#17 Queen Bohemian Rhapsody (1975) I know what youre thinking: Queen has better songs than Bohemian Rhapsody. It was the first song I ever heard by them and I was completely obsessed with it when I was 9 years old. It is so near and dear to my heart that I completely hated the bit in Waynes World. Sure, Ive probably sang along to it in that fashion before, when I was alone. If someone tried to get me to join them in a sing-a-long, I would tell them to get out of the car. Even if it was their car! Seriously though (yes I was joking....or was I?), I know Mike Myers loves it and Queen got a kick out of it, but I thought it was dumb. Long before I saw that scene, or even Queens performance clip, all I had were my ears and the lyrics printed on a gatefold sleeve. My dad picked up A Night at the Opera and Thin Lizzys Jailbreak (I was crazy about both Rhapsody & The Boys Are Back In Town) on the same day for me. I listened and read the lyrics to Opera over and over. Rhapsody cast a magical spell on me. Ive always heard certain pieces of music with a cinematic visualization in my head, and this was the ultimate cinematic song. The first half of the song, which is about as good of a power ballad as there ever was and has one of the greatest guitar solos, tells the story of a man who has committed a deadly sin and hes crying out for the one person wholl give him sympathy, his mother. At least thats how I interpreted it since he keeps saying Mama. It always sounded like something from Shakespeare or a western to me. I pictured the guy singing it with a rope around his neck. Then theres the opera part. Ive imagined this part to be animated, not unlike Disneys Fantasia. I didnt understand the words really, but was fascinated by it. About a year after the song came out, I got to go see Pavarotti perform Rigoletto. Had it not been for the song, I might have been bored, but instead I loved it. For the third part of the song, aka the rockin part, I just pictured the band, kind of the way they looked in the video. I guess Im taking it all too seriously. I heard Dave Grohl say on TV the other night that everyone has a song or some music that they form a personal relationship with, and of course hes right (cmon, hes Dave Grohl). Sometimes when I hear Rhapsody it just passes me by, and other times I totally lock into it, transporting myself back to a time when the vision of dorks singing along to it in a car doesnt ruin it for me.
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 12:37:02 +0000
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