It may be one of Queen’s all-time classics, but Brian May recorded “Under Pressure” under protest.
The 1981 hit — a colossal collaboration between British music gods Queen and David Bowie that soared to No. 1 in the UK and has remained a class-rock mainstay — didn’t mesh as well with May as it has with fans over the years.
“I never liked it, to be honest, the way it was mixed,” May, 76, told “Total Guitar” magazine.
Indeed, the Queen guitarist clashed with the late Bowie during the “very difficult” late-night studio session “after we had a meal and a lot of drinks.”
An earlier version of the song — which was much more to May’s liking — “sounded like The Who” and was “massively chord-driven.”
“I was beaming because I liked The Who. I remember saying to David, ‘Oh, it sounds like The Who, doesn’t it?’ ” recalled May.
“He says, ‘Yeah, well it’s not going to sound like The Who by the time I’ve finished with it!’ You know, in a joking kind of way. But he didn’t want it to be that way.”
With the two having “different ideas of how it should be mixed,” Bowie removed some of May’s guitar parts from the final product — which certainly did not help to endear the song to the founding Queen member.
In the end, May gave in to their creative differences, saying that it was “the only time in my career I bowed out, because I knew it was going to be a fight.”
He left the battle with Bowie to Queen frontman Freddie Mercury.
“So basically it was Freddie and David fighting it out in the studio with the mix,” explained May. “And what happened in the mix was that most of that heavy guitar was lost.”
But May admits that the version that has been played for generations around the world — which is featured in a new Adidas ad campaign featuring Anthony Edwards, Patrick Mahomes and Lionel Messi — is beloved for a reason.
“I do recognize that it works,” he said. “It’s a point of view, and it’s done very well. And people love it.”
For May, it just may have been a case of too much legendary talent in one room.
“I mean, David was an awesome creative force,” he said. “But you can’t have too many awesome creative forces in the same room.
“It starts to get very difficult! Something has to give.”
