queen - a night at the opera

chewy

just discovered this, watched the documentary last week on the origins of bohemian rhapsody but I never ever heard of a night at the opera... I had heard of songs like "your my best friend" which im listening right to now , thanks to soulseek... but i didn't know it was part of a prog rock concept album...

its really good classic pop...

so there was another news report that queen was reforming with paul somebody , i saw him perform with queen on the british music hall of fame, (he _looks_ like a smarmy git?) but he was ok... he had a famous song and was in a band himself I can't remember the name of...

what have may and taylor done musically since queen? i know May became a astronomer etc but he must have done something musically too...?

billy the squid

Queen wont be Quen without the distinctive voice of Freddie Mercury. I havent heard that about them reforming or anything yet. will have to keep an eye out for that.

pwd

that was the first album i bought.
I'm in love with my car is a song about call boys.
heard a few songs by them which were rather more obscene than the songs they did when they got big, which were more risque. he's got your wand in his hand etc.
used to think bohemian rhapsody was about hiv...the opening lines perhaps about transmission. "put a gun against his head pulled my trigger now he's dead." Indeed I saw an interview where a guy was syaing Freddy mercury was receiving oral sex while composing the song. I think maybe is a coincidence though, and he did not know he had the virus, or didn;t have it, that early.

moshpit77

are you sure? Roger Taylor wrote that song I cant imagine him writing about call boys!

what song is the line 'wand in his hand' from?

sceptre

chewy wrote:

so there was another news report that queen was reforming with paul somebody , i saw him perform with queen on the british music hall of fame, (he _looks_ like a smarmy git?) but he was ok... he had a famous song and was in a band himself I can't remember the name of...

Paul Rodgers.

Lead singer with Free.

You'll remember "All Right Now" as the song.

They'll be playing his stuff on the tour as well so it's more "a night with Paul Rodgers and two former members of Queen (see below).

what have may and taylor done musically since queen?

Taylor had a new album a few years ago. No-one bought it. May had that song in the Ford advert, a few albums since that no-one bought and still does the odd concert and plays guitar on top of Buckingham Palace whenever invited. He didn't actually finish his astronomy PhD (started before the band took off back in the days when Saturn only had ten official moons). His doctorate of science is honorary. Deacon had the right idea, retire, mind the kids, don't turn up to any "former members of Queen go to birthday parties/open supermarkets/unveil plaques events". So much so that if this tour does happen he'll almost certainly be replaced (current rumour has Gail Ann Dorsey in his stead). Rumours (that I just made up) that he was going to finally put that first honours physics degree of his to use and open a Sky dealership proved unfounded. Incidentally it was Deacon who wrote "You're My Best Friend", one of my more favourite peppy Queen songs.

pwd wrote:

used to think bohemian rhapsody was about hiv...the opening lines perhaps about transmission. "put a gun against his head pulled my trigger now he's dead." Indeed I saw an interview where a guy was syaing Freddy mercury was receiving oral sex while composing the song. I think maybe is a coincidence though, and he did not know he had the virus, or didn;t have it, that early.

The first tests for HIV antibodies were introduced in 1985. The song came out ten years before that.

Might be worth looking out a copy of Rafael Sabatini's Scaramouche (it's out of copyright so Project Gutenberg probably has a copy) as the song is littered with references to the eponymous French aristocrat who likes sword fights, has a carefree existence and a sense that the world is mad. Presumably there's a parallel with Mercury's view of his own life as well (minus the sword fights obviously). The "do the fandango" bit references the song itself as the tempo starts slowly and increases pace to a frenzy (as with any fandangos grande dance), though fandango, as a flamenco dance has Spanish/Mexican origins so the reference doesn't quite fit in. I suppose the "bohemian" part on the title ties in with the misery faced by the main character (who assuming he's Scaramouche or an equivalent as an easy come easy go type isn't really poor (at least not financially) in a reference to the other side of the coin - Henry Murger's La Boheme, set about the same time in the poor artistic subculture of Paris), relatively recently remade as the musical Rent where one of the main characters must balance survival from AIDS with love (the original character has TB, yes, Moulin 6Rouge! completely ripped off the story as did Puccini with La Boheme).

Easy to see how one could think that Mercury was making explicit reference to his own condition and future but he almost certainly wouldn't have had the condition at the time (if he did at his death it would have easily made him the longest with-symptoms patient surviving) and certainly couldn't have known. Co-incidentally prophetic then I suppose. And a good song (well constructed, well produced, well performed), though I've always thought of it as more than a little pompous and resent the idea that I'm required to bang my head like Wayne and Garth with all the other sheep any time some wally does a karaoke version of it in a pub. I wouldn't be expected to do the Macarena if there were any Los Lobos freaks standing on a table warbling.

That's the thirty-seconds-thought deconstruction of Bohemian Rhapsody with a free rant at the end. I'm sure others could do better. Or disagree and still do better.