David Bowie and Freddie Mercury in the studio. Courtesy Image
The story of 'Under Pressure', the 1981 Queen hit co-written by David Bowie starts where all good stories should start - in the Swiss mountains. Queen were in the process of recording their tenth studio album Hot Space, at Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland, when who, should drop by but the Thin White Duke himself, the late, great David Bowie.
Bowie was in the same studio recording the theme and title track for the upcoming movie Cat People. But Bowie being Bowie couldn't hold back for very long, it must've been just a few hours before David stopped by the Queen sessions and got creative. The original idea being that he would contribute backup vocals on the song 'Cool Cat.'
In Mark Blake's book Is This the Real Life?: The Untold Story of Freddie Mercury and Queen, the band's drummer Roger Taylor said "David came in one night and we were playing other people's songs for fun, just jamming... in the end, David said, 'This is stupid, why don't we just write one?'"
What transpired was the writing and recording of one of the greatest songs of all time - a piece of pop music history. Driven by Deacon's incredible bass line both Bowie and Freddie Mercury battled in the vocal both fueled, Blake suggests, by wine and cocaine.
Blake describes the scene, beginning with the recollections of Queen's guitarist: "'We felt our way through a backing track all together as an ensemble,' recalled Brian May. '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 top of our heads-and we'll compile a vocal out of that."
He continues, "And that's what we did.' Some of these improvisations, including Mercury's memorable introductory scatting vocal, would endure on the finished track. Bowie also insisted that he and Mercury shouldn't hear what the other had sung, swapping verses blind, which helped give the song its cut-and-paste feel."
Guitarist Brian May told Ultimate Classic Rock, "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!'"
"[T]he vocal was constructed in a very novel way, which came through David, because he had experience of this avant-garde method of constructing the vocals," May recalled. "He said, 'Everybody just goes in there with no ideas, no notes, and sings the first thing that comes into their head over the backing track.' So we all did, and then we compiled all the bits and pieces - and that's what 'Under Pressure' was based on; all those random thoughts."
The battle didn't quite stop there however as Bowie imposed his artistic will on most of the decisions. One of them being the title of the track. Originally billed as 'People on the Streets' Bowie wanted it changed to 'Under Pressure'. He then demanded he be present at the mixing of the record with Mercury coming down to the studio to help mediate between Bowie and producer Reinhold Mack. There was even talk of Bowie trying to block the song's original release.
But with all the animosity, wine, cocaine and vocal battles which helped come together to birth the song, you'd imagine the song to be a car crash. However, what remains is an incredibly powerful and poignant pop song that we will likely not see matched in our lifetimes.
The two juggernauts of Freddie Mercury and David Bowie collide head-on here with perfect and enriching precision. This is most perfectly heard in the pair's acapella renditions of the song which can be found below the original's video. Both are a spellbinding listen.
