According to Chris Smith, Mercury started writing the song in the late sixties, but it was only ready for release in 1975. ‘The New York Times’ felt that the song's most distinct feature is the fatalistic lyrics. Freddie Mercury simply refused to explain the lyrics and the composition. He was only willing to say that the song is about relationships.
Brian May, however, agrees with suggestions that the song indirectly refers to Mercury's personal traumas. He said: "Freddie was a very complex person: Flippant and funny on the surface, but he concealed insecurities and problems in squaring up his life with his childhood. He never explained the lyrics, but I think he put a lot of himself into that song." He said that the band had agreed that the core of a lyric was a private issue for the composer.
Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara. He was a Parsi born in Zanzibar. When he was 17, Mercury and his family had to flee from Zanzibar for their own safety due to the 1964 Zanzibar Revolution in which thousands of Arabs and Indians were killed.
