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It’s one of rock’s most iconic and strange songs: the six-minute radio hit starts as a piano ballad, becomes soaring operatic, then descends into a headbanger anthem. In the year Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” released in 1975, sold millions of copies, topped the charts, and helped redefine what pop music could be.

But Trac’s story could have been very different — in one respect, at least.

Freddie Mercury’s Queen frontman’s draft of the song suggests that he once intended to title the song “Mongolian Rhapsody”.

The sketch is one of thousands of Mercury items to be auctioned at Sotheby’s in September on behalf of his friend and heiress Mary Austin, who told the BBC she decided to sell the collection because she had to “set her affairs in order”. ” Stored in Mercury’s London home after his death from AIDS-related bronchopneumonia in 1991, the collection includes stage costumes and furniture, as well as 15 pages of early drafts of “Bohemian Rhapsody.” On one page, Mercury wrote the words “Mongolian Rhapsody” near the top. Then he crossed out the first word and added “Bohemian” to it.

The page will be on public view from Thursday through June 8 at an exhibition at Sotheby’s New York.

Gabriel Heaton, Sotheby’s books and manuscripts expert, said in a recent interview at the auction’s London warehouse that the drafts made it clear that Mercury was playing with rhyme when writing songs, switching words in and out of the same sound. “Obviously ‘Bohemian’ is the same tune as ‘Mongolian,'” he says of the song in question.

Almost all of the lyrics are written on British Airways stationery from the British Midlands, and some pages are decorated with Mercury’s abstract doodles. The word “Mongolian” does not appear anywhere else among the drafts, which are valued at up to 1.2 million pounds, or about $1.5 million.

It’s filled with songs that could be rock history. When the Beatles wrote “Yesterday,” they gave it the working title “Scrambled Eggs.” But the alternative title “Bohemian Rhapsody” has been unknown since the song’s debut 50 years ago and is not even mentioned in Queen’s popular biography.

Mark Blake, author of several books about the queen, said in a phone interview that the alternative title was “a fun little fact,” but he wasn’t surprised. Queen, like most bands, often had a “joke title for things” that changed later, he says. The band’s “Under Pressure” with David Bowie was originally titled “People in the Streets.”

Jim Jenkins, one of the Queen’s official biographers, said he had known Mercury for years but had never heard of the idea for “Mongolian Rhapsody.” The singer “never liked to explain” his lyrics or titles, Jenkins added. “Leave it to us to interpret.”

The Sotheby’s sale includes some Mercury drafts for other Queen hits, including “Lovely Man,” “We Are the Champions” and “Killer Queen.” All of his lyrics show Mercury searching for words to make him sing, sometimes trying multiple lines.

His changes to “Bohemian Rhapsody” are among the most impressive. A verse in the final version of the song begins with the lines:

Mom
He just killed a man
Put a gun to your head
He pulled the trigger and is now dead.

But in an earlier draft, Mercury wrote:

Mom
The war began
I have to leave tonight
I have to stand and fight.

Another page looks like a word cloud, with Mercury sifting through dozens of words and phrases, including “fandango,” “thunder and lightning,” and “belladonna.” Heaton said the page appears to show Mercury testing options for the operatic episode of “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

Mercury clarified in an interview that “Bohemian Rhapsody” was difficult to write. “It didn’t just come out of thin air,” Mercury once said in “Freddie Mercury: A Life, In His Own Words,” a collection of interview excerpts. “Certain songs need that kind of catchy vibe. I had to work like crazy.

The band’s guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor declined to comment on the “Mongolian Rhapsody” draft. In the year In a 2002 documentary, she recalled the time Mercury performed the title “Bohemian Rhapsody.” “You never know if Freddie is kidding or what,” May said. Some of the ideas may have been difficult, but that one stuck.

Heaton said the final title carried a certain air of mystery, but it was hard to say how important it was to the song’s success and lasting appeal.

There is plenty of evidence of both in the upcoming sale. Another gold disc to be auctioned by Sotheby’s in September is for “Bohemian Rhapsody,” a sign of the band’s Grammy nominations for the song and an MTV award awarded to Mercury after the track was featured in the movie “Wine World.”

Queen biographer Jenkins was sure “Bohemian Rhapsody” would be a hit regardless of the title, but Mercury’s final choice was better.

“I remember coming out and looking up and thinking, ‘What’s bohemian?'” he said.

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