I saw a Youtube video entitled “Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody 1981 Live Video” and was ready to be impressed.
I despise the song, of course. It is the junk food of pop music, full of sugar and corn starch and whipped cream, signifying nothing more than some sophomoric masochistic self-pitying kitsch. But everybody knows about the monumental effort made recording it, multi-tracked harmonies, bombastic background vocals, and so on. Freddie Mercury has a great voice, I will admit, but the recorded song is the product of studio tricks and engineer pimps and not that of a genuine musical sensibility.
So, I have an open mind. Maybe they actually performed it creditably live. That would be something to hear. And I wouldn’t expect it to sound like the studio recording. I just thought it might be an interesting, authentic rendition, and I should give Mercury the opportunity to prove that he really does have some artistic credibility.
And of course I was disappointed. Mercury starts out playing piano and singing, the rest of the band joins in, and then he abandons the stage and the studio recording is played. Yes, the studio recording. Thousands of people just paid $100 or more each to hear Freddie play a CD. And watch him wiggle his ass on stage for a moment or two, before returning to the piano and taking over again for “nothing really matters” and the coda. Brian May appears to actually play lead guitar through this segment.
What is this crap? Seriously? What a shame-faced contemptible act of artistic cowardice.
There were options. He could have assembled a group of back-up singers. He could have arranged it for solo piano or guitar. He could have exercised some genuine artistic creativity and come up with variations, innovations, an accordion solo, kazoos, anything but this absurd disappointment.
But then, anyone who is a fan of this song won’t care.