I just read Lee Pfeiffer's notice of Mitch Miller's passing. Part of
one sentence struck me as being awfully peculiar: the bit about Miller's
being mentioned in Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. Because he ain't.
Here's the lyrics. If you can find Mitch in here, please let me know where because I'm missing something.
All the best,
Bryon Cannon
Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide
No escape from reality
Open your eyes
Look up to the skies and see
I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy
Because I'm easy come, easy go
A little high, little low
Anyway the wind blows, doesn't really matter to me, to me
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 I've gone and thrown it all away
Mama, ooo
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, ooo - (anyway the wind blows)
I don't want to die
I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all
I see a little silhouetto of a man
Scaramouch, scaramouch will you do the fandango
Thunderbolt and lightning - very very frightening me
Gallileo, Gallileo,
Gallileo, Gallileo,
Gallileo Figaro - magnifico
But I'm just a poor boy and nobody loves me
He's just a poor boy from a poor family
Spare him his life from this monstrosity
Easy come easy go - will you let me go
Bismillah! No - we will not let you go - let him go
Bismillah! We will not let you go - let him go
Bismillah! We will not let you go - let me go
Will not let you go - let me go (never)
Never let you go - let me go
Never let me go - ooo
No, no, no, no, no, no, no -
Oh mama mia, mama mia, mama mia let me go
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me
for me
for me
So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye
So you think you can love me and leave me to die
Oh baby - can't do this to me baby
Just gotta get out - just gotta get right outta here
Ooh yeah, ooh yeah
Nothing really matters
Anyone can see
Nothing really matters - nothing really matters to me
Anyway the wind blows...
Retro Responds: Bryon, we always take delight in debunking false urban legends - especially if we have been unintentionally complicit in spreading them. The line in question reads "Bismillah" - which many people have thought to be "Mitch Miller!". So widespread was this belief that when the song first came out, people at parties would sing "Mitch Miller!" and that false notion was repeated throughout the mainstream media in Miller's obituary. The premise that Mitch Miller might have been mentioned in the Queen classic didn't strike anyone as particularly absurd, given the fact that the song haphazardly name drops other seemingly disconnected prominent people, albeit in retrospect, Mitch Miller wouldn't have the same historical significance as Galileo or Beelzebub. I confess to never having heard the word "bismillah", but some research shows it is an Arabic term for "The Word of God." Thank you for setting the record straight on this erroneous legend- but please don't try to convince me that Elvis isn't alive and shacking up with elderly James Dean. - Lee Pfeiffer