Since it’s a big holiday today here in the states and many of us will be indulging in excess it seemed only fitting to pull this oldie but goodie out of the cobwebs:
The single was accompanied by what is generally cited as a groundbreaking music video (then termed a “promotional video”) which helped establish the visual language of the modern music video.
The song is in the style of a stream-of-consciousness nightmare, and has a very unusual musical structure for a piece of popular music (it has no chorus, instead consisting of various seemingly disjunct sections including operatic segments and an a cappella and heavy metal part). Despite this, it was released as a single and became a huge commercial success.
However when the band released a Greatest Hits cassette in Iran a leaflet in farsi was included with translation and explanations of the lyrics. They state “Bohemian Rhapsody” is about a young man who has accidentally killed someone and, like Faust, sold his soul to the devil. On the night before his execution he calls for God in Arabic, “Bismillah,” and with the help of angels regains his soul from Shaitan[6].
