One Song - Queen & David Bowie's "Under Pressure"

Episode Date: January 18, 2024

This week on One Song, hosts Diallo Riddle and LUXXURY are “Under Pressure”. That’s right, the guys are bringing you Queen’s rock monster: A song that was number 1 in three countries, has been ranked as one of the 500 greatest songs of all-time by Rolling Stone magazine, and is often cited as one of the greatest collaborations of all-time … And that’s before we get to the iconic vocals, that bassline, and the story of how “Under Pressure” went from rock history, to hip hop infamy.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What you've been waiting for? One song, coming to your life from the studios of Sirius. This is one song in a building downtown. We're a family of two. There are people on the streets. Baa, b'abat! B'A b'abat! D'A-all!

That's okay. It's the terror of knowing what this podcast is about. We're just two friends. Watch us work it out. It's Diallo and Blake Rebin, a.k.a. One song with luxury and diallo. Oh, that was awesome.

Perfection. And luxury. Okay. Excellent work. Can I hear more scatting? Babi bapab. Deo. Wrong song. For one song, not wrong song.

Let's read it up. How are you, my friend? I'm good, Diallo Riddle. And how about you? I'm doing well. I'm really excited that we're doing under pressure. It's 2024. It's a leap year. It's an election year. It seems like every single industry on the planet is being wildly disrupted. A lot of people are under pressure. So much pressure. In our daily lives on the planet in the country, it's just like inescapable. How many elections this year?

Something like 50 in Europe alone? Not enough. Not enough elections. That's right. But this song is a rock monster. Yeah, it is a bohemoth of a song. It was number one in three countries, the UK, Canada, and Holland. And while it didn't hit number one in the U.S., it did go four times platinum.

Yes, it's been ranked as one of the 500 greatest songs of all time by Rolling Stone magazine. If Rolling Stone magazine says it. Must be true. I mean, that's the gospel. But it truly has been cited as one of the greatest collaborations of all time. We're also going to talk about that bass line. That's right. This time on one song, it's Ice Ice Baby by Vanillaise.

Yo, VIP. Let's kick it. I'm messing with you. Oh, you got me. I was, for a second. I was tricked. It is, of course, Queen and David Bowie under pressure. That's the one.

Now, luxury, this is an episode we've been so excited about for such a long time. Such a long time. Because some of the vocal stems you have for this are spine tingling. They get underneath your skin. single moment is a spine tingler, if you will. Absolutely. We have the acapella vocals for not one, but two of the most legendary singers of all time. Freddie Mercury and David Bowles. This is going to be such a special episode of the show because we always play some

stems. We always talk about it. We have guests sometimes. This one is going to be just like the rest of the episodes, but it's a little bit more stem heavy, I would say, because there's so much gold within the mix. But there's also this extra added bonus, which is that I have a whole bunch of unused stuff. There's a lot. We'll tell the story about it. There's stuff that It didn't make the mix. Stuff that didn't make the final cut. And part of the story of how the song got made will be illustrated by the fact that you'll be hearing stuff that as we discuss the crazy process of cutting and pasting different ideas together, you'll hear some of the unused ones. I can't wait.

I mean, like to people who listen to the show, they know we met during the pandemic and you would play some of this stuff for me. And I was just like, oh my God, this is like a music nerd's dream come true to hear some of this stuff. So I don't want to waste too much time of getting into it. Yeah, I mean, look, we're about to get into it. And just to sort of finish that story about, like, this show itself began a little bit with the friendship, plus I've got these stems.

Should we tell the world about it? So this, we kind of save this for, like, this episode once we've figured out the show, 25 episodes in. If I haven't mentioned it already, you are listening to the 23rd Best Podcasts on planet Earth, according to the Atlantic. So we really know what we're doing. And today we're going to show you

all of these incredible moments underneath the hood of this song you've heard many times before but never quite this way. Okay, so before we dig into the stims, can you play us a little preview of the kind of stuff we'll be hearing? There's so many great moments. This was a really hard choice to make. This is maybe one of my favorite moments, but it's also super intense. So just be prepared for an intensity level that you may not have been prepared for until I told you to prepare. We're not done yet. One more note. Isn't that insane? I mean, okay, so... I'm already at... peak excitement we just got started. I was going to ask you specifically about that part because

admittedly in preparing for this episode, you can find the acapellas on, you know, some of the acopalas on YouTube, they're out there. And we're going to, we're going to have some of varying levels. Do you want to tell real quick the people, the difference between in the past we've said untreated vocals, naked vocals, raw vocals, we use a lot of X-rated terms to describe vocals on the show. Vocals get nasty on this show. Yeah. Do you want to tell us exactly what we have stem-wise here? Do we have the actual stems that they used in the recording? Well, there's both.

What I just played for you is the final acapella as heard in the song with reverb added as it is in the mix. But what I also, so that's what you heard just now. So when we say treated, it's treated. It's probably got EQ. It's got compression. It's definitely got reverb. Right. The word treated just means that there's effects or EQ or compression.

Just things are done to the vocal to juice it up. or make it sound kind of more exciting. But that note is insane. It's insane. It's an insane note to hit for a second. Yeah, but then at the end it goes higher. It goes higher. It goes higher.

And then you got that crazy echo on love. I mean, there's so much good stuff. I mean, I'm excited because I love Queen. I love Queen. And by the way, I love Queen, but you're like a next level Queen fan, right? What is it about them that you love so much? Queen is probably my first favorite band, maybe outside of the Beatles, who, because I grew up and they were in the environment as a child,

it doesn't really count. It's kind of like, all babies love the Beatles, like a certain point. It's just, if they're in the air, it's one of those. For me, it was just in the air. But Queen was a band that was a discovery. And once it was like in my life, I just bought all the records. And that is probably the only band maybe outside of the Beatles where I've kind of heard every song. Right.

And their significance emerges over time. Like, why am I so attracted to this band? That's what a life is for. Like understanding, unpacking, peeling back the onion. about like, oh my God, you know, it's not to later in life that you start to understand the kind of aspects of sexuality and the aspects of performance and the aspects of, there's comedy, there's a lot of comedy in Freddie Mercury. And of course, the musicianship as a drummer first and then picked up basic guitar.

We're both drummers. All of the instruments in this band are peak level composition, performance, recording. There's so much to unpack with Queen that I would say that they're neck and neck with the Beatles for me as a favorite band. Yeah, and I would say that their music still matters. I mean, like, it's, it's, it's one of those bands that's oddly been relevant, you know, before we were really listening to music and to this day, like my kids go around singing, another one bites the dust. Kids love cleaning, right? It's one of those bands.

I think it's the primacy, if you will, of the drums in creating these music. I mean, like, we will rock you is one of the first songs that I remember from this group. And by the way, I'm just going to go on the record in a minute. the first time I heard under pressure, it was after, the first time I heard that baseline was definitely Ice Ice Baby. No. Absolutely. Wait a second.

