October 31, 1975: The British rock band Queen release their single "Bohemian Rhapsody," from their album A Night at the Opera. It was entirely written by lead singer Freddie Mercury, produced by Roy Thomas Baker, and recorded at Rockfield Studios 1 at Rockfield, Monmouth, Wales, about 37 miles northeast of the Welsh capital of Cardiff, and 154 miles west of London.
Traditionally, Bohemia is the westernmost part of Czechia, a.k.a. the Czech Republic, and, before that, the westernmost part of Czechoslovakia. Before that, it belonged to the Austrian Empire; before that, the Holy Roman Empire; before that, it was an independent Kingdom of Bohemia.
But the title of the song does not refer to the place. Rather, it refers to Bohemianism, defined as "the practice of an unconventional lifestyle," often involving musical, artistic, literary or spiritual pursuits.
And yet, the song contains no lyrics reflecting this. It is actually several songs in one:
* It opens with a 49-second vocal part with minimal instrumentation.
* Its 2nd movement, 2 minutes and 16 seconds, has 2 verses, narrated by a man who has committed a murder, and is now on the run, writing a message to his mother.
* Its 3rd movement, 1 minute and 2 seconds, has little relationship to the other 2, and contains features of opera, reflecting the title of the album more than that of the song.
* Its 4th movement, 47 seconds, is pure hard rock, and its lyrics seem to have only the slightest relationship to what has come before.
* Its 5th and final movement, a little over 1 minute (how many additional seconds depends on how long you consider the fadeout to be) is a callback to its 1st, about how nothing seems to matter.
A promotional film was made on November 10 -- the day the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank -- and helped to usher in the era of music videos. Its diamond formation of the band's faces, a copy of the photo that Mick Rock took for the cover of their 1974 album Queen II, become iconic: Mercury at the bottom, guitarist Brian May at the top, drummer Roger Taylor on the left, and bass guitarist John Deacon on the right.
For younger fans (including myself) who only became fans of Queen with their 1980 album The Game, or even later after their appearance at Live Aid in 1985, it was hard to imagine Mercury clean-shaven with long hair, rather than the more familiar later image of short hair and the thick bushy mustache -- apparently, known in gay circles as a "cockduster."
Supposedly, the image of the band was inspired by a photo of German actress Marlene Dietrich from the 1932 film Shanghai Express, but it is also reminiscent of the shadowy-faced cover of the 1963 album With The Beatles (known as Meet The Beatles on its early 1964 release in America).
The song hit Number 1 on the British music charts, and stayed there for 9 weeks. In America, its 6-minute length was considered an issue for radio stations -- more, apparently, than was asking its audience to show sympathy for the song's narrator, an admitted murderer -- and it only reached Number 9.
After Mercury died in 1991, from the effects of AIDS at the age of 45, combined with the song's inclusion in the film Wayne's World, released 3 months later (but filmed before it was publicly known that Mercury was dying), the song went back to Number 1 on the British charts, but still only got to Number 2 in America. The song's title became the title of a 2018 film biography of Mercury, starring Rami Malek.
As of October 31, 2022, the rest of the band is still alive: May is 74, Taylor is 72, and Deacon is 70. Baker is 75.
UPDATE: It took me until 2024 to think of this, but the 1970s were Schrödinger's Decade. There was too much overwrought music, and, at the same time, not enough of it.
In a 2012 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, "Nice" Peter Shukoff played Freddie Mercury, against "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist as Frank Sinatra.
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October 31, 1975 was a Friday. It was also Halloween. The baseball season had just ended, with the Cincinnati Reds winning a fondly-remembered World Series over the Boston Red Sox. College football games were played the next day, and NFL games the day after that. There were 5 games played in the NBA:
* The Boston Celtics beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 112-94 at the Boston Garden.
* The Buffalo Braves beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 92-87 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.
* The Detroit Pistons beat the Houston Rockets, 131-127 at Cobo Hall in Detroit. Calvin Murphy scored 40 points for the Rockets, and Rudy Tomjanovich, who would later coach them to 2 NBA titles, added 21 points and 16 rebounds. But the Pistons got 24 each from Bob Lanier and Curtis Rowe, and 20 from George Trapp.
* The New Orleans Jazz beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 100-85 at the Superdome.
* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 120-104 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.
There were 3 games played in the American Basketball Association, just entering its 9th and, as it turned out, final season:
* The New York Nets lost to the Spirits of St. Louis, 120-116 in overtime at the Nassau Coliseum. They lost despite 42 points and 14 rebounds from Julius "Dr. J" Erving.
* The Indiana Pacers beat the Denver Nuggets, 111-99 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.
* And the Utah Stars beat the Virginia Squires, 123-116 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City.
Only 1 game was played in the NHL: The Atlanta Flames beat the California Golden Seals, 2-0 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.
Two games were played in the World Hockey Association. The Cleveland Crusaders beat the Quebec Nordiques, 6-2 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio. And the New England Whalers and the Edmonton Oilers played to a tie, 2-2 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.
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