سه آهنگ از کوئین

This is how it will work.

First, you will watch each video clip with subtitles in English.

Then, we will explain the meaning of the most important words, expressions, culture context, and pronunciation in the lyrics.

Finally, you will test everything you’ve learned by watching the clip without subtitles and answering some quiz questions.Are you ready?

Let’s rock and roll!

Mama, just killed a man

Put a gun against his head

Pulled my trigger, now he’s dead

Mama, life had just begun

But now l’ve gone and thrown it all away

Mama,ooh

Didn’t mean to make you cry

If I’m not back again this time tomorrow

Carry on, carry on

As if nothing really matters

Too late, my time has come

Sends shivers down my spine

Body’s aching all the time

Goodbye everybody, I’ve got to go

Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth

Mama,ooh

I don’t want to die

I sometimes wish I’d never been born at all

A lot of people speculate what the meaning of the title of this song, Bohemian Rhapsody, really is.

If we just look at each word separately, Bohemian refers to a socially unconventional person,  especially one who is involved in the arts.

Rhapsody, on the other hand, is a piece of music that has no formal structure and expresses powerful feelings.

This song actually is quite the definition of that, ad it mixes different styles of music, from a piano ballad, to opera, to Rock, all in one song!

Mama, life had just begun But now l’ve gone and thrown it all away

To throw away or throw out means to get rid of something that you no longer want, for example by putting it in a trash can.

In his verse, Freddie is speaking metaphorically.

He says he’s thrown it all away, meaning that he’s ruined his life.

Example: Everybody believed he had a bright future, but he threw it all away when he got involved in drugs.

As we said before, this song has a deep message.

Some people speculate that this is Freddie’s coming-out song.

That’s to say, he is announcing to the world that he’s bisexual.

When in this verse he says he’s killed a man, he probably refers to his former self, who kept his sexuality a secret.

Mama,ooh

Didn’t mean to make you cry.

If you don’t mean to do something, you don’t have the intention of doing it.

Many times we say this when we want to show we’re sorry for something.

In this case, Freddie is sorry for making his mother cry.

Example : I’m terribly sorry.

I didn’t mean to offend you.

I’m sorry.

I won’t do that again, all right?

Let me get you a beer.

I wouldn’t mind a beer.

If I’m not back aging this time tomorrow

Carry on, carry on

At if nothing really matters

Carry on  means to continue doing something.

More specifically, he’s anticipating something bad is going to happen to him and is telling his mother to move on and continue with her life.

As if nothing really matters:

The phrase as if expresses how something is done even though it is not the case.

Consider the following examples:

Stop wasting money as if you’re a millionaire.

He’s worked here for many years, but he still acts as if it was his first day at the company.

You probably barely noticed the as if, right?

That’s because of connected speech, how natives reduce and link words together.

So instead of a clear as if, we practically only here [zif].

Listen to the difference again in how I say this example:

Stop wasting money as if you’re a millionaire.

Stop wasting money [zif] you’re a millionaire.

Too late, my time has come.

When we say that the time has come for something, we mean it’s the right moment to do something.

Example: Sia-Stop Trying:

We like you this is a game already won

The time has come stop trying

We like you this is a game already won

The time has come stop trying

Example: Mue-Knights of Cydonia:

No one’s going to take me alive

Time has come to make things right.

However, there’s a big difference in meaning between “the time has come” and “ my time has come.”

When you use a possessive adjective (my, your, etc.)

It has a much more ominous connotation.

That’s to say, something bad is going to happen to you.

In this case, analyzing the lyrics superficially, Freddie may be anticipating his death wether figurative or literal.

Sends shivers down my spine.

This is an expression that means to feel very frightened or excited.

You could say that listening to this song sends shivers down your spine because it’s so good.

Or, in another sense, if you’re afraid of heights you can say that the thought of doing a parachute jump sends shivers down your spine.

Example: Green Day-Another State Of Mind:

Well, this road leads to this, and this one leads to this, and this one leads to that Her voice sends shivers down my spine

The verb to shiver, means to shake because you’re cold or afraid.

Body’s aching all the time.

If a part of your body aches, it hurts; you feel pain.

Hence, we have words like headache, backache, etc.

Goodbye everybody, I’ve got to go

Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth.

If you leave someone or something behind, you abandon it or forget it.

He left behind his old life in Argentina and moved to Europe.

As a verb, to face something means to deal with something.

Example: He’ll have to face the consequences of his behavior.

Example: James Blunt-You’re Beautiful:

There must be an angel with a smile on her face

When she thought up that I should be with you

But it’s time to face the truth

I will never be with you.

Maybe you’ve heard a common expression to face the music.

This means basically that you did something bad, and now you have to bare the consequences.

Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth

Mama,ooh

I don’t want to die.

I sometimes wish I’d never been born at all.

