“Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie
By Erik Berdecia
“Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie was not my first choice to use to make an infographic. In fact, I was unable to choose a song for the infograhic because I couldn’t find a song that I felt would merit breaking down. What I mean by that is that most of the songs that came to my mind were standard straight forward songs with guitar solos, drum solos and just a series of lyrics. I don’t say that to discredit the musicians and musical artists. I simply couldn’t find a song that I felt I could break down properly. “Under Pressure” came to me in the middle of the night around three of four in the morning. I was recently sick and felt not only the pressure of being sick, but the pressure of still not having a song for this assignment. I honestly can’t tell if I heard the song on the radio or if it was a fever dream but as I “heard” the song, I started to hear things I never heard before or never noticed.
Released as a single in October 1981, “Under Pressure” is a duet preformed by British rock group Queen and British singer-songwriter David Bowie. The song became Bowie’s third number-one hit after “Space Oddity” in 1975 and “Ashes to Ashes in 1980, and Queen’s second number-one hit after “Bohemian Rhapsody” in 1975. The song itself went through many changes beginning with an early version originally called “Feel Like” which was ultimately scrapped because Queen were not satisfied with the result. David Bowie had originally preformed backing vocals for another Queen song which was also scrapped because Bowie was not satisfied with his performance on the track. “Under Pressure” was the end result of a random jam session between Bowie and Queen. There are differentiating tales regarding the who receives credit for the song. Over the years, the remaining Queen members had credited Freddie Mercury as the primary song-writer. Additionally, the credit for the song’s bassline has also been up for debate. Queen bassist John Deacon has claimed that David Bowie wrote the famous bassline. However, Queen guitarist Brian May and Queen drummer Roger Taylor have stated that John Deacon created the bassline having played it over and over again during those studio sessions. Taylor has added that Deacon forgot the bassline with Taylor having remembered the riff. Finally, Brian May has claimed that it was actually Bowie that ultimately changed the riff to what was used in the final version of the song.
“Under Pressure” is actually quite interesting when you break the song down piece by piece. Aside from the well known bassline, Freddie Mercury shows his incredible range when hitting the high octaves multiple times in the track most notably at 1 minute and 20 seconds and again at 2 minutes and finally at 2 minutes and 20 seconds. There are also a few points where the band and Bowey contribute alternating hand claps and fingers snaps; most notably during the intro and after the outro. Mercury also does a bit of harmonizing several times during the track at 22 seconds into the song, at 47 seconds, at 1 minute and 12 seconds and again at 1 minute and 30 seconds which coincides with Bowie’s harmonizing which begins at 1 minute and 22 seconds. Lyrically it’s interesting to note that both Bowie and Mercury talk about the pressure being so intense that it can tear a building down and split families in two and continue to explain how difficult the pressure is until the third verse when Mercury is the one to ask why we can’t give love a chance to repair it all which Bowey countering that idea during the outro by stating that love is old fashioned but also agreeing that love would give people the chance to care for others and also care for themselves. Bowie and Mercury have excellent chemistry vocally during their duets both when singing and also when harmonizing. It’s unfortunate that this is the only song that Queen and Bowie did together because this is actually an incredible song.
-Erik Berdecia