Is this our Nas moment that we're having right now? You wish. This is the Nas, this is the New York State of Mind moment. Oh, you're trying to rock right past it, aren't you? Growing up, no, I wish. I would love to know what I don't know. That's so interesting that you didn't hear until after it was used. Yes.

When I was in school, when I was in school, when I was in school, reworking, if you will. When I was in school, we definitely heard. heard another one bites the dust. We definitely heard we will rock you. We had the champions was in a Revenge of the Nerves. Like there were other Queen songs that we had exposure to. I'm not sure I had exposure to Under Pressure.

Again, first time I heard that base, I was probably a nice, nice baby. We're going to talk a little bit about that when we get to samples and interpolations. But we'll save that for now. But for right now, I'd love to set the scene as we do on one song. What is the historical context for the song? So Under Pressure was recorded

in 1981. It was It was preceded. I think the last single from Queen before this was their song from, I think, without doubt, the greatest space opera of the 1970s. Everybody knows it. It's, of course, Flash Gordon, and the song is Flash. If you don't know Flash Gordon, you have to go back and listen to this. It's such a great song. The movie I have yet to see because it's, I'm afraid.

You never seen the movie. I've never seen the movie, and I'm such a huge fan. I've only seen it because I had no access to it when I was this. when I was young, there was no way to see it. And actually, that's probably not true. I think what it was is that I knew it was terrible. It was not terrible. It was never the choice I wanted to make at the video store.

Do you know what I mean? Like, I want to see this, but not that bad. Dude, Flash Gordon is an amazing, campy film that to kids who were fortunate enough to watch it without knowledge of where science fiction was going to go. I think it's a great movie. If this podcast were called One Film, I would say, let's do a deep dive on Flash Gordon. But that's something for another time. do that film. Let's do a double feature

with Spinal Tav, and that'd be like a perfect, perfect night. They're kind of from the same period, so that would be perfect. But that's what Queen is up to. At the same time, Bowie has recently released Ashes to Ashes. Yeah, fashion. Which I think was like his number two, number one in the UK. And fashion is also like, so he's in, fashion by the way, is like

one of my absolute favorite. He's playing with disco, he's playing with funk. I love that. But he's been like so much in the second half of the 70s. It's sort of like the forgotten Bowie here in America. the fact that like he's working with all these great soul musicians. Right. Luther Vandros.

Right. Yeah. And you mentioned fashion and fame, which I think we'll probably cover on a future episode of this show. And speaking of fame. Collaboration. Boy, he's in a very collaborative mood.

Yeah. He works with John Lennon on fame. He's actually, I think, recording cat people at Mountain Studios. And he comes across the guys in the studios. Can you tell us how this collaboration comes about? Well, that's exactly right. So Queen has a studio that they own in Montreux, Switzerland.

As one does. As one does. This is in 1981, and they... I think if I had a studio in the album, I'd probably just live there. Yeah. I mean, it's called Mountain Studios. I can just picture it in my mind. It looks like the place to just grow old and retire, yeah.

And make music. One song live from Mountain Studios. Oh, my God. I would love that so much. So it is a studio. It's open to the public. Bowie is there. You're right.

I think they hear through their mutual producer, who's Mack, Reinhold Mac, who also worked on the song under pressure that Bowie's in the studio next door recording Cat People song for the Cat People movie. There's a Bowie super fan and Queen, isn't there? Oh my God, when you think about the connection between the two, first of all, Freddie Mercury grew up in the glam era, in the Ziggy era.

So Ziggy and Bowie, the representation of like a character on stage, basically, a singer who's also a character and playing a part. When you think about that and the glam with the fashion and just the outrageousness, Freddie Mercury springs to mind as being like an obvious child of this of this presentation that David Bowie has going on. But isn't the drummer in Queen. I had heard he was actually the real super fan who like literally when he heard that Bowie was down the hall,

reached on and I was like, hey man, you want to come sit in with us? Roger Taylor, man, he's the secret sauce of Queen. He is the highest voice of Queen. If you ever hear a Queen, high harmony stack and you're thinking, oh, that must be Freddie. It's Roger always at the top top, tippy top most note. That's like finding out like, you think it's, You think Michael's the, but actually Tito's the best dancer in the Jackson.

One of my actually going to, I'll illustrate that. One of my favorite queen records is called Shear Heart Attack, but it doesn't actually contain the song Shear Heart Attack. It has the song, Killer Queen, and it has this moment at the beginning of the song, as if to illustrate that they know how ridiculous Roger Taylor's voice is. That's Roger Taylor doing his thing. I mean, how is that possible that Freddie doesn't have the highest voice in Queen?

Yeah. So that's happening in Montreux, Switzerland. They eventually get together. They decide to hang out in the studio and just jam and just sort of rock out, see what happens. Until at a certain point, Bowie's like, you guys, look at us, where these five people, let's write a song together. Let's turn this into a collaboration. Of course, they're all half wasted anyway. But part of the fun of it, I guess for them, was they're just hanging out being rich rock stars.

But at some point, Bowie clicks into this gear, which is important for the rest of the story, which is serious. Let's get some shit done, boys. Let's do something together. So they start jamming, and they start jamming. a song which Roger had kicking around, like a demo. And I'll play you a snippet of that. This is Feel Like. It's called Feel Like.

There's actually some scratch vocals, too. And I'll play that for you right now. And as you can hear, those are, that's the chord changes to under pressure. That's the song structure. Did not listen to this intentionally because I figured you were going to bring it in. And I had never heard this demo for Feel Like before the show. Hearing it right now, it's got some of my favorite elements. That guitar part, yeah.

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, like, we know we're going to talk about the baseline, but like, there's so much that I love in Under Pressure, the piano, the guitar, like, there's so much stuff that works. So, like, yes, that is a great song. Maybe not, it maybe would have just been forgotten to the time. It's the foundation for a great song. You know, it was a brilliant thing to bring in, too, because it was already, they'd already kind of worked on it enough to be like, let's add to this rather than go from zero, you know, which can be sort of stressful sometimes. I know from experience, like, play me something.

or make something from scratch is like terrifying. So they start out. So what comes up to me is like, hey, be funny. People really do that. Isn't that a cliche? That's such a cliche that people say that can mean. It really happens to you.

People say be funny? More than I care to. Oh my God. More than I care to talk about it. I'm stressed out just thinking about that. Happening to you, my friend, I want to protect you. And I should mention, by the way,

that they'd already decided prior to this jam session, that they wanted to collab. And they do have a collab, which is David Bowie, ended up singing backing vocals on Queen's on Coolcat, they ended up not using Bowie's contribution, but I was able to track it. Because Bowie didn't like his performance, right?

I was able to track it down, let's listen together and decide whether they made the right call. It's kind of rapping, I guess. So, we decided not to use that. When did Bowie started dating Amman? When did they start dating? Oh, good question. Not in 81, not too much later. In my dream world, Amman comes soon.

