Four figures illuminated on a black background - initially only the outline of the three can be seen - sing a capella. Then their faces light up - so the fourth one is "revealed" - and the piano enters softly. The face of the fourth gradually overlaps those of the rest, then the four return to the shot and the face again. And with a "carpet" the piano, all the figures go out and the shot focuses on the man's hands on the keys.
And so begins one of the most iconic music videos of all time. Let's not call it a video clip, mainly because in those years - we are in 1975 - in fact video clips had not yet been "invented". At least not in the massive, commercial and catalytic way of singing the way we know it today. After all, we are seven years ahead of MTV and the music industry is quite different from what we know today. However, the brilliance of the quartet starring in the video is maintained to this day, four decades later. And how else could things be, since they are the timeless Queen and their unsurpassed "Rhapsody".
The music video for Bohemian Rhapsody (from the album A Night At The Opera), is considered by many to be the starting kick in the visualization of the music industry but also the one that revolutionized the marketing of the music of the genre. Undoubtedly his musical persona Freddie Mercury, who was inspired and wrote the piece, has put a heavy stamp on it. It only took a few hours, however, and Roger Wayne, who was about to write a story, described a not-so-big budget for making a video - a short film.
It was November 10, 1975. Queen - Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon - are dedicating a few minutes of rehearsal and 4.500 XNUMX to make a promotional video for their new single, which is none other than Bohemian Rhapsody. And, despite their reluctance, they put a little stone - some call it the cornerstone - for the music industry to move into a new era.
This is another piece of the unexpected puzzle that has accompanied the piece since its capture. The prospects, according to some, were not favorable for these six minutes of musical apotheosis. The song consists of very different individual tracks, without chorus. Ballad, opera, rock, may seem unrelated in themselves, but they all tie together harmoniously, under his guidance. Freddy Mercury, and compose the final excellent result.
The band had to fight for the release of the song, as their record label was afraid that it was too big and too weird to find space on the radio. However, with its release on October 31, it quickly climbed the charts and remained in first place for nine consecutive weeks.
But as the road to success opened quickly, in the fall of 1975, the Queen was invited to perform this very complex and extremely difficult song on the British music show "Tops of the Pops" - or to be seen dancing by the Pans People. .
"He came back to play in the Tops of the Pops. For those of us who remember it, it wasn't a good show. He did not have a good reputation among musicians. Nobody really liked it, "guitarist Brian May told the BBC. "It simply came to our notice then. If your music made any sense, it seemed to be lost when they stood in a box, in a studio with many children around you. But it was very difficult to avoid it because that's what the record stores did. "
Faced with this difficult situation, the band improvises. He puts aside 4.500. 4 and hires Bruce Gowers for a 3.500-hour shoot (according to him it was 1999 7 and a three-hour shoot) at Elstree Studios in London. The shooting took place without a script or long rehearsals, with all four having their minds on the clock. After all, they had to go for beers afterwards. And as he described it in 30: "I arrived at 10:45, we started shooting, we finished at XNUMX:XNUMX and at XNUMX:XNUMX we were at the pub for beers."
The music videos were not exactly non-existent in 1975, but they remained something like an innovation and did not provide the audience and the impact that a program like Top of the Pops offered. "I didn't get a commission, they were just hired as freelancers," Gowers later said. "It simply came to our notice then. We didn't know how much it cost. We had no idea if the 3.500 XNUMX was a little or a lot. " To make up for the lack of preparation, he and the band members just did their best. "Everything was ready for their tour and so they played like they were in front of an audience - and it looked like it was happening."
Although the conditions for making the video were rather hasty - especially given the time and financial constraints - Gowers recalled that the atmosphere within the band was extremely creative. "There were no big 'me', everyone was relaxed. Freddie was very professional and knew exactly what he wanted. "
After the shoot - which ended on time not only because there was no other time or money but also because the band had to go for beers - Gowers did everything he could to manage as much post-production time as he had to consolidate abundant and varied material and create a clip that, despite its low budget, had an impressive style. In fact, none of those involved even knew if the video was going to be shown - until they saw it on the air.
"We were sitting in front of the TV in the editing waiting, wondering if it would be played all of a sudden, here it is!" Goers narrated. "The crazy thing is that it was not only the fans who saw it for the first time, but also the band itself!" For better or worse (for better or worse), the show continued to play video for months, and its release prompted a new trend in the UK to create videos for songs to be shown instead of live performances.
Bohemian Rhapsody's high-tech and futuristic video of the time caused a similar feeling to the one caused by the song itself. Looking back, however, Gowers would like the end result to be better. "If we had more money and more time we would have done something much better," he said, acknowledging his contribution to paving the way for the MTV era. "I always said it was six minutes into my life. It was also the biggest risk in the Queen's career. "
This video may have been risky, but it was just one of many attempts by the band at the time. In fact, given that they were already very successful with the most expensive single in the history of rock until then, they were starting to get used to these risks. However, May, speaking to the BBC, did not attach much importance to the video of Bohemian Rhapsody, but acknowledged that Queen they had then taken a step further than many of their contemporaries.
"I know they call it the first music video, but it's really hard to define what you're doing. I know for a fact that the Beatles were making 35mm videos of their songs. Ours was more like a short film, "he said.
Roger Taylor, for his part, said in 2004: "We did everything we could to avoid appearing in Top Of The Pops. Firstly it was terribly boring and secondly it wasn't real playing, you had to pretend you were singing, that you were playing. The idea for the video came to us to avoid playing on the show. "
According to rock historian Paul Fowles, this song is considered the first single - a worldwide success, for which an accompanying video played a central role in the marketing strategy of its promotion. Rolling Stone wrote about it Bohemian Rhapsody and its impact: He essentially invented music videos, years before MTV aired.
Forty years after its creation, however, Bohemian Rhapsody's video is also popular on Youtube, with more than 958 million views. Last November, the period close to the screening of the film of the same name reached an average of one million views per day, reaching a record 1,46 million views in one day.
