Freddie Mercury’s Bohemian Rhapsody unique title found in unseen lyrics
Earlier this yr Freddie Mercury’s former lover, to who he left half his property, introduced she could be auctioning off treasured private objects owned by the Queen singer from his Garden Lodge residence.
Alongside iconic costumes like his crown and gown are never-before-seen handwritten lyrics to a few of his band’s greatest hits.
Now for the primary time, followers can see his artistic scribbles earlier than they go on show at Sotheby’s in New York forward of being auctioned off in September.
They embrace Don’t Stop Me Now, Somebody to Love, We Are the Champions and, after all, Bohemian Rhapsody.
In reality, notes for the latter reveal that Freddie had one other title and lyrics in thoughts for the colossal world hit.
READ MORE: Freddie Mercury – Bohemian Rhapsody’s music video was a happy accident
Sotheby’s shared: “Written in black and blue ballpoint pen and pencil, this early draft for Bohemian Rhapsody encompasses all sections of this most ambitious of Queen hits, one of the most globally beloved and streamed songs – with almost four billion streams across Spotify and YouTube alone – and the third best-selling UK single of all time. As with many of the lyrics held within this collection, the draft text is written across 15 pages of stationery from the now-defunct British Midland Airways.
“Revealing untold insights into other possible directions the song could have taken, one page reveals that Mercury originally planned to call the song Mongolian Rhapsody, before crossing out Mongolian and replacing it with Bohemian – rhythmically similar but with a different resonance.
“On another page, we are presented with an alternative to the famous second verse ‘Mama, just killed a man.’ Instead, a completely different wartime narrative is presented, ‘Mama, There’s a war began, I’ve got to leave tonight.’ A third page, focusing on the operatic section of the piece, is completely covered in a burst of words and phrases: ‘Galileo,’ ‘Fandango,’ ‘Scaramouche’ and ‘Thunderbolts and lightning’ are all on there, but so are other words that were never used: ‘Matador,’ ‘Belladonna.’”
Dr Gabriel Heaton, Sotheby’s Books & Manuscripts Specialist, commented: “Thanks to the sheer complexity of the music to Bohemian Rhapsody, and especially its unusual and varied structure, the song rests especially heavily on its lyrics to lend its coherence. In these pages we see Freddie Mercury wrestling in grand operatic terms with profound themes – sin, damnation, stoic acceptance – and witness the great efforts he goes to pinpointing precisely the right words to embody these emotions and to create the most extraordinary narrative. Quite unlike anything that had been released before, Bohemian Rhapsody was the band’s greatest risk, which swiftly became their greatest hit.”
Penned by Freddie in 1974, the handwritten working lyrics to Bohemian Rhapsody are anticipated to be auctioned off for £800,000-£1.2 million.
To discover out extra in regards to the public sale and exhibitions of Freddie Mercury: A World Of His Own, click here.