TALON'S TAKE:
Under PressureWritten by: Freddie Mercury/Brian May/Roger Taylor/John Deacon/David Bowie
Musicians:
Freddie Mercury - lead and backing vocals, piano, handclaps, fingersnaps
David Bowie - lead vocals, handclaps, fingersnaps
Brian May - guitars, handclaps, fingersnaps
John Deacon - bass guitar, handclaps, fingersnaps
Roger Taylor - drums, backing vocals, handclaps, fingersnaps
David Richards - synthesizer (?), organ (?)
*** Synthesizer was played perhaps by Freddie, David Bowie or David Richards. Organ was played by either Freddie or David Richards. There is some additional guitar that was either David Bowie or John Deacon.***
- The first collaboration the band did with another artist and released initially as a non album single in 1981. In the UK it hit #1 while in the US it hit #29. It hit #7 in Australia, #88 in Japan, #1 in The Netherlands. It was also released (but there is no chart information for) in Germany, Mexico, and Venezuela.
- Played live through 1986 and then sporadically revived during the QPR era from 2005-2008 and again with Adam Lambert in 2012. Roger also played it solo during his Electric Fire tour in 1999.
- The bass and piano riff was stolen by Vanilla Ice to create his "song"
Ice Ice Baby. Hollywood Records took Vanilla Ice to court and won their case.
QUOTES:
- "David Bowie and Freddie and I have been friends for the past few years. 'Under Pressure' was a spontaneous collaboration. We started out just playing some old songs, then worked on a few ideas and liked 'Under Pressure' very much, so we finished it." - Roger Taylor - 1981
- "Freddie and David had been friends for a long time, and he just came in to the studio we were in and we did a jam session. The song itself is mainly David's and Freddie's idea, but we were all included in the credits. It was an interesting experience, because David wrote the bass-line, he's responsible for it. He's a talented man, and that song is one of those that I really like." - John Deacon - 1982
- "Everybody laughed when they asked what 'Under Pressure' was all about. It's quite simply about love, which is the most un-cool, un-hip thing." - Roger Taylor - 1982
- "This is a very long story. He was quite difficult to work with, because it was the meeting of two different methods of working. It was stimulating, but at the same time, almost impossible to resolve. We're very pigheaded and set in our ways and Mr. Bowie is too. In fact, he's probably as pigheaded as the four of us put together. I think it was a worthwhile thing to do. But after 'Under Pressure' was done, there were continual disagreements about how it should be put out or if it should even be put out at all. David wanted to redo the entire thing. I had given up by that time because it had gone a long way from what I would have liked to see. But there is still a lot of good stuff in the song. There was a compromise; Freddie, David and Mack actually sat down and produced a mix – under a lot of strain. Roger was also along to keep the peace to some extent, because he and David are friends." - Brian May – International Musician & Recording World - 1982
- "That was through Dave Richards, the engineer at the studio. I was in town, in Montreux, doing some other work there, and because I believe that Queen have something to do with the studio on a business level, I think it's their studio or something like that and they were recording there, and David knew that I was in town and phoned me up and asked me to come down, if I'd like to come down to see hat was happening, so I went down, and these things happen you know. Suddenly you're writing something together, and it was totally spontaneous, it certainly wasn't planned. It was, er, peculiar." - David Bowie - 1983
- "On the album, the track was credited to Bowie and Queen, but in fact it was essentially Freddie, although all contributed. The bass line came from David, it took me a certain time to learn it. But there was also a strong influence from Brian for the middle part. It was an interesting experience which we might do repeat if we have a chance with David and other people." - John Deacon - 1984
- "We didn't plan anything. [Bowie] just happened to be in town with friends, and he just kept popping into the studio... and we were jamming to some of his songs and ours... and we had a few bottles of wine and things and we suddenly said, 'Why don't we try something totally new?' And out came this song. I remember David half way through said, 'My God, I think it's caught fire! Let's take it!' So suddenly it then became a worthwhile project. Before we were just fooling around, and we said, 'Let's grab this while it's happening, because if we come back tomorrow we will probably go our separate ways and not think about it', so we just carried on. It was virtually a 24-hour session. We just kept on at it, and finally got the crux of the song, and then when we knew it was going to do something we still worked on it another day, and then we finished it." - Freddie Mercury - 1985
- “I first heard it (Vanilla Ice’s ‘Ice Ice Baby’) in the Fan Club downstairs. I just thought, ‘Interesting, but nobody will ever buy it because it’s crap.’ Turns out I was wrong. Next thing, my son’s saying, ‘And what are you going to do about it, Dad?’ Actually Hollywood Records are sorting it out because they don’t want people pillaging what they’ve just paid so much money for. We don’t want to get involved in litigation with other artists ourselves; that doesn’t seem very cool, really. Anyway, now I think it’s quite a good bit of work it its way.” – Brian May - 1991
