It’s one of rock’s most recognizable and oddballs: a six-minute radio hit that begins as a piano ballad, becomes a high-pitched opera, and then descends into a headbanger’s anthem. Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” was released in 1975, sold millions of copies, topped the charts and helped redefine pop music.
But the track’s story could have been very different – at least in one respect.
An early draft of the song by Queen frontman Freddie Mercury suggests he once considered naming the anthem another: “Mongolian Rhapsody.”
The design is among some thousands of Mercury’s belongings to be auctioned by Sotheby’s in September on behalf of his friend and heiress Mary Austin. She told the BBC that she had decided to sell the collection because she “needed to get her affairs in order”. The collection, kept at his home in London since Mercury’s death in 1991 from AIDS-related bronchopneumonia, includes stage costumes and furniture, as well as the 15 pages of early drafts for “Bohemian Rhapsody.” On one side, Mercury wrote the words “Mongolian Rhapsody” at the top. Then he crossed out the first word and added “Bohemian” above it.
The page will be on public view in an exhibition at Sotheby’s New York from Thursday through June 8th.
Gabriel Heaton, specialist in books and manuscripts at Sotheby’s, said in a recent interview at the auction house’s London warehouse that the drafts made it clear that Mercury was playing around with lyrics when writing songs, swapping in and out words with similar sounds. “Of course, ‘Bohemian’, ‘Mongolian’, it’s the same rhythm,” he said of the song in question.
Almost all of the song’s lyrics are written on defunct British Midland airline stationery, and some pages are adorned with Mercury’s abstract doodles. The word ‘Mongolian’ appears nowhere else in the bills, which are estimated to be worth up to £1.2 million, or around US$1.5 million.
Rock history is full of songs that could have been. When the Beatles wrote “Yesterday,” they famously gave it the working title “Scrambled Eggs.” But the possible alternative title for “Bohemian Rhapsody” has remained unknown since the song’s premiere almost 50 years ago and has not been mentioned in prominent Queen biographies.
Mark Blake, the author of several books about Queen, said in a phone interview that the alternate title was a “fun little fact” but didn’t surprise him. Queen, like most bands, often had “joke titles for things” that were later changed, he said. The David Bowie group’s “Under Pressure” was originally titled “People on Streets,” he said.
Jim Jenkins, one of the Queen’s official biographers, said he had never heard of the Mongolian Rhapsody idea either, despite having known Mercury for years. The singer “never liked explaining his lyrics or titles,” Jenkins added. “He left it to our interpretation.”
The Sotheby’s sale includes some of Mercury’s drafts for other Queen hits, including “Somebody to Love”, “We Are the Champions” and “Killer Queen”. All show Mercury searching for words to make his lyrics ring, sometimes trying out multiple lines.
His changes to Bohemian Rhapsody are among the most notable. In the final version of the song, one verse begins with the lines:
Mother
Just killed a man
Put a gun to his head
Pulled my trigger, now he’s dead.
But in an earlier draft, Mercury writes:
Mother
A war has started
I have to go tonight
I have to stand and fight.
Another page looks like a word cloud, with Mercury scrawling dozens of words and phrases, including “Fandango,” “Thunderbolts and Lighting,” and “Belladonna.” Heaton said the site appears to be Mercury exploring options for the opera portion of Bohemian Rhapsody.
In interviews, Mercury made it clear that writing “Bohemian Rhapsody” was difficult. “It didn’t just come out of nowhere,” Mercury once said, according to Freddie Mercury: A Life, in His Own Words, a collection of interview excerpts. “Some songs call for that pompous flair. I had to work like crazy.”
The band’s guitarist, Brian May, and drummer Roger Taylor declined to comment on the “Mongolian Rhapsody” draft. In a 2002 documentary, May recalled the moment Mercury suggested the title “Bohemian Rhapsody.” “You never really knew if Freddie was joking or what,” May said. “Some of his ideas turned out to be flimsy, but this one stuck.”
Heaton said there was something mysterious about the final title, but it was hard to tell just how important it was to the song’s success and enduring appeal.
Evidence of both abounds in the forthcoming sale. Other items Sotheby’s will be auctioning off in September include a gold record for “Bohemian Rhapsody”, a plaque marking the band’s Grammy nominations for the song, and an MTV award given to Mercury posthumously after the title featured in the film Wayne’s World.
Jenkins, the Queen’s biographer, said he was sure Bohemian Rhapsody would have been a hit regardless of the title, but Mercury’s final choice was better.
“I remember when it came out I was wondering what a bohemian was and looked it up,” he said.