven't.

Put a gun against his head? No.

What you've done is taken a nice
sounding rhyme from a Beatles song -

"Got up outta bed
Dragged a comb across my head..."

That's what you're doing.
You're inhabiting a world of,

actually, in some ways, rather...

I did read somewhere that you were
the only person that knew what

the song was about and you'd
carry that secret to the grave.

- I read that as well!
- Not true?

Well... I know what it means.

I don't think it's that difficult.

I think it's fairly
self-explanatory.

There's just a bit of nonsense
in the middle.

"Too late, my time has come

"Sends shivers down my spine

"Body's aching all the time
Goodbye, everybody

"I've got to go."

Shivers, aching, all sorts of more
or less sexual sensations going on.

Indeed, the structure of the lyrics
traces a kind of sexual rhythm.

It ends up post-coitally,
not in some nihilistic position,

but simply in a state of careless,
indifferent, post-coital exhaustion.

"I see a little silhouetto of a man

"Scaramouch, Scaramouch
Will you do the fandango?

"Thunderbolt and lightning
Very, very frightening me

"Galileo, Galileo, Galileo, Galileo
Galileo, Figaro, magnifico

"I'm just a poor boy
Nobody loves me..."

"Scaramouch, Scaramouch.
Do the fandango." Brilliant words!

Who'd use Scaramouch in a pop song?

Galileo.
Renaissance scientist, astronomer.

There's no reason for
Galileo to be here.

Figaro - The Marriage Of Figaro,
perhaps. Mozart?

Magnifico - it's there because it
sounds like Figaro,

which sounds like Galileo.

"Mama, I killed a man." Wow!

OK, I'm there. What happened?

"Nothing happened! We all
went off singing nonsense!

"Scaramouch, can you do
the fandango?" No!

"Easy come, easy go
Will you let me go?

"Bismillah!
No, we will not let him go!

"Let him go! Bismillah!
We will not let him go! Let him go!

"Bismillah! We will not let him go!

"Let him go! Will not let you go!"

Here you have a grab-bag of cultural
allusions that may link together.

We can make them link together,

but if we do, that says more
about us than the song.

I think so. It may be just sound.

What would Freddie think of us
saying all this about his poem?

- He wouldn't mind.
- "Fuck off."

He'd be absolutely delighted
that Oxford University

are talking about it.
Fucking delighted!

Presenting A Night At The Opera,
ladies and gentlemen, this is Queen!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

♪ We are what we are... ♪

As the world pondered the meaning
behind Mercury's lyrics,

Queen crowned their year with
their single and album at number one

and a Christmas Eve concert
at London's Hammersmith Odeon.

I just loved this band.
I thought they were terrific.

They were fantastic live!

They were amazing live!

They could really play
and they were dynamic

and they had fabulous energy
on stage.

♪ When you shook my hand... ♪

That fabulous year they had,

culminating in the Whistle Test
special at Hammersmith Odeon.

Again, this is celebration time.

Now we're gonna do a nice,
tasty little medley for you.

Just like the one
we did the other day, yes.

We'll start with a segment from
a number called Bohemian Rhapsody.

CROWD CHEER

♪ Mama... ♪

Bohemian Rhapsody
stayed at number one

until the end of January
the following year.

It was to take an extraordinary song
from an extraordinary band

to knock it off the top.

♪ Mama Mia

♪ Here I go again

♪ My, my, how can I resist you?

♪ Mama Mia
Does it show again...? ♪

We never suspected we'd nudge Queen
off the top,

but to release Mama Mia
was an obvious thing

because it had been such
a big hit in other territories.

The fact that the words "mama Mia"

are included in
Bohemian Rhapsody as well...

..it's... just coincidence.

♪ Just one look and
I can hear a bell ring... ♪

When I first heard
Bohemian Rhapsody on the radio,

I thought it was pretty
phenomenal and fantastic.

I loved it from the word go
and so did Benny and the girls.

Bohemian Rhapsody went on to top
virtually every relevant poll

and continues to do so to this day.

Queen picked up
many other awards too.

Perhaps the most impressive
was this one -

The Brits Special Award

for an outstanding contribution
to British music, in 1990.

Thank you, good night.

The following year,
after Freddie Mercury's death,

the single was released again.

And guess what...

16 years later, it's number one
again, and here it is.

This is Queen and Bohemian Rhapsody
at number one.

It sold an awful lot
around the world.

I think as much again
as it had done the first time.

I suppose I'm not gonna
tell you I'm surprised.

It's a great track.

