Bohemian Rhapsody - 40 years old!

[Tony oily bike]

If you're of a certain age, you may remember hearing Bohemian Rhapsody for the first time back in 1975........

Living in an area where the transistor radio (remember them?) could pick up London's fairly new station Capital Radio 194, I heard it a lot, but it was initially championed by Kenny Everett (a DJ at the station) who played it 14 times on the first weekend.
Its reported it sold 20,000 copies every day in the first 3 weeks and is also considered to be the first ever music video (made especially for Top Of The Pops)
The video has had 175 million hits on youtube   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9rUzIMcZQ

Interesting articles from the beeb
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-34651067
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13761091


So, 40 years later (ouch!), hands up those of you of a certain age who can still be found singing along when it comes on the radio, or Wayne's World?  

All together:

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, doesn't really matter to me,
to me

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-o-o-o-oo
Didn't mean to make you cry
But 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-o-o--oo - (anyway the wind blows)
I don't want to die
I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all...

INSTRUMENTAL BRIDGE

I see a little silhouetto of a man
(Scaramouch, scaramouch will you do the fandango
Thunderbolt and lightning - very very frightening me)
Gallileo, (Gallileo),
Gallileo, (Gallileo),
Gallileo Figaro - (magnifico-o-o-o-o)
I'm just a poor boy and 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 him go
Will not let you go
Will not let you go
No, no, no, no, no, no, no no no-no-
Oh mama mia, mama mia, (mama mia let me go
Beelzebub has a devil put aside
for me
for me
for ME!

INSTRUMENTAL BREAK

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 - can't do this to me baby
I just gotta get out - just gotta get right outta here

INSTRUMENTAL BRIDGE

Ooh yeah, ooh yeah, ooh...

INSTRUMENTAL BREAK

Nothing really matters
Anyone can see
Nothing really matters
nothing really matters...
to meeee

Anyway the wind blows




Photo from EMI

[hunter]

No idea what your talking about

[spanners]

them were tha days,,

when i was young and innocent ,,

[fifer]

Outstanding song which is still winning young fans to this day .
Once heard , never forgotten .
.
.

[oldmetalhead82]

I still have my original 7 inch vinyl single, shame its not one of the rare blue vinyl ones as they are worth a few quid.

[BikerGran]

Still an anazing piece, bears no comparison at all with the rubbish that gets into the 'Top Twenty' now - no wonder they axed Top of the Pops!

[Archie]

Bohemian Rhapsody - 40 years old!

[Manky Monkey]

I've never seen Wayne's world, just that one clip.
Yup, I remember it crashing into the Pop scene when I was at secondary school, (I was 13), & my mates & I listening to it on tinny little transistor radios, trying to decipher the lyrics -40 years later I finally know what they were singing!
I was an avid Radio Luxembourg fan myself.

[merv]

I was a Radio Luxembourg fan as well, good old days

[JayJay]

Love that Wayne's World clip. I like the Alice Copper 'We are not Worthy' as well.

I was sixteen when I first heard Bohemian Rhapsody. It was 1976. I was living in the US of A at the time and the song didn't hit the charts until then over there.
JJ 

P.S. I saw Queen in November 1973 at Wolverhampton Civic Hall (I went to practically all my concerts there). They were a support band to Mott the Hoople. Wow. Who was the bloke in the weird clothes? Ok, I was already a Bowie fan so I was used to the unusual but wow, Freddie Mercury blew us away (Seven Seas of Rye). I loved Mott the Hoople but Queen stole the show.

[minimutly]

Ha, radio luxembourg under the blankets, constantly adjusting the tuning to get rid of the howling, then falling asleep...
As for Bohemian Rhaphsody, looking at the text, however did that get married to a tune?
I well recall listening to it at a friends house, over and over. The very same house ( same room in fact) I'm sat in now typing this - unreal or what??
Sigh...

[Tony oily bike]

Ahh yes, Radio Luxembourg 208............  Transistor radio with ear piece trying to keep the station tuned.

There was also Radio Caroline 319 (pirate station) which played some good sounds too. 

[Tony oily bike]

Radio Luxembourg used to sponsor some motor racing back in the day.

Think I was at this (but definitely a 208) event at Brands, and between races they paraded current pop stars around on the back of a truck - pretty cool to wee a nipper like me 

[Tony oily bike]

Radio Luxembourg 208's motor racing sponsorship included Drag Racing.

Here's a pic of one of my programmes from Blackbushe from 1975 that I was lucky enough to attend........

The pop is the infamous Al's Gasser  http://www.ukdrn.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1792

[BikerGran]

Radio Luxembourg - and the time by my H Samuel Everite is.......

Horace Bachelor - that's K - e - y - n - s - h - a - m.....   even funnier when my best mate went to live just outside Keynsham!  (she came back though cos she missed Dorset!)