THE MASTERSTROKE

"We have been forced to make compromises before, but cutting up a song will never be one of them."

Bohemian Rhapsody was something that I'd wanted to do for a long while, actually. It wasn't something I'd given much thought to on previous albums, but I just felt that when it came to the fourth album I was going to do it.

It was really three songs and I just put them together. I'd always wanted to do something operatic, something with a mood-setter at the start, going into a rock type of thing that completely breaks off into an opera section - a vicious twist - and then returns to the theme. I don't really know anything about opera myself, just certain pieces. I wanted to create what I thought Queen could do on that theme. I wasn't trying to say that it was authentic opera, certainly not - it's no pinch of Magic Flute. I wasn't saying I was an opera fanatic and I knew everything about it, I just wanted it to be opera in that rock'n'roll sense. Why not? It was as far as my limited capacity could take me.

I like to think that we've come through rock'n'roll, call it what you like, and there are no barriers. It's open, especially now, when everybody's putting their feelers out and wanting to infiltrate new territories. That's what I've ' been trying to do for years. Nobody's incorporated ballet. I mean, it sounds so outrageous and extreme, but I know there's going to come a time when it’s commonplace. It's something I'll try, and if it doesn’t work, well it doesn't work. I'll try something else.

Rhapsody needed a lot of thought, it didn't just come out of thin air. Certain songs require that sort of pompous flair. I had to work like crazy. I just wanted that kind of song. I did a bit of research. Although it was tongue-in-cheek and it was mock opera, I still wanted it to be very much a Queen thing. I'm really pleased about the operatic thing. I wanted to be outrageous with vocals because we're always being compared with other people, which is very stupid. If you really listen to the operatic part there are no comparisons, which is what we wanted.

You want some trade secrets? Ok. It was quite a mammoth task actually, as it was done in three definite sections and just pieced together. Each one required a lot of concentration. The opera section in the middle was the most taxing because we wanted to re-create a huge operatic harmonies section between just the three of us - Brian, Roger and myself singing. That involves a lot of multi-tracking and things. I think between the three of us we created a 160 to 200-piece choir effect.

There was a section of "No, no, no!" to do, that kind of escalating thing, where we just sat in there going "No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" about 150 times. Those were the days of 16-track studios. We have 24 and 32 tracks now, and even more than that. We did so many overdubs on the 16 tracks for that song, we just kept piling it on and on, that the tape went transparent because it just couldn't take any more. I think it snapped in two places as well.

It took a lot of work. I had everything in my mind and I made Roger, Brian and John play passages where they were saying, "What the hell is happening here?" It was things like just one chord and then a long gap, and they were saying, "This is ridiculous!" But I had it in my head what was going on around each segment. It took ages to record.

I'm going to shatter some illusions now. It was just one of those pieces I wrote for the album - just as part of writing my batch of songs. In its early stages I almost rejected it, but then it grew.

It was just a phase we were going through at the time, I think they was a lot of good timing and some luck. It was A night at the opera period [1975] and we were writing like crazy. There was so much hunger there - a push, a hunger, a constant fight, which was very healthy. We had so much that we wanted to bring out. Yes, we went a bit overboard on that album, and on most albums, actually. In certain areas we always feel that we want to go overboard. If something is worth doing, it's worth overdoing!

A lot of people slammed Bohemian Rhapsody, but who can you compare it to? Name one group who have done an operatic single. I can't think of anybody. But we didn't do an operatic single because we thought we'd be the only group to do it, it just happened.

Rhapsody was an era, it was of its time. The time was right for that track then. To be honest, if we released it today I don't think it would have been such a big hit. I'm not being modest; the feeling was right then for that kind of majestic recording. I just think that if it wasn't written and I was sitting here today, I wouldn't write it now because of my awareness of what's going on at the moment. That's why I also write things like Body Language [19 82]. I don't consider Body Language to be that much beneath Rhapsody, if you know what I mean. I think it's just as good but in different ways.

If people think because of that huge success I'm going to suddenly revert and come out with a rehash of Bohemian Rhapsody again, they're mistaken. There's no way I'm going to do that. You have to keep coming up with something fresh, keep coming up with the goods. If you can't come up with the goods when it's needed, then forget it. You can't live on your past, and I can't live on Bohemian Rhapsody all the time.

