Murder Ballad MondayBohemian Rhapsody - Page 2
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Bohemian Rhapsody — 3 Comments

  1. Pingback:BANG BANG: POP! goes the murder ballad - Sing Out!

  2. I once sang in a production of BoRhap for Good Friday. It maps well as a passion opera too. Judas just killed a man after the kiss. The Jesus of Matthew tormented by it and wishing it would pass but finally his time has come. Pilate’s wife urging to let him go. The mixed identity. Choral scenes for the crowds. It really worked.

  3. Thanks, Ken, for this piece on “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Most persuasive to me is the argument for the influence of Camus’ The Stranger on the song, but I thoroughly enjoyed the “participation” video, and the idea of Bohemian Rhapsody as a childhood fantasy of violence. It is to violence as “Ring-around-the-Rosy” is to plague, perhaps, because even though still so strongly identified with the original artist, Freddie Mercury, the longevity and popularity of “Bohemian Rhapsody” does make it feel as though it belongs to everyone, and that is why “you can’t not sing along.”