Mustapha
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. (August 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
- For the Arabic name, see Mustafa.
| “Mustapha” | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||||
| Single by Queen from the album Jazz |
|||||
| Released | 1979 (Bolivia, Germany, Spain and Yugoslavia only) | ||||
| Format | vinyl record (7") | ||||
| Recorded | 1978 | ||||
| Genre | Neoprog rock, Hard rock | ||||
| Label | EMI | ||||
| Writer(s) | Freddie Mercury | ||||
| Producer | Queen and Roy Thomas Baker | ||||
| Queen singles chronology | |||||
|
|||||
"Mustapha" is a song written by Freddie Mercury and recorded by English rock band Queen. It is the first track of their 1978 album Jazz. "Mustapha" was released as a single in some South American and European territories in 1979, although it didn't cause much of an impact on the charts.
The lyrics consist mostly of Arabic-sounding nonsense. The only actual words are "Mustapha", "Ibrahim" and the phrases "Allah, Allah, Allah we'll pray for you", "salaam aleikum" and "aleikum salaam". The rest is improvised words like "ichna klibhra him" and "rabbla fihmtrashim". The song was never intended to be taken seriously, but many critics misunderstood the song (if not the entire album). Fans are split when it comes to "Mustapha"; some think that the song is a great example on Queen's humour and others think it is just nonsense.
In live performances, Mercury would often sing the opening vocals of "Mustapha" in place of the complex introduction to "Bohemian Rhapsody", going from "Allah we'll pray for you" to "Mama, just killed a man...". However, sometimes the band performed an almost full version of the song, with Mercury at the piano. They dropped the second verse and went from the first chorus to the third. Also notable is that the song was often requested by the audience, as can be heard on Live Killers.
Although some fans believe that Mercury could speak more languages because of the lyrics of this song (and others such as "La Japonaise" and parts of "Bohemian Rhapsody"), he only knew English and perhaps Gujarati or Hindi, because of his Indian background and education in India (Gujarati is the native language of the Parsis).
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
This article about a song by one or more members of Queen is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
