Today, January 8, 2020, would have been David Bowie’s 73rd birthday. But, on David Bowie’s birthday, for the past few years, I tend to think about January 10th, the day we lost him at age 69. I know it’s weird to think of it like that. It also reminds me that one of my first blog posts ever was about David Bowie.
With this blog being three parts autobiographical, singles chart nerdiness and my love for the 80s, one thing I didn’t count on was how much more about myself I would learn through these songs and these artists when writing about them. When I first wrote about David Bowie, I mentioned that, growing up, although I enjoyed his music very much, he wasn’t one of my immediate favorites. But, and this surprised me the most, when I thought about it after he died, I realized that David Bowie was always a part of my life, in some form, at least since the 1977 Xmas special he did with Bing Crosby. More than 42 years later, “Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy” is still my favorite Xmas song.
David Bowie and Bing Crosby, 1977.
David Bowie was also on the first record I ever bought with my own money, QUEEN’S GREATEST HITS, at the former LaVerdiere’s Drug Store across the river from where I’m writing this (in Wooterville, Maine, or Waterville, Maine for the uninitiated). You throw in LET’S DANCE, LIVE AID, LABYRINTH and more, over the years, my love for David and his music grew more and more. For years, I resisted getting a tattoo, and three months and a week after he died, I got my first tattoo with Mr. Bowie on my right shoulder, saying “We can be Heroes, just for one day.” Just felt right and still does. Sometimes, when Maryhope and I are on the air together, and we play David Bowie, I tend to refer to him as “the ever-present David Bowie.” And he is, and not just because he’s on my shoulder.
Some of the early Elektra pressings of QUEEN’S GREATEST HITS had a new song on the album, with David Bowie — “Under Pressure.” And I’m so grateful I got one of the early pressings. My 39-year-old copy of the album is beat to shit, after the millions of times I played it, but as the first album I ever owned, I’ll never part with it.
Not my copy, this is mint compared to my beat-up copy!
Being a lanky 14-year-old singles chart nerd (and nerd in general) in 1981, one of the things I enjoyed most about QUEEN’S GREATEST HITS were the liner notes. It had mini bios of each song, and revealed what positions the songs charted in both the U.K. and the U.S., which was a thrill for me, because at that time, I had little knowledge of how songs did across the pond, or other parts of the globe.
Here’s what the liner notes looked like on the first U.S. pressings of QUEEN’S GREATEST HITS, right down to the crease in the upper right corner.
What I didn’t know is that, on the U.K. and Ireland versions of QUEEN’S GREATEST HITS (or actually just titled GREATEST HITS, though I never called it that), “Under Pressure” was nowhere to be found. But, on (at least) the American, Canadian and Japanese versions of the compilation, it was thankfully there. And I instantly fell in love with it.
“Under Pressure” was the brilliant pairing of two of the greatest voices in the history of music — Queen’s Freddie Mercury and David Bowie. Absolute total fucking genius. I’ve heard stories of stressful moments between them during the recording of “Under Pressure,” which, depending on your interpretation of the song, could be about stress and pressure because of work, politics, life, love, family, war, war within yourself, or anything. When I hear “Under Pressure,” I don’t feel pressure at all, I don’t think about the battles Freddie and David had whilst making the song. I just feel the love that was put into the song and I hear the passion and conviction in each of their voices:
“Love, love, love, love, love / Insanity laughs under pressure we’re breaking / Can’t we give ourselves one more chance? / Why can’t we give love that one more chance? / Why can’t we give love, give love, give love, give love / Give love, give love, give love, give love, give love?…”
The unassuming, pressure-free cover art for the “Under Pressure” single.
“Under Pressure” was released the last week in October 1981, on the same day as QUEEN’S GREATEST HITS. Within two weeks, it debuted on the BILLBOARD Hot 100 at No. 80. In early December 1981, it debuted in the Top 40 at No. 40. A month later, in early January 1982, it spent a couple of weeks at its peak position of No. 29, 15 total weeks on the Hot 100, and was gone by late February. I can’t express enough how pissed I was (or as pissed as a then-15-year-old nerd living in Central Maine could get) that “Under Pressure” didn’t get the recognition it deserved.
Unbeknownst to me, though, in many other parts of the globe, “Under Pressure” DID indeed get the recognition it deserved. In the U.K., it spent two weeks at No. 1, a week at No. 1 in the Netherlands, and reached the Top 10 in (at least) Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Why Americans couldn’t get behind this masterpiece is a question that eluded me for a very long time.
10 years to the week after “Under Pressure” hit No. 1 in the U.K., Freddie Mercury sadly passed away at the age of 45. His loss was felt everywhere, and less than six months after he died, a benefit concert was put together in honor of him. Many artists performed with the surviving members of Queen, including Robert Plant, Paul Young, Seal, Lisa Stansfield, George Michael, Elton John, and when it came time for “Under Pressure,” Queen’s Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon performed with David Bowie, and singing Freddie’s part of the song, the extraordinary Annie Lennox of Eurythmics. The performance was magnificent, and an amazing tribute indeed, that I’m sure Freddie would have loved.
Annie Lennox and David Bowie, from the Freddie Mercury Tribute, April 20, 1992.
Over the years, you couldn’t escape “Under Pressure” being featured in numerous TV shows and movies, including a touching scene in the brilliant 1997 John Cusack film, GROSSE POINTE BLANK.
John Cusack and a baby, quietly jamming out to “Under Pressure” in 1997’s GROSSE POINTE BLANK.
When David Bowie died in 2016, many of his songs returned to the charts everywhere in the world, even here in America. On the BILLBOARD Hot 100, “Under Pressure” was the highest Bowie song to re-enter the chart, at No. 45 — over “Let’s Dance,” over “Fame,” over “Space Oddity.” And now (maybe also due in part due to the excellent 2018 Freddie Mercury biopic, BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY), “Under Pressure” is in heavy rotation at Retro Rock and Classic Rock stations all over. It took awhile, but here in the U.S., “Under Pressure” has finally gotten the recognition it has deserved all along.
I want to travel back in time and go to there!
It’s hard to believe that, at one time in my life, David Bowie was not one of my favorite artists. But, today, January 8, 2020, and well before today, and with many eternally grateful thanks to Maryhope, I can honestly say David Bowie is one of my all-time favorite artists. I can’t imagine my life without him or his music.
If I had access to a working DeLorean time machine, you can bet your 88 miles an hour ass that I would go back in time and see David perform live and buy everything of his that I could, at those moments. But, since that’s not yet physically possible, I take comfort in the fact he left us an incredibly brilliant catalog of music that stretches far across the universe and then some.
I also take comfort with something Maryhope often reminds me of, how we existed on this planet at the same time as David Bowie. That’s so fucking cool. Also so fucking cool is a thought I’ve had of David hanging out with Maryhope’s dad, Dennis, and my two baby brothers, Mark and Jonn — because they can.
Happy Birthday, Starman, wherever you are. My love to you all…
“Cause love’s such an old fashioned word / And love dares you to care for / The people on the edge of the night / And love (people on streets) dares you to change our way of / Caring about ourselves / This is our last dance / This is our last dance / This is ourselves / Under pressure / Under pressure / Pressure…”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a01QQZyl-_I
FOREVER YOUNG 