Under Pressure, Feel Like and David Bowie

Hey guys,

I read Brian's piece about Under Pressure, written as a tribute to Bowie, and now I'm confused.

From what I've always read here on Queenzone, Feel Like (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2g5cdDlbXs) was an early demo that later on evolved into Under Pressure - which actually makes sense, given how similar they sound. I've always assumed once Bowie joined the band, they reworked the whole thing, wrote new lyrics, added the bass line etc.

However, according to Brian's text, everything was new. He mentions John coming up with the riff, Brian coming up with "a heavy guitar riff in D" and everybody contributing to create a new backing track.

Does any of you have any source to either prove or disprove part of Brian's story? We know his memory doesn't always help :-P


[QUOTE]
David Bowie and we guys from Queen came from the same country, of course … and quite close by, in London, at that. But we only hooked up properly because of a coincidence. We all happened to be in a sleepy little town called Montreux in Switzerland at the same time. In the 70s we worked at the small studio there, Mountain Studios, with David Richards, and liked it so much we bought it, and continued to work there until Freddie’s passing many years later. David Bowie had actually settled in Switzerland to live, very close by, and since we already knew him a little, he popped in to say hello one day while we were recording.

Now time dims the memory a little, but the way I remember it we all very quickly decided that the best way to get to know each other was to play together. So we all bowled down into the studio and picked up our instruments. We had fun kicking around a few fragments of songs we all knew. But then we decided it would be great to create something new, on the spur of the moment. We all brought stuff to the table, and my contribution was a heavy riff in D which was lurking in my head. But what we got excited about was a riff which Deacy began playing, 6 notes the same, then one note a fourth down. Ding-Ding-Ding Diddle Ing-Ding, you might say. But suddenly hunger took over and we repaired to a local restaurant for food and a fair amount of drink. (Local Vaux wine as drunk in Montreux is a well-kept secret).

A couple or three hours later, we’re back in the studio. “What was that riff, you had, Deacy?” says David B. “I was like this”, says John Deacon. “No it wasn’t, says Bowie – it was like this”. This was a funny moment because I can just see DB going over and putting his hand on John's fretting hand and stopping him. It was also a tense moment because it could have gone either way. Deacy did not take kindly to being told what to do, especially by physical interferences while he was playing! But he was good-natured, and it all went ahead. Then we began playing around – using the riff as a starting point. Now normally, if it had been just us, we probably would have gone away and thought about it, and started mapping out a song structure.

David said something like “We should just press on instinctively. Something will happen.” And he was right. It did. I put a little tinkling guitar riff on top of John’s bass riff (David later was adamant it ought to be played on a 12-string, so I overdubbed that later at some point). And then we all mucked in with ideas to develop a backing track. The track had something that sounded like a verse, then a quiet contemplative bit, which built up ready for a climax. I managed to get my heavy riff in here. I remember saying … "cool – it sounds like The Who!” At which point David frowned a little and said “It won’t sound like The Who by the time we’re finished!”

Now at this point there is no song … no vocal, no words – no title, even – no clue as to what the song will mean – just an instrumental backing track. But it really rocked. Born completely spontaneously, it was fresh as a daisy. Stop there? Go away and write a song for it ? “No” – says David.

He’d been working with a bunch of people who developed a technique for creating the top like by ‘democracy’ as well as the backing track. The procedure was each of us went into the vocal booth consecutively, without listening to each other, and, listening to the track, vocalised the first things that came into our heads, including any words which came to mind, working with the existing chord structure. At this point Freddie laid down his amazing De Dah Day bits, very unusual, which actually made it to the final mix.

The next step was to cut up everybody’s bits and make a kind of compilation ‘best of’ vocal track – which would then be used as the template for the final vocals. It came out pretty strange, but very different. We all went home that night with a rough mix which was provisionally called ‘People on Streets’, because these words were part of the rough.

The next day we reconvened, and I think I was prepared to try some new ideas out. But David was in there first, and told us he wanted to take the track over, because he knew what he wanted it to be about. So, to cut a long story short, that is what happened. We all backed off and David put down a lyric which now focussed on the ‘Under Pressure’ part of the existing lyric. It was unusual for us all to relinquish control like that but really David was having a genius moment – because that is a very telling lyric. And the rest is history?

When it came to mixing the track, I, (uncharacteristically, since I was usually the last one left in the studio of a night), opted out altogether, so that there were fewer cooks to spoil the broth. Roger hung right in there – and Roger, who had been a fan of Bowie from way back, was very instrumental in making sure the track got finished. In fact it didn’t get mixed until a few weeks later in New York. That’s a whole different story, but I wasn’t there, so all I know is that Freddie and David had different views of how the mix should be done, and the engineer didn’t completely know how the studio worked! So it ended up as a compromise … a quick rough monitor mix. But that was what became the finished album track, and a single too, which made a mark all around the world.

