Twenty Days with Bohemian Rhapsody

For 20 days, I listened to Bohemian Rhapsody once a day (sometimes more). I took notes along the way just to see where it would take me.

I decided to do the “challenge” after listening to the latest episode of The Rewatchables podcast, where they were covering the movie Wayne’s World. They mentioned how the movie was often a gateway for people to discover Queen and also this awesome song.

I remember back when I was an intern, I’d sometimes start my day with a listen, and honestly, it was a lot of fun. This song never fails to put me in a good mood.

Make sense? Good. Let’s go.

Day 1

So here I am on the C Line riding into work on a packed bus. I’m standing in the movable glue part between two bus segments, listening to it as the bus speeds north down 99. This is the first time I’ve listened to this song in a few years and it’s just amazing. I love it. The song has everything and never fails to put a smile on my face. It’s nearly six minutes of pure joy.

This might not be that hard of a challenge. Feeling good.

Day 2

Decided to listen while I was walking to Olympia Coffee today. My walk from the townhouse to the coffee shop is the perfect distance to listen to it in its entirety. I was walking into the shop right as the piano started to fade away and Freddie was singing “nothing really matters…”. This little experiment is going to go great now knowing that I can walk from my house to the coffee shop and sneak in a listen. Perfect.

It was raining today and I had both AirPods in while doing the listen this morning. It’s still such a great song. Really starting to feel the three chapters as well. So much going on with the song. I do hate my AirPods though. They do this fucking thing where it gets louder for certain spots like no one on earth wants the stupid fucking feature sorry Tim Apple. I might need to carry my Audio-Technicas on my walk.

Day 3

Listening to this in a phone booth at work after telling Hubert about my silly little project. I was originally planning to do this one on the ferry home, but just got that itch to listen to it now. Fuck it its my challenge and I might listen to it again anyways.

Again this song is just amazing at uplifting my mood. I finally finished the podcast on Wayne’s World. Listening to this in a phone booth was interesting for sure. I think I will count the ferry as the actual play though, cause being in a situation is part of the fun with this, and stuck in a phone booth with a laptop was just hella depressing.

I think I need to get this album on vinyl too because it would be an easy way to listen to it. I think Olive would get a big kick out of it too.

Day 4

First listen doing this from my desk in the home office and with the nice headphones on. Waaaaay different experience. I also tried something new with this listen. I closed my eyes and did not move at all during the song. I was in a sorta a meditative state.

Shutting off other senses really DID amplify the experience. I am sure there is some science bullshit reason why but it did but it made a huge impact.

I was able to hear new parts of the song too like there is some static on the recording during a single spot. I am listening to the studio version of this song as well. Very big change of pace from listning to this in the phone booth yesterday.

Day 5

This was the first time I watched the music video of this song. I also watched it in our living room with Olive and Li. Olive was very interested for sure. She didn’t really understand it but watched the whole thing. It was like a scared, curious, and interested face for sure. Li and I looked at each other a few times and thought telepathically “..is she about to cry, laugh or scream?” but at the end she had a smile and dug it. I think this was her first listen ever which is cool.

After the song we actually watched more Queen music videos for a bit and she was interested, not scared but not totally sure what was going on. We also watched the Muppet version of the song too and it was way more her vibe.

This is a fun way to experience the song for sure. The video is fucking great as well. It’s half them with pin lights on their faces and the other half a “live”-ish version ofthem playing instruments. I had seen the video before but never like watched-watched it. I will be revisiting this way to listen to it for sure.

Day 6

I finally told Li about my little experiment. Olive already knew but she didn’t ask questions. I told Li over coffee at Sound & Fog. This led us to go and pick up A Night at The Opera from Easy Street.

Today was the first time I listened to it on vinyl and overall I would say it was a great experience. We listened to it at night and for some strange reason it didn’t feel that loud. I don’t think this is 100% a song that has to be loud. Do I need new speakers? Maybe tomorrow I will rip it in the office.

This was also the very first rip of this song on vinyl so it’s all downhill after this listen with the record. To quote my dad “yOu dEsTrOy tHeM wItH eVeRy LiStEn.”

Olive went wild during this listen which amped up the energy to fucking 11. She was running around during part II and III of the song and was fully out of breath by the end. She also ate shit once but popped back up and kept going.

Glad to have this album on vinyl. I have never really listened to the album before and it’s weird but something I do want to sit with for a few listens.