We look upon our product as songs, we don't worry about singles or albums. All we do is pick the cream of the crop. We look upon it as a whole to make sure the whole album works. With Bohemian Rhapsody we just thought that it was a very strong track and so we released it. But there were so many arguments about it. Somebody suggested cutting it because the media reckoned we had to have a three-minute single, but there is no point ill cutting it - it just doesn't work. We just wanted to release it to say that his is what Queen is all about at this stage. This is our single, and you're going to get an album after that.

The choice of single is always very difficult. There's no such thing as a sure-fire hit. I'd say something like Rhapsody was a big risk, and it worked. We started deciding on a single about halfway through making the Opera album. There were a few contenders. We were thinking of The Prophet's Song at one point, but then Rhapsody seemed to be the one.

It had a very big risk factor. The radio people didn't like it initially because it was too long, and the record companies said they couldn't market it that way. After me having virtually put the three songs together, they wanted me to slice it up again. Can you imagine? The six-minute length could have meant that radio stations would have refused to play it. People were saying, "You're mad! They'll never play it. You'll only hear the first few bars and then they'll fade it out." We had numerous rows. EMI were shocked... "A six-minute single? You must be joking!" they said. But it worked, and I'm very glad.

There were lots of talks of cutting it down to a reasonable air-playing time, but we were adamant that it would be a hit in its entirety. We have been forced to make compromises before, but cutting up a song will never be one of them. Why do that when it would be to the detriment of the song? They wanted to chop it down to three minutes but I said, "No way! Either it goes out in its entirety, or not at all. It either stays as it is, or forget it!" It was either going to be a big flop or people were going to listen to it and buy it and it would be a big hit. Luckily it became a major hit.

It's a consensus between the four of us. We have to actually fight it out. We made the right decision with Bohemian Rhapsody, but this is not to say that we were always right because we're not. It could have gone completely the other way, dears.

It was a strong song and a mammoth hit on the continent. That was really when the volcano erupted, when it suddenly just went bang! That single sold over a million and a quarter copies in Britain alone, which it just outrageous. Imagine all those grandmothers grooving to iti

A risk clement ii always involved and that's the way I like It. That's what makes good music. We've always taken risks. And that is one way of proving to people that we believe we have the confidence behind a song - we believed in it. I felt, underneath it all, that if Rhapsody was successful, it would earn a lot of respect. It was a song of extremes and I think its success or failure would have been in extremes. It certainly paved the way for us, and brought us to a much wider cross-section of the market. Actually, I think our music is becoming even more versatile, so we can please a pretty wide range of people now. And the people who have come to see us in conceit have spanned a wide age group.

We've always put our necks on the line. We did it with Queen II in 1974. On that album we did so many outrageous things that people started to say, "Self-indulgent crap, too many vocals, too much everything." But that is Queen. After Bohemian Rhapsody they seemed to realise that that was what Queen were all about. They finally got it!

People do seem to regard that song as our peak, because they just think in terms of, "How are Queen going to follow that?" But they're only looking at it in terms of sales. Yes that's one way of looking at it, but as far as I'm concerned, in terms of song writing and studio technique, we've bettered ourselves already.

People still ask me what Bohemian Rhapsody is all about, and I say I don't 1 think it loses the myth and ruins a kind of mystique that people have built up. Rhapsody is one of those songs that has a fantasy feel about it. I think people should just listen to it, think about it, and then decide for h г if what it means to them.

I hate actually trying to analyse my songs to the full. You should never ask me about my lyric». People ask, "Why did you write such and such a lyric and what does it means? I don't like to explain what I was thinking when I wrote a song. I think that' awful. That's not what it's all about.

I don't like to analyse it. I prefer people to put their own interpretation upon it – to read into it whet they like. I just sing the song. I write them and I record and produce them, and it isup to the buyer to interpret it the way that he or she feels. It's not up to us to come up with a product and label it. It would be so boring if everything was laid out and everybody knew exactly what it was all about all the time. I like people to make up their own minds. I think if I were to analyse every word, it would be very boring for the listeners and it might also shatter a few illusions.

I think that song is like a sort of lynch-pin or something for us. That's the way I see it. It suddenly opened up a new area for us. I thought, why not take it? Go with it! Suddenly you're moving at a very rapid pace. Sometimes you can move too damn fast, and I think you miss out on something that you've actually created.

Of course I'm proud of Bohemian Rhapsody in one sense. I'm proud of a lot of things. The thing I'm most proud of, of all, is the fact that I'm still around after all this time. That takes the cake to be honest!

Chapter five: part one

Date: 2015-02-03; view: 1026