NEW YORK, NY.- Its one of rocks best-known and strangest songs: a six-minute radio hit that starts out as a piano ballad, becomes a high-pitched opera, then tumbles into a headbangers anthem. Queens Bohemian Rhapsody, released in 1975, sold millions of copies, topped charts and helped redefine what pop music could be.
But the tracks history could have been very different in one aspect at least.
An early draft of the song by Freddie Mercury, Queens frontman, suggests that he once considered giving the anthem a different title: Mongolian Rhapsody.
The draft is among thousands of Mercurys belongings that will be auctioned in September by Sothebys on behalf of his friend and heir Mary Austin, who told the BBC that she had decided to sell the collection because she needed to put her affairs in order. The collection, which had been kept in Mercurys London home since his death in 1991 of bronchopneumonia resulting from AIDS, includes stage costumes and furniture as well as the 15 pages of early drafts for Bohemian Rhapsody. On one page, Mercury wrote the words Mongolian Rhapsody near the top. He then crossed out that first word and added Bohemian above it.
The page will go on public view in an exhibition at Sothebys New York through June 8.
The drafts make it clear that Mercury played around with lyrics when writing songs, swapping in and out words with similar sounds, Gabriel Heaton, a books and manuscripts specialist at Sothebys, said in a recent interview at the auction houses London storage facility.
Of course Bohemian, Mongolian, its the same rhythm, he said of the song in question.
Almost all of the lyrics are written on stationery from a defunct British airline, British Midland, and some of the pages are festooned with Mercurys abstract doodles. The word Mongolian appears nowhere else among the drafts, which are estimated to be worth up to 1.2 million pounds, or about $1.5 million.
Rock history is filled with songs that could have been. When the Beatles wrote Yesterday, they famously gave it the working title Scrambled Eggs. But the potential alternative title for Bohemian Rhapsody has been unknown since the song premiered almost 50 years ago, and has gone unmentioned in prominent Queen biographies.
Mark Blake, the author of several books on Queen, said in a telephone interview that the alternative title was a fun little fact but didnt surprise him. Queen, like most bands, often had joke titles for things that were later changed, he said. The groups Under Pressure with David Bowie was originally titled People on Streets, he said.
Jim Jenkins, one of Queens official biographers, said hed never heard of the Mongolian Rhapsody idea either, despite knowing Mercury for years. The singer never liked to explain his lyrics or titles, Jenkins added. He left it to our interpretation.
The Sothebys sale includes some of Mercurys 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 sing, sometimes trying out multiple lines.
His changes to Bohemian Rhapsody are among the most striking. In the final version of the song, a verse begins with the lines:
Mama
Just killed a man
Put a gun against his head
Pulled my trigger, now hes dead.
But in an earlier draft, Mercury writes:
Mama
Theres a war began
Ive got to leave tonight
Ive got 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 page appeared to be Mercury trying out options for the operatic section of Bohemian Rhapsody.
Mercury made it clear in interviews that Bohemian Rhapsody was tough to write.
It didnt just come out of thin air, Mercury once said according to Freddie Mercury: A Life, in His Own Words, a collection of interview excerpts. Certain songs require that sort of pompous flair. I had to work like crazy.
The bands 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 knew quite whether Freddie was joking or what, May said. Some of his ideas turned out to be not serious, but that one stuck.
Heaton said the final title carried a certain air of mystery, but it was hard to say how important it had been to the songs success and enduring appeal.
Theres plenty of evidence of both in the forthcoming sale. The other items Sothebys is auctioning in September include a gold disc for Bohemian Rhapsody, a plaque marking the bands Grammy nominations for the song, and an MTV award presented posthumously to Mercury after the track was featured in the movie Waynes World.
Jenkins, the Queen biographer, said he was sure Bohemian Rhapsody would have been a hit regardless of its title, but Mercurys final choice was better.
I remember when it came out, wondering what a bohemian was, and looking it up, he said.
This article originally appeared in
The New York Times.