06/03/2024
Is It a Pact with the Devil?
Why Is the Song Called "Bohemian Rhapsody"?
Why Does It Last Exactly 5 Minutes and 55 Seconds?
What Is This Song Really About?
Why Was Queen's Movie Released on October 31st?
The movie was released on October 31st because the single was first heard on October 31st, 1975. It is titled "Bohemian Rhapsody" because a "Rhapsody" is a free-form musical piece composed of different parts and themes where it seems like one part has no relation to the other.
The word "rhapsody" comes from Greek and means "stitched together parts of a song."
The word "bohemian" refers to a region in the Czech Republic called Bohemia, where Faust, the protagonist of the work bearing his name written by the playwright and novelist Goethe, was born. In Goethe's work, Faust was an elderly, highly intelligent man who knew everything except the mystery of life. Failing to understand it, he decides to poison himself.
Just then, the church bells ring, and he goes out into the street. When he returns to his room, he finds a dog that transforms into a kind of man. This is the devil Mephistopheles. Mephistopheles promises Faust a full and happy life in exchange for his soul. Faust agrees, rejuvenates, and becomes arrogant. He meets Gretchen and has a child. His wife and child die. Faust travels through time and space and feels powerful. When he becomes old again, he feels miserable once more. As he did not break the pact with the devil, angels contend for his soul.
This work is essential to understanding "Bohemian Rhapsody."
The song is about Freddie Mercury himself. Being a rhapsody, it has 7 different parts: 1st and 2nd A Capella acts 3rd Ballad act 4th Guitar solo act 5th Opera act 6th Rock act 7th "Coda" or final act
The song talks about a poor boy who questions whether this life is real or if his distorted imagination is living in another reality. He says that even if he stops living, the wind will continue to blow without his existence. So, he makes a deal with the devil and sells his soul.
Upon making this decision, he rushes to tell his mother and says...
"Mama, I just killed a man, put 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..."
The man he kills is himself, Freddie Mercury himself.
If he doesn't fulfill the pact with the devil, he will die immediately.
He says goodbye to his loved ones, and his mother breaks into tears, with tears and desperate crying that comes from Brian May's guitar notes. Freddie, frightened, cries out, "Mama, I don't want to die," and the opera part begins. Freddie finds himself in an astral plane where he sees himself: "I see a little silhouetto of a man," "Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?"
Scaramouche is a "scuffle" or dispute between armies with horseback riders (4 horsemen of the Apocalypse of evil fighting against the forces of good for Freddie's soul), and he continues, "Thunderbolt and lightning very, very frightening me."
This phrase appears in the Bible, specifically in Job 37, where it says, "the thunder and lightning frighten me: my heart pounds in my chest." Seeing his son so scared by the decision he has made, Freddie's mother pleads for his release from the pact with Mephistopheles. "He's just a poor boy... "Spare him his life from this monstrosity. Easy come, easy go, will you let him go?"
Her pleas are heard, and the angels descend to fight against the forces of evil. "Bismillah" (an Arabic word that means "In the name of God") is the first word that appears in the Muslim holy book, the Quran. So, God himself appears and shouts, "We will not let you go."
In the face of such a battle between good and evil, Freddie fears for his mother's life and says to her, "Mama mia, let me go." They shout again from heaven that they will not abandon him, and Freddie shouts, "No, no, no, no, no," and says, "Beelzebub (the Lord of Darkness) has a devil put aside for me, for me."
Freddie pays tribute here to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Johann Sebastian Bach when he sings, "Figaro, Magnifico," referencing Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro," considered the greatest opera of all time, and Bach's "Magnificat."
The most rock-oriented part follows. The devil, angry and betrayed by Freddie for not fulfilling the pact, says, "So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye? So you think you can love me and leave me to die?"
It's chilling how the Lord of Darkness feels powerless against a human being, against repentance and love.
Having lost the battle, the devil leaves, and we arrive at the final act or "coda" where Freddie is free, and that feeling comforts him. The gong that closes the song sounds. The gong is an instrument used in China and East Asia to heal people who are affected by evil spirits.
It lasts for 5 minutes and 55 seconds. Freddie liked astrology, and in numerology, 555 is associated with death, not physical, but spiritual, the end of something where angels will safeguard you. 555 is related to God and the divine, an ending that will usher in a new stage.
And the song plays for the first time on the eve of All Saints' Day. A holiday called "Samhain" by the Celts to celebrate the transition and opening to the other world.
The Celts believed that the world of the living and the dead were closely connected, and on All Saints' Day, both worlds merged, allowing spirits to cross over.
Nothing in "Bohemian Rhapsody" is coincidental.
Everything is carefully measured, worked, and has a meaning that goes beyond being just a simple song.
It has been voted worldwide as the greatest song of all time.
This song represented a radical change in Queen's career, as if they had truly made a pact with the devil; it changed their lives forever and made them immortal...
