Today’s song is 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. This a song by the British rock band ‘Queen’. It was written by the late Freddy Mercury for the band's 1975 album ‘A Night at the Opera’. It is a six-minute piece, consisting of several sections without a chorus. It has an intro, a ballad section, an operatic passage, a hard rock part and a reflective coda (coda is Italian for tail’, and represents a passage that brings a movement to an end). The song is a more accessible take on the 1970s ‘progressive rock genre’.
Upon its release as a single, "Bohemian Rhapsody" became a commercial success, topping the ‘UK Single’s Chart’ for nine weeks. It reached Number 1 again in 1991 for another five weeks when the same version was re-released following Mercury's death. It eventually became the UK's third best-selling single of all time. It is also the only song to be the ‘UK Christmas Number 1 twice by the same artists. It topped the charts in several other markets as well, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and The Netherlands, later becoming one of the best-selling singles of all time, selling over six million copies worldwide.
Although critical reaction was initially mixed, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ became Queen's most popular song and is considered one of the greatest rock songs. In 2004, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was inducted into the ‘Grammy Hall of Fame’. It also became one of the most streamed song from the 20th century.
In an interview during the band's Australian tour early in 1985, Mercury said, "It was basically three songs that I wanted to put out and I just put the three together."
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I have always loved this song and will forever consider it a preparation by the late Freddy Mercury for the day when he might not be with us and the rest of his fans. It is, for myself, a song about ‘going away’ and that is why I decided to sing my version of it so I can dedicate it today to my favourite of all nieces, Sam, who has decided to go up to Aberdeen in Scotland to live and work with her partner Mark and Sam’s two children, 12-year-old,Milly Rose and her youngest, Leon.
Ever since I have known Sam, she has always worked in the caring profession as a Health Visitor or some other similar role. She is one of three daughters (whom their father has always referred to as ‘The Terrible Three’) and has always been a fine example to her two sisters how to behave, as well as how not to behave on occasions of celebration! Like all the Forde Family, the blood of rebellion runs riotously through her veins and a downright refusal to conform to the expectations of ‘the establishment’ is stamped on her bones.
Sam is guaranteed never to climb to the top of the corporate ladder, as since she left her mother’s womb kicking and screaming at society’s injustices, her 40+ years since has largely been spent knocking the ladder of ‘superiority and privilege’ back down to the ground at every opportunity.
Have a lovely life up north Sam and I will give you one fact to leave England with as prepare to leave ‘the old country’ and ‘set foot in Scotland’. According to ‘The Barnett Formula’( a mechanism used by the United Kingdom Treasury to automatically adjust the amounts of public expenditure allocated to people living in Scotland), as soon as you place your first foot on Scottish soil, you and Mark will each be receiving (along with every other individual who lives in Scotland) over £1,500 annually more than every single tax-paying adult back in England. In short; all of us poor sods you leave here in England (including your two sisters, your parents and all your family) will be feather-nesting a cushy lifestyle for you, Mark and the children. In one move across the border, you will have instantly changed your lifelong status from ‘giver’ to ‘taker’. I hope that political fact will 'sit easy' with your socialist principles when you are asked in the future to consider voting for Scottish Independence from England?
Lots of love, Sam, and have a good life. You deserve it. From Uncle Billy and Sheila xx
Love and peace Bill xxx