Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 It's one of the most famous and unusual rock songs, that dominated the charts and
00:06 sold millions of copies.
00:08 But the Bohemian Rhapsody that many of us know and love today could have been very different
00:12 in one respect.
00:14 A draft of the song by Freddie Mercury implies that he was once toying with the idea of another
00:19 title.
00:20 Crossed out but still legible on the top right hand side of the draft is a scribble which
00:24 reads 'Mongolian Rhapsody'.
00:27 The draft is just one of over a thousand of Mercury's belongings being put on auction
00:31 by Sotheby's in September on behalf of his long time friend Mary Austin.
00:36 Sotheby's anticipates it will sell for between £800,000 and £1.2 million.
00:42 Other items being auctioned include the ivory satin catsuit which featured in the 1975 music
00:47 video for the song, estimated to be worth between £50,000 and £70,000.
00:53 As well as what is believed to be Mercury's earliest ever notebook of lyrics, which contains
00:57 lines from the hit 'Keep Yourself Alive'.