Antique Fairground Organ Playing "Bohemian Rhapsody"

[+ quoththeraven]

I don't know if this is low, high or no culture - it's definitely kitschy - but it's also kind of marvelous. From a private collection, a 1905 81 key Marenghi organ playing an arrangement of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody."

[+ Truereview]

I don't know if this is low, high or no culture - it's definitely kitschy - but it's also kind of marvelous. From a private collection, a 1905 81 key Marenghi organ playing an arrangement of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody."

Love it, and it plays Bohemian Rhapsody ! By the way, my Verbeeck is bigger than your Marenghi

 

[+ quoththeraven]

Love it, and it plays Bohemian Rhapsody ! By the way, my Verbeeck is bigger than your Marenghi

 

 

Yeah, yeah, post anything and right away you get someone claiming "my organ is bigger than your organ." It is purdy, though.

[+ Truereview]

Yeah, yeah, post anything and right away you get someone claiming "my organ is bigger than your organ." It is purdy, though.

Lol...I concur...it is big & purdy

[jackjackjack]

I don't know if this is low, high or no culture - it's definitely kitschy - but it's also kind of marvelous. From a private collection, a 1905 81 key Marenghi organ playing an arrangement of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody."

Love it, and it plays Bohemian Rhapsody ! By the way, my Verbeeck is bigger than your Marenghi

 

Yes, marvelous. Thanks for sharing both.

[samhexum]

"Bohemian Rhapsody."

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is not the Freddie Mercury biopic we deserve

By Johnny Oleksinski

 

Can anybody find me a movie to love?

 

The long-awaited biopic about Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, “Bohemian Rhapsody” has arrived after eight years of development, with changing stars and a director shake-up.

 

What all that calamity has amounted to is a disservice to one of the greatest rock ’n’ roll singers of all time. “Rhapsody” has a shallow script, oversize performances and looks like it was shot in a sauna.

 

We’re introduced to the future music star (Rami Malek) in 1970 when he was still Farrokh Bulsara, working in baggage at London’s Heathrow Airport. After watching an early small-time gig of a band called Smile featuring Brian May (Gwilym Lee), John Deacon (Joseph Mazzello) and Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy), Freddie convinces them to let him sing. And thus, Queen.

 

Queen’s rise is portrayed as a series of contrived light-bulb moments in which the band members realize that rock is a lot like opera, or that audiences might love to stomp and clap. The wild-haired actors look the part, but they’re given sitcom-grade material.

 

In one strange cameo, Mike Myers plays the head of EMI records, who has no faith in what would become Queen’s defining track, instead wanting their single to be “I’m In Love With My Car.”

 

“That’s the kind of song teenagers can bang their heads to,” he says. “‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is not that song.” The movie is filled with lame, self-aware lines like that.

 

Instead of inhabiting Mercury’s dark emotional life, Malek gives us a little silhouetto of a man. It’s a surface-level performance — physically galvanizing, but with no substance. The rocker was known for his flamboyant style and calling everybody “darling,” but he wasn’t Liberace. Malek, like he did in “Papillon,” gets lost in eccentricity.

 

Malek can’t be blamed, however, for not having Mercury’s extraordinary voice. Some reports have said the songs heard in the movie are a digital blend of Mercury, Malek and a Canadian singer, Mark Martel. To my ears, though, it sounds no different than the band’s album tracks. So, the poor actor must lip sync to music that looks awkward coming out of his mouth.

 

Much has been made of how this movie would treat Mercury’s sexuality. He slept with men and eventually had a male partner, Jim Hutton, until he died of AIDS in 1991, but never spoke about it publicly. That leaves the movie to do a certain amount of guesswork; his relationship with Hutton is presented vaguely.

 

In one scene during a tour, Freddie is on the phone with his then-fiancee Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton), and she says, “Say hi to the boys for me.” Making eyes at a man who indicates Freddie should follow him into the bathroom, he responds “I will.” It’s cheesy to the point of mockery.

 

The best part of the movie is — shocker — hearing Queen’s timeless songs. They’re best showcased during a fabulous re-creation of the 1985 Live Aid concert, which was watched by 1.9 billion people worldwide. The film, directed by the fired Bryan Singer and then Dexter Fletcher, thrillingly stages more than half of that 25-minute legendary set.

 

But the more thrilling, real performance is easily available on YouTube. What we ultimately wanted from “Bohemian Rhapsody” was not carbon-copied concerts, but behind-closed-doors insight into a deeply private, complicated, internationally beloved superstar.