Song of the Day 2/26: Queen and David Bowie, “Under Pressure”

I promise this is the last day of Queen music, and to be honest I’m posting it not only because it’s a great song, but because this video manages to “document” something that never happened. If you watch carefully you’ll notice that it’s more than one concert edited together — it’s three, actually — because David Bowie and Freddie Mercury never sang this song together live. In fact, Bowie never sang it in concert at all until Mercury’s tribute concert years, 11 years after it was released in 1981. It’s done well enough (some of it for a 1999 remix video) that you’d almost think they’re together at last.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoDh_gHDvkk

“Under Pressure” is one of the most successful collaborations in rock history, but it had a long gestation period. It grew out of a Roger Taylor tune called “Feel Like” that had the beat, the guitar part and the basic melody of the finished piece. But the lyrics were sketchy, and it was still a work in progress when Bowie visited the studio to contribute backing vocals, later discarded, for a different song. The band brought out Taylor’s tune, Bowie took control of the lyrical content and a classic was born, but not before Bowie and Mercury fought over the final mix. Bowie won. The song reached No. 1 in the UK, but only No. 29 in the U.S., where it went on to become a classic-rock standard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kdxcxF5CmY

You can learn more about how the song came together at OpenCulture.com, where they even link to a tape of the studio sessions on which Brian May has to remind John Deacon of the now-iconic bass line, famously sampled, without credit or permission, by Vanilla Ice for “Ice Ice Baby.” Mr. Ice recently claimed he now owns publishing rights to “Under Pressure,” apparently because buying them was cheaper than paying what he owed.