She's like, baby, don't rap. Don't do that pseudo-wrap thing. What's funny is Cool Cat's one of my favorite songs. on a much maligned album. We were talking about this before we started recording. Like, I think Hot Space is actually a good album. It's a great record. When you start doing research for our show,

a lot of times you will come across sort of the conventional wisdom of a certain generation of music critics who are always like, oh, you know, I hated it when Rock tried to do disco, when Rock tried to go R&B. But like, come on, you guys. Like, I would say that those clubs that Freddie Mercury is clearly going to, maybe the whole band is going to,

in the late 70s and early 80s, like, I think those are good albums. You know what's funny, though? Is that Deacon... I like them. Like, I like Cool Cat. Body language, I still think, like... As a side project, you and I should probably sample body language.

Body language, I'm very... This is one of my favorite Queen's song. Of that album. I'll play it for you. This is body language. Start for the beginning, though. From the unfairly maligned hot space record, this is body language. Right off the gate.

I'm in. I'm in with that Lind drum, synth bass. That's insanely good. Dude, I'm going to throw this out there. I just love this. I want to find out when this song came out. And I also want to find out what year did changing. Oh, change.

Glow of Love? Searching. Oh, searching. You're right. You're right, right. It's inspired. Somebody listened to somebody's song. I'm going to go ahead and say that this came after because I'm pretty sure it did.

Regardless of who came out first, I think searching is like one of those great songs. Maybe if there's time, we'll do an episode about that because that is early Luther Vandros for those who don't know. Luther Vandross was the singer for change for some time and searching is one of the really, really cool songs and it sounds very similar to body language. I'll play a little snippet right now. You be the judge. Oh yeah, 100%.

So one thing you have to remember, here's a story that I'll answer your question. Don't forget, first of all, the dance stuff on this record in particular is really of a, it's more of a John Deakin thing, the bass player than Freddie. Surprisingly a little bit. John Deacon was really into like,

let's do something in more of a funk vein. Fung and Disco vein. So, and don't forget that he may have gotten into that mood when he was hanging out with Nile Rogers. The night they wrote Good Times. Yes. And then decided, you know what, I got a baseline on my own. And that's when he wrote this. So John Deacon.

John Deacon. Also liked dance music, not just spreading. I will say this. We are firm believers that we are not music snitches. Oh, hell no. But this is all out there. He talked about all the time. He talked about all the time.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Searching by Change came out in 1980. Of course it did. Of course it did. There is no question. John Deacon made a little mixtape. He's like, these are the songs I like so much that I'm going to write a song similar to it, but different. And that is exactly what it did.

And that's okay. By the way, this is my firm belief. Now, that said, what we just heard was really freaking similar. And given that change did not achieve the monetary, like, peaks of great fortune, stacks of money, scrooge McDuck level. that queen did. I'm not super stoked about it saying when we sort of hear it in the room. It's very difficult for me to imagine

there wasn't a connection there. There might have been. Finish the chronology of how this song came about. So they go to dinner. They've been jamming on this track and they're partying. The partying continues. There's champagne.

There's probably cocaine. There's drugs. There's well-documented cocaine. I don't think we had to pull any bunch of here. I don't want to seem accusatory. No, no, no. I think it's safe to say there was legal then, right? Right?

No. If you're a rock star 1921. I don't even know that. It was definitely a carve out in the law for you in Montrose, Switzerland. I want to say something about cocaine. I want to say something about cocaine. To me, David Bowie is in that rare pantheon of artists that I just think are bona fide geniuses. Hell yeah.

And I feel like the same way that everybody who heard Charlie Parker thought, oh, if I take heroin, I can be Charlie Parker. No. No. He was a heroine. He was a genius who happened to be a heroin addict, not the other way around. Okay. And I feel like, I mean, the stories are legend. Bowie was apparently like a serious co-kit, but like the cocaine consumption is not what made him a genius.

Oh, definitely not. He was David Bowie who just happened to really enjoy cocaine. But like, I just had to put that out there. I think we're going to talk open and honestly about the creation process. One talk is actually a stealth. Just say no. Don't do drugs, kids show. So I think we're kind of peeling back the curtain.

My kids are not allowed to listen to this. This and breaking bad, I'm like, you'll find out when you're 16. Hey, real quick, one thing I love about the chronology is, and this gets towards the actual creation of the song, I know people are listening and waiting. They're working on this music. Yeah. And then they go across the street at one point. I love this part of the story. And I don't know if it's a restaurant or a bar, but apparently they just drank copious amounts of wine.

Yes. And like they're just over there. They're getting super lit. And then they come back over. And people have forgotten what the, this baseline they've been working. on. Yes, I love this story. They were recording it. They were playing it and they're like, this is great. We'll remember this forever. And then they came back to the studio and they're like, what the fuck are we just doing?

And the bass player can't quite remember. So John Deakin, who came up with this iconic baseline, has forgotten what he was playing. And Bowie remembers it. So the funny thing about this story, too, is that I've heard different stories about this. They all tell it differently. Yeah. You go ahead and tell Bob. Yeah. So in one telling, and I think it's very kind of kind of what they're doing. I think Deacon, when he tells it, gives Bowie credit. And Bowie kind of avoids the credit and gives it back. Back first, there was an interview. No, no, no.

Tell me what you know. What I found was that Deakin at first said, musically, this song is all Freddie. Like, did you do? This is like an 82 interview. Okay. He says, musically, it's Freddy. Lyrically, it's Bowie.

And then I think it's Roger Taylor. Roger Taylor, yeah, the drummer. I think it's Roger Taylor who says, no, this song was basically feel like, but with Bowie contributing to the baseline, the famous baseline part. Go ahead. I love this because the Roshaman nature of creativity is,

people should apply this to everything they ever hear about how stuff got made. Because not only is there the like people were in the room, came out of the room, and suddenly there's no two stories are the same. And the people in the room have different stories depending on what year you're talking to them. It changes over time. It changes based on the relationships.

It changes because there's lawsuits involved. And it changes also because of memories. And it changes also because of maybe some... The amount of wine and cocaine being consumed. Wine and cocaine, but right. And at the time you're coming, if you're in the room making something, sometimes you don't realize that you're influenced by the person who said something next to you. A million ways that the creative process makes it really difficult to untangle the exact specific contributions of every single person as separate from the others.

Now, I did interrupt you because I think you were about to tell us, the story that I think is kind of the most agreed upon ending to the creation process, which is that John Deacon does forget the bass. John Deacon forgets his own baseline. And it's Bowie who reminds him, no, it sort of went like this. What I think is funny about the retelling, and I think it might be kind of a mutually understood, tacit thing amongst the players, is that Deakey probably did forget which six notes in a row he played.

