Queen and David Bowie’s “Under Pressure!”

When “Under Pressure” was released in 1981, I don’t think anyone could’ve imagined that the collaboration between Queen and David Bowie would create one of the greatest songs of the 80’s. In fact, one of the greatest songs ever! I think I’m one of the few that appreciates Vanilla Ice sampling the bassline for his 1990 single “Ice Ice Baby” because it introduced more fans to the original song although, there are Vanilla Ice fans out there today that that think Queen’s “Under Pressure” is a Vanilla Ice Rip Off. Imagine that. Cuz Queen actually built a time machine, went ten years into the future and stole Vanilla Ice’s hook. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight!!!!

There has been some confusion about who created the song's famous bassline. John Deacon said in 1982, that David Bowie had created it. In more recent interviews, Queen guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor have credited the bass riff to Deacon. Bowie, however, stated on his website, said that the bassline was already written before he became involved.

What’s really cool about how this song came about is that Queen had been working on a song under the title "Feel Like" but they weren’t satisfied with the result. Bowie had originally come to Mountain Studios in order to sing backing vocals on another Queen song, "Cool Cat", which ended up being edited out since Bowie wasn't satisfied with it. Once he got there, they worked together for a while and wrote the song. The final version that became "Under Pressure" evolved from a jam session the band had with Bowie at his studio in Montreux, Switzerland; therefore it was credited as co-written by the five musicians. The scat singing that dominates much of the song is evidence of the jam-beginnings as improvisation. According to Queen bassist John Deacon, the song's primary musical songwriter was Freddie Mercury — though all contributed to the arrangement. The lyrics deal with how pressure can destroy lives, but love can be the answer.

Brian May recalled in an interview in 2008. “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.”

Check out this video below. This is the song that would later evolve into “Under Pressure.”

Enjoy!