Quote related to 'Bohemian Rhapsody' from 'A Night At The Opera'

What always happened when we went into recording an album was that we all brought in our ideas and kind of plonk to on the table, and from that some would get thrown out, some would get developed, new ones would come in, and gradually there was a feeling of what kind of atmosphere on the album we were aiming for, and I remember I was beavering away on Prophet's Song and the things that I was trying to write, and Freddie was beavering away working out his piano parts. I remember hearing Bohemian Rhapsody at that time, thinking, “Bloody hell! That's pretty unusual!” There were a lot of passages where something would happen and then there'd be silence and a count and then it would still start up again, so there are long gaps in the recording, and we said, “What goes on there, Freddie?” He said “Oh, that's the operatic bit!” And I do remember a moment when Freddie came along and said, “and I'm gonna call it Bohemian Rhapsody!” And you never knew quite whether Freddie was joking or what, but it turned out to be serious. Some of his ideas turned out to be not serious, but that one stuck. We had some discussion about what the solo would be like and whether there should be a solo, and Freddie was always very amenable to what I would like to do, so having gotten used to hearing them playing it for a while, I kind of knew in my head what I would like so I asked for the chord sequence which was the verse chord sequence. Freddie was actually pretty good on the guitar, and the heavy bit is actually all Freddie's idea. This is not my riff, this is Freddie's riff, the famous head-banging riff.

Brian May; Greatest Video Hits, 2002