I'm sure it will have another
lease of life in another few years!

In America, though,

it would take something other
than Freddie Mercury's death

to send it to the top of the charts.

Queen's career there had nosedived

ever since they'd released a video
which Americans just didn't get.

I remember Freddie saying,

"I suppose I'll have to fucking die
before we're big in America again."

America had resisted from the days
of I Want To Break Free video,

where we dressed up in drag,
which was unforgivable.

♪ I want to break free

♪ I want to break free... ♪

But America's love affair
with Queen was eventually rekindled

and Bohemian Rhapsody became a hit
again thanks to Hollywood.

Remember this?

I think we'll go with a little
Bohemian Rhapsody, gentlemen.

Good call!

I think that scene in that movie
masculinised that song.

You know, I think it
made it OK for people.

Even though the song was a hit the
first time, it wasn't a number one.

But it became a much bigger deal
when Wayne and Garth made it OK.

♪ Beelzebub has a devil
put aside for me-e-e... ♪

I shot this thing probably
for a good ten hours.

And did it over and over
and over again.

♪ For me-e-e... ♪

And all the perfect energy came
together at the perfect time.

♪ For meeeee... ♪

It's like we all got
struck by lightning.

♪ Dun-dun-dun! ♪

Great stuff, love it!

I've been in that car, trust me,

with a couple of mates of mine
in Sheffield, I have so been there!

It's classic!

When the heavy bit kicks in
and their heads go up and down...

..I nearly wet my pants.

Mike was asking for aspirin
because his head hurt so bad!

It's great hearing
your own tracks on the radio.

If it happened and we were in the
Winnebago on tour or something,

and it came on the radio,
we'd all be head-banging to it,

and just sort of enjoying
the moment.

I guess Wayne's World were closer
to the mark than even they realised.

Hello, everybody. Feeling good?

Are you ready to rock?

AUDIENCE CHEER
Ready to roll? OK, let's do it!

Even today, Queen's music lives on.

More than a million people have seen
the band's musical We Will Rock You.

And the centrepiece of the show,

the one generations of Queen fans
want to hear more than any other...

Why, do you really need to ask?!

♪ Mama

♪ Just killed a man... ♪

I was four years old and it
was my mum's favourite song

and I thought it was brilliant.

♪ Held a gun against his head

♪ Pulled my trigger, now he's dead

♪ Mama

♪ Life had just begun... ♪

"But now I've gone and
thrown it all away, Mama, ooh."

What can you say?! It's unique!

I think it was probably...

We wondered when it was going
to finish, didn't we?
Yes!

I was quite young, but I remember
the video. Very cool video!

♪ Sends shivers down my spine

♪ Body's aching all the time... ♪

Goodbye, everybody.

I've got to go.

♪ Got to leave you all behind
and face the truth... ♪

What I remember is Wayne's World
and the two guys singing it in that

and I'll always remember that.

♪ Mama, oo-oo-ooh... ♪

Brilliant!

First time I heard it was on
the Live At Wembley video in '86.

She was playing it and I walked in
and I was like, whoa!

♪ I don't want to die

♪ I sometimes wish
I'd never been born at all

♪ Scaramouch, Scaramouch
Will you do the fandango?

♪ Very, very frightening me

♪ Galileo, Galileo

♪ Galileo, Galileo

♪ 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.
- ♪ Will not let you go. Never!

- ♪ Let me go-o-o-o-o-o! ♪
- 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... ♪

♪ So you think you can stone me
and spit in my eye?

♪ So you think you can love me
and leave me to die? ♪

I've had moments thinking,

"Oh, God, I'll never get away
from Bohemian Rhapsody,"

but when I hear the thing I still
smile and I still feel proud,

and it doesn't really date.

♪ Just gotta get
right outta here... ♪

You can't guess that
something will grab the country,

and eventually a lot of other
countries, as much as that did.

We were surprised at
the longevity of the record...

..but delighted,

hence our infinite faith
in the taste of the public.

And that's it. All you ever wanted
to know about Bohemian Rhapsody,

and more, save for some choice
words from the man who wrote it.

FREDDIE: As far as our music
is concerned,

people should just listen
to it and discard it.

That's what people do.
Wait for the next one.

Bohemian Rhapsody always comes back,

but, as far as I'm concerned,
all those days are over,

that era's over,
that type of music is now over

and I don't wish to even think
about it or write about it.

♪ Nothing really matters

♪ To-o-o-o meeeee

♪ Any way the wind blo-o-o-ws. ♪

That's it.
I don't know any more chords!