Midnight Music Double Feature: PRESSURE

[athelind]

Whenever I hear one of these songs, I think of the other.

They were both released in 1982, the year I graduated high school.

Says something about the zeitgeist, doesn't it?

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Pressure
Billy Joel
from the 1982 album
The Nylon Curtain

You have to learn to pace yourself
Pressure!
You're just like everybody else
Pressure!
You've only had to run so far
So good
But you will come to a place
Where the only thing you feel
Are loaded guns in your face
And you'll have to deal with
Pressure!

You used to call me paranoid
Pressure!
But even you can not avoid
Pressure!
You turned the tap dance into your crusade
Now here you are with your faith
And your Peter Pan advice
You have no scars on your face
And you cannot handle
Pressure!

All grown up and no place to go
Psych 1, Psych 2
What do you know?
All your life is Channel 13
Sesame Street
What does it mean?
Pressure!
Pressure!

Don't ask for help
You're all alone
Pressure!
You'll have to answer
To your own
Pressure!
I'm sure you'll have some cosmic rationale
But here you are in the ninth
Two men out and three men on
Nowhere to look but inside
Where we all respond to
Pressure!
Pressure!

All your life is Time Magazine
I read it too
What does it mean?
Pressure!
I'm sure you'll have some cosmic rationale
But here you are with your faith
And your Peter Pan advice
You have no scars on your face
And you cannot handle Pressure!
Pressure!
Pressure!

One, two, three, four
Pressure!

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Under Pressure
David Bowie and Queen
from the 1982 album
Hot Space

Umm boom bah day
umm boom bah bay
umm bah boom bah bay day

Pressure, pushing down on me
Pressing down on you, no man asks for
Under Pressure
That burns a building down
Splits a family in two
Puts people on streets

Umm bah bah bay
Umm bah bah bay
Ea day da
Ea day da
That's okay!

It's the terror of knowing
What this world is about
Watching some good friends
Screaming, "let me out!"
Pray tomorrow takes me higher
Pressure on people
People on streets

Day day day
Umm... Buh da bah bah bah
O-kay!

Chippin' around
Kick my brains 'round the floor
These are the days
It never rains but it pours

Ea doe bay dup
Ea da doe bah bup
Ea doe bup
Bay lup

People on streets

Ea da dea da day

People on streets

Ea da dea da dea da dea da...

It's the terror of knowing
What this world is about
Watching some good friends
Screaming, "let me out!"
Pray tomorrow takes me higher-higher-high...

Pressure on people
People on streets

Turned away from it all
Like a blind man
Sat on the fence but it don't work
Keep coming up with love
But it's so slashed and torn
(Why, why, whhhhhyyyy??)
Love love love love

Insanity laughs under pressure we're cracking

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

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 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

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Joel's song is such an explosion of stress, but Bowie and Queen's, despite its similar themes, is a release. It's celebratory: yes, the world is closing in around me, but I'll see it through. It's hard to listen to it without singing along with those last few lines, as the music rises to an epiphany.

Can't we give ourselves one more chance?

I do my best ... under pressure.

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Comments

[cpxbrex.livejournal.com]

I love both Pressures. The Billy Joel album, The Nylon Curtain, is amongst my favorite albums *ever*. I mean, the crazy thing about that album is that Pressure *isn't the best song on the album*. It's Billy channeling the Beatles better than the Beatles, if you ask me.

I have owned three different versions of The Nylon Curtain -- tape, CD and MP3 at this point -- and this is the first time I've seen the video. Which left me with a profound "what the fuck" feeling. It struck me as strange, given how I know every note of the song without video. It's a great song but a pretty incomprehensible video, which is sorta strange since the song is not incomprehensible.

On the other hand, Under Pressure is a fantastic song as well, albeit in a totally different vein than Billy Joel. Billy Joel is at his best when he's saying something - which means much of his work is a wasteland for me - but Queen is best when they've got no message other than, y'know, "Hey, let's have some fun with fat bottomed [insert appropriate gender here]." I do not say this to say that Joel's best is better than Queen's best. As a matter of general preference, I'd rather listen to Queen. I mean, The Nylon Curtain is a great goddamn album, but Queen's heights are really high.

I think it's interesting to compare them side by side. Joel's Pressure is a pretty dismal song about how, y'know, we've got to face this stress and strain and there's no guarantee we'll be up to it - and when we're there with guns in our face all our silly platitutes will crumble. Queen's Under Pressure is far more hopeful. So, Joel's Pressure is Daffy Duck and Queen's Under Pressure is Bugs Bunny; the first who we are, the second who we want to be.

I figure you'd like the Chuck Jones reference, to top it off. :)

For what it's worth, I suspect I'd fold right the fuck up under pressure.

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

thank you so much for turning me on to Gail Anne Dorsey! OMG she can sing

[scarfman]

Both the same year, huh? Maybe that's why I never realized there were two till now.

[svashtar.livejournal.com]

Gail Anne Dorsey does an incredible job on Freddie's part in that song. I had the pleasure of seeing Bowie and Dorsey sing this duet live three times at the Warfield.