Pentatonix Bohemian Rhapsody Insights: So, some things to know about this cover and video: -It took PTX years to get the arrangement to where they felt they could do the original masterpiece justice. -The cover, and especially the video, was meant to be an homage to Queen. Some of the moments paying respect were: The mono-recording of the line "easy come, easy go" followed by the panning of the voices from left to right on the line "little high, little low" (which is how the original was recorded), obviously the flashlights being used to mimic the lighting on the operatic part of the original video, the four shooting stars to represent the four members of Queen, as well as acknowledge the fact that Dr. Brian May is an astrophysicist, and the overhead shot of them lying on the couch is to represent the Sheer Heart Attack album cover. -The megaphone was just a prop. It is not needed to reproduce the electric guitar distortion. -PTX can, and does, perform this live with no backing track...something even Queen and the Great Freddie Mercury could not do. -Freddy once said he didn't care what people did with his music as long as they "...don't make it boring, darling!", so I think he would absolutely approve. Also when Brian Mays heard it... he posted it on his web site with the word "ENJOY”. -The overall video--with the "living room" and couch--is an homage to Pentatonix's own journey as a group. They lost their record deal right after winning the Sing Off and moving to LA, so they started putting out videos on TH-cam, performing covers. They would sit on the couch in Kevin (beatboxer) and Avi's (bass) living room and just record themselves on Mitch's (counter tenor who took the lead on this song) iPad. Some of their earliest videos went viral and they eventually were able to secure a new deal, record an EP, go on tour, release chart-topping albums and win three Grammy awards...so they moved out of the living room and down this new, unknown road. At the end of the day, though, they're still the same choir-nerds they've always been; just happy to sit together on a couch and sing.
Great reaction! Just that it did take PTX nearly 5 years to arrange this piece. It took them all night and into wee hours of morning to finish this video on a freezing cold night in Bakersfield, CA on an empty street. Brian May of Queen posted this on his social media and said, "Enjoy!"...will be looking forward seeing you tomorrow!
Great reaction! They waited six years to do this one because they wanted to do it justice. Brian May saw it and he put it on his socials with one word 'Enjoy'. That's a pretty big compliment. I love the' Grassi Guitar'. The megaphone was just a prop for the video, Mitch does the guitar riff just with his mouth live. It's pretty awesome.
That was great! This is probably the only one of all the covers they've done that I can't call an upgrade. It would do Queen and the Great Freddie Mercury a disservice to do so. But they did a helluva job of making an acapella version of this iconic piece. Thanks for putting this up! I'm really looking forward to the rest of this week!! There are a few "easter eggs" in this: The couch....you noticed it was moving , I think. It was motorized by the crew and proved to be a bit of a hazard...it tried to run over Kevin. It's representative of both their early days as a group when they all sang their songs on a couch and the car in Wayne's World when they played BR on the road trip. The shooting stars...a tribute to all four members of ueen and to Brian May, lead guitar for the band and an astrophysicist. he has a comet named after him too. The sprawl on the couch....is a nod to the cover art of another Queen album, Sheer Heart Attack. Also...that megaphone Mitch is using wasn't turned on. It was just a prop used for the video. He doesn't use it in any of their on-stage or live versions....and they do this quite often at their shows.
These guys are just flippin amazing alien unicorns! It took them 5 years to feel ready to do this song and to do it the justice that it deserves. They are all massive Queen fans. Brian May, lead guitarist from Queen, heard this song when it came out and posted a link to his socials with the one word comment 'Enjoy!' I feel like that is giving Queen's Seal of Approval right there! They also inserted a lot of references and easter eggs into this video in tribute to the original video - which by the way, if you haven't seen - you should probably check it out! Queen couldn't perform this song live because of all the layering they did in post! And not only can Pentatonix do this Live, but the Mitch Grassi Guitar has no need for a Megaphone. Mitch just saw it lying around the set and decided to use it to draw attention to who was doing the guitar solo part - the megaphone was not on, Mitch can do this live! The couch is in reference to their beginning videos where they recorded themselves on various of theirs couches to post onto TH-cam after they were dropped by Sony because they didn't think that Acapella would be popular enough to sell records. It is also a tip of the hat to Wayne's World movie scene with the car and head banging to this song which brought in a whole new generation to Queen's music! The part where Mitch is laying on the couch is in reference to Freddie's death and the members walking alongside are his coffin's Pallbearers. A lot of the visuals in here are in tribute to the original video's trippy graphics; like when they all line up and do the 'oh, oh, oh's' one after the other, and also when they line up behind Kirstie standing on the couch only to fan out behind her with their vocal parts. The shot of the sky is in tribute to Dr. Brian May who is Queen's lead guitarist and also an astrophysicist! Each shooting star represents a member of Queen. When they all collapse onto the couch with the shot from above is a homage to the cover art of Queen's record 'Sheer Heart Attack' Also I am pretty sure, Mitch is a reincarnation of Freddie Mercury - one...he can grow the Freddie Stash and looks so much like Freddie that it is amazing the resemblance - two...he can sing just as high if not higher than Freddie could - and three...Freddie died 8 months before Mitch was born!