At the end of the clip we’re looking at, we can see another great connected speech example.

Freddie doesn’t say:

at all

He says [a-dall]

This is because often when we have a T between two vowel sounds,even of different words,it changes to a D sound.

Listen to how I pronounce these examples:

You’re not hungry at all?

I haven’t heard from him at all today.

You can learn a lot more about native connected speech and how to understand it in this lesson.

Watch the Clip:

Another One Bites the Dust:

Let’s go!

Steve walks warily down the Street

With the brim pulled way down low

Ain’t no sound but the sound of his feet,

Machine guns ready to go

Are you ready, are you ready for this?

Are you hanging on the edge of your seat?

Out of the doorway the bullets rip

To the sound of the beat

Another one bites the dust

Another one bites the dust

And another one gone, and another one gone

Another one bites the dust

Hey, I’m gonna get you, too

Another one bites the dust

How do you think I’m going to get along

Without you when you’re gone?

you took me for everything that I had

And kicked me out on my own

Are you happy,are you satisfied?

How long can you stand the heat?

Out of the doorway the bullets rip

To the sound of the beat

Another one bites the dust

Another one bites the dust

And another one gone,and another one gone

Another one bites the dust

Hey, I’m gonna get you, too

Another one bites the dust

Learn with the clip

Another One Bites the Dust:

Steve walks warily down the Street

With the brim pulled way down low.

Let’s start off by looking at the title of this song:

Another one bites the dust.

To bite the dust means to be killed or suffer defeat.

This expression comes from the American old west.

When a gunfighter is shot, he falls to the dusty ground and so is in a position where he could “bite the dust.”

Here he’s describing a person walking down the Street, which means to walk along the street.

Warily means cautiously or carefully.

It is not a very common word.

Then he says “With the brim pulled way down low”

Here’s referring to the brim of a hat, which is this part of a hat.

The character he’s describing has the brim pulled down low, as you can see in this image, perhaps to look cool or to hide his identity.

With the brim pulled way down low

Ain’t no sound but the sound of his feet,

Machine guns ready to go.

Ain’t is a colloquial way of making a negative.

In this case it replaces “there’s no.”

However, this is generally considered grammatically incorrect.

A Machine gun is a heavy and powerful weapon that can shoot bullets in rapid succession.

According to John Deacon, the bass guitarist of the band, this verse was inspired by the 1929 St Valentine’s Day Massacre during the Prohibition Era, where Al Capone’s men eliminated their rivals in a violent shootout.

The Prohibition era was a period in the United States from 1920 to 1933.

Where the production, transportation, and sale of alcohol was outlawed.

Are you ready, are you ready for this?

Are you hanging on the edge of your seat?

To be, or as he says, to hang on the edge of your seat is an idiom that means to be very excited and interested in something because you want to know what happened next.

A thrilling movie, for example, might keep you on the edge of your seat.

Out of the doorway the bullets rip

To the sound of the beat

To rip means to tear something, for example, to rip a piece of paper in two.

However, there is an expression let it rip, which means to let something happen with a lot of force.

Example: As soon as they got on the freeway, he let it rip [he started driving very fast].

So if someone lets bullets rip, as is the case in this song, they are firing bullets in a forceful, reckless way.

The beat is the sound of the song without vocals or singing.

Here the music becomes part of the narrative, as each note of the bass, which is this distinctive sound of the song, represents a bullet being fired.

Out of the doorway the bullets rip

To the sound of the beat

Notice here the reduction of the preposition of.

We practically don’t even hear it.

Again this is a common example of connected speech that natives do all the time, whether singing or speaking.

So, it’s not sound of the beat, It’s:

To the sound of the beat.

We heard another example earlier.

How do you think a native would say this:

Sound of his feet.

Did you say it like Freddie?

Ain’t no sound but the sound of his feet.

The reduction of of is extremely common, so see if you can catch some more in the rest of this lesson.

Then, the chorus begins.

Every time he says, “and another one bites the dust” means he’s killed or defeated one of his enemies.

Then, when he sings “Hey, I’m gonna get you, too.”

He’s saying that he’ll take down one of his targets that’s trying to escape.

Another one bites the dust

Another one bites the dust

And another one gone,and another one gone

Another one bites the dust

Hey, I’m gonna get you, too

Another one bites the dust

How do you think I’m going to get along

Without you when you’re gone?

This verse switches to a different theme, one in which he is talking to his partner.

In this case, to get along means the same as to carry on, which we learned earlier.

In other words, he wants to know how he’ll continue or survive without his partner.

you took me for everything that I had

And kicked me out on my own

If you take someone for everything they have, you take everything from them.

This could be literal, like all of their money and possessions, or it could be more figurative, referring to things they value like their family or loved ones.

Example: Wall Street took him for everything that he had.

