What is BohRhap about?

ThomasQuinn wrote: Boh Rhap is about six minutes.

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ZING!

Well what I know from the interviews is that Roger claims that he knows what the Bohemian... is about and regarding Freddie, he said that he didn't like to be asked about the meaning. I will post the video sources later.

Thistleboy 1980 wrote: GF, just my theory - I'm not saying I'm correct or that it's based on hard evidence, it's just my theory.  It's all open to interpretation, but if I was asked the same question day-in-day-out for about six hundred years, I'd eventually just say "yeah, you're right" just for a quiet life.  People will take what they want from a song - It may be about his sexuality, it may be an elaborate piece of fiction or it may be a vivid recollection of a dream.  Either could be correct, but we'll never know for certain.  personally I think it's been over-analysed.
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I don't think they are in fact asked the question day in an day out, and the statements they have both made on the song are not of the 'yeah you're right' variety anyway.  They're actually pretty deliberate, not always in response to any particular question and sometimes a little coy. It's clear that they believe they know what was on Fred's mind, and though they don't want to directly break any trust around the song, they're also comfortable facilitating the fairly obvious conclusion for people.  This is particularly true for Roger. 

Nobody more than Fred would want people to take away whatever they wanted from the song. Like many great songs it seems structured to do just that.  But like Roger I think it's self evident that among the stories the song could tell was Freddie's own, perhaps told for himself or told for posterity for another time.

I always think Roger is being a bit mischievous when he talks about the meaning of Bo Rap, as if there is no real meaning to it, and he's having a bit of a laugh at our expense. When it was named Song of the Century, there was a docunntary about it wherein a group of English Literature academics pondered the meaning of the song. They said, basically, the lyrics had no consistant meaning. I tend to agree, although the first sections can be read as a commentary on 'coming out' and discovering his sexuality. The best chance of making sense of it is to find some interviews from 1975-76, when the band might have been a littke less guarded about what it means.

If you want to know about the meaning of lyrics, just watch the Making of One Vision video and you´ll find out that on many ocassions it's just the band sitting on a desk throwing out random ideas and filling gaps with poetic licenses.

Freddie: I'm stuck. Got the line 'send shivers down my spine' and what else?
Brian: How about 'feeling crazy all the time'?
Roger: or 'holding titties with my hands'?
John: or 'body's aching all the time'?
Freddie: Bingo!

And that's that. No more mysteries. It's not about the meaning that the author wanted to give to the song but the meaning the listeners actually hear. That's why sometimes the writer himself ain't sure about what he wanted to say. But fans are always hunting hidden messages here and there. It keeps the magic up. The day Freddie (or anybody else) gives out the definitive meaning on BoRhap, that'll be the day it'll stop appealing new listeners. Nobody pays the magician to see a trick they already know.

This is the clip that has the bit about the analysis by the academics and one of Roger's comments - it's from 'The Story of Bohemian Rhapsody'.  It always possible I suppose that Roger is having us on, but given the status of Bo Rhap and it's significance to the legacy of their dead bandmate it wouldn't be my first instinct.  He's pretty cheeky in this clip, but there is at least one other one where I recall him being more serious and spontaneous.  I can't remember precisely where I saw it.  Commentary on Rock Montreal perhaps?  Not sure. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXjPfQQGF8Q&feature=related Funnily, I think that the farther away we get from 1975 the more likely we would be told of a specific meaning if one exists. Particularly if it was indeed the loosely recounted story of self discovery around his sexuality.  The rest of the band wouldn't even have been in the loop for a few more years.

my grandad use to sing bo rap alot, he still dose now

but he says its about a guy who kills another guy then gets sent to prison then to be hung then goes to hell, cheerful hey?

Lifetime, sounds like your granddad views it as sonmehing like an old murder ballad, like "Tom Dooley" or "Stagger Lee," which is cool.