A few things, the couch represents in the early days of PTX, they did not have money to shoot their video’s, so they just sat on a couch in someone living room to record.The movng couch represents their journey. Now, when Brian May (now Sir Dr. Brian May) saw this the day after it was released, he liked it so much he shared it on all of his social media, with just one word “Enjoy”. That is high praise from Sir Dr. May. They worked on this on and off for about 5 years, until they thought they had an arrangement that did justice to the original. Mitch does not use the megaphone in real life, it was just a prop so people had something to look at that would draw their eyes where the group wanted them. When you see the night sky that was to pay homage to Brian May, who is now an astrophysics. The 4 shooting stars pay homage to the original., band members. BTW, Queen has never been able to do this live completely. They way they layered in the video of themselves in the video, they just had to run off-stage, and show the opera part on a screen, then come back on screen and finish the song. PTX did it completely, and they do it live. At the end when they fall on the couch in a "cuddle pile", that is paying homage to the Sheer Heart Attack album cover. Live Version th-cam.com/video/nMFPsouaum0/w-d-xo.html&start_radio=1 Bohemian Rhapsody behind the scenes th-cam.com/video/Q8ugJnIG_Lk/w-d-xo.html
Wonderful reaction! Being a huge Queen fan myself I'm sure Freddie would have loved this.. they're making each song their own without losing respect for the original, it's awesome. Please more PTX 😍
The "magic couch" was apparently a lot more dangerous than it looks! It was motorized and remotely "controlled", although that control left something to be desired: it nearly ran over Kevin, Scott joked about needing crash helmets to ride it, and because Kirstie is small she needed a ledge stuck on the back to be able to climb over it and that exacerbated the balance (or lack thereof) and it nearly (or did) tip over a few times. There's a BTS video which shows some of the problems with both the couch and on spending a cold night making the video.
Thoroughly enjoyed your reaction and looking forward to the rest of the week. And I think that it's appropriate that it's also 2 in the morning that I'm watching it here in Denmark!
Great reaction. Looking forward to your week of PRX reactions. After PTX week, you could do a week of Superfruit (Scott and Mitch’s side project). I recommend Hip Hop goes Broadway 1 and 2, Defying Gravity, Guy.exe, and Frozen medley
3:23 "I'm bein' Mitch slapped and Pentatonix knocked out already and we ain't even frickin' half way through..." and I think to myself "You ain't heard nothin' yet; just wait for the guitar solos!" The audio panning on "little high, little low" is a direct quote from Queen. If you listen to Queen's original you'll hear the same panning on the same phrase. Pentatonix loves Queen, and they love "Bohemian Rhapsody," so they always wanted to cover this song, but they feared that they couldn't do it justice, so they decided to wait until they were sure they were ready. That took them five years, but it was worth the wait - they were definitely ready. In the early days of Pentatonix, after Epic reneged on the recording contract Pentatonix had "won" on _The Sing-Off,_ Pentatonix started posting to TH-cam; it was the only way they COULD publish their music. A lot of those early TH-cam videos show the five of them sitting on a couch, with the trio on the back of the couch and Avi and Kevin on the seat in front of them, just five very young people singing their hearts out, making their dream come true. Note that this is the configuration we see them in at the beginning and end of "Bohemian Rhapsody," which is one reason the couch needs to move - it's taking Pentatonix (and us) on a trip down Memory Lane. The more important reason the couch moves is that it's standing in for the car in _Wayne's World,_ where Wayne and Garth introduced a whole new generation to the genius of Queen by putting a tape of "Bohemian Rhapsody" into the car's tape player. The couch was motorized, and not very well balanced. (Note that when they're sitting on it their feet don't quite reach the ground. The little curtain thing on the bottom was added to hide the motor.) It kept trying to tip over during the filming and actually managed to throw Kevin off at one point. There was a small platform attached to the back so that Kirstin could climb on the couch from behind - Scott, being a foot taller than Kirstin, didn't need it. When Mitch lies down on the couch, singing "Too late, My time has come," they're referring to Freddie Mercury's death (the foreshadowing was, of course, unintentional on Freddie's part; there's no way he could have known, thank goodness). The other four are walking next to the couch to serve as his pall