226 - Queen Bohemian Rhapsody 1975

"Bohemian Rhapsody" is a song written by Freddie Mercury and originally recorded by the band Queen for their 1975 album "A Night at the Opera". The multi-part epic, “Bohemian Rhapsody” took months to construct. Beginning as piano ballad, morphing into cod-Mozart and then stomping monster rocker and back to ballad, goodness knows how the band must have felt when Mercury first unveiled it at the keyboard. The operatic section leads into an aggressive heavy metal musical interlude with a guitar riff that was written by Mercury. During group sing alongs (including a famous scene in the film "Wayne's World"), it is traditional to "headbang" during this passage. At 4:14, a double-tracked Mercury sings angry lyrics addressed to an unspecified "you," accusing him/her of betrayal and abuse and insisting "can't do this to me, baby." Three ascending guitar runs follow, which May described as something he had to "battle with" when performing the song live. Mercury then plays a similar run on the piano.