Coronavirus Rhapsody – performed by Shelter Skelter (Timmy Sean, Fernando Perdomo, & Nick Bertling)
Inspired by comedian Dana Jay Bein’s (@danajaybein) Twitter thread of parody lyrics to Queen’s classic “Bohemian Rhapsody,” we decided to do the unthinkable…re-record one of the greatest recordings of all time, with Dana’s lyrics. We hope we did both justice! Recorded in each of our home studios in California and Indiana remotely, we are three multi-instrumentalist producers who came together during the pandemic to form “Shelter Skelter.”
SHELTER SKELTER proudly plays Brian May Guitars, VOX Amps, Magnatone Amps, Tama Drums, Ernie Ball guitar strings, and heavily relied on IK Multimedia’s Amplitube Brian May Collection to replicate Dr. May’s guitar tones on this track.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” written by Freddie Mercury
“Coronavirus Rhapsody” parody lyrics by Dana Jay Bein
Just saw Bohemian Rhapsody, and even though they screwed up a lot of things chronologically and factually, it still captured the essence of Freddie Mercury and brought back a cool memory from when I was 18. Queen was an obsession for me in high school. Their music was a constant soundtrack of my life and I had all their albums. My band at the time wrote many songs inspired by Queen and even learned all the harmonies to “Love of my Life”, including Brian May’s guitar solo, which I transcribed and taught myself to play.
In February of 1993, about a year and a half after Freddie’s death, Brian May put out a great solo album called “Back to the Light.” I heard through the grapevine that he was giving a secret, free concert at the old Agora in Cleveland. I went with my bandmates, Matthew James Murphy and Matthew Parrotta. The show was killer and afterward, we wanted to try to get backstage. It was frigid cold and snowing outside and there was a huge line of people waiting to meet Brian. We were in the back of the line freezing our asses off, so we just started singing as loud as we could, hoping the guy guarding the door would hear us.
All of a sudden, the door opens, someone from the crew along with the drummer Cozy Powell walks up to us and leads us past the crowd straight to the backstage area. There, standing in front of us, was Brain May! We sang him one of our songs and gave him our demo tape. He was very gracious, complimentary, and we chatted for a while. He signed our CD’s and we thanked him.
For what it’s worth, the memory of that night is forever etched in my mind.
Thank you, Brian, Freddie, and Queen for the incredible music and inspiration!
– Joe Deninzon
Google Play and British rock legends Queen have teamed up to create The Bohemian Rhapsody Experience, a virtual reality experiment powered by groundbreaking immersive audio and interactive technologies that aim to push the boundaries of creative expression and evolve the way we experience entertainment. Soundtracked by a remixed 3D spatialized version of the quartet’s iconic hit “Bohemian Rhapsody” that reacts sonically to the user’s movements, the app gives users the opportunity to travel through an interactive visual narrative developed by VR pioneers Enosis VR along with a team of worldng-class animators and designers.
Through the new medium of VR, contemporary animation techniques, and aesthetics that drawinspiration from the iconography and symbolism of Queen’s music and artwork, The Bohemian Rhapsody Experience offers a journey through frontman Freddie Mercury’s subconscious mind and recreates the sensation of being onstage with the band, with visual and audio elements that respond to the user’s movements. The band worked closely with the creative team, offering them a bevy of archival content to help bring Queen’s world to life, yielding a unique, new way to enjoy “Bohemian Rhapsody” while reintroducing the song to a new generation. The song’s highly distinctive and dramatic structure informed the app’s narrative world and the environments and tone portrayed within, creating an experience that feels like stepping inside the music.
“This fabulous Google clip is a new ground-breaker – perhaps the first great work of art in stereoscopic VR animation. It’s compatible with all VR smartphone-based systems, including my own London Stereoscopic Company OWL VR kit. A new kind of 3-D experience!” said Queen’s Dr Brian May.
“We hope this virtual reality experiment will give fans a new way to experience this iconic track while also representing the boundless possibilities for artists and creators to collaborate with Google Play,” said Gareth Hornberger, Brand Manager on Google Play.
The Bohemian Rhapsody Experience is available as a standalone Google Cardboard app on Android today and will be coming to iOS devices very soon. It also includes a 360 viewing mode for users to utilize the content even if they do not own a VR viewer.
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