bearers. Many people think the megaphone is distorting Mitch's voice to make him sound more like an electric guitar, but it actually has nothing to do with it. The megaphone wasn't turned on, and couldn't have distorted Mitch's voice even if it had been - it was just a megaphone. The electric guitar is all Mitch. Mitch happened to see the megaphone lying around on the set and thought it would make a cool prop, so it's been confusing people ever since. During the "Bismillah" argument, note that Scott, whose range includes both bass and tenor registers, is actually singing along with both the high and low sides of the argument. Scott has said that this rapid switching is the hardest part of the song for him. When the camera pans up to show us the starry night sky during Mitch's second guitar solo, it's meant as a tribute to Queen's lead guitarist, Brian May, who has a doctorate in astrophysics. The four shooting stars honor the four members of Queen. When the camera pans back down to show Pentatonix lying on the couch together it's meant to recall the cover art for Queen's "Sheer Heart Attack" album. And when this official video was first released, Brian May posted a link to it on all his social media accounts with the comment: "Enjoy."
Pentatonix Bohemian Rhapsody Insights:
So, some things to know about this cover and video: -It took PTX years to get the arrangement to where they felt they could do the original masterpiece justice. -The cover, and especially the video, was meant to be an homage to Queen. Some of the moments paying respect were: The mono-recording of the line "easy come, easy go" followed by the panning of the voices from left to right on the line "little high, little low" (which is how the original was recorded), obviously the flashlights being used to mimic the lighting on the operatic part of the original video, the four shooting stars to represent the four members of Queen, as well as acknowledge the fact that Dr. Brian May is an astrophysicist, and the overhead shot of them lying on the couch is to represent the Sheer Heart Attack album cover. -The megaphone was just a prop. It is not needed to reproduce the electric guitar distortion. -PTX can, and does, perform this live with no backing track...something even Queen and the Great Freddie Mercury could not do. -Freddy once said he didn't care what people did with his music as long as they "...don't make it boring, darling!", so I think he would absolutely approve. Also when Brian Mays heard it... he posted it on his web site with the word "ENJOY”. -The overall video--with the "living room" and couch--is an homage to Pentatonix's own journey as a group. They lost their record deal right after winning the Sing Off and moving to LA, so they started putting out videos on TH-cam, performing covers. They would sit on the couch in Kevin (beatboxer) and Avi's (bass) living room and just record themselves on Mitch's (counter tenor who took the lead on this song) iPad. Some of their earliest videos went viral and they eventually were able to secure a new deal, record an EP, go on tour, release chart-topping albums and win three Grammy awards...so they moved out of the living room and down this new, unknown road. At the end of the day, though, they're still the same choir-nerds they've always been; just happy to sit together on a couch and sing.
Great reaction! Just that it did take PTX nearly 5 years to arrange this piece. It took them all night and into wee hours of morning to finish this video on a freezing cold night in Bakersfield, CA on an empty street. Brian May of Queen posted this on his social media and said, "Enjoy!"...will be looking forward seeing you tomorrow!
Thank you for the love!
Great reaction! They waited six years to do this one because they wanted to do it justice. Brian May saw it and he put it on his socials with one word 'Enjoy'. That's a pretty big compliment. I love the' Grassi Guitar'. The megaphone was just a prop for the video, Mitch does the guitar riff just with his mouth live. It's pretty awesome.
That was great! This is probably the only one of all the covers they've done that I can't call an upgrade. It would do Queen and the Great Freddie Mercury a disservice to do so. But they did a helluva job of making an acapella version of this iconic piece. Thanks for putting this up!
I'm really looking forward to the rest of this week!!
There are a few "easter eggs" in this:
The couch....you noticed it was moving , I think. It was motorized by the crew and proved to be a bit of a hazard...it tried to run over Kevin. It's representative of both their early days as a group when they all sang their songs on a couch and the car in Wayne's World when they played BR on the road trip.
The shooting stars...a tribute to all four members of ueen and to Brian May, lead guitar for the band and an astrophysicist. he has a comet named after him too.
