I don’t want to die/
I sometimes wish I’d never been born at all.

Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” is one of the most ambitious songs in pop/rock music history. There are only a few that come close to rivaling it. Good Vibrations and Court of the Crimson King are the only two that come to mind. Bohemian Rhapsody is really three or five songs in one. The best part is “Mama, just killed a man…” That would have made a fine ballad on its own.

Bohemian Rhapsody’s lyrics are a bit obscure, but it seems to tell the tale of the narrator who is about to leave town and is having one last conversation with his mother. Along his journey he pleads with the gods and tries to justify his actions to the gods but it seems to fall on deaf ears.

There is a structure behind the scenes that we might not be conscious of. Part of that is intentional. It is a story about a man’s journey…and that journey takes him in many wildly different directions–internally and externally. We hear that in the music and the lyrics. Mercury carefully crafted this. The song is a Rhapsody about a Bohemian. A moody, episodic freer form of music about a person who lives as unconventional lifestyle: Bohemian Rhapsody.

This is one of the most beloved rock songs of all times. That is kind of peculiar. For the people who love it, 90% of them would say they hate opera and musicals, but “Bohemian Rhapsody” shares a lot of similarity with those genres. It really is the most unlikely hit. Except that it is amazing. It elevates and transcends pop and rock.

The harmonies are some of the best in any song by Queen. The guitar solo by May is iconic. It is progressive/hard rock sandwiched between two ballad-y aspects of the song. Who would think that would work? This is also the third song on this list mentioning the Fandango. They were wild about that dance in the 70s!

Bohemian Rhapsody 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.

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, ooh,
I don’t want to die,
I sometimes wish I’d never been born at all.

I see a little silhouetto of a man,
Scaramouch, Scaramouch, will you do the Fandango!

Thunderbolts and lightning, very, very frightening me,
Galileo, Galileo,
Galileo, Galileo,
Galileo, Figaro – magnificoo.

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.

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)(Never) Never let you go
(Let me go) (Never) let you go (Let me go) Ah
No, no, no, no, no, no, no
Oh mama mia, mama mia, mama mia, let me go,
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me,
For meee.

So you think you can stop 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.

Nothing really matters, Anyone can see,
Nothing really matters,
Nothing really matters to me
Any way the wind blows…

Yes, there are two paths you can go by/
But in the long run/
There’s still time to change the road you’re on.

Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” might be one of the most enigmatic songs ever. Everyone tries to determine what it’s meaning. In general, it is about two characters: The Lady and The Piper and their thoughts on how to live and the path to heaven. Lady is materialistic. She’ll live life how she wants. If she gets to heaven and it turns out her way of living didn’t get her in, she’ll buy her way in (so she thinks). The piper seems to believe that a live of valuing non-materialistic things like reason and spirituality will lead to bliss.

Even if we have been living life one way, we can still change today. Plant suggests that the way of the piper is the way to go (Dear Lady can you hear the wind blow? And did you know/ Your stairway lies on the whispering wind). However, as the song closes, we find that Lady has not changed her ways. She’s still trying to buy her way into heaven.

Stairway to Heaven has the most iconic guitar intro of all-time and it still sounds fresh. The guitar work throughout is amazing. When I was younger, my local guitar shop had a sign that said (jokingly) “You will be asked to leave if you play ‘Stairway to Heaven’”. Apparently, that is the first song everyone wanted to learn. I like that the song has great acoustic and electric parts. The flute that plays throughout makes the song sound eerie. It is a great effect. Plant’s vocal shows incredible range: both in style and in normal terms.

Stairway To Heaven Lyrics

There’s a lady who’s sure
All that glitters is gold
And she’s buying a stairway to Heaven
When she gets there she knows
If the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for
Oh oh oh oh and she’s buying a stairway to Heaven

There’s a sign on the wall
But she wants to be sure
‘Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings
In a tree by the brook
There’s a songbird who sings
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiving

Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, it makes me wonder

There’s a feeling I get
When I look to the west
And my spirit is crying for leaving
In my thoughts I have seen
Rings of smoke through the trees
And the voices of those who standing looking

Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, it really makes me wonder

And it’s whispered that soon, If we all call the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason
And a new day will dawn
For those who stand long
And the forests will echo with laughter

If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow
Don’t be alarmed now
It’s just a spring clean for the May queen
Yes, there are two paths you can go by
But in the long run
There’s still time to change the road you’re on
And it makes me wonder

Your head is humming and it won’t go
In case you don’t know
The piper’s calling you to join him
Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow?
And did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind?

And as we wind on down the road
Our shadows taller than our soul
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to gold
And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last
When all are one and one is all
To be a rock and not to roll
And she’s buying a stairway to Heaven.

And everybody spoke and I went into a dream.

“A Day in the Life” is one of Lennon and McCartney’s best collaborations- making it The Beatles’ best song. It was the final song on Sgt. Peppers. By this time, both were very experimental with their lyrics so understanding (let alone interpreting) their songs is difficult. Lennon sings the verses; Paul the bridge.

The verses are made up of rather nonsensical takes on the news. He sings in a dreamy voice. During this part of the song the narrator is dreaming. As we hear the orchestra ascend, the narrator is drifting into consciousness where his is awoken by his alarm clock!

Here, Paul starts singing the bridge. He is very precise with his description of his activity as he gets ready for work and runs to catch the bus. This is a depiction of the narrator’s life. It is rather uneventful, like an average day in the life of any man or woman. He goes back into a dream and then we hear his dream voice again (Lennon’s voice).

The narrator begins to dream about bizarre things that he may have seen or heard throughout the day and it is all scrambled into a weird dream. Then it is almost time for the next day and we get the famous ascending chord again that ends the song right before the next morning—where we would go through the routine again.

Lennon obviously has the best part of the song here as the verse sounds much better than the bridge. But it appears that Paul and George Martin were the key players in the production that it took to make this song happen. It took three times longer to make and produce this song that it did to produce their entire first album. Since they didn’t have to reproduce this sound on stage (since they stopped touring) they were free to create crazy and experimental sounds like “A Day in the Life”.

A Day in the Life Lyrics

I read the news today, oh boy.
About a lucky man who made the grade.
And though the news was rather sad,
Well, I just had to laugh.
I saw the photograph.

He blew his mind out in a car.
He didn’t notice that the lights had changed.
A crowd of people stood and stared;
They’d seen his face before,
Nobody was really sure if he was from the House of Lords.

I saw a film today, oh boy.
The English Army had just won the war.
A crowd of people turned away.
But I just had to look,
Having read the book.
I’d love to turn you on…

Woke up, fell out of bed,
Dragged a comb across my head.
Found my way downstairs and drank a cup,
And looking up I noticed I was late.

Found my coat and grabbed my hat,
Made the bus in seconds flat.
Made my way upstairs and had a smoke,
And everybody spoke and I went into a dream…

I read the news today, oh boy,
Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire.
And though the holes were rather small,
They had to count them all.
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall.
I’d love to turn you on…

written by lennon/mccartney