He hasn’t got a dollar left.

Freddie, or more precisely, the character who’s narrating this song, has been kicked out of the house he shared with his partner.

Now, he’s on his own, meaning he doesn’t have anyone’s support and he depends on himself to survive.

We commonly use this instead of alone.

Example: He’s learning English on his own.

Are you happy,are you satisfied?

How long can you stand the heat?

Out of the doorway the bullets rip

To the sound of the beat.

If you can stand the heat, you can handle a difficult situation.

This expression comes from the idiom:

If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

He asks “how long can you stand the heat?”

He’s probably asking his partner how long can he or she go without asking him to come back.

The idea is that even though his partner kicked him out, they’re going to eventually ask him to return because they miss him.

Watch the Clip: Don’t Stop Me Now

Tonight, I’m gonna have myself a real good time

I feel alive and the world I’ll turn it inside out, yeah

And floating around in ecstasy

So don’t stop me now, don’t stop me

‘Cause I’m having a good time, having a good time

I’m a shooting star, leaping through the sky

Like a tiger defying the laws of gravity

I’m a racing car, passing by like Lady Godiva

I’m gonna go, go, go

There’s no stopping me

I’m burnin’ through the sky, yeah

Two hundred degrees

That’s why they call me Mister Fahrenheit

I’m traveling at the speed of light

I wanna make a supersonic man out of you

Don’t stop me now, I having such a good time

I’m having a ball

Don’t Stop me now

If you wanna have a good time, just give me a call

Don’t stop me now

(‘cause I’m having a good time)

Don’t stop me-Yes, I’m having a good time

I don’t want to stop at all

I’m a rocket ship on my way to Mars

On a collision course

I am a satellite, I’m out of control

I am a sex machine, ready to reload

Like an atom bomb about to

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh explode

I’m burnin’ through the sky, yeah

Two hundred degrees

That’s why they call me Mister Fahrenheit

I’m traveling at the speed of light

I wanna make a supersonic woman of you

Learn with the clip: Don’t Stop Me Now:

Tonight, I’m gonna have myself a real good time.

If you have yourself something, you take or get something that you’re going to enjoy.

Example: I can’t wait to get home, turn on the TV and have myself a cold beer.

Example: Shaggy-Keep’n It Real

And I forgot to have myself the house, the mansion and the Benz.

I’m not the type of brother who be making mad ends

I got myself a girl bu we be kickin’ it as friends

Is not enough for me now that depends.

Also, if you have a real good time, you have a lot of fun.

Sometimes, we say “real good” to emphasize the quality of something.

Example: He’s a real good friend.

I feel alive and the world I’ll turn it inside out, yeah

And floating around in ecstasy.

To turn something inside out means to pull a piece of clothing or another object so that the inside is facing out.

Turn the t-shirt inside out before you wash it.

What he means here, though, is that he’ll completely change the world.

We also sometimes say to turn something upside down to communicate this meaning.

Netflix has turned the movie industry upside down.

Jack Johnson-Upside Down:

I want to turn the whole thing upside down.

I’ll find the things they say just can’t be found

I’ll share this love I find with everyone.

Then he says “ floating around in ecstasy.”

Ecstasy is a state of complete bliss [happiness].

So don’t stop me now, don’t stop me

‘Cause I’m having a good time, having a good time

I’m a shooting star, leaping through the sky

Like a tiger defying the laws of gravity.

Like a shooting star, he’s leaping through the sky.

Leap means to make a big jump.

Then, the reason why he uses the tiger analogy is because tigers are known to jump incredibly high in spite of their weight.

Therefore, they’re said to defy, or go against, the laws of gravity.

I’m a racing car, passing by like Lady Godiva

I’m gonna go, go, go

There’s no stopping me.

A racing car is a car prepared to compete in a race.

It can also be a car moving at a great speed.

The Lady Godiva allusion is a reference to him unapologetically being who he is.

Lady Godiva, according to a legend, is a woman who rode a horse naked through the streets of a town in England.

I’m burnin’ through the sky, yeah

Two hundred degrees

That’s why they call me Mister Fahrenheit.

Fahrenheit, is a scale of temperature that we use in the United States.

200 degrees Fahrenheit equals to 93 degrees Celsius.

This can also be taken as a pun because it sounds as if he’s saying “Mister far in height”.

Don’t stop me now, I having such a good time

I’m having a ball .

To have a ball means to have a really good time.

I’m a rocket ship on my way to Mars

On a collision course .

This is a rocket ship.

If you’re on your way to somewhere, you’re going in the direction of that place.

Freddie continues to draw references to space travel and phenomena here.

When we talk about something being on a collision course, we generally think of a meteor that’s destined to collide or clash against earth or another celestial body.

Watch without subtitles:

Test your knowledge = complete song: Bohemian Rhapsody.