Bohemian Rhapsody: An Exploration of Relationships, Life, and Death

Bohemian Rhapsody was written by Queen’s lead vocalist, Freddie Mercury.  It’s a strange yet wonderful song that is mysterious in its meaning.  When Freddie was asked to explain the meaning – he simply responded that it was about relationships, with a bunch of nonsense in the middle of it.  He also shared that it was originally being created as three separate songs –but he couldn’t really find a way to move forward on any of them and decided to put them all together.  And as you listen, you can sort of hear where one ends and another begins, yet they are all tied together marvelously.  In fact, it’s really his masterpiece, though he wrote a lot of other good music.

 

In trying to draw meaning from this music, I felt I first had to have a better understanding of the man, Freddie Mercury.  So, I read what I could and watched documentaries and the movie entitled Bohemian Rhapsody.  I know a whole lot now – and I thought I should begin by sharing a short summary of the life of this poet, musician, flamboyant performer, the great pretender – Freddie Mercury.

Freddie was born in 1946 in Zanzibar (off the coast of African) to Parsi-Indian parents.  They had fled there from India where the Parsi – Zoroastrians were persecuted.  Freddie, whose birth name was Farrokh Bulsara, attended English boarding schools in India from the age of eight. It was here that his friends nicknamed him Freddie and he adopted that name. At the age of 12, he formed a school rock-and-roll band. He returned to Zanzibar for secondary school. 

In 1964, his family fled the Zanzibar Revolution, moving to Middlesex, England.  Freddie studied art in college but continued an interest in music and singing.  He held several different kinds of jobs and played in some bands before presenting himself as an alternate for lead singer in the band called – The Smile – after their original lead singer left.  They changed their name to Queen at Freddie’s suggestion – and he legally changed his to Freddie Mercury.

Whether Mercury was for the element that goes up and down in the thermometer, the smallest planet, or the god – I’ll let you decide.

And the rest is the musical history that many of us know and love. Freddie fell in love with Mary Austin, but she knew before he did that he was not a straight man.  They remained very close all his life.  He had many lovers before settling down with Jim Hutton about 1985. He referred to Jim as his husband and they wore wedding bands.  On November 24, 1991, Mercury died of pneumonia resulting from AIDS at the age of 45.

Now - When you listen to Bohemian Rhapsody, you feel the message.  You may not be able to articulate it, but if you are like me, you feel the connection.  Many – including his lover Jim Hutton – believed it was a message of his coming out – before he felt he could really come out.  Listen again to these lyrics:

Mama, just killed a man
Put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger, now he's dead
Mama, life had just begun
But now I've gone and thrown it all away
Mama, ooh, didn't mean to make you cry
If I'm not back again this time tomorrow

Carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters

Many say that the man he was killing was his old self – not his authentic self.  And he’s crying out for and with his Mama.  Because his Mama would surely be disappointed.  Mercury’s family was a very tradition Zoroastrian family – and the life he wished to live authentically did not match their hopes and dreams for him.

 I do not know if that is the message that Mercury wanted to share.  But it’s a message that I deeply identify with – and I know some of you do as well. Like Freddie Mercury, I LOVE my Mama.  But I cannot be the person that she would have wanted me to be.  I think I embarrass her.  I’ve lost her trust, and maybe – I’m not sure – her love. But, like many of you, I have to be me. Much of this song is a struggle between staying and going.  He wants to go – but feels pulled to stay. Many of us can identify with that emotion.

The second part of the song is the part that he said was “a bunch of nonsense in the middle.”  I imagine he chose the words carefully, though.  Why has he chosen to lift up the words Scaramouch, Galileo and Bismillah? Is it nonsense?  I can feel something powerful in these words as well. Scaramouch is a term used in Italian opera – and Mercury was a great fan of the opera. This character was basically a cowardly buffoon. Is that how Mercury saw himself for not being able to be honest and truthful.  Of course, Galileo tried to tell the truth using science and a refracting telescope to determine what the universe was like, but the truth he advocated for did not match the teachings of the Catholic Church, so he was imprisoned by the Roman Inquisition for life.  What would be the results of Mercury sharing his truth?  And finally, the repeated phrase, “Bismillah” – which is Arabic for “in the name of God.” Is this song also a Psalm or a prayer? 