He knew there was something about six notes in a row, but exactly the rhythm and what came next seemed to be unsure. What I think happened is that Bowie had something in his mind that he thought was better. And what he said was, no, John, you were playing this and sort of like, incepted it to be like, oh, great idea, John. I thought about that when I read that. I was like, do we know that Bowie actually remembered what it was or is it possibly that he thought, oh, this would be better if it's something like this? You don't know. How would we ever know? We'll never know, but we both read into it the same thing. And I think it was just a matter of like, This will be better, but let's give him credit for it.

By the way, we're not even taking away. Did you call him Diki? Diki, that's his nickname. I've never heard that. Barney's in New Order and Dickey. Dicke's and queen. I don't know if I can call another man Dickey with a straight face. The British people have these really funny nicknames for each other sometimes.

Like Diki. If your name is, like Morrissey goes by, like they call them Maz, right, Mazer. Gary's or Gazze. Someone has to explain that to us. One of these days we're going to do deep dive on the term soccer and how that that came about it. It's a very British origin for the wood soccer. Well, it's football. It goes back to football association.

Okay. But we'll talk about that at another time. After the break, those spine tingling vocal stems, we promise, we're going to play them, as well as that iconic baseline. And we'll get into the Freddie Mercury and David Bowie. Beef is too strong a word, but we'll just say they definitely butted heads, like some rams fighting over the ladies in the flock. We will get into all that when we come.

back. Welcome back to one song. Luxury. Where do you want to start? All right. Well, we're going to talk about Queens under pressure from the inside out. This is a song written by five gentlemen, Roger Taylor, Freddie Mercury, John Deacon, Brian made David Bowie. Produced by Queen with Bowie, engineer was named Mack, Reinhold Mac. Yeah. And there's an additional credit that flows around. I think he also played keyboards, and that's this gentleman named Dave Richard. So just credit where it's due. So good old Roger Taylor with that high, high, high note is also really one of the most unsung great drummers of our era. I'm a huge

John Bonham fan and everyone loves Keith Moon, whatever, but like this guy's a monster. I like animal. And Travis. He's one of my favorite monsters. Travis Barker. And Quest love. Shout to Quest. Shout out. Okay, there's lots of drummers. Let's face it. Roger Taylor is just one of many. No, Roger Taylor is a monster of a drummer and here he is playing drums for under pressure. I'm going to start

with this chunk here, which is just the basic beat. And then we'll get into some of the sick stuff that comes later. So you can hear a lot of bleed in there. That is actually isolated, but he's playing in a room, and he's obviously listening to the mix, either in his earphones or in the room itself, which is why you hear some bleed from the others. And here's Roger Taylor going into the chorus.

It sounds so big, in part because we've got reaver, but he also just hits really hard. So here is the greatest part of the song from a drum perspective. This is a monster of a fill that happens right after the bridge. When I hear this, I hear Dave, Grohl in his room as a teenager listening to it. But let's listen to the whole thing. And Saturday lies under pressure.

That's that part. This is so Dave Grohl to me. Oh my God. So sick. So powerful. So loud. Take that, Wembley! So stadium!

These guys were born to be in stadiums. I mean, you just, you forget how much Queen, they didn't invent stadium rock, but they kind of like perfected stadium rock. Yeah, right? That's well put. Yeah, Zeppelin maybe kind of invented it, I think quite literally. But the Gwinter's of the next level. Writing songs for those stadiums that they were now filling, right?

That was outstanding. I love that. I don't know. You can follow up any drum stems with that. Those were the peak, peak moments. I love that you brought up Dave Grohl because we've mentioned on this show before his conversation with Ferrell and all the stuff. He was listening to. For his part, Ferrell, I'll never forget.

Somewhere in the Outs was like, I'm starting the slave. who's called Star Trek, and what I'm looking for is not just rappers, I'd love to find a rock singer

whose voice reminds me of Freddie Mercury. I just think that Freddy's voice has love across so many different genres.

It's incredible. It's just one of those voices. Why do you think that is? I just think that there's certain voices that you can't,

you can never mimic or, Freddie Mercury, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gay. There's some voices that just, there's no

duplicating them their once in a lifetime voices. And Freddie just I mean you played that note earlier like most people couldn't hit that note much less maintain it like that. And then bend it at the end higher. And then bend it higher. We're going to get into that stuff in a minute. We're going to talk and listen to so much. In the meantime,

let's listen to that iconic baseline. And it is definitely true, as some commenters have pointed out. We overused the word iconic on this show. I am definitely guilty of overusing the word iconic. You're iconic when it comes to you overusing the word iconic. That's fair. And I'm right there with you.

That is so fair. But there may be no more iconic. Use of the bass guitar than this. This is up there. Ice, baby. There's no done, done, done. There's no done, done, done.

There's no done, done, done. I'm so tempted to skip a hand. We all saw that interview. Only six done. All our brains exploded. I mean, what can be said about that baseline? The simplicity. Not only is it simple because it's sort of short.

Those six notes are the same note. This is a two-note riff. You've got seven total notes and six of them are fucking same. If you've picked up a bass guitar, you can probably play this. Oh, yeah. You only need to know two notes. And you can kind of like forget the second one you can kind of fake a little bit. It's just that one little rhythmic da-da-da, that 16th note, which we think that maybe Bowie added.

It's unclear like in the transition from Dekekeye playing something to Bowie. misremembering it, possibly in what in his mind was a better version of it. But certainly that da, da, done, done, that 16th note makes it, makes it, I think, why it is so iconic. It's a big part of why it's so iconic. I totally agree. Only because you brought it up, I want to, only because you brought up that iconic baseline, but I'd like to play just a snippet of their performance on Saturday Night Live

where you'll notice that the that iconic the whole song is sped up to what I would call 1982 cocaine fast but just by the way fun fact this is the first and the last time

that Queen played the song in America played the song in America so check this out this is from Saturday Night Live 1982 Chevy Chase was the host he definitely doesn't know about cocaine this is under pressure on Saturday Night Live under pressure

pressure If you have the time, go find this clip before NBC rips it off of YouTube. Okay, I want to talk about the guitars, because the guitars, we were going to say a lot about the bass line, but the guitars are freaking epic in this song. Can you play us some? Yeah, and it's fun to listen back to that first demo because a lot of that stuff made the cut. In fact, this first thing I'll play for you is something we heard in the original demo before Bowie even entered the room, and here it is.

This is Brian May, one of the guitar parts, the initial one that starts the song. So good. Sounds like a calliope? What is that thing called? So he's playing a 12 string, apparently. I think there's a mix of guitars in there, but it was Bowie's suggestion to have one of them be a 12-string guitar. Sounds almost like harpsichord. Right.

Very treble. Very, very trouble. Very attacky. So that's the part that we know existed prior to them all entering the room in Montreau, because it was on the demo for Feel Like. And then we get into this part. which is in the chorus. And then more come in.

