This day in HISTOROCK !! Bohemian Rhapsody !!

       This day in HISTOROCK !!

                        In 1975, Queen started recording "Bohemian Rhapsody" at Rockfield studio's in Monmouth, Wales. The song ended up taking 3 weeks to record. Freddie Mercury had mentally prepared the song beforehand and directed the band throughout the sessions. May, Mercury, and Taylor sang their vocal parts continually for ten to twelve hours a day, resulting in 180 separate overdubs !! And what an AMAZING song it turned out to be! At first Queen's record company EMI didn't want to release it as a single. They said the song had no chorus, instead consisting of three main parts: a ballad segment, an operatic passage, and a hard rock section !!  And clocking in at almost 6 minutes, it couldn't be edited without destroying the integrity of the song !! That all changed after the band gave a copy to DJ Kenny Everett - who played it on his Capital Radio show in London 14 times over one weekend, eventually persuading EMI and other sceptics that the listening public could handle this incredible piece of music !! Thank you Kenny :-) "Bohemian Rhapsody" became a monster hit, staying at the top of the UK charts for nine weeks and selling more than a million copies in a couple of months !! This song has gone on to become a rock'n'roll CLASSIC !! Apparently Freddie had the idea for the song in the late 60’s when he came up with the line "Mama, just killed a man." !! A song that is almost instantly recognizable, just from the opening line or the operatic passage with chants of Galileo and Mama Mia that stick in your subconscious forever !! At the time it was the most expensive single ever made and remains one of the most elaborate recordings in popular music history !! Back in the day, they had to overdub themselves many times and "bounce" these down to successive sub-mixes. The various sections of tape containing the desired submixes had to be spliced with razor blades and assembled in the correct sequence using adhesive tape !!  WOW and today just the click of a mouse :-) Some 20,000 people bought "Bohemian Rhapsody" every day in its first three weeks, it's been #1 twice so far and it's played on a radio somewhere in the world about once an hour – every day !! Without further adieu, I give you the Freddie Mercury masterpiece, performed by Queen !! Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, No escape from reality. 

Keep on ROCKIN !!
Trike :-)