Lyric discussion by pkjun 

Want my overanalyzed take? It's pretentious, silly and yes, overanalyzed, and completely destroys the entire song! It turns a cool song into another piece of dirt and manages to be glaringly wrong in the way!

Okay, let's make it the classic stages of acceptance after a shock. He just killed someone. Duh. It's in the lyrics.

First comes shock. Note the 'is this the real life / is this just fantasy' it opens with and the dreamlike tune it's in.

(from this point on, it's all within his head. All of it.)

Note also the 'I need no sympathy' melodramatic nobleness he takes on in a play to get sympathy.

He comes back to the world, and immediately tries to turn to the childhood source of sympathy, his mother. He tries again to act like a hero, telling her 'nothing really matters' (in his mind, of course. it's all in his mind.)

The chill of what he has just done rips across him, and at the first glimpse of pain he immediately goes into the classic 'I wish I was never born!'-type complete theatrical show, hoping once again for sympathy.

Now comes the weird (albeit exceedingly cool) part.

The trial.

First his 'judges' (representing the severity and harsh reality of the consequences) come forth, half-threatening him with taunts of "scaramouche / scaramouche / will you do the Fandango" (it's defined above)

He crumples, first expressing shock. Then, he twists his earlier defeated hero's claims to say "I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me" in a direct appeal to reality.

His other side, however, rushes in to try to save him from himself, begging the judges to release him.

He appeals, and is rejected.

His consul appeals several times in turn to allow him to stay in his own dreamlike state of deconnectedness.

The judges continue to strike down his pleas, growing more and more forceful, until he finally realizes that he has lost. First is a generic "well, I lost. I'm going to hell, and I've got a demon with my name on it" first realization.

Then comes the anger phase. He strikes back at the world and himself with guitars in the background (note the playing of a much stronger version of the theme from the opening "mama" part) . He then tries to escape outright, claiming he's "just gotta get out / just gotta get right out of here".

However, after a crecendo, he realizes that he's not about to win anything or survive anything, so he simply resigns. It's very similar to the opening sequence--although instead of a dream, he seems much more lucid in this state. He repeats much of what he's said earlier, only now he either believes it or has no choice but to accept it.

There. I think it's an interpretation of the process gone through after a shock. It's quite obviously wrong, but I can't help but thinking it.

Besides, it's my favorite song. Let me warp it however I want ;)

Wow, i think you're right!!! I have never thought of it that way before.

Very good interpretation. And well put too.

Impressive. I would never have thought of THAT. Honestly, I pictured some sort of fallen god or something. Although, looking back, that sounds a little silly. In the broad view, I think that it's one of those songs without a specific meaning, as implied by Freddie's own admission that he, the song's writer, had no clue what the song was about. Anyway, good job.

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