So those are the two main things that Brian May plays during the song. And then there's this one part. Remember a moment ago I played that huge Dave Grohl-esque drums. There's a part here. There's a funny story behind it, which I read, where this is another idea that Brian May had, I guess, lying around

in his riff drawer in his brain. And he wanted to use it in the song. Okay, so May was like, I'm going to get this riff into the song somehow. And this is a quote from him. This is his head. heavy riff. I remember saying, cool, it sounds like the who, at which point David Bowie frowns a little bit and says, it won't sound like the who by the time. We are finished. So here's that riff.

Shots fired. Here's that riff that he's referring to. And you can hear it here. It's very who. That does sound like the who. It does sound like the who. And it sounds even more like the who when he does those big open chords. That's like Baba O'Reilly right. So there's definitely like a little who influence going on there. Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. So that's Brian May. Those are guitars. There's a lot more going on. I'll just play you a little teeny bit of some of the keyboard just because they're fun to listen to before we get into the meat of it all, the vocals. So here's that piano, plink, plink by itself. Again, we get the doon, do do do do and the piano, the simplicity. Let it play. Let it play. I did not know that was there.

Do you want to hear that again? Can we hear that again? I mean, what was that? Flash Gordon made it into the studio, apparently. That is a synthesizer from 19-81. I'll look up the exact one. It sounds like it. It sounds like my Cassio keyboard when I was a kid.

Might be a fair light. Maybe that's the OB and Oberheim, but whatever it is. That makes you laugh every time. You know, never meet your heroes. And sometimes don't listen to the stems. You know what's interesting is hearing that piano by itself. I'm in my brain. And we were talking in the Sly episode, Slye in the Family Stone episode,

that the greatest musician is like, you think you hear stuff that's not even there. And with this piano, I was actually hearing a slightly different note. In the song version in your mind all these ears? For some reason, in my head, it sounds a little bit different than when I'm hearing it now just by itself. It's just weird like that. Yeah, sometimes in the mix, other instruments kind of blend in with each other.

So you think one guy like it, right, yeah. There's another instrument that's working there that makes it sound a little. Yeah. Different. It's probably the guitar. It's probably the guitar part because that's being layered like this. I'll just play them for you. Play them together.

Yeah. You really like that. Here it is without that. Yeah. I think it's because the guitar is there. It's making other things happen in my brain. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's so funny.

There is always, that's the joy of listening to the stems and sharing them on the show. There's stuff that you don't notice in the mix like that foghorn, that they obviously, the San Francisco foghorn. noise, whatever the fuck. That's definitely a keyword. I'm just joking. It's a synthesizer. But it is very funny.

Could you place anything else that you discovered, let's say these, that you think is either not in the mix or we would have never noticed it? Absolutely. Yeah, here's a little interesting something I think you might enjoy. That sounds like those rubber chickens that like the kids all like that drive me crazy because you step on eating something. I kind of need to hear that again. You ready to do the visual for it with a rubber chicken?

Here you go. I think every parent knows what I'm talking about. those rubber chickens. You may not notice that's there, but now you'll never unhear it. Let's see if I got one more. It shows up every time. Make it stop.

They lumped in so much they used it in every chorus. All right, cut it. Cut it. Am I ruining this song? Cut it. No, cut this off. Cut this off.

I'm so sorry. Freddie doesn't have the highest voice. There's a dead rooster on the track. And there's a fallboard. The other experience of under pressure is forever. Maybe we shouldn't have done this song. because I thought it was the perfect song and now I have some notes. Allahoo's created nothing this great has some notes.

Okay, so I think it's fair to say we're coming to the moment. We've all been waiting for. Luxury, let's talk about the vocals. And I think you want to start us off with a quick story about how the vocals got recorded. So at this point in the project, Bowie is starting to really take the organizational hands, shall we say? I was going to say the upper hand. but he is definitely kind of the project manager of this situation. And he suggests, and this comes from his own experience, by the way,

as a very creative, his creative methods included a lot of, like, Dadaist things and surreal, like cut-ups and things like that. Like you take newspapers and you chop them up, throw them on the floor, maybe there's some lyrics there kind of stuff. So he suggests that everyone go into the, to get the lyrics and the melodies, that all the members, not just him and Freddie, all five of them go into the studio into the vocal booth, and just come up with whatever comes into their head in the moment.

So they're to listen to the instrument. track and just whatever comes out of their mouth, just let it go and don't overly criticize, don't be critical about it. So they do this. And what I'm going to play for you in addition to all the iconic stuff that we've heard many times, but never quite like this isolated, is other stuff that wasn't in the final version. We're going to hear one of my favorite things is Brian May, who usually has one song in

every queen record, but he isn't normally on under pressure. There's a verse that he comes up with, which is generally not something people know exists. and we're going to play that for you. But first, let's play... Brian May. You want to start with Brian May? I'm glad you're talking about Brian because I think you're about to play this vocal.

Yeah, let's start with Marines, unused vocal. Yeah, and you can hear Freddie and David in the background yelling people on streets, which is the working title of Under Pressure. Yeah, because that's all, they had been just vocalizing nonsense except a few words popped up and they're like, hey, people on streets. People on streets. It's very catchy.

You'll hear that. that as Brian works out his idea here, you'll hear them popping up. Here we go. This is Brian May on the lead, and then People on Streets is David and Freddie. Silent and lonely. People on streets. Nowhere to run.

People out of streets. They don't know people. The kind of people who get things done. I thought he's going to say, The kind of people who live on streets. That would sort of tie it up in a nice little bow, wouldn't it?

Yeah, man, no, seriously. People get things done. People on some different song. You know, I was, we here at the show are big on vulnerability. Yes. I was this year's old when I found out that they're saying people on streets. I thought there was just more of that sort of scatty than they do that. Beed up, me.

Yeah, I thought I didn't know they'd say people on streets. Yeah, people on streets. That's really cool. Yeah, right on. I'm just going to do one more unused thing because it's very funny. This, to me, feels like Freddie putting on his. Barry Gibb hat. Okay.

You'll hear why I think that in a moment. You said New York. New York is dangerous because you drink that way you may. I love that. I love that. So basically... Listen, listen to this. That sounds like Jimmy Fallon doing his impression of Barry Gibb.

You're right. But that's why we like putting everything in its historical context because they're listening to the radio just as much as an artist to do. day would be listening to Doja Cat on the radio. Like, he's heard Barry. He's probably like, oh, I like that. He's like, well, he could be like, I like that. Or he's like, hey, you guys, have you guys noticed that Barry Gives like, ha ha ha ha ha,

you know, like, that's really cool. Who ever knew that was in there? It makes me wonder, too, now that we're talking about it, is that the inspiration for the ultimate why, which we just heard at the beginning, which is crazy? In other words, did he start out as a joke doing the Barry Gibb and then decide, let's like do it. Why? Why? Why?