The third act of the operetta or song seems to come back to a refrain offered early in the song – “It doesn’t matter,” and “Anyway the wind blows.”  Sadly, this is often how our own struggles conclude –with us realizing that we are not in control – and must just follow the wind.  I know that many of us have felt this in recent years with the pandemic and with the storms we’ve suffered through –both weather events as well as personal life storms.  It can be a useful coping mechanism.

I remember an old Bill Murray Comedy called Meatballs. His boys camp team consistently loses to another camp – whose mascot is The Mohawk.  The Mohawk team members have wonderful uniforms and lots of money and talent. And Bill’s campers are about to play again and are discouraged.  It’s up to him as counselor and coach to give them some motivation –

 or at least make them feel better.  So, he shares this speech with the team. 

 

Sure, Mohawk has beaten us twelve years in a row. Sure, they're terrific athletes. They've got the best equipment that money can buy. Hell, every team they're sending over here has their own personal masseuse, not masseur, masseuse. But it doesn't matter. Do you know that every Mohawk competitor has an electrocardiogram, blood and urine tests every 48 hours to see if there's any change in his physical condition? Do you know that they use the most sophisticated training methods from the Soviet Union, East and West Germany, and the newest Olympic power Trinidad and Tobago? But it doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter. IT JUST DOESN'T MATTER. I tell you; IT JUST DOESN'T MATTER! IT JUST DOESN'T MATTER! IT JUST DOESN'T MATTER!

And the team – (that’s you folks) join in – “It just doesn’t matter, it just doesn’t matter, it just doesn’t matter.” 

During my 40’s, I would recall that movie and that refrain when I felt my life was out of control – which was often. I had teenage sons and a husband who was continuously cheating on me and lying about it while hypocritically shaming our sons for not being perfect and constantly arguing with me for not agreeing with him on things like interracial and same-gender relationships.  Sorry – Fred-Ex, but I need to make a point here.  And because I was committed to the marriage and I loved him, I felt there was nothing I could do.  So, I used the Bill Murray method – and would march around the kitchen late at night while he was out with his lovers chanting, “It just doesn’t matter, It just doesn’t matter, It just doesn’t matter.” 

But Beloveds – it DID matter.  I do so regret that I did not end my marriage 10 years earlier.  It would have made a difference in my life and that of my sons.  I’m so sorry that I was blind to the power that I had to make that difference in all of our lives.  In fact, Fred-Ex would have been better off as well. 

We can’t change the past though.  What we can do is realize that – though there is much in life that we have no control over, we can make a difference.  Quantum Physics reveals that everything we do does make a difference.  It does matter - very much.

Freddie Mercury finally began to take some control of his life in the mid-80’s when he left his frenzied life in Munich and came back to England – rejoining Queen – and performing with excellence at Live Aid in Wimberly stadium. They stole the show. 

In the next few years, he did live more lovingly and authentically –perhaps because he knew that time was running out.  Now Freddie had a fatal diagnosis that made that really evident to him, but folks, time is running out for all of us.  And we need to not only live authentically – but try to make a positive difference in this world while we are in it. 

Those of us living in Georgia have a special responsibility to do that right now.  Our Vote MATTERS – every one of them.  And getting others who perhaps don’t usually vote – out and voting matters as well.  I don’t have to tell this congregation how important this election is. 

And this congregation matters – so this stewardship campaign – is an especially important one.  Do we want to be here for folks in the future in this community who need us?  Do we want to continue to have some form of professional ministry when I’m no longer here for the congregation and community?   For that to happen, we must be more supportive.   

YES!  Your votes matter!  Your support for this congregation matters!  Our children and grandchildren matter.  Their future matters.  You MATTER – every single one of you!

Folks - The wind does blow – but we don’t have to go “anywhere the wind blows” as the song says. We need to lift our sails and set our rudders to navigate toward a better world for all of us.  As Michelle Obama said –let’s “Do Something.”

May it be so!!