- "On the first night of recording 'Pressure', at the end of the evening Brian and myself went on a bit of a binge and ended up back at the studio with Dave Richards for a jam session. Once again we were out of it and Brian wanted to play, with him on guitar, Dave on piano and yours truly drumming, and let me assure you that I am the world's worst drummer when I'm sober so try and imagine this. Dave actually taped it, and years later we listened, and out of about an hour of playing there is actually ten minutes of good rock." - Crystal Taylor – 1997
- "Absolutely nothing was written, and, in fact, all that we were doing was jamming and David came in one night, and we were just playing other people's songs for fun and David said, 'This is stupid. Why don't we just write one?' It was originally called 'People on Streets', and that was the basis of it, and we took the multi track tapes to New York, and I spent all day there with David and mixed it that night. I remember, we were fiddling about and we got the bass line, and then we went for a pizza! And when we got back, we couldn't remember it, and somebody thought of it; John did, yes." - Roger Taylor - 2002
- "David was living in Switzerland, where we were recording in a studio we owned at the time [Mountain Studios] in Montreux. He basically just popped in to see us. Freddie had met him before. We all had a little chart and then went straight in the studio and started playing around. We played a few old songs and then something new started to happen and we said, "Okay, let's try and record this." It was a truly spontaneous thing. We felt our way through a backing track all together as an ensemble. And then David brought up an unusual idea for creating the vocal. He was kind of famous for writing lyrics by collecting different bits of paper with quotes on them. And we did a corresponding thing as regards writing the top line for the song. When the backing track was done, David said, "Okay, let's each of us go in the vocal booth and sing how we think the melody should go - just off the tops of our heads - and we'll compile a vocal out of that." And that's what we did. Some of the original bits even made it onto the record. Freddie going "b-b-b-boom-ba," that scat singing stuff, was part of the initial track he went in and did off the top of his head. Odd isnt it? That's why the words are so curious, some of them, anyway. There was a point where somebody had to take control, and I think it's fair to say that David took the reins and decided that he wanted to rationalize the lyrics and them say what he felt they should say." - Brian May - Guitar World - 2002
- “It’s complex really. We just happened to be in the studio, and David dropped in and we started jamming. We went out for some food and thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to do some original ideas.’ John came up with the riff that started it all off, and we all got into it. Then it came to what is this song about? David came up with the idea of us all going in one after the other and singing what we thought the tune should be – I think he’d done that with some other people – but we did that and then we sat down and chose bits of everything. It was really done in an odd way. So that gave you the tune, and that point David started to feel very strongly about what he felt the song was about, so he wrote a set of lyrics – first of all it was called, ‘People On Streets’, but he wanted to revise it and make it slightly more abstract, so it became ‘Under Pressure’. – Brian May – 2003
- “It wasn’t the best recording ever made, but it was one of the best songs that we ever did. It sort of endured quite well – I love the last section. I found it very invigorating and interesting – a successful collaboration” – Roger Taylor - 2003
- “We’d never actually collaborated with anybody before, so certain egos were slightly bruised along the way.” – Roger Taylor
- “To have his ego mixed with ours was a very volatile mixture…it made for a very hot time in the studio.” – Brian May
- “It stands up better as a demo. It was done so quickly that some of the lyric makes me cringe a bit.” – David Bowie
ALTERNATE VERSIONS:
GREATEST HITS II EDITGH II EDIT- NOT ESSENTIAL
- Slightly different edit with only "This is our last dance" repeated.
CLASSIC QUEEN EDITCLASSIC QUEEN EDIT- NOT ESSENTIAL but nice.
- A bit more prominence for the bass, the guitar, and Roger's backing vocals but deletes Freddie's "That's okay!"
RAH MIXRAH MIX - Q3 POSTED- ESSENTIAL
- When Queen released Greatest Hits 3 in 1999, Brian decided at last to do something he long wanted to do. Have a go at remixing
Under Pressure. It features some different vocal takes from both Freddie and Brian as well as additional recorded guitar and drum work from the two remaining active members.
- Issued as a single in the UK where it hit #14.
RAH MIX EDITRAH MIX EDIT- NOT ESSENTIAL
- Shorter version cutting off the extra vocals at the beginning.
RAH MIX VIDEO VERSION- ESSENTIAL
- Adds some crowd noise from Wembley footage as the band tried to make a live "concert version" featuring footage of Freddie at Wembley and David from the Freddie tribute.
