![]() One thing that made the song unique was its spontaneity including how they came up with the lyrics. Even with all that, there was nothing else but an instrumental track. Something will happen.” Then, May came up with guitar riff that he played on top of the bass line. It was also Bowie who urged them to continue saying, “We should just press on instinctively. May said it was both funny and tense because Deacon isn’t exactly the type who liked being told what to do but long story short, all was well and they took it from there. It was like this” and Bowie played it while Deacon was holding his guitar. When they asked Deacon about the riff he played, he played it differently and Bowie said, “No it wasn’t. They knew they had something but they took a break to eat and went back three hours later. But whatever the real story is on how they got together, they were just jamming when Deacon started playing THE riff. And sure enough, he had forgotten all about that riff that May had to remind him. “Īnd that bass line? Everyone points to John Deacon for coming up with it but Deacon claimed that it was Bowie who deserves the credit. We all happened to be in a sleepy little town called Montreux in Switzerland at the same time. For example, while Bowie admitted going to the studio to record, Brian May said that Bowie lived near the studio that they “only hooked up properly because of a coincidence. And because their sessions were mostly fueled by wine and cocaine, there were some conflicting statements on how “Under Pressure” came about. When the Rah Mix was released in 1999, the Torpedo Twins made a new video, combining footage from Bowie at the Freddie tribute concert with Queen's own show at Wembley in 1986, to make it look like the joint live performance they never had.According to David Bowie, when he arrived in the recording studio in Montreux, Switzerland in July 1981, “the riff had already been written by Freddie and the others.” He was supposed to sing backing vocals for “Cool Cat” which was eventually scrapped. Why? Well, some of the explosions in the video apparently came from IRA bombs in Northern Ireland, so the vid had to be edited it before they'd agree to show it. 'Life on Mars?' by David Bowie: The making of the surreal glam masterpiece Instead, '80s music video supremo David Mallett stuck together a load of stock footage from explosions, riots, crushing cars, stuck commuters, mashing it up with footage from classic silent movies, kissing scenes and concert footage.īut despite the song having hit written all over it, Top of the Pops refused to show the video at first. With Queen and David Bowie both busy touring, and probably a little battered bruised from the whole recording and mixing session, neither artist appears in the video. Queen - Under Pressure (Rah Mix 1999) (Official Video) ![]() Bowie didn't have anything else going spare, while in the middle of their album sessions Queen had 'Soul Brother' knocking about. Well, with Bowie's version of 'Cool Cat' binned, there weren't any other collaborative tracks to bundle into the single. Roger Taylor said in 1999: "We'd never actually collaborated with anybody before, so certain egos were slightly bruised along the way." 'We Are The Champions' by Queen: The making of the ultimate stadium anthemĮven though the song started in a Queen recording session, Bowie had seemingly taken it over by the end, so how did 'Under Pressure' end up being billed as Queen and David Bowie, instead of David Bowie featuring Queen?Īnd why did the song end up on a Queen studio album, 1982's Hot Space, and only appear on David Bowie's compilations? "Freddie and David had a fierce battle over that." "Looking back, it's a great song but it should have been mixed differently," May said. There was plenty of quibbling around how the finished version should sound, too. With all those egos colliding, it's remarkable that a finished song came out of the sessions. Queen - Under Pressure (Live At Wembley Stadium, Saturday 12 July 1986) "It was hard, because you had four very precocious boys and David, who was precocious enough for all of us," Brian May told Mojo in 2008. "I remember David Bowie reaching over to John and saying, ‘No, don’t do it like that,’ and John going, ‘Excuse me? I’m the bass player, right? This is how I do it!’," May told Ultimate Classic Rock.Īnd the lyrics? They were apparently mainly written by Bowie. Gold's Hall of Fame: Queenīrian May later that while Deacon wrote and then forgot the bassline, it was actually Bowie who remembered it, got it slightly wrong, and made it the classic we all know Well, Roger Taylor said in the Queen: the Days of Our Lives doc that Deacon wrote the riff and played it over and over, but forgot it after dinner, with Taylor jogging his memory. Bowie himself said that the bassline was ready and present before he was involved, which suggests that it was actually Deacon's.
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