Brian May says Queen didn’t rehearse their iconic hit ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.
The iconic rock group’s guitarist has revealed the 1975 track was practically cut straight to tape as his bandmates – late great frontman Freddie Mercury, John Deacon, and Roger Taylor – were so “in sync” with one another.
Appearing on Rick Beato’s ‘What Makes This Song Great?’, the 74-year-old musician recalled: “Well, you know it was a kind of rehearsal-recording situation in the studio.
“We went in there with ideas and we started playing around, but in the case of John [Deacon] and Freddie [Mercury] and Roger [Taylor], they would pick things up very quickly; they would [throw things] at each other and very quickly [be in sync].”
Despite the song’s popularity, Queen previously described ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ as an “albatross”.
Drummer Roger, 72, confessed that the group are tired of hearing their most famous song – which shares a title with their 2018 biopic – played everywhere and overshadowing the rest of their back catalogue, though they acknowledge it took their success to another level.
The sticksman said in 2015: “I am [sick of hearing it].When the video came on the screens I thought, ‘Oh Christ, don’t let the audience sit through the whole thing.’
“They’ve all seen it. Certainly I’ve seen it a thousand times.
“It’s like a bit of wallpaper. We did a lot of other records as well. It’s an albatross.
“But it was a good song. It put us on another level and enabled is to keep making lots of records.”
And Roger believes ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ could have been surpassed by ‘Under Pressure’ if it had been recorded better.
He added: “I thought ‘Under Pressure’ was one of our better songs – although not one of our best recordings.
“I think if we had recorded it more beautifully it would have been greater than it turned out.”