Brian May Reveals Why He 'Never Liked' Queen and David Bowie's 'Under Pressure' Collaboration

“David was an incredible creative force. But you can’t have too many incredible creative forces in the same room,” May said of the 1981 hit.

“Under Pressure” was a huge hit for Queen and David Bowie – but Brian May was never happy with how the recording turned out.

In a new interview with Total guitarthe Queen guitarist looked back on how the 1981 duet between the two British artists came about and said Bowie removed some of his guitar parts from the final product, sparking his complicated relationship with the rock song.

Queen and Bowie created “Under Pressure” during a late-night studio session “after we ate and drank a lot,” May, 76, told the paper, explaining that an early iteration of the song “sounded like The Who” and was “massive driven by chords” — which he enjoyed.

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Brian May.

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“I was beaming because I liked The Who. I remember saying to David, ‘Oh, it sounds like The Who, doesn’t it?’ He says, ‘Yeah, well it won’t sound like The Who when I’m done with it!’ You know, kind of joking. But he didn’t want it to be like that,” May recalled.

A band member described the collaboration as “very difficult” as each musician came with “different ideas about how it should be mixed”. May said that moment was “the only time in my career I gave up, because I knew it was going to be a fight”.

“So basically Freddie and David were fighting in the studio with the mix. And what happened in the mix was that most of that heavy guitar was lost,” he explained.

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David Bowie. Michael Putland/Getty

May used an electric guitar on the “main riff”, playing in a similar “arpeggiated style” used in Queen’s live shows today, he described: “But it never made it into the mix. What they used [were] acoustic parts that were first done as a sort of demo.”

Despite knowing how strongly audiences relate to “Under Pressure”, May admitted: “I never liked the way it was mixed, to be honest. But I get that it works. It’s a point of view and it’s done very well . And people love it.”

In retrospect, May felt that there were too many cooks in the kitchen. “I mean, David was an incredible creative force. But you can’t have too many incredible creative forces in the same room,” he told Total guitar. “It’s getting really hard! Something’s got to give.”

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“Under Pressure” was originally released as a single in October 1981 before the song was included on Queen’s 1982 album. Hot space. The collaboration peaked at number one in the United Kingdom, Canada and the Netherlands, while peaking at number 29 in the United States.

Since its first hit, “Under Pressure” has proven to be an influential classic — the song has been covered by My Chemical Romance and Shawn Mendes, and was controversially sampled for Vanilla Ice’s 1990 hit “Ice Ice Baby.” After Bowie’s death at age 69 in 2016. , the song also returned to the charts in several countries.

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Source: HIS Education