Editing Bohemian Rhapsody (section)

==Queen comments on the song==

{{blockquote|I always wanted to do something operatic. I wanted something with a mood setter at the start, going into a rock type of thing which completely breaks off into an opera section, a vicious twist and then returns to the theme. I don't really know anything about opera myself. Just certain pieces. I wanted to create what I thought Queen could do. It's not authentic... certainly not. It's no sort of pinch out of [[The Magic Flute|Magic Flute]]. It was as far as my limited capacity could take me.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Turner |first=Steve |title=Four Queens Beat Opera Flush |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |date=11 March 1976 |page=17}}</ref>|Freddie Mercury, 1976}}

{{blockquote|I'm going to shatter some illusions, it was just one of those pieces I wrote for the album: just writing my batch of songs. In its early stages I almost rejected it, but then it grew. We started deciding on a single about halfway through. There were a few contenders—we were thinking of "[[The Prophet's Song]]" at one point—but then "Bohemian Rhapsody" seemed the one. There was a time when the others wanted to chop it around a bit, but I refused. If it was going to be released, it would be in its entirety. We knew it was very risky, but we had so much confidence in that song—I did anyway. I felt, underneath it all, that if it was successful it would earn a lot of respect. People were all going, You're joking, they'll never play it, you'll only hear the first few bars and then they'll fade it out. We had numerous rows. EMI were shocked—a six-minute single? You must be joking! The same in America—oh, you just got away with it in Britain.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Ingham |first={{Not a typo|Jonh}} |title=Mercury rising |magazine=[[Sounds (magazine)|Sounds]] |date=31 January 1976 |pages=15–16}}</ref>|Freddie Mercury, 1976}}

{{blockquote|When we finished the album, the ''[[A Night at the Opera (Queen album)|Night at the Opera]]'' album, that was the track on it that we thought we were gonna release as a single in the UK first. And when we released it in Britain we didn't necessarily think it'd be released in America, cause we know even over here, you know, the AM tastes are even more [hesitates] stricter. Anyway we did have thoughts about even in the UK, perhaps editing it down at all, but we listened to it over and over again and there was no way we could edit it. We tried a few ideas, but if you edited it, you always lost some part of the song, so we had to leave it all in. And luckily it took off anyway.<ref>John Deacon 1977 interview with Jim Ladd for ''Innerview''</ref>|John Deacon, 1977}}

{{blockquote|The vocal harmonies was something we wanted to do from the beginning, as we are always keen to do that kind of thing. We wanted to be a group that could do the heaviness of hard rock, but also have harmonies swooping around all over the place. We thought there was some real power and emotion in that combination. The guitar solo was pretty much off the cuff, except I think I had plenty of time to think about that one. I remember playing along with it in the studio for a while when other things were being done. I knew what kind of melody I wanted to play.<ref>Brian May interview, 1982, ''On the Record''</ref>|Brian May, 1982}}