Behind the Bassline of an Iconic Queen Collaboration That Was Written After a Dinner Break

If you are a fan of classic rock music, chances are you know the song “Under Pressure” well. After all, it features giants in the genre like Freddie Mercury and David Bowie. But one of the most famous aspects of the track isn’t who sings on it, it’s the bassline. Here below, we wanted to highlight the story behind just that.

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Vanilla Ice

If you’re a fan of the song “Under Pressure” and of modern music in general, chances are you also know the song “Ice Ice Baby”. The rap tune by Vanilla Ice is famous and infamous. A smash sensation, “Ice Ice Baby” is also criticized for its cartoonish nature.

But one of the reasons people know it is because of its bassline, which was sampled from “Under Pressure”. That ding-ding-ding-da-da-ding-ding. It’s simple, familiar, and sticks in your soul. But Vanilla Ice didn’t initially pay royalties for the sample and later faced controversy for it.

But none of that could have happened had it not been for one important dinner.

Writing the Song

In September of 1981, Queen and Bowie were in Switzerland. So, they decided to get together to jam at Mountain Studios in Montreux. After a few attempts at working on other songs, they started to put together “Under Pressure” from scratch.

But while big names like Mercury and Bowie draw lots of interest, here below we wanted to talk about the song’s bassline. Even before the vocals hit, it’s that bassline that listeners hear and recognize. It’s also one that’s permeated pop culture in other ways (see: “Ice Ice Baby”). So let’s dive in!

Different Stories

You’d think that since the bassline has played such an important part in culture that someone would remember where it came from. But over the years since 1981, there have been varying stories about it, including from Queen bassist John Deacon. Let’s go over a quick timeline:

In 1982, Deacon said that Bowie created it. In later interviews, though, Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor said that Deacon wrote it.

The truth, though, may be somewhere in between.

On his own website, Bowie said the line was written before he got to the Swiss studio to jam with the band. But speaking for the BBC documentary Queen: The Days of Our Lives, Taylor reiterated that Deacon wrote the line, saying he was playing it all day in the studio.

But then Taylor added that when the group got back from a dinner break that night, Deacon had forgotten the riff, or at least part of it, and he had to remind Deacon of how it went.

Finally, in 2016, May laid the final word down, perhaps, saying it was Bowie who edited Deacon’s riff after dinner. Said May, “Deacy began playing, 6 notes the same, then one note a fourth down”. Then, May added, after dinner, Bowie edited the riff to “Ding-Ding-Ding Diddle Ing-Ding”

So, now you know! (That is, if you trust May.)

Teamwork makes the dream work!

Photo by Larry Hulst/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images