The sprawl on the couch....is a nod to the cover art of another Queen album, Sheer Heart Attack.
Also...that megaphone Mitch is using wasn't turned on. It was just a prop used for the video. He doesn't use it in any of their on-stage or live versions....and they do this quite often at their shows.
Great reaction. Keep 'em coming. You will continue to be amazed with each new PTX "upgrade"😉
I am blown away so far!
These guys are just flippin amazing alien unicorns! It took them 5 years to feel ready to do this song and to do it the justice that it deserves. They are all massive Queen fans. Brian May, lead guitarist from Queen, heard this song when it came out and posted a link to his socials with the one word comment 'Enjoy!' I feel like that is giving Queen's Seal of Approval right there!
They also inserted a lot of references and easter eggs into this video in tribute to the original video - which by the way, if you haven't seen - you should probably check it out! Queen couldn't perform this song live because of all the layering they did in post! And not only can Pentatonix do this Live, but the Mitch Grassi Guitar has no need for a Megaphone. Mitch just saw it lying around the set and decided to use it to draw attention to who was doing the guitar solo part - the megaphone was not on, Mitch can do this live!
The couch is in reference to their beginning videos where they recorded themselves on various of theirs couches to post onto TH-cam after they were dropped by Sony because they didn't think that Acapella would be popular enough to sell records. It is also a tip of the hat to Wayne's World movie scene with the car and head banging to this song which brought in a whole new generation to Queen's music!
The part where Mitch is laying on the couch is in reference to Freddie's death and the members walking alongside are his coffin's Pallbearers. A lot of the visuals in here are in tribute to the original video's trippy graphics; like when they all line up and do the 'oh, oh, oh's' one after the other, and also when they line up behind Kirstie standing on the couch only to fan out behind her with their vocal parts.
The shot of the sky is in tribute to Dr. Brian May who is Queen's lead guitarist and also an astrophysicist! Each shooting star represents a member of Queen. When they all collapse onto the couch with the shot from above is a homage to the cover art of Queen's record 'Sheer Heart Attack'
Also I am pretty sure, Mitch is a reincarnation of Freddie Mercury - one...he can grow the Freddie Stash and looks so much like Freddie that it is amazing the resemblance - two...he can sing just as high if not higher than Freddie could - and three...Freddie died 8 months before Mitch was born!
A few things, the couch represents in the early days of PTX, they did not have money to shoot their video’s, so they just sat on a couch in someone living room to record.The movng couch represents their journey. Now, when Brian May (now Sir Dr. Brian May) saw this the day after it was released, he liked it so much he shared it on all of his social media, with just one word “Enjoy”. That is high praise from Sir Dr. May. They worked on this on and off for about 5 years, until they thought they had an arrangement that did justice to the original. Mitch does not use the megaphone in real life, it was just a prop so people had something to look at that would draw their eyes where the group wanted them.
When you see the night sky that was to pay homage to Brian May, who is now an astrophysics. The 4 shooting stars pay homage to the original., band members. BTW, Queen has never been able to do this live completely. They way they layered in the video of themselves in the video, they just had to run off-stage, and show the opera part on a screen, then come back on screen and finish the song. PTX did it completely, and they do it live. At the end when they fall on the couch in a "cuddle pile", that is paying homage to the Sheer Heart Attack album cover.
Live Version th-cam.com/video/nMFPsouaum0/w-d-xo.html&start_radio=1
Bohemian Rhapsody behind the scenes th-cam.com/video/Q8ugJnIG_Lk/w-d-xo.html
Thanks for the great reaction.
No thank you for the love!
Loved your reaction. They often use this as their encore, so I've seen it live a couple of times and it's insane! Good one to start the week with!
I would love to see them perform this live!
Wonderful reaction! Being a huge Queen fan myself I'm sure Freddie would have loved this.. they're making each song their own without losing respect for the original, it's awesome. Please more PTX 😍
Everyday this week!!
The "magic couch" was apparently a lot more dangerous than it looks! It was motorized and remotely "controlled", although that control left something to be desired: it nearly ran over Kevin, Scott joked about needing crash helmets to ride it, and because Kirstie is small she needed a ledge stuck on the back to be able to climb over it and that exacerbated the balance (or lack thereof) and it nearly (or did) tip over a few times. There's a BTS video which shows some of the problems with both the couch and on spending a cold night making the video.
