Hello my people, I hope you are all super well, today I bring you an editorial about one of the most legendary songs of rock music, and the world, covered by a thousand artists, a song that became an icon for pop culture, and has transcended generations, and will continue to do so, because it is undoubtedly a work of art. Performed by one of the most incredible bands on the planet as is QUEEN, and especially the voice of one of the best voices in the world, we speak of course of Freddy Mercury. I hope you like this editorial today.
Disc:A Day At The Opera.
Year:1975.
Grandiloquent, risky... but nothing that was not within the reach of the majestic British band and its no less unattainable leader. Not even the Beatles could surpass it in the Guinness Book of Records polls among the English as Britain's favorite song. Everything is so exciting in this song, so unique, so full of life, of overcoming, of energy.
Freddy Mercury had the talent to allow himself to be ambitious enough to record one of the most expensive albums in history at the time and compose a superb operatic-influenced track to be released as a single. A commercial suicide that in Freddie's hands was just another act of conviction in his enormous communicative power and his tremendous musical worth.
Queen was not yet a sufficiently important and consolidated band for the company to decide to bet on the audacity of releasing a single of more than seven minutes long, full of changes of rhythms and intensity, ups and downs that went from the intensity of a pure hard rock riff to delicate passages with the piano as the protagonist, and ecclesiastical glam choruses.
But Mercury had, without knowing it, an ace up his sleeve, he had given a copy of the single to his friend Kenny Everett, a disc jockey who, overwhelmed by its impact, did not hesitate to radio the song endlessly on the British airwaves. In only two days the song was played fourteen times, and the public went crazy.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” hit number one on the charts and stayed there for nine weeks, a record that extended to America, where it was the band's first top 10 hit, beginning the group's reign on both sides of the ocean. The top of the pops, a famous English television program, was the launching pad for any self-respecting group seeking stardom.
But Queen had already been born to woo the masses. Instead of going to the plate to perform their surprise hit, they decided to shoot a video for it, as the song was too complex and intricate to be faithfully reproduced live. The result was a pioneering music video, the first of its kind in history, and one that would set the standard from then on when it came to recording images to promote songs.
The one for “Bohemian Rhapsody” was an innovative turning point; for the first time the image assaulted the viewer before the music. The faces of Queen's members emerged from the shadows and from there a variety of camera effects and lenses achieved a result in keeping with the epic beat of the song. A deliciously privileged voice sang with feeling and delicacy, a bombastic operatic chorus gave way to an explosion of rock jubilation...the assault on the world of Queen had begun.
From that moment on, they would never cease to be one of the most popular and powerful bands on the planet. And “Bohemian Rhapsody” would give them nothing but satisfaction. In 1991, after Freddy Mercury's death, it was re-released as a single and became again number one in the English charts. A year later, its use in the comedy “Wayne's World” would make it famous among a new generation of audiences, who smilingly watched the scene in which the giddy protagonists of the film spasmodically moved their heads to the sound of Brian May's impeccable guitar solo while it was playing on their car radio. It was the best example that it would never go out of fashion and would always keep its triumphant flavor, the inexhaustible vital spark of a Mercury in a state of grace.
I hope you like this editorial and without further ado, enjoy this great topic. A thousand blessings and see you in a new post with more legendary rock songs.