Like, let's do it for real and belt it? But, you know, Prince is out at this time, too. And I almost wonder, like, that almost sounded less Barry Gibb and more Prince. Like that. Interesting. And I'm not saying that he's copying Prince or the Prince is doing Curtis Mayfield, though, right? Yeah, exactly. I mean, everybody's, like, influencing everybody else.

But when I heard that, I did think I was like, you know, because I know that later on, Freddie and Michael Jackson are going to work together. But that part, that part sounded more like Prince to me. Okay. Which is, I think, sort of interesting. The wobbliness to me sounded like, The wobbly, but that other part you played is 100% very good.

I love that section. That's so funny. And I'll just do one more. It's just fun to hear Freddie sing a line that didn't end up getting used. And here's that line. Talk to the lady talks and dreams. Sitting on the stairs, she's people to me. That did get used.

No. That's not in there? Oh, I'm thinking about the part. These are the days. It never rains. This is him getting, maybe this is him nailing. and finding that melody and choosing to use it in falsetto, but then rewriting the lyric is kind of what I think. And actually, it might have been Bowie who wrote the new lyric for that melody. And this gets back to what we were saying before about the Rashomon of who said what. You said that Deacon said Freddie was responsible for music.

Yeah. And I'll find that quote. I mean, like. I think that's probably accurate. And my guess is from what we heard. That's a perfect example. That's probably Freddie going, I got this great idea. Here's the melody.

I'm going to do it in. falsetto, and Bowie's like, and here's a better lyric for it. That's just speculation. Total speculation on our behalf, but you know what? Based on all these interviews, that's what I think might have happened. There are a lot of freaking interviews out there, folks. And now let's hear Bowie's unused stuff.

This is another line from Bowie, which he's saying off the dome, top of the dome, presumably, maybe he wrote some of these lyrics down, but this didn't get used. There could be a hell-ho, but it's not what you think. You count them in

does but I go on the friends that take me high take me high the phrase it could be a hellhole could be a hellhole oh man they decided they could top that

and they did what they left in was pure gold now we've come to the part that everybody's been waiting for and for this I have a small request for our one song listeners I want you to close your eyes and just listen just as once to Freddy's voice.

Got to play the whole thing. No, because we're going to talk about this separately. Oh, God, it pains me so much to stop the right there. It's hard to stop the music. Please don't stop the music. It's really hard to stop that part because it's such a natural progression. But I just... Emotional moment after emotional moment, so many of them.

It's so emotional. I just... I don't want to sound like that fogy who's like, where's the music or something? But it's so emotional. And his voice is so good. Yeah. It's so good.

And it's hook after hook after hook after hook. It's pleasure center being tickled, like continuously in different ways. Yeah, man. And like, you know, when you hear it without the music, you hear, I heard the growl in that one part more than I think I've ever really appreciated. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Like he's just hitting you over and over with give love, give love, give love. There's just so much going on there. I just, I love it so much. It sounds so good and it's so emotional and it's so raw. I'm feeling the same thing you are. Yeah.

Is there music right now? My mind always goes to. Is there music right now that I'm not listening to that I should be because it's just as good as this? My problem sometimes is like when I go to people, I'm like, I want to hear something emotional. They give me like some singer-songwriter. No offense. It's like a person with like an acoustic guitar and they're singing about like their shitty breakfast. And I'm like, that's not what I mean by emotional.

I mean, like, this is hard rock and music with drums and bass and guitars and stuff, but it's still at its heart really emotional. I just don't want to miss the boat on something being recorded right now. But maybe that comes, I have two minds on that. I hear everything you're saying, and I agree. And I simultaneously think, well, maybe there's something happening now that over time will emerge as that. But at the same time, I think this hit just as hard, listen one in 1981 as it hits 40-plus years later. So maybe the time will make it that way.

This was a single. Like it's not even like you had to search on the album to find this. This was the hot space single. And his voice, but that's why I think that like, you know, whether it's a rapper with incredible skill or a singer with an incredible voice, like Freddie is a once in a generation talent. Yeah. And so is David Bowie.

And so is David Bowie. I want to listen to David. Can you play me some David Bowie? Let's continue. Pick it up. Yes. Pick it up where we left off. Pick it up where you left off.

Thank you so much. much. And if they both come in together at the end of the David Bowie first, as I think they will, just let it ride. Oh, that's Roger. This is ourselves under pressure. All right. Now listen.

Fucking chills. I agree. All the chills in the world. All the chills in the world. And so juiced. And yet I've always thought that was Freddie coming in and harmonizing with him. That's not Freddy? I just noticed that too.

No, that's Roger Taylor. He of the high voice. There he is. Doing the high harmony there. And it's a little lower. It's a little raspy. You can tell because of the raspyness. Now that you're saying, I guess I can hear it.

Distinctive raspiness of Roger Taylor. I'm still giving Freddie the props on that. I refuse. I don't even know if Freddy's in that. I want to keep a little bit of the magic alive. Wait, is Freddy even in this? I want to listen again. I'm not sure.

that Freddy's part of that. That might just be Bowie and Roger. Well, whatever the fuck is going on here. I mean, it's amazing. It's insane. And we just had a minute and a half of, it's one of those things. You know when you listen to the song that's, I can't wait for that next part. This is a part where for a minute and a half straight, from the drum fill to the end of the song, which we just heard,

everything that's happening, I'm like, I love this, oh, and it's about to get better. Oh, I love this. Oh, it's about to get better. Oh, I love this. It's about to get better. It is this build that never ceases to, They're playing with our emotions. If you want to be honest about it. I have a practical question and a more esoteric philosophical question. They went off into separate places and recorded vocals. They went to the vocal booth separately one at a time.

Right. So how are they harmonizing and hitting the same notes? That's just the writing process. So they're writing that way. And we heard some results because they recorded it. And that's still part of the tapes that have been passed around that led to me. But they didn't use it. And then when they finally did lay down...

So they did agree upon the lyrics and then they came together and said. At a certain point, what I understand is that it's really Bowie, who's kind of making some final choices about what remains, like what to use out of all these ideas. The patchwork of ideas, because there is a lot of different things, and it's a difficult thing logistically to do to figure out which do we use, what don't we use.

At a certain point, again, going back, just relying on interviews and sort of piecing together, a lot of people with slightly different stories. It seems like Bowie was the one, maybe with Roger, who went back to the studio the next day and said, let's use this, let's use that. But he is bringing it. Oh, I think I just answered the question.

That's why Freddie's not on the end there because he wasn't there the next day. And Roger was. I think that's why we just heard the end of the song with only the two of them. Because Freddie didn't come back. Sometimes Revelation has to come from just going through the information you already have. That would make sense. Because they only recorded everything on that first day, which is part of the insane magic of the song.

The next day was mixing. they just took what they had and made it into this. But you're right. What a great question that prompted that revelation because it's like, Freddie wasn't there to sing harmonies, only Roger was. Holy shit. I love the fact that we came up with that in real showtime. That's our theory.