Day 7

Another sleepy walk into work. I did this one on my walk from the coffee shop to the bus stop. Honestly I didnt think to much about this listen other than it was rainy and I wasnt particalalry in a great mood.

Day 8

I like to listen to music in the shower. Get over it. This time after work and commuting all day in the rain I decided to try out listening to it while in the shower. I typically listen to music just to help me gauge the time passed to take shorter showers. This song is like the perfect length for a shower and 5 mins is a good amount of time to take in the shower.

I think what sucked here is listening to it through my phone speakers which are utterly terrible. Not sure how to fix that. I think I will do this one more often too just because of how compact and the different song pacing throughout.

Day 9

Well it was bound to happen. I found myself doing the daily listen while extremely annoyed. This whole day has been annoying, frustrating and just an absolute fucking shitshow slog. I started my day in a 1:1 at 6:30am and it just kept going after that. I think I video chatted with over 7 different people individually today and it was just a numb kinda day…it happens.

I found myself listening at the end of my day as I was writing my daily recap to prep for tomorrow. I think it did help my mood though. This song works on every level to bring up the mood, even though its about really fucked up stuff. Even background noise while typing it was great. Again I noticed that little static fuzz again. I will need to mark the time for that. It’s kinda wild that has never been “fixed” in all the various re-releases.

Dumb long day full of lots and lots of meetings but it ended with an absolute banger.

Day 10

So I actually listened to this song 3.5 times today. I did half a listen in the car with Li and Olive on the way to ice skating lessons. I call this half time because we had to pivot during traffic and go home early. Fighting traffic in stressful situations requires no music and total concentration, like when you roll down the window when looking for an address.

The second time I was on the ferry coming home and it was awesome. It was an abosolute gorgeous day on the ferry too but my Apple AirPods are utter shit. I think I might need some new ones and it sucks. It’s like they just die after two years.

The last time was at home on the record player loud with Li and Olive. Olive loves this song. She loves running around the couch and going crazy. It’s pretty great. We had the door open as well and the neighborhood got a listen as well.

Day 11

This was the first time doing a live version of this song. I was sitting on the couch while Li put Olive down. We had pizza tonight and I felt like a blob when trying to decide how to do my listen today. I felt like changing it up and doing a live version.

I was surprised they didn’t do the opera part leading into the rocking session. That was all recorded which was odd. Then it builds to them blasting a cannon and Brian May just shredding like a mad man. I wish there was a version where they tried to do the opera back and forth part but I get it.

I was a little bit unfocused during this play through because I was emailing Trevor about getting a new tattoo. A sick eagle fighting a snake. Going to book it and maybe do a listen while getting blasted. That will be a fun perspective.

What is my mood like? Idk kinda feeling like WTF today. Today was the day when Zelenskyy and Trump and Vance had a huge argument in the White House. Which is just wild. So yeah that meeting was weird.

Day 12

Another first with this little experiment. An early morning listen on the record player. Today is like the first fake spring in Seattle and its amazing weather today. It is in the 60s and the sun is out. I had to use some sunscreen before our walk to the coffee shop. I kinda prepped Olive with this one cause in the morning sometimes she gets umm spicy with sounds.

Like I knew it was a coin toss if she would be into it or not. If she wasn’t into it I was fully expecting her to just stop, look at me, and scream “ITS TOO LOUD”.

Spoiler: that didn’t happen. I kept it sort of on a low volume and she was very mellow with her response to it, but it was great. I feel like this is nearly the perfect setting for this song. Bright sunny early morning vibe.

But dude, A Night at the Opera is a terrible album (other than Bohemian Rhapsody and Best Friend). It is totally unapproachable. I do not get the hype. But this was my initial thoughts with Grateful Dead and now I love ‘em. The thing is I do not hate Queen, just this full album. I really feel like I should have got a greatest hits album. I mean I guess I still could.

Day 13

We did not leave the house at all today. Well, I did to take out the trash 3 different times. Today was very much a spring cleaning kind of day, especially since we did so much yesterday we were like fuck it, let’s stay in. I finally tried that instant coffee bag I got a few weeks ago and it was pretty chill but not something I will repeat anytime soon.

Oh wait—Bohemian Rhapsody. The whole point of this experiment. We did another vinyl spin tonight with Olive and Li. These are so great. Olive really loves this song and hearing it through the speakers is just so much fun. The rest of the album is still so so so so very bad. I just cannot do it.

