under pressure

From the pressure-cooker comes this snappy minimalist social commentary from a glam superstar jam session that was transformed into a heartbreaking heroic pop diamond. 'Under Pressure' was a collaboration between Queen and David Bowie. It was recorded at an impromptu session at Mountain Studios in Montreaux, Switzerland with overdubs a few weeks later at the Power Station in New York. The song developed out of a song that Queen had been working on called 'Feel Like'. Bowie had originally come in to do a vocal track on another song, 'Cool Cat'; but was not happy with the results. Brian May remembers: "It was hard, because you had four very precocious boys and David, who was precocious enough for all of us. David took over the song lyrically. Looking back, it's a great song but it should have been mixed differently. Freddie and David had a fierce battle over that. It's a significant song because of David and its lyrical content."

'Under Pressure' addresses the pressures of modern life that create homelessness and despair and challenges us to reach into our hearts and help each other. The dynamic interplay of Bowie's baritone and Mercury's falsetto gives the song its striking urgency while John Deacon's bassline carries the heavy subject matter to a more accessible place to create an instant classic. Bowie says: "The song was written from the ground up on the night I visited their studio. I believe the riff had already been written by Freddie and the others so then we jointly put together the different chord sections to make it a cohesive piece of music. Then Freddie and I came up with our individual top line melodies. So when you hear Freddie sing, that's what he wrote and when you hear me sing, that was mine. Then we worked on the lyrics together. I still cannot believe that we had the whole thing written and recorded in one evening flat. Quite a feat for what is actually a fairly complicated song."

EMI released 'Under Pressure' as a single and it was a worldwide smash, going to number one in Argentina, the Netherlands, and the UK. It was only the second British chart topper for both Queen and Bowie. The video was directed by David Mallet who used stock footage of riots and congested traffic with clips from old films like 'Battleship Potemkin' and 'Nosferatu' and assorted romantic kissing scenes to create a sense of turmoil and redemption.

Mm ba ba de

Um bum ba de

Um bu bu bum da de

Pressure pushing down on me

Pressing down on you no man ask for

Under pressure that brings a building down

Splits a family in two

Puts people on streets

Um ba ba be

Um ba ba be

De day da

Ee day da - that's okay

It's the terror of knowing

What the world is about

Watching some good friends

Screaming 'Let me out'

Pray tomorrow gets me higher

Pressure on people people on streets

Day day de mm hm

Da da da ba ba

Okay

Chippin' around - kick my brains around the floor

These are the days it never rains but it pours

Ee do ba be

Ee da ba ba ba

Um bo bo

Be lap

People on streets - ee da de da de

People on streets - ee da de da de da de da

It's the terror of knowing

What this world is about

Watching some good friends

Screaming 'Let me out'

Pray tomorrow - gets me higher higher high

Pressure on people people on streets

Turned away from it all like a blind man

Sat on a fence but it don't work

Keep coming up with love but it's so slashed and torn

Why - why - why?

Love love love love love

Insanity laughs under pressure we're breaking

Can't we give ourselves one more chance

Why can't we give love that one more chance

Why can't we give love give love give love give love

give love give love give love give love give love

'Cause love's such an old fashioned word

And love dares you to care for

The people on the (People on streets) edge of the night

And loves (People on streets) dares you to change our way of

Caring about ourselves

This is our last dance

This is our last dance

This is ourselves

Under pressure

Under pressure

Pressure