I mean, that's a theory. If anybody wants to debate us, hit up the show. Now, of course, this song was famously sampled. We debated whether to even bring this up honestly. It's so obvious. The most obvious sample in history. Yeah, so if you talk to a person who doesn't know anything about samples or They still know about Ice Ice Baby and about Underpressure.

And this interview segment, which I'll play for you, just without any more introduction. Yeah, I know exactly what you're going to play. We sampled them from them, but it's not the same baseline. Like it goes, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. That's the way there's those. I go. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Okay, listen.

It's funny every time. We're talking now about how Underpressure's Baseline went from rock and roll history. to hip-hop infamy, if you will. I got to give him some credit. The audacity. You know, I thought at the time I was listening for it this time, he says the same thing twice. He goes, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

And then he goes, but I always goes, Ding, Ding, Ding, D. Like, it's the exact same shit. You just, the balls. It is an extra note. Just kick it. Yeah! All right.

I think any honest lover of hip hop will have to admit that that beat is dope. It's a dope. And I'm using that word dope intentionally because it's 1990. That beat is funny. And that seventh note, that extra done, done, done, done, done. Is it an extra note? Totally different. It is a seventh.

Instead of the six done-dun-dun-dun-dun's seven done-dun-dun-dun-d-d-d. So he wasn't making that up. They did change it. Done-d-d-dun-d-old. Hold on, hold on, hold on. For the record, when I hear him give that explanation, I hear the exact same thing. Like, I hear him say essentially the exact same thing. I don't hear a seventh note.

He even kind of leans forward. He goes, oh, I know. Ours is done, done, done. I thought he was trying to play a Jedi mind trick. Seriously, I thought it's right. Maybe it's because, as I said earlier in the show, the first time I ever heard this baseline was in Ice Ice Ice Baby. So it might be a case of when I listen to under pressure to this day,

I am unknowingly hearing the seventh note that is not there. That is very possible. I want to say really quickly, I have to tell my ice-size baby story. So, guys, it's the, it's 1990, and the radio is where we find. It's not TikTok. The radio is where you find. And most of us kids were all listening to V-103 in Atlanta. I remember very distinctly that, they played that song.

And then the next day, sort of like a water cooler moment, everybody was like, yo did you hear that song last night? And everybody's like, I, I speak. Like everybody was really amped. And we're elementary school kids. We have no taste in music. But like, we love that song. And I'll never forget.

This one kid in the back of the room was like, yo, that rapper's white. And like, the room stopped. And like, you just can't even imagine. I don't think people today can imagine just how insane that was. So he was pulling it off to you guys. Dude, nobody knew what had been. I just looked like the morning after Ice Ice Ice Baby debuted on Atlanta radio.

Or whatever that was like. We didn't have. The video's not out yet. I mean, you've got to realize there used to be a gap in between the song and the video. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The song would come out, it was a hit, and then you got a video. Okay. So he was getting away with it.

All right. All of us, I'll never forget, whoever, I don't remember the kid's name, but like, maybe it was Vaki Ross. But, like, I remember, I don't remember Vacchi Ross's old friend of him. All the air left the room. Everybody was like, no, there's no way. It was all like, shut up, Jamie. mall. That ain't true. Like, none of us

like to think that a white kid, that song sounded like a hot Florida night driving a 1994 Mustang. So did you change your tune at all about it? It did not sound like a white kid rapping and we definitely didn't know he had a hammer hit on hammer pants of like a high top. Right. A fake high top.

Yeah. Like, I just remember how everybody was shocked into silence that he could be white and then we just moved on. Like, we just moved on. You never talked about it ever again. We explained it when the video came Val of silence. People were like, yo, he's white. And then you saw like a little bit of a line in the sand.

Like some kids were still like, it's still dope though. And other kids were like, no, he's faking it. Which side of that line were you on? I think I was on the side. It's still kind of a good song, you guys. But like, it wasn't that like we can't like it now. The anti-line of argument was that he's faking it. He's not living that life.

Because, you know, in Atlanta, like, it was very segregated. And we didn't know that there were like real white. street kids. You know what I mean? I'm not even saying Robert Van Winkle. I actually don't know Robert's story. I did a little bit. Tell us about it. What is Robert's story? I did a deeper dig. So if anyone has been following this story because it's such a fun one to follow, he has this infamous video we just played the clip of where he's like denying first of all. So step one, deny. Deny, deny, deny. He's literally trying to tell us to our faces that they are not the same. So this is some combination of like ignorance and just like, you know, just bravado. Right.

He may not have known that that extra note didn't make him a plagiarist. That may be the case. But that's the grown-up him. I mean, like, background-wise, what, Robert Van Winkle, does he come from money? Is he, like, a poor Florida kid? I'm going to tell you a little bit about Robert Van Winkle. Is he from Florida? I always assumed he was from Florida.

I can tell you a little bit about Robert Van Winkle. And by the way, I got to give a shout-out to my friend, Claire McLeish, who is a friend of mine from the Musicology. I met her literally at the American Musicology Society in Denver, the annual conference that I just came back from. admittedly the most non-street thing we're going to hear a little of this. Good friend of mine, we were both kind of working on similar things. We're both interested in sampling and interpolation and all this to say that she had done a deep dive,

that she helped me before this episode with some research she was able to get into some publications I didn't have access to. So some of these facts are things that may be revelations in public for the first time. Because most recently, if you look up this case, you may find a clip many years later of Mr. Robert Van Winkle, Kaven Lai, he's claiming that he bought out the song. Right. And he's very vague about what he's talking about. Like there's an Opie and Anthony clip where he's like, I have $4 million, I bought it.

I'm like Michael Jackson with the Beatles. I'm so smart. And Opie and Anthony are like, whoa, that's amazing. You're blowing our minds. How do you buy it with $4 million when it's his first song? And what is he even talking about? So I can break down for you what that actually means.

I've done some homework. Okay. If anyone out there wants to do some of this, you can follow along with a little bit. You can go to BMI.com and learn that the actual writing credits for under pressure do not include Robert Van Winkle. That's his real name. So he's definitely not talking about owning under pressure. That would not be the case. As an owner. And if you look at the Ice Ice Baby credits, you will find all the members of Queen. You will find David Bowie. And by

the way, and this is important to, you will also find a couple more names. You'll find Floyd Brown, who's DJ Earthquake, who's the producer, who produced that track, and Mario Chocolate Johnson, who's the lyricist. And there are various interviews with both of them that I believe in which they both say that Robert Van Winkle did nothing except show up and rap that day, that all the lyrics were written by Chocolate Johnson, which is why their stories about Shug Knight, shaking him down, a little exaggerated for publishing. But it's safe to say... That's the famous hanging you off the balcony in West Hollywood, yeah. That's that did not happen. That didn't happen? These are facts that are verifiable in those databases,

but my friend helped me go a step further. Did Shook hang someone else over the balcony? It is quite possible. I don't want to get into any conversations. I don't want to get any conversation about Shug. So really great. We're excited to have him on the show. So after that Opie and Anthony interviewer, he claims for $4 million dollars he bought it, a queen spokesman said, told Ultimate Classic Rock, this publication, that Vanilla Isis statement is inaccurate.