I think the record is my fav way to listen to this song, but mostly because I get to share the listen with Olive and Li. Awwwww.

Day 14

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?

That was the vibe of the listen today. I rode the bus in this morning and the C Line from West Seattle to downtown is typically a very sleepy ride. Well, not today.

I often think about the quote that Lenin said “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” Well, this morning was a commute where all the craziness showed its ugly head.

I could tell the vibe was umm interesting while waiting for the bus and saw a very zapped out Asian dude just eating ice cream from a tub with his fingers. The fact that it was 9:30 am was wild, but needless to say, that’s not really outta the norm even for the sleepy C.

I decided to fire up the listen once we got on the bus and this man was sitting directly in front of me. What was in his hand now was a box of ice cream sandwiches. He had moved from the tub to the secret stash he had hidden in his bag.

Again this isn’t too wild. I had always heard people blasted out on heroin like sweets and his very zombie like chic was quite in line with heroin or maybe a deep K hole. I decided this might be the perfect time to fire up Queen and do my daily listen.

I am reminded by the opening of this post’s lyrics “Is this real life?” because right after that, this man in a jazzy scooter with one leg rolled in. Nice as could be with his TRANS VETERANS FOR TRUMP hat and his large Israeli flag blowing in the wind. But what was just perfect with this listen after the boys jumped into the rocking part was this enigma of a person started rolling his own cig.

Now this bus ride is getting a little more fun. Let’s see where it goes. I like to wear my sunglasses during the bus commute cause you can kinda dart the eyes around and catch the madness when it comes.

Everything started racing through my head “Is he gonna light it?” Dude finished up, stuck it in his mouth, and I shit you not looked up at me and winked. It was like he could see through my cloaking device. He threw up this sly smile, put his free hand to his lips, and winked again.

I lost it. Just started busting up like crazy. He didn’t light it though and it just hung from his lips during the whole ride.

Dude’s a king. Great way to start the day.

Day 15

We decided to do something a little different with this listen today. I mean I listened to it like any other day (during my commute). That was a fine listen. It lifted my mood and was great. Just a classic listen.

But when I got home today I decided to show Olive the Muppets version of this song and needless to say she dug it.

Day 16

This was another shower listen on my phone again this is the perfect length for a shower and especially to start the day. No real notes on this listen maybe the single 45 I ordered off of ebay will come in today. That will make record listens way easier since Bohemian Rhapsody is right in the middle of the album and dropping the needle in the right spot is kinda a pain in the ass.

Day 17

The 45 came! The 45 came! It finally arrived and it is way eaiser playing this way. To bad the B side on this is a song about a car which is just nutty, but I kinda dig it. This is a used 45 as well so there is some wear but it will do. We did the first listen with Olive and Li right after dinner and this little record is going to get a lot of play.

The 45 still has the same static as on the record seriously how did this make it thru QA and mastering its wild.

Day 18

I did two listens for this one today. The first was me while I was getting my full chest tattoo’ed. This was different than most because I was singing it in my head while bearing thru the outlines of a very large tattoo. I kept getting stuck on the “Is this real life…” and yes yes it was.

After the tattoo it was such a nice day so instead of doing a $50 uber and sitting in traffic I took the water taxi. Yeah its always a great time on the water taxi for a listen. The weather was perfect and I managed to sit out on the top deck. Overall great experience aside from the searing pulsating pain and uncomfortablness of the bandage and wrap.

Yeah two very different listens today. Still the tattoo is rad as fuck and thank you boyz for helping me sorta taking my mind off of it.

Flash of my tattoo

Sorry not going to put a topless photo of me on here, but it was done by a dude named Trevor Taylor and if you dig you can find the photo of me topless but why would you want todo that? lol

Day 19

Did this listen after getting caffinated and walking from Olympia to the bus stop. The weather was nice here and it wasnt super early in the AM. Yesterday my walk in it was still very much dark.

New guy Dan’s first week is this week and its been great having a person IRL to work with deisgn stuff on.

Day 20

Another bus listen this time standup up which was nice. The driver today was a real cowboy behind the wheel so it felt like I was floating along during this listen. The bumps at time were in sync with the music and especially during the third act when the song really pops off.

I only had 1 headphone in on this listen which made it really feel like half a listen. The bus was stupid crowded today too and made it feel very clostraphobic.