Wednesday, February 1, 2023

As we get older, we should be released from all that 'pressure'...

 Pressure to perform, pressure to be good parents, pressure to be accepted in the community. All of it. They should be things of the past...  
 
Of course, now I'm under a lot of pressure to figure out what I did with my reading glasses, trying to figure out why I walked in to the kitchen, and whether or not I changed my underwear yesterday. 
And do I really have to shave today? It's not like I have to go in to the office any more. Where are the car keys? Honey - where's my wallet?
 

It's almost impossible for me to believe that this song was written and recorded 42 years ago. It was a collaboration with David Bowie and is credited to "Queen with David Bowie". According to Queen bass player John Deacon, Freddie Mercury did most of the songwriting on this, although everyone contributed. The lyrics deal with how pressure can destroy lives, but love can be the answer. I always thought it was about how hard it was for Freddie to finally come out of the closet.
Brian May recalled about the recording session: "It was hard, because you had four very precocious boys and David, who was precocious enough for all of us. David took over the song lyrically. Looking back, it's a great song but it should have been mixed differently. Freddie and David had a fierce battle over that."
David Bowie performed this with Annie Lennox at the 1992 "Concert For Life" in Wembley Stadium, London. The show was a tribute to Freddie Mercury, with proceeds going to AIDS causes. I know she's a nutjob, but I really do enjoy Annie Lennox' body of work. Her version of the song with Bowie at the Wembley tribute to Freddie is the better version of all of them.
 



1 comment:

  1. Sorry, have to disagree with this as the best version. The original, even if poorly mixed, is still better in my opinion.

    ReplyDelete

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