Sunday Samples 16

I had a tough time this week. There’s really very little in my music library appropriate for the occasion. The obvious selection from Pink Floyd, for instance, is clearly not in the proper spirit.

So finally I’ve settled on one of the most complicated rock songs ever, and possibly just behind “American Pie” in terms of interpreting its lyrics. Personally, I hold to the literalist reading of the ballad sections and read the rest as subtext to that main story: a man who knows enough to turn to his mother when things go horribly, horribly wrong.

From 1975’s A Night at the Opera, Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody.

[Intro]
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.

Because I’m easy come, easy go,
Little high, little low,

Anyway the wind blows, doesnt really matter to me,
To me

[Ballad]
Mama, 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.

Mama, oo-oo-ooh
Didnt mean to make you cry.
If I’m not back again this time tomorrow,
Carry on, carry on, as if nothing really matters.

Too late, my time has come.
Sends shivers down my spine,
Body’s aching all the time.
Goodbye everybody — I’ve got to go.
Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth-

Mama oo-oo-ooh (any way the wind blows)
I don’t want to die.
I sometimes wish I’d never been born at all…

[Guitar Solo]
[Opera]
I see a little silhouetto of a man.

Scaramouche, scaramouche 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.

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 (let me go!)
No, no, no, no, no, no, no!

Mama mia, mama mia,
Mama mia let me go.
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me
For me
For me…

[Rock]
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. Cant do this to me baby.
Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here.

[Outro]
Nothing really matters,
Anyone can see.
Nothing really matters,
nothing really matters to me.

Any way the wind blows….