When I first heard this song, I immediately identified it with the influential philosophical work Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche, but I doubt that was the sole intention of the song - although the character of the prophet himself may have been based on the Persian prophet Zoroaster (as was Nietzsche's character) if only as a reference to Freddy Mercury's religious background: as a Parsi Iranian whose parents where originally from India. However, it really stuck out as being about Nietzsche's intepretation to me for a few reasons: When the lyrics use both the terms 'wise man' and 'mad man' to describe the prophet, it seems to perfectly describe the character of Zarathustra as I read him. I also heard the lyric "so grey is the face of every mortal" as "so grey is the face of every martyr" - the latter tying in much more strongly with Nietzsche's philosophy, that those who sacrifice themselves for something they believe is higher than themselves are in the end gaining nothing. A similar concept is explored further in the lines "Late too late all the wretches run/These kings of beasts now counting their days. " The 'kings of beasts' describes how Nietzsche sees most of humanity, as being nothing more than a powerful animal. The line "The Earth will shake and two will break" may also refer to this dichotomy of humanity, that on the one hand we have the majority of content but ultimately soulless masses, and on the other the few 'mad men' who will find the "new life" and return to humanity to encourage them to follow them back...
I'm not claiming that Nietzsche's ideas expressed in Thus Spoke Zarathustra where what Brian had in mind when writing this, as a lot of it doesn't ring true at all; but thats what the song means to me.
When I first heard this song, I immediately identified it with the influential philosophical work Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche, but I doubt that was the sole intention of the song - although the character of the prophet himself may have been based on the Persian prophet Zoroaster (as was Nietzsche's character) if only as a reference to Freddy Mercury's religious background: as a Parsi Iranian whose parents where originally from India. However, it really stuck out as being about Nietzsche's intepretation to me for a few reasons: When the lyrics use both the terms 'wise man' and 'mad man' to describe the prophet, it seems to perfectly describe the character of Zarathustra as I read him. I also heard the lyric "so grey is the face of every mortal" as "so grey is the face of every martyr" - the latter tying in much more strongly with Nietzsche's philosophy, that those who sacrifice themselves for something they believe is higher than themselves are in the end gaining nothing. A similar concept is explored further in the lines "Late too late all the wretches run/These kings of beasts now counting their days. " The 'kings of beasts' describes how Nietzsche sees most of humanity, as being nothing more than a powerful animal. The line "The Earth will shake and two will break" may also refer to this dichotomy of humanity, that on the one hand we have the majority of content but ultimately soulless masses, and on the other the few 'mad men' who will find the "new life" and return to humanity to encourage them to follow them back...
I'm not claiming that Nietzsche's ideas expressed in Thus Spoke Zarathustra where what Brian had in mind when writing this, as a lot of it doesn't ring true at all; but thats what the song means to me.