Bohemian Rhapsody

It starts out with an invitation to the audience to engage themselves, to "open your eyes, look to the skies and see". Then, the main character is introduced. A young man who seems to have given up. The music is slow,... it feels like it isn't really going anywhere. Kind of like this young man.

Is this the real life? /Is this just fantasy?/ Caught in a landslide/ No escape from reality/ Open your eyes/ Look up to the skies and see/ I'm just a poor boy (Poor boy)/ I need no sympathy/ Because I'm easy come, easy go/ Little high, little low/ Any way the wind blows/ Doesn't really matter to me, to me

There is a musical transition - a change (there is a slow bass line introduced). I personally think it is a flashback to the beginning of the young man's decline. He confesses and spills out his regret. The music is slow and the lyrics are clear. He is talking to his Mom here which brings the audience to a sympathetic point of view and we get a glimpse of him speaking honestly and earnestly.

Mama... Just killed a man /Put a gun against his head / Pulled my trigger, now he's dead /Mama, life has 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

He says his good-byes to the world and just when you think he may be thinking of running away he states "It's time to face the truth." There is honor in this young murderer.

Too late, my time has come / Sends shivers down my spine / Body's aching all the time / Goodbye, everybody / I've got to go / Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth / Mama, oooooooh (Anyway the wind blows) / I don't want to die / Sometimes wish I'd never been born at all

Again a musical transition - this time a fairly major one. The upper class of society is now talking about the young man. They seem to hold some lightly felt sympathy for his situation but the musical tone is playful and the people although aware, speak as though it were an exciting drama unfolding "thunderbolt and lightning, very, very frightning, me" rather than really feeling the pain of the tragic end of this young man's future. (Scaramouch(e)? means skirmish or battle; there was a 1921 historical novel entitled Scaramouche)

I see a little silhouetto of a man / Scaramouch, Scaramouch, will you do the Fandango /Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very frightening me / (Galileo) Galileo (Galileo) Galileo, Galileo Figaro /
Magnifico-o-o-o-o / I'm just a poor boy nobody loves me / He's just a poor boy from a poor family /
Spare him his life from this monstrosity

Ultimately when he brought before the courts - there is no mercy. (Bismillah is an arabic word meaning 'In the name of God')

Easy come, easy go, will you let me go? / Bismillah! No, we will not let you go /Let him go /
Bismillah! We will not let you go / Let him go / Bismillah! We will not let you go /
Let me go (Will not let you go) /Let me go (Will not let you go) (Never, never, never, never)
Let me go, o, o, o, o / No, no, no, no, no, no, no
(Oh mama mia, mama mia) Mama Mia, let me go / Beelzebub has the devil put aside for me, for me, for me!

The young man is then overcome by fear and anger - who doesn't love how fantastic the musical transition is at this moment?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YDwj-BRKwc

So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye /So you think you can love me and leave me to die / Oh, baby, can't do this to me, baby / Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here

We are again brought back to the beginning (the present), the same melody is brought back and we are again witnessing the hopelessness of this young man, this time though with more understanding and sympathy.

Nothing really matters / Anyone can see / Nothing really matters / Nothing really matters to me /
Any way the wind blows...