(Credits: Raph Pour-Hashemi)
Sun 30 November 2025 8:00, UK
To all intents and purposes, the Hollywood depictions of when Freddie Mercury first brought ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ to the rest of Queen is like the lightbulb moment when they knew they were destined to be gods.
In reality, the reception was a little more lukewarm. In fairness, could you really blame them? Mercury was hardly known for being a wallflower at the best of times, let alone when he presented a six-minute warbling rock opera of a song to the world in 1975, a year and era which was hardly known for its artistic free thinking. There were many mountains to climb.
Of course, the frontman could write down all the notes for his epic composition and have grand visions for it in his mind, but it fell to the rest of the band to actually deliver on that ambition, which was no easy ask. Poor Brian May must have suffered some pretty sleepless nights wondering whether he would manage to get his end of the bargain over the line, or else the whole dream would fall to pieces.
In the end, the challenge obviously paid off for Queen, and they sailed off into the league of unparalleled rock genius over the scores of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. Nothing will ever come close to it, and they can rest easy knowing that. To make things even better, now that we’re some 50 years down the line, they can probably reel out the song as if it were second nature, right? Well, not so fast.
It was admittedly quite humble of May to admit that the song still possesses the ability to bring him down a peg or two, even after all this time. But really, you have to cut him some slack considering his big moment in the song wasn’t even written with his instrument in mind. “It’s the most unnatural riff to play you could possibly imagine. It’s not a riff that a guitarist would naturally play, and that’s a double-edged sword,” he once said in an interview with Total Guitar.
“To be honest, I still don’t find it easy!,” he confessed. “I can play it at home OK, but in the heat of the battle, when we’re playing it live, and there’s huge adrenaline, it’s the climax of the show, and that riff comes along, it’s not the easiest thing to play.” Having the beady eyes of your expectant fans resting squarely on you is pressurising for most, let alone when you have to deliver the defining rock anthem of the century.
As much as May clearly always rises to the challenge, there’s also bound to be the weight of knowing that Mercury is watching from somewhere above, still the harshest critic even though his words can’t be heard. The man single-handedly created a masterpiece in 1975; it would be a crime to throw that legacy down the drain.
So, to any budding guitarist out there struggling to hone their craft, it must come as some reassurance that even after over half a century, May still doesn’t have his most famous riff completely down to a tee. It’s a testament to perseverance, but also the fact that, without question, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ will always be the king in all of rock.
Related Topics