Now Roger stayed close to David from then on. We all frequently bumped into each other in Montreux at the Jazz Festival, at Claude Knobs’s house (creator of the Festival) or at the house of Charlie Chaplin, close by in Vevey – his last wife was a friend of David’s and very hospitable. So the links were there, and I remember David was always very patient with my small boy Jimmy … playing with him on the floor with Claude’s toys.

But the next time we really spent serious time together was at the rehearsals for the Freddie Tribute Show, which Roger and I put together after we lost Freddie. There was one bizarre moment, when I looked around in the rehearsal room and realised that, on some makeshift chairs, in a line waiting for their rehearsal spots, sat Roger Daltrey, Robert Plant, George Michael, and David Bowie. David, as I remember, was very mellow by then, and made a wonderful contribution to the show, including a literally show-stopping moment when he went down on one knee and recited the Lord’s Prayer. If you look at our faces on the video for that moment, you can see that it was just as big a surprise to us as it was to the audience!! David’s duet with Annie Lennox that night is legendary. But pretty much everything David did was legendary.

Never predictable, never classifiable, immensely lateral thinking and fearless, he stands as one of Britain’s greatest musical creators. I’m certainly proud to have worked with him.

RIP David.

Bri

[/QUOTE]
http://brianmay.com/brian/brianssb/brianssbjan16a.html#07

[QUOTE] [b]Raf wrote:[/b]

Feel Like (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2g5cdDlbXs) was an early demo that later on evolved into Under Pressure[/QUOTE]

Personally, I only find them slightly similar, not enough for one to actually have evolved into the other. Is '39 a demo of 'Long Away'?

Anyway, the problem about that song is that, out of the seven people involved, three are dead, one's retired and that leaves us with:

* Brian, who's not precisely Dr Memory.
* Reinhold, who's not precisely Dr Memory either.
* Roger, whose memory's positively eidetic compared to Brian's... but still far from perfect.

Moreover, Brian was probably pissed and the other six might've been coked out of their minds when that happened. And it's been over 34 years since then.

To sum up, we'll probably never ever know.

As for conflicting stories, just about the bass line:

* John said (1982 and 1984) that David wrote the bass-line.
* Rog said (early 21st century, I think it was a video FAQ for the Fan Club) that 'someone' (didn't say who) wrote it, then they went for pizza, and then they returned and forgot it, then John remembered it.
* David said (on his website, IIRC) that the riff was already there before he entered the scene.
* Rog also said (2011, DOOL Doco) that John wrote it, they went for pizza, John forgot it and Rog remembered it.
* Brian now said (2016, David's obituary) that John wrote it, they went to grab a bite, John misremembered it and then David corrected him.

Reminds me of a situation when a group of young dudes get busted by the Cops with some weed in their car.
No one is willing to take full responsibility for that.

Maybe it`s because they just ripped of G.F.Händel for that riff ?

What you have to remember is that these days about 80% of what Brian May says is total rubbish.

[QUOTE] [b]emrabt wrote:[/b]

What you have to remember is that these days about 80% of what Brian May says is total rubbish.[/QUOTE]

I think that's quite unfair. The vast majority of what he says is spot on. The few bits that aren't are enough to doubt his recent claims, yes, but it's not a black or white situation.

Only a few weeks ago on his Soapbox, Brian said that he basically walked away from Under Pressure, inferring that he did not like the controlling nature of David Bowie in how the song was heading. He appears to have altered this for the Daily Mirror piece.

i don't see that much similarity in the two songs really. A little, but not massive.

I think Feel Like is amazing. probably needs its own release.

So is Brian's original riff in the song do you reckon?
I think John wrote the famous riff the majority of sources say he did.

I also wish Queen had a bigger say in the production and mix as it really doesn't sound like a queen song. I imagine it would have sounded like Queen's live versions if they had more control. Much heavier, with the instruments much more in front of the mix than the buried, muddy mix we get in the version we all know.

they seem very similar to me, I can easily see that being a starting point and then John coming up with the bass line later. The heavy riff confused me a little as the part he is taling about has always seemed more of a filler part moving from one part of the song to the next rather than a riff that would have stuck in your head as a possible starting point.

Feel Like clearly has the UP guitar chords. It's part of UP's evolutionary tree. Does that make it a demo? Let Me In Your Heart Again has very similar guitar to Hammer to Fall and it seems the former was abandoned for that reason. So two different songs based on a similar guitar riff and chord progression. Maybe that's the relationship between Feel Like and UP.