MIKE S*&@^#R MIXMIKE S*&@^#R MIX`- NOT ESSENTIAL
- Additional Bowie backing and more prominent bass.
2000 CLUB MIX- ESSENTIAL
- A remix of the RAH for the clubs but very tastefully done.
KNEBWORTH MIX- ESSENTIAL
- Incorporates bits from Queen live at Knebworth (their final gig) in 1986.
MR. MIXX MIXNO YT VID
- NOT ESSENTIAL
- 2 Live Crew did a remix that was typical of the 1991 Hollywood Remixes. Avoid.
OFFICIALLY RELEASED LIVE VERSIONS
ROCKS MONTREAL VERSIONMONTREAL 1981 - Q3 POSTED- The first time the band performed it.
ON FIRE AT THE BOWL VERSIONNO YT VID
LIVE MAGIC VERSIONNO YT VID
- Mostly the Knebworth mix though
LIVE AT WEMBLEY 1st & 2nd DAYSWEMBLEY DAY 1"]
WEMBLEY DAY 2QUEEN + DAVID BOWIE + ANNIE LENNOX - FREDDIE TRIBUTEFREDDIE TRIBUTE CONCERT - Q3 POSTED- NICE version although I found it humorous when Annie couldn't quite get the scat parts down and at one point Roger jumped in from behind the kit.
UNRELEASED VERSIONS
ROGER TAYLOR - LIVE IN MANCHESTER - 1999- AUDIO only.
- Roger performs with his prodigy Treana Morris. There is a nice drum introduction. If I can find time I may upload a nice version from Wolverhampton during Roger's tour when Brian made a surprise appearance.
QUEEN + TREANA MORRIS - 10th ANNIVERSARY OF FREDDIE'S DEATHNO YT Video
- On 11/24/01 Brian and Roger played a small set with the SAS band reluctantly (hating to celebrate this date) but it was very well received and at the end they were glad they did it.
QUEEN + PATTI RUSSO - AMSTERDAM 2002AMSTERDAM 2002- Queen's Day in 2002 and Roger with help from Patti Russo (of Meat Loaf fame)
QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS - VH1 ROCK HONORS 1996ROCK HONORS 2006- ESSENTIAL but the next is MORE ESSENTIAL (thus the link only)
- I loved this version. It is actually more Brian and Roger dueting than Paul but it works VERY well. One of those times that I believe a Brian/Roger concert could work quite well.
QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS - BUENOS AIRES 2008- ESSENTIAL
- Much like the VH1 version but more B&R and less Paul. One of my favorite QPR moments. Much fun!
QUEEN + ADAM LAMBERT - KIEV 2012KIEV - 2012 - Q3 POSTED- Great seeing Adam and Roger duet on this. Adam did an admirable cover version. I still like Tom Chaplin from Keane's lead vocal with Keane's cover a bit better but Adam and Roger obviously had a lot of fun.
MAKING OF:
PERSONAL NOTES:
- One of my favorite songs of all time period. Such a dramatic and powerful song. Great singalong at the end. Roger often cites this as his favorite Queen track and it shows.
CHANCES:
Under Pressure......95% -- I can't see them leaving it off now. Rog loves it and it is a nice duet for him and Adam
SUPPLEMENTAL:
Soul BrotherWritten by: Freddie Mercury/Brian May/Roger Taylor/John Deacon
Musicians:
Freddie Mercury - lead and backing vocals, piano
Brian May - guitars
John Deacon - bass guitar
Roger Taylor - drums
- A VERY fun track. If you read the lyrics you'll see that Freddie tried to shove as many Queen titles into the lyrics as possible.
- Written mostly by Freddie for Brian, his musical "Soul Brother".
- This was never played live.
QUOTES:
- "Freddie told me one day he had a surprise for me - he said, 'I've written a song about you - but it needs your touch on it!' I think, curiously, we were both working on songs separately which referred to each other. Can't remember which one of mine it was, since a lot of my songs were obliquely aimed at him (as well as to be sung by him!). Anyway. we got in the studio and he played this song. Now whether it was really about me I don't know. But I thought it was fab. I know he wrote it in about 15 minutes!. As to why not on album (The Game)- well, Freddie deliberately wrote it as a B-side to fill a gap, so I imagine the album was already sewn up." - Brian May - 2003
PERSONAL NOTES: I thought this was a perfect B-Side. A nod to the fans, a fun track that doesn't really fit on an album, but fans would love anyways.
CHANCES
Soul Brother......0% -- I can't see them even remembering about it too much let alone trying to do it
So it is the date Adam is remembering now?! 
LOL! That photo with that bloke looks totally photoshopped and not a good one either!