Wednesday, June 8, 2011

"Bohemian Rhapsody": The GREATEST Rock Song in the World...

"Anyway, the wind blows..." 


Elvis Presley may be known to the world of music as the "King of Rock and Roll", but his music and songs are really NOT as cool and kickin' as Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, which in my opinion, is the greatest rock song in the world. Bohemian Rhapsody has everything. It has a storyline that makes the song concrete, a killer guitar solo, a grand blend of classical opera and modern rock and roll, blending of vocals especially to Freddie Mercury's very melodious voice that really took the song off the charts. Even today, the song is regarded by everybody as a great rock song, the "crowning achievement" of rock and roll. But makes this song a true masterpiece of the music world?


The song is about a man who happened to kill somebody by accident, then he sold his soul to the devil (like Faust). On the day of his judgement (death), he pleaded to God that he will be saved from the devil.


For me, I recognize this piece as the greatest rock song ever because the spiking rock and roll tunes, the mix of classical opera and a dash of ballad with rock and roll makes it the perfect blend pf music that you really want to hear. This has so much notoriety throughout time that it became one of the 500 Greatest Singles of All Time. It garnered so much honor that there were many tributes to Bohemian Rhapsody. It even had a "Weird Al" Yankovic parody!


Bohemian Rhapsody brings me back to the time where rock and roll was very cool and very upbeat. The song brings back to where rock lyrics are very catchy and very memorable, where the riffs were too tight, where the voices fit perfectly, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. That's when the went off the charts as it became an inspiration for future rock and roll music. In fact, it's even the best thing since their other single "Somebody to Love". If only Freddie was alive today, he would have made greater music with the rest of Queen. 


Aside from the elements of the song, the song has also clearly crossed borders in every culture. For example, in Iran, Queen was the most famous rock band known to Iranians partly due to the fact that the song has the word "Bismillah" on it, and also due to the fact that Freddie Mercury has Persian ancestry and he is very proud of it. 


Despite its long-lasting popularity throughout the history of rock music and music in general, there were some adaptations of the song that, in my opinion, were proven disastrous. I saw once an adaptation of the video played on CollegeHumor.com entitled "Brohemian Rhapsody". It's sort of a parody of the song about being in a fraternity. Now what I saw there was a disaster line that really destroyed the basic essence of the song. It was very shocking that I even saw something weird and I asked myself, "How did Jack Black get in there???!!!", now that I will never know.


However, above all else, the song was able to take the test of time and they were able to last until now when house music becomes an emerging genre. That proves why "Bohemian Rhapsody" is one of the greatest rock songs of all time because besides of its catchy tune, very tight riffs, etc. The song was able to take the test of time and was able to last for ages, proven to be a song that inspire lots of future rock musicians to make good music that make good times throughout all the people for a long, long time.

2 comments:

  1. This is the song that made me confused with its meaning. One time our teacher asked us to interpret the lyrics of Bohemian Rhapsody. I was like "What's that?". I even googled it but there were variety of interpretations that I couldn't tell which one was correct. Anyway, I must say that I am also impressed about this song. It's truly one of a kind, unique and meaningful. Plus it is a combination of different musical genre, it's truly beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It is impossible to have a top 10 or to 100 list. To be fair Category 1 songs would include BR as well as Stairway to Heaven Layla, Hotel California, and many others.
    Category 2 followed by category 3 etc.

    ReplyDelete