The song for this week's Life in Lyrics is 'Bohemian Rhapsody' by none other than the legendary British rock band Queen whose lead singer, Freddie Mercury, died of bronchopneumonia secondary to AIDS nineteen years ago on 24 November.
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| the statue of Freddie Mercury I saw when I was in Montreux, Switzerland... |
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 (Poor boy)
I need no sympathy
Because I'm easy come, easy go
Little high, little low
Any way 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 has just begun
But now I've gone and thrown it all away
Mama, ooh
Didn't mean to make you cry
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, oooooooh (Anyway the wind blows)
I don't want to die
Sometimes wish I'd never been born at all
[Guitar Solo]
I see a little silhouetto of a man
Scaramouch, Scaramouch, will you do the Fandango
Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very frightening me
(Galileo) Galileo (Galileo) Galileo, Galileo Figaro
Magnifico-o-o-o-o
I'm just a poor boy 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 me go (Will not let you go)
Let me go (Will not let you go) (Never, never, never, never)
Let me go, o, o, o, o
No, no, no, no, no, no, no
(Oh mama mia, mama mia) Mama Mia, let me go
Beelzebub has the devil put aside for me, for me, for me!
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
Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here
[Guitar Solo]
(Oooh yeah, Oooh yeah)
Nothing really matters
Anyone can see
Nothing really matters
Nothing really matters to me
Any way the wind blows...
While many critics agreed that the song was one of the most brilliant rock masterpiece ever produced, very few have agreed on the real meanings of the lyrics. Most however agreed that the lyrics was a manifestation of Mercury's personal dilemma (albeit him personally denying it) as the release was concurrent to his realisation of his own sexuality. Despite continueing to stay in a long term-relationship with his heterosexual partner, he had started on his first homosexual relationship. You can read more about Freddie Mercury and the song if you're interested but what I gathered from the song is that it's all about how you choose to live your life and the repercussions of your own choices and the fact that you might be regretting some of those choices.
I'm not saying that Freddie Mercury deserved to die for those choices he had made. AIDS was barely known back in the 70s and condoms was all about birth control but his story should serve as a reminder that all of us have to be responsible in making our decisions. If you choose to be 'easy come easy go' depending on whatever way you choose to interpret that line, don't forget to choose to be on the safe side as well. Always choose to have safe sex and for the girls, sex involves two people so there's no reason to leave all the responsibility on your male counterparts. Either bring condoms together with you or just say no if your partner insists on not using one and this applies to both you clever men and women (I'm in no way advocating pre-marital or homosexual sex, that's for you out there to choose. I'm advocating safe sex in general)! To extend the message in relation to World AIDS Day, take the responsibility to educate yourself about AIDS. Take the responsibility to know about your own status by taking the test. Take the responsibiltity to know about your partners' status (all 10 of them if you have 10!) and encourage them to take the test. And last but not least, take the responsibility to help create more awareness about the issue.
I know Life in Lyrics is suppossed to be about songs related to my life. Maybe 'Bohemian Rhapsody' is related. Maybe it's not. What is related is the fact that I choose the path I want to walk in my life and I should bear every responsibility and the repercussions that come with my choices.
For those of the younger generations, the name Queen might not be familiar but you guys might have come across the song from Glee. Queen was well before the time I was born but the only reason I know about the band was when my siblings and I went through our uncle's CD collections that he brought back with him after studying in the UK. We sort of fell in love with 'We Are the Champions' and we kept on repeating the song for a while. Then again, who wouldn't fall in love with that song?
Anyway, here's the clip from Glee when the cast perform 'Bohemian Rhapsody' with Jonathan Groff, who is openly-gay himself, taking the lead:
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