Enjoyed the reaction. Keep going. You have a huge catalog to go through. Every video is fantastic.
I cant wait to hear it all!!
Suggestions for you are "Evolution of Michael Jackson", "90's Dance Medley", "Sing (original), "Imagine" with hidden visual message,, "Amazing Grace",
Thank you!
Great reaction. I look forward to the rest of your PTX week.
It's gonna be a great and fun week!
Thoroughly enjoyed your reaction and looking forward to the rest of the week. And I think that it's appropriate that it's also 2 in the morning that I'm watching it here in Denmark!
Lol love it!!!
This is a must see video! Love that you started the week with it.
Me too!!
Great reaction. Looking forward to your week of PRX reactions. After PTX week, you could do a week of Superfruit (Scott and Mitch’s side project). I recommend Hip Hop goes Broadway 1 and 2, Defying Gravity, Guy.exe, and Frozen medley
3:23 "I'm bein' Mitch slapped and Pentatonix knocked out already and we ain't even frickin' half way through..." and I think to myself "You ain't heard nothin' yet; just wait for the guitar solos!"
The audio panning on "little high, little low" is a direct quote from Queen. If you listen to Queen's original you'll hear the same panning on the same phrase.
Pentatonix loves Queen, and they love "Bohemian Rhapsody," so they always wanted to cover this song, but they feared that they couldn't do it justice, so they decided to wait until they were sure they were ready. That took them five years, but it was worth the wait - they were definitely ready.
In the early days of Pentatonix, after Epic reneged on the recording contract Pentatonix had "won" on _The Sing-Off,_ Pentatonix started posting to TH-cam; it was the only way they COULD publish their music. A lot of those early TH-cam videos show the five of them sitting on a couch, with the trio on the back of the couch and Avi and Kevin on the seat in front of them, just five very young people singing their hearts out, making their dream come true. Note that this is the configuration we see them in at the beginning and end of "Bohemian Rhapsody," which is one reason the couch needs to move - it's taking Pentatonix (and us) on a trip down Memory Lane.
The more important reason the couch moves is that it's standing in for the car in _Wayne's World,_ where Wayne and Garth introduced a whole new generation to the genius of Queen by putting a tape of "Bohemian Rhapsody" into the car's tape player.
The couch was motorized, and not very well balanced. (Note that when they're sitting on it their feet don't quite reach the ground. The little curtain thing on the bottom was added to hide the motor.) It kept trying to tip over during the filming and actually managed to throw Kevin off at one point. There was a small platform attached to the back so that Kirstin could climb on the couch from behind - Scott, being a foot taller than Kirstin, didn't need it.
When Mitch lies down on the couch, singing "Too late, My time has come," they're referring to Freddie Mercury's death (the foreshadowing was, of course, unintentional on Freddie's part; there's no way he could have known, thank goodness). The other four are walking next to the couch to serve as his pall bearers.
Many people think the megaphone is distorting Mitch's voice to make him sound more like an electric guitar, but it actually has nothing to do with it. The megaphone wasn't turned on, and couldn't have distorted Mitch's voice even if it had been - it was just a megaphone. The electric guitar is all Mitch. Mitch happened to see the megaphone lying around on the set and thought it would make a cool prop, so it's been confusing people ever since.
During the "Bismillah" argument, note that Scott, whose range includes both bass and tenor registers, is actually singing along with both the high and low sides of the argument. Scott has said that this rapid switching is the hardest part of the song for him.
When the camera pans up to show us the starry night sky during Mitch's second guitar solo, it's meant as a tribute to Queen's lead guitarist, Brian May, who has a doctorate in astrophysics.
The four shooting stars honor the four members of Queen.
When the camera pans back down to show Pentatonix lying on the couch together it's meant to recall the cover art for Queen's "Sheer Heart Attack" album.
And when this official video was first released, Brian May posted a link to it on all his social media accounts with the comment: "Enjoy."
That was Cool😎. So I Liked and Subscribed.
Thank you for the love!
@@shady937 ❤
Was so looking forward to this and am not disappointed at all. Thank you from the heart. They are exceptional. Greetings from South Africa
Thank you for all the love and support!
I just subbed in hopes of more Pentatonix and other a capella reactions! ❤
Every day this week!
A member of Queen has a link to this on their web site - your doing great
Thank you!
Evolution of Ariana Grande is a good one to watch and react to
When can you do black rainbow by grim salvo?
Hopefully next week
👎👎👎
Why thumbs down?