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June 1, 2023 12:15 pm  #1


Mongolian Rhapsody? Alternative title suggested by handwritten lyrics

I suspect that the song's references to "doesn't really matter" and "nothing really matters" explain all of this, but this is getting a fair amount of news coverage today.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/01/style/freddie-mercury-bohemian-rhapsody-mongolian-lyrics/index.html

 

June 1, 2023 2:41 pm  #2


Re: Mongolian Rhapsody? Alternative title suggested by handwritten lyrics

What does "Bohemian" actually mean? Is it "Czech" or "fiercely elegant" - "kookie"?
Sorry, I don't mean to be disrespectful to the memory of Freddie Mercury.
But - Mongolian? Bohemian? Why not, for example, Siberian?

 

June 1, 2023 3:31 pm  #3


Re: Mongolian Rhapsody? Alternative title suggested by handwritten lyrics

It's ironic that I'm again going to recommend Wikipedia to you, but I think that what they have at the following entry provides a good explanation of how Bohemian has a usage in English that doesn't relate to the geographic Bohemia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemianism
But despite my comment earlier that Mercury's choice of words probably didn't really matter in terms of what they might mean, I do think that Bohemian was a better choice for what he was going for than Mongolian, Siberian, etc. would have been. He was definitely going for something unconventional, artistic, literary, etc. (to use a few of the words at the beginning of the Wikipedia article) -- and my guess is that once he came up with "Bohemian Rhapsody", he probably had exactly what he wanted in a title. 

     Thread Starter
 

June 1, 2023 4:35 pm  #4


Re: Mongolian Rhapsody? Alternative title suggested by handwritten lyrics

Lorne, thank you. This is an interesting read.

 

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