[QUOTE] [b]liam wrote:[/b]

I think John wrote the famous riff the majority of sources say he did.[/QUOTE]

It's not quite a democracy, is it? If a billion people say the earth is flat, it's not gonna change the fact it's not.

Personally, I believe the most believable quote is the one from 1982 by John himself, considering:

* It's from mere months after the song was written, as opposed to a few decades.
* It's from the person who played it.

David misremembering a few decades later and thinking the riff predated him makes a lot of sense considering he was an incredibly active songwriter, he probably couldn't remember every little detail about every song he wrote or co-wrote. For John, on the other hand, that bass-line was a particularly significant one, he'd surely remember if he wrote it or not.

[QUOTE] [b]Sebastian wrote:[/b]

[QUOTE] [b]liam wrote:[/b]

I think John wrote the famous riff the majority of sources say he did.[/QUOTE]

It's not quite a democracy, is it? If a billion people say the earth is flat, it's not gonna change the fact it's not.

Personally, I believe the most believable quote is the one from 1982 by John himself, considering:

* It's from mere months after the song was written, as opposed to a few decades.
* It's from the person who played it.

David misremembering a few decades later and thinking the riff predated him makes a lot of sense considering he was an incredibly active songwriter, he probably couldn't remember every little detail about every song he wrote or co-wrote. For John, on the other hand, that bass-line was a particularly significant one, he'd surely remember if he wrote it or not.[/QUOTE]

Agree.

And if John wrote the bass-line, why would he have credited it to David anyway? If John said so early on that David wrote it, then he's the best source.

[QUOTE] [b]Sebastian wrote:[/b]

[QUOTE] [b]liam wrote:[/b]

I think John wrote the famous riff the majority of sources say he did.[/QUOTE]

It's not quite a democracy, is it? If a billion people say the earth is flat, it's not gonna change the fact it's not.

Personally, I believe the most believable quote is the one from 1982 by John himself, considering:

* It's from mere months after the song was written, as opposed to a few decades.
* It's from the person who played it.

David misremembering a few decades later and thinking the riff predated him makes a lot of sense considering he was an incredibly active songwriter, he probably couldn't remember every little detail about every song he wrote or co-wrote. For John, on the other hand, that bass-line was a particularly significant one, he'd surely remember if he wrote it or not.[/QUOTE]


Interesting, if that's the case then maybe much of the royalties from the Ice Ice baby track need to be Bowies, as that's pretty much all he lifted?

Maybe the story of how it went down is slightly out, maybe john had a riff, played it prior to lunch, when they got back from lunch Bowie thought he had it wrong and corrected him (physically) on the bass as Brian says... John not wishing to fight about it leaves it be and effectively Bowie wrote the riff....?

Re "Feel Like", I believe that Greg Brooks once said at Convention that it's Bowie doing the one fingered piano note.
I expect they played around with some existing stuff first (piano note on "FL" and additional vocs on "Cool Cat" before getting creative with "UP".

[QUOTE] [b]Togg wrote:[/b]

Interesting, if that's the case then maybe much of the royalties from the Ice Ice baby track need to be Bowies, as that's pretty much all he lifted?
[/QUOTE]

Legally, though, it's credited to all five of them. It doesn't mean each wrote 20%, though. Credits and royalties are often decided long before anything gets committed to tape, and since they'd decided to come up with something spontaneously, it'd be credited to everyone. It doesn't matter that, apparently, neither John nor Roger actually wrote anything on that song, they still got co-authorship and the corresponding publishing royalties.


[QUOTE] [b]Togg wrote:[/b]

Maybe the story of how it went down is slightly out, maybe john had a riff, played it prior to lunch, when they got back from lunch Bowie thought he had it wrong and corrected him (physically) on the bass as Brian says... John not wishing to fight about it leaves it be and effectively Bowie wrote the riff....?

[/QUOTE]

At the end of the day, people will believe what they want to believe. Whoever *wants* John to have written it, will disregard what John himself said claiming he was being modest or whatever, and whoever *wants* David to have written it, will disregard what David himself said claiming he was misremembering or whatever.

[QUOTE] [b]brians wig wrote:[/b]

Re "Feel Like", I believe that Greg Brooks once said at Convention that it's Bowie doing the one fingered piano note.
[/QUOTE]

Have you got any source for that, such as a recording? I mean, there's the whole broken telephone issue at hand and, moreover, it wouldn't be the first or last time Greg's claims aren't spot on.