That day Queen and David Bowie taught us empathy
On October 27, 1981, exactly 44 years ago, the world heard for the first time one of the most iconic collaborations in rock history: “Under pressure“, signed by Queen and David Bowie. A casual, mythological and unrepeatable meeting from which a song that has remained in the annals was born.
Galeotti were the Mountain studios in Montreux, Switzerland, where Queen were working on their tenth album, “Hot space”. Bowie – who was recording in the same complex – stopped by for a simple friendly visit. From an improvised jam session, between beers, laughter and a bass line that John Deacon brought out almost for funthe spark of “Under pressure” was born. Deacon’s simple but perfectly effective “doom doom doom da da doom doom” became the beating heart on which Freddie Mercury and David Bowie built their famous dialogue.
Dialogue is the right word, because the two voices never really merge. They challenge each other, respond to each other, chase each other. Mercury has the explosiveness of pathos, Bowie the gravity of introspection. AND a duet that represents the duality of the human soul: chaos and calm, ego and empathy, fear and hope. The text, written by many hands, reflects a universal tension: living under pressure, crushed by expectations, judgment, injustices. But in the second half of the song comes the turning point, with Mercury’s voice imploring: “Love dares you to care for the people on the edge of the night”, love dares you to care for the people on the edge of the night; love as an act of courageas the only possible response to pressure.
Upon release, “Under pressure” immediately reached number 1 in the British charts, becoming one of the most loved songs of both Queen and the White Duke. More than its popularity, the song remains immortal for his humanityfrom social anxiety to emotional fragility to the need for empathy. When David Bowie died in 2016, Brian May remembered that session as “a creative collision between two forces of nature”.
Only three years earlier, Bruce Springsteen left his recording booth to give “Because the night” to Patti Smith, who was working in the same studio. In addition to beauty, songs like these leave us a wonderful teaching: it is from overcoming the ego and from the encounter with the other that masterpieces are born.