An arrangement was made. An arrangement was made whereby the publishing and the song was shared. So just to sum it all up, there is some truth in the fact that he probably did pay $4 million to have some kind of participation in getting. royalties, but he's not an owner. And that's important because the difference is that if you're an owner, it means that you have the right to license it. You can authorize derivative works. You can approve it for use in a movie or a movie trailer. He doesn't have any of those rights that an owner would, but he probably, he might be getting paid in a new innovative way behind

the scenes. Technically, not an owner. So he doesn't own. It's not the same as Michael Jackson buying the Beatles, which is the comparison he makes himself. That's a way different thing. Earlier on the show, I said, never meet your heroes. Apparently never meet your zeros. Ouch, darn. Well, listen, whatever that vanilla ice movie, to the extreme, he was famously saying, hey, lose that zero, get with a hero. So I was trying to do a... And now it sounds like I've picked beef with vanilla ice,

which I'm perfectly comfortable. You're ready for that. All right. So one of the things people say about this song is it is perhaps the ultimate collaboration, the ultimate duet. That was one of them, yeah, for sure. Oh, my God. It doesn't get much bigger than Queen and David Bowie.

Two of my favorite artists of all time, the two most iconic, like, voices. and artists and musicians and their voices themselves, but also the artwork they make surrounding the music with the visuals and the costumes and incredible collaboration. But let me ask you this, Dielder-Riddle. What are your favorite collaborations of all time? Well, you know, I thought we were going to have a chance to talk about.

We didn't really get it. But Freddie and Michael Jackson were sort of fans, and you can see footage of Michael Jackson backstage at a queen concert on YouTube. I think they're two of the greatest voices not to be mimicked. ever again. And they recorded State of Shock together, which is a decent song. But

like, you know, I just, I can think of several other, you know... Isn't that Mike? Isn't that Mike? It's, well, it eventually became Michael Jackson and Mick Jagger, but the original recording of it was Michael Jackson and Freddie Mercury. And you can, you can definitely find that on

YouTube. So that was cool. Yeah. And of course, Michael Jackson did his music with the Beatles. We've talked previously about say, say, say, The infamous say, say, say, say. Only song that would have made thriller better. They definitely should have been say, say, say. Which should have definitely been on Paul's record.

That would have pleased so many more people. It makes so much more. Let's fit that into every fifth episode. By the way, Paul, clearly in the mood to collaborate. Yeah. You know, did his song with Stevie Wonder, Ebony and Ivory. You've got Mick Jagger and Bowie working together on that song. Dancing in the streets.

Classic video You haven't seen the version where it's like They take the music out and it's just Like breathing Heavy breathing It's right for dancing in the street Dance Chicago We've got

Kitty Rogers and Dolly Part and I was in the stream Around this time We already mentioned Bowie with John Lennon And for fame And what's crazy is that On the album with On the album with Under Pressure there is a song called Life is Real,

which is Freddy's dedication to his recently past friend. John Lennon. And then, of course, you got fame, the famous collaboration with David Bowie and John Lennon, who I don't think we all knew that Lennon was on that track. But once you find it out, it's very cool. That's him saying fame. And then just to bring it full circle,

the album that under pressure appeared on, Hot Space, has a tribute to John Lennon from Freddie Mercury. I keep thinking about, yeah, go ahead. Yeah, no, that was it. What were you going to say? I just keep thinking about how Hot Space people, I hope some people go check out the album. What's really funny when you look at it is like it is their,

it seems to be their least loved record just by the numbers on Spotify, and it's comical because all these songs are like $4 million, 3 million. But then you have under pressure at the end because it's the last song with $1.5 billion. It just sort of speaks to like, Like, you know, it really carried that album. We actually appreciate R&B and disco. And this is an album where Queen was trying some stuff. I think Stay in Power is a decent song.

I actually like Cool Cat. I'm so glad you played the Bowie part of it. And Backchat is great. And we are talking about body language. I think calling all girls, I remember that song. Very interesting. I like this starts off of calling all boys, but they're like, guys, you can't call it that. We're not ready for that yet. Nobody's ready for that yet.

Okay. So before we go, we're going to do one more song. This is the part of the show where we share a new. song with you, the One Song Nation. That sounds very fascist, but... You did sing about the Wong Song Nation in one of our recent episodes. I like that, One Song Nation, the Madonna episode, yeah. I'm with it.

We share it with you guys and with each other. Luxury, you go first. What's your One More Song for today? Well, today's one of those days where I all... My One More Song is connected to the episode. This is, for Queen fans, you may already know that Freddie Mercury has solo records, but not a lot of people do outside of the Queen core audience. and I don't think I've had a DJ gig in the last five years

where I haven't played this Freddie Mercury solo song. It's called Love Kills. Oh, it gives me chills. Everything about Freddie Mercury gives me chills. When you have Freddie Mercury plus those 16th note pulsating Georgio Morodery synthesizers, that's me. That's everything about me in music. Fun fact.

David Bowie was recording with Georgio Moroder when he met the guys and worked on under pressure. Oh, it's all coming together. All the heroes. Can you imagine all the heroes? in one place. Incredible. That's right,

because Mac was Marauders engineer from Munich. There you go. That big team. For my song, I like to use my one more song

moments to bring up a song that I don't know how else I can get it out there that hey guys, this is a cool song. Check it out, please. This group is from South Africa. They go by the name

a Siba Kopsod. Seba Koppstad. It actually stands for Seba Cape Town. And if you are truly into this, you can find them by looking up S-E-B-A-K-A-A-P-S-T-A-D.

S-B-A-K-A-P-T-A-D. The name of the song is Thina, and here it is. That's sweet. So just a sample of that song, it's a really cool song. I hope you like it. I love those jazz chords and vocals, like those crazy, unexpected changes in the chords. I love that.

Listen to it just now, though. It sounded like the piano player was Vince Garibaldi from the Peanut Special. Vince Garibaldi meets Stevie Wonder. Yeah, man. Yeah, totally. I like that. In church. Luxury, help me in this thing. All right, man. Well, I've been producer, DJ, and songwriter, luxury. And I'm actor, writer, director, and sometimes DJ Diallo Riddle.

And this has been and continues to be one song. We will see you next time. Thanks for listening. This episode is produced by Matthew Nelson with Engineering from Marcus Homb. Additional production support from Jordan Calling, Casey Simonson, and Alicia Shimada. The show is executive produced by Kevin Hart, Mike Stein, Brian, Brian. Smiley, Eric Eddings, Eric Wyle, and Leslie Guam.