In the summer of 1981, British band Queen were recording tracks for their tenth studio album. hot spaceat Mountain Studio in Montreux, Switzerland. Coincidentally, David Bowie scheduled time at the same studio to record the film’s title song. cat people. Eventually, Bowie ended up dropping by and participating in Queen’s sessions. The original idea was for Bowie to add backing vocals to the song “Cool Cat.” “David came over one night and we were just jamming, playing other people’s songs for fun,” Queen drummer Roger Taylor said in Mark Blake’s book. There is. Is this real life?: The untold story of Freddie Mercury and Queen. “In the end, David said, ‘This is ridiculous, why don’t you just write it?'”
And so began what Blake said was a nearly 24-hour marathon session fueled by wine and cocaine. Built around John Deacon’s signature bassline, the song was primarily written by Mercury and Bowie. Blake begins with a recollection of Queen’s guitarist, describing the scene as follows:
“We worked together as an ensemble, fumbling through the backing tracks,” May recalls. “When the backing track was finished, David said, “Okay, each of you go into the vocal booth and sing whatever you have in mind off the top of your head what you think the melody should be, and then create the vocals from that.” Let’s compile it. “And that’s what we did.” Some of these improvisations remain on the finished track, including Mercury’s memorable introductory scat vocals. Bowie also insisted that he and Mercury should not listen to what the other sang, contributing to the song’s cut-and-paste feel by blindly exchanging lyrics.
“It was very difficult,” May said in 2008. Passion ran high. It was very difficult because there was very little I could do my way. But David had a real vision and took over this song lyrically. ” The song was originally titled “People on Streets,” but Bowie wanted it changed to “Under Pressure.” When it came time to mix the song at New York’s Power Station Studios, Bowie insisted on being there. “It didn’t go very well,” Blake quoted Queen engineer Reinhold Mack as saying. “We spent the whole day and Bowie was like, ‘Do this, do that.’ Eventually I called Freddie and said, ‘I need some help here,’ so… Fred came in as a go-between.” Mercury and Bowie had a heated argument over the final mix.
At one point, Bowie threatened to block the song’s release, but the song was released to the public on October 26, 1981, and eventually reached number one on the UK charts. The song was later named the #31 song on VH1’s list of the 100 Greatest Songs of the 1980s. “‘Under Pressure’ is an important song for us,” May said in 2008. “That’s because of David and the content of his lyrics. I think it was hard for me to admit that in the past, but I can admit it now…but I think someday I’d like to sit quietly by myself and mix it again. Masu.”
After listening to the independent vocal track above, you can listen to the officially released 1981 mix below.
Note: An earlier version of this post appeared on the site in 2013.
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