To celebrate the 50th anniversary of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Queen has released a special, five-part new installment of their series The Greatest exploring the musical evolution that led to one of their most iconic songs.
The first episode, “The Path to Bohemian Rhapsody,” premieres today, October 31, on Queen’s official YouTube channel. The series joins past episodes of Brian May and Roger Taylor’s series covering their origins, their famous Live Aid show and more—like other installments in the series, it features exclusive interviews with May and Taylor.
While “Bohemian Rhapsody” shocked the music industry with its creative and technical complexity, as May and Taylor tell it, the song represented a natural progression rather than a radical departure. “It didn’t feel that way from the inside,” May explained. “You’ve only got to look at the first album, with ‘My Fairy King’.”
May identifies “My Fairy King,” a track off Queen’s 1973 debut, as an early indicator of the direction Freddie Mercury’s songwriting would take—piano-based with complex mood changes and fantasy-minded lyrics. Taylor also points to “March of the Black Queen” from 1974’s Queen II as an even more direct precursor. “It’s a lot more complicated in many ways than ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’” Taylor said, highlighting the track’s numerous sections and elaborate vocal arrangements.
Finally, the founding guitarists cited “The Fairy Feller’s Masterstroke,” another Queen II track featuring intricate contrapuntal elements and six-part harmonies, as an early ancestor to “Bohemian Rhapsody.” “It’s incredibly complicated,” Taylor noted. “It’s a nice, interesting track in its eccentric over-elaboration.”
May also mused on Mercury’s unpredictable creative process, sharing: “You didn’t know where Freddie was coming from. He comes in and goes ‘there’s this bit, and there’s another bit we’ll do, and there’s the operatic section.’ You either dive in, and the whole Queen machine swings into action.”
The “Bohemian Rhapsody”-focused series continues weekly throughout November. In addition to the commemorative series, the band will reissue the track as 7”, 12” and cassette single. They’ve also shared a new vinyl edition of The Night At The Opera, the 1975 album “Bohemian Rhapsody” appeared on.
Order Bohemian Rhapsody here and A Night at the Opera here.
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