Queen & David Bowie "Under Pressure" - Classic or Dud?

classic

absolutely classic. I'm not so sure that "people on streets" = "people who live on the streets," either - I always thought this song was about the general pressure of day-to-day life, which, though this often comes as news to people, is as real for rich people as it is for others. I have as much class rage toward the wealthy as anybody else, and possibly more, being an excitable Catholic-worker sorta dude, but the notion that "rich rock stars" should just shut their yaps about difficulties facing people is just painfully adolescent.

None of which is really the point of course, the point is the melody, and the production, and the performances, all of which are k-classic.

If aliens were planning to blow up the Earth and I was only allowed to play one song to defend out existence, I'd play this one.

Anthony, you will probably find it warming to know that I have a friend who repeats that Vanilla Ice quote at every given opportunity, too.

Overrated dud.

classic in dud's clothing.

yeah, not exactly sure what this song is about (like a lot of other queen songs in that regard), but marginal classic. nobody involved was releasing full out classics by 1981

Reagan angst: "Under Pressure" vs. "Pressure"

Or anxiety more than angst, I guess.

C

This song is the G.O.A.T.

Darin OTM.

it woulda/shoulda been a classic, had mercury kept his ineptly-scatting mouth shut.

Queen and David Bowie have both made a whole lot of marvellous and fantastic music.

Thus, when compared to the quality of what have usually been doing, this song is obviously dud. Even though it is even way more dud when it's called "Ice Ice Baby".

This song is perfect.

Geir your claim to love melody is now an empty farce in light of your comments regarding this song

an empty farce I say

"Under Pressure" isn't particularly melodic. Mainly built and partly improvised around a riff. That is not the way a good melody is created.

This argumet isn't particularly argumentative. Mainly built around shifting defintions of the term "melody." That is not the way a good argument is created.

umm Alfred do you have a pretext for that? the melody = the sung line in a hefty percentage of pop, as here, I'm pretty sure Geir and I agree about what a melody is. Really can you give me two different definitions of melody that you've determined people hold based on this thread?

I wasn't looking for an argument -- I was just amazed that Geir thinks this song is "obviously dud" because UP isn't "particularly" melodic.

thinking about it I suspect that Geir means "the rhythm section overshadows/competes with the melodic line" which is his beef with lots of music. I'm just contesting his "not particularly melodic" complaint; the descending-in-verses/ascending-in-bridges nature of the U.P. melody seems like Bowie at his best to me, formal in character but very natural in feel (cf. "Fantastic Voyage")

yeah, the ascending/descending thing has always been in his best songs ("Strangers When We Meet" was the most recent time it worked beautifully).

This is one of the best karaoke songs of all time.

Totally wrong, because you think "Ooh, Ice Ice Baby" and then you go "Oh, no, fuck, this is an indie crowd and I have to hear fucking Under Pressure. Great." DUD.

Seriously, how can "People on street" compete with such as "Flow like a harpoon daily and nightly" and "killin' your brain like a poisonous mushroom"?

just a fucking piece of genius.

Considering the lack of Freddie Mercury in this, I'm surprised this is as good as it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNGQor3dED8

Though it does make me crave the Freddie version.

And then this one is the polar Freddie opposite of that one (though you might have to forward ahead through his lengthy vocal exercises at the beginning, at your leisure):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faUuwRDRrqA

classic

Doctor Casino you mean you think indie crowds're more likely to play this than Vanilla Ice? Weird.

Anyway it's perfect. Enough hooks and bits for about 3 songs.

CLASSIC!

Like someone else said, great blending and interplay between the two, and just a great song. Among the best things both artists accomplished.

"Under Pressure" isn't particularly melodic.

(head spinning)

Well it isn't. It's mainly built around a bass theme, with very ostinato based harmonics. The melody is sort of a slave of the arrangement and the riff, while I prefer the opposite.

In addition, it also lacks all those wonderful vocal harmonies that make Queen so great. But then, this was around "The Game", one of Queen's worst ever albums, which was also largely devoid of those.

This is the only Queen song I can handle.

Hahahaha...what, another Bohemian Rhapsody hater in the world besides me?

sounded a bit forced at the time, now forever overshadowed by Vanilla Ice

in itself, it's okay. but for providing the bassline for "ice ice baby", (one of the greatest records ever made) classic.

People who prefer "Ice Ice Baby" to "Under Pressure" need serious help.

No, people who don't do.

No, people who do, don't!

I'm fine. You two must be the nuts.

People who prefer "Ice Ice Baby" to "Under Pressure" need serious help.

People who prefer "Diamonds From Sierra Leone" to "Diamonds Are Forever" need serious help.

Classic.

Songs with finger-clicking always are.

People who prefer "Diamonds From Sierra Leone" to "Diamonds Are Forever" need serious help.

Amen.

"Under Pressure" = one of the most classic songs ever by anyone.

People who prefer "Diamonds From Sierra Leone" to "Diamonds Are Forever" need serious help.
I might be able to buy that if Jay-Z's verse wasn't so fucking good on the "Sierra Leone" remix.

It's mainly built around a bass theme, with very ostinato based harmonics. The melody is sort of a slave of the arrangement and the riff, while I prefer the opposite.

this is only true of the first 16 bars. then the bass starts moving around with the rest of the arrangement, it goes all over the place after that

oh why in fuck am i bothering

anyway, this is classic.

the youtube version with gail ann dorsey is pretty great, in its own way

'cause love's such an old fashioned
word and love dares you to care for
the people on the
edge of the night and love dares you
to change our way of
caring about ourselves; this is our
last dance
this is
our last dance
this is ourselves, under
pressure

^^^ these are great lyrics

I think the main problem about this is that Queen were in the middle of a really fruitless period. After all, they released their two worst ever albums just before and just after this single.

And Bowie - in spite of "Let's Dance" and some "Tonight" tracks being quite good - was about to lose it artistically too, as evident by later work.

he never did anything worse than Peace On Earth

TS: Tin Machine Vs. "Never Let Me Down" Vs. "Peace On Earth" Vs. "The Laughing Gnome"? ;)

Classic for people in bars who start accidentally singing "Ice Ice Baby" along to it and the people who mock them.
Dud for everyone who lives in the East Village and/or LES and doesn't just party there on the weekends.

Classic for inspiring this thread.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jul/13/david-bowie-recorded-songs-with-queen-that-never-got-released
Would love to hear them tear through "All The Young Dudes" and "All The Way From Memphis", let alone the original material..