19 October

There are two mysteries about Bohemian Rhapsody (the song). What’s it about? And what is it - what sort of music? The consensus on the first answer (only the band know) seems to be that it was Freddie Mercury writing about accepting his sexuality. But the second mystery I don’t see much talked about - there’s an assumption it’s rock-opera, or mock-opera (a bit of a laugh). I don’t think it’s either of those things, and that was part of Mercury’s genius. Bo Rhap is like most Queen, sometimes they get called eclectic, but that would make them just imitators of genres. To me their genre, a bit like the Beatles, was the radio they grew up with, where they heard a bit of everything. Their music is the music of young people who grew up in that way, as one big melting pot. Their tradition is the tradition of all genres, as one seamless whole. In this way I also see The Beatles and Queen as part of the origin of modern mash-ups too.