Thanks to whom Under Pressure was created. Which of the great musicians contributed more: Mercury or Bowie?

The summer of 1981 was an extraordinary summer for world music. rich to musical masterpieces. It was at this time "Queen." recorded their acclaimed "Hot Space." at Mountain Studios. In the same Swiss town of Montreux, in parallel with the legendary band, worked and David Bowiewho had just recorded one of his most interesting compositions for the film of the same name. "Cat People.".

Getting started on "Under Pressure."

British band invited the talented countryman to his doorstep, so Bowie brought his own contribution into the song "Cool Cat."and I was singing along Freddie Mercury. However, the result did not impress the musician, causing his vocal part to be irrevocably erased.

But Queen's collaboration with Bowie resulted in something impressive - the dynamic and very colourful "Under Pressure"! Roger Taylor later said:

"Bowie came into our studio in the evening and we were just playing other artists' hits - you know, for fun. It was like a jam. And David said, "Don't you think that's stupid? It would be so much cooler to write your own song!" We liked his idea and it just kind of boiled over, as they say."

https://youtu.be/YoDh_gHDvkk

Brian May: "As a team, we took our time recording the minus. When it was ready, David suggested that everyone go into the music booth and sing exactly how we thought the melody should sound. That's how we put the vocal part together.

Under Pressure was produced by. absolutely all musicians, but the greatest contribution contributed it was Mercury and Bowie.

Roger Taylor in an interview in 1984 recountedIt is worth noting that Freddie Mercury was responsible for the lyrics, and Bowie offered his own improvements to the music, coming up with the later legendary bass line and helping to perfect the song in terms of sound.

"The whole thing was bloody hard," May continues, "especially for me. There were four precocious guys working in that studio at the time, and Bowie was even more precocious than all of us put together. So it was a lot of heat. And I had a much harder time than the others, for I was not allowed to do anything I wanted to do. David was basically in charge of the process. He was in charge of all the vocals. Looking back, I realise that this song is wonderful, but the remixing could have been different. I remember there was a real row between Freddie and David over it!"

In all honesty, Bowie really is. supervised all stages of the songwriting process, putting Freddie out of the running. Moreover, the situation escalated to such an extent that Mercury and David constantly fought and had endless arguments. As two extraordinary personalities, it was very difficult for them to be in the same studio.

After the release of

And that's what happened: "Under Pressure" saw was released at the end of October 1981. The track quickly topped the British charts and was later listed as one of the best songs of the 80s by VH1. Interestingly enough, from the moment of its release until Freddie Mercury's death, Queen and David Bowie never played "Under Pressure" on the same stage.

Remembering that distant period of joint co-operation between Queen and Bowie, we note one more curious fact: a few years ago, the head of the tour team of the legendary British band Peter Hince told journalists that during those sessions the musicians recorded several more joint sessions!

However, for unknown reasons, the material was never published. The information was indirectly confirmed Brian May, who shared his memories of that period:

"Unfortunately, not everything we created during those sessions has seen the light of day."

The music video for the song has not been removedt, because Bowie's schedule was too tight, the musician was always busy. David Mallet, the director of music videos for both Bowie and Queen, made a cut for this song made up of black-and-white film clips. All the footage was united a common theme - the "pressure theme".

An exception in memory of Mercury

Song unexecuted together at concerts, even at Live Aid, where both Bowie and Queen were present at the same time. However, even without the joint performances, the song became very popular and entered on many charts. "Queen" included "Under Pressure" in their concert tours almost immediately after the song's release, in 1981; Bowie did the same only 15 years later, in 1996.

The only exception was the 1992 concert dedicated to the memory of the deceased Freddie Mercury. There, Bowie, together with Annie Lennox and the members of Queen, performed a very sensual tribute to Freddie. performed "Under Pressure."

The performance is very touched fans of both the band and David Bowie. In the comments under the YouTube video, someone wrote:

"Watching this video, I realise that my generation was the luckiest of all. We caught up with some amazing giants of music and art in general. I'm not sure there will ever be people as talented as these people in the world. I hope David and Fred can meet in heaven and sing this masterpiece together there."