Queen: Under Pressure Meaning

Song Released: 1981

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Under Pressure Lyrics

Um boom ba bay
Um boom ba bay
B-b-boom ba bay bay

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

Um ba ba bay
Um ba ba bay
Dee...

1. 1TOP RATED

   anonymous

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   Jul 2nd 2007, 15:45 report

   
   

   My interpretation for this song was about two different things.
   
   First I want to point out to the second person to submit that freddy mercury couldn't have been homophobic because he was a bisexual himself.
   
   I believe that the song is 2 different songs mixed into one. an example would be the beatles " a day in the life."
   
   The first part of the song is talking about widespread poverty and our lack of compassion for them. The pressure is some poor man begging for money and for Queen and Bowie to "let him out" of poverty.
   
   The second is asking why we can't love our fellow man? poor or rich we are supposed to love all and hate none. and towards the ends mercury sings that it's because 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"
   
   There are only two things I don't understand about the song. what do the lines "these are the days it never rains but it pours" and "this is our last dance" mean?

   
   
   
   

2. 2TOP RATED

   anonymous

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   Aug 8th 2007, 08:11 report

   
   

   I feel that after quite a lot of pondering on these lyrics that I have the answers to what these two lyrics mean ''these are the days it never rains but it pours" and "this is our last dance". When the song says these are the days it never rains but it pours I think its talking about how the problems of mankind are becoming so much worse and I think poverty is an example of this.
   
   The analogy of pours is a much heavier rain then simply rains. So in a way it also talks into Freddy's life because at this time he has found out he has aids he has so many problems due to the criticism he has received by the press and now after that ''rainy'' period, it gets much worse because he finds out he is soon going to die, this could be seen how life is beginning to pour and become much worse for him. Also poverty is becoming much worse in the world and in that respect we can see how many people dying due to poverty may be seen as a pouring period yet again.
   
   This song highlights many important things about life firstly that of how we are challenged by God to love other people above the selfish love that we all have for ourselves. In a sense this can be reflected in the lyrics ''love dares you to change our way of caring about ourselfs''.
   "this is our last dance" can be interpreted to mean that we have a chance right now to help others not after we die or anything like that but right now, and in a sense this is true because it is our last chance to help others before this world becomes blinded by peoples selfishness. Freddie is warning others that just as he is going to die very soon he has realsied that we are on earth for a short time and helping people on streets to do good things can only be the way forward.

   
   
   
   

3. 3TOP RATED

   HowCouldYou

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   Jul 6th 2009, 10:43 report

   
   

   When I watched the show way back, Annie and Bowie were trying to do their best to put on a fine tribute, and the truth is they could never do him justice, Annie costumed up and her vocals seemed weak from what I know and expected from her musical talents, and Bowie was his usual stoic self not wanting to kiss Annie on stage for innuendo reasons I am sure considering his open sexuality which made for awkward feelings, in addition, if you listen to Annie she sang incorrectly. At that time I suppose no one could help not get wrapped up in the moment, but I was unable to celebrate, not realizing that mimicry is the highest form of flattery and still saddened by the fact that such a wonder was gone and still being upset by someone making mean comments about Freddie for not saying he had the disease earlier and wondering how he, if possible, knew that he would be dead exactly 24 hours later after the announcement.
   
   Pressure pushing down on me
   Pressing down on you no man ask for
   Under pressure
   That burns a building down
   Splits a family in two
   Puts people on streets
   references funding problems and the distribution of wealth, often when someone could not pay their bills a staged fire would be the result in an effort to collect on the insurance, and when jobs are hard to find in hard times such as the recession, people get fired so that the companies can show a profit, and sometimes families have to go in different directions just to find work such as in construction.
   
   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
   I can not emphasize how much I thought he knew something more than he could elaborate on, It's a terror knowing where we are going, what this world is heading toward as if it were already here, in the present, and then watching good friends dying from a disease is an obvious conclusion, but I think it refers to the building on fire and how these
   people are stuck in the building about ready to be burned or crushed or die from the smoke or contemplating jumping despite the great distance because they are so scared.
   
   Day is light and he is saying we are going to make it, I am exposing the situation.
   
   Chippin' around
   kick my brains round the floor
   These are the days
   It never rains but it pours
   Ee do bay bup
   Ee do bay ba bup
   Ee do bup
   Bay bup
   People on streets
   Dee da dee da day
   People on streets
   Dee da dee da dee da dee da
   The chipping is referencing the Graham Nash song 'Chippin' Away.' He is saying he is tearing down walls of his own and hoping to break free from the disease with the help of a higher power or a great hope.
   
   'Pray tomorrow takes me high high higher' is a reference to drugs that cure the disease and the relief that would be felt after the funding for research to find a cure was allowed despite the conservative movement to deny such funding and also a way of saying I am ready to meet my maker and be hopefully be accepted for who I am in the community and what I have done for society as a whole.
   
   'Turned away from it all, like a blind man' references the inability to participate in the discussion of a cure because the disease has labeled 'unacceptable' and therefore, uninvited, then goes on to say that he can not wait any longer, and that there is a shortage of love and acceptance of those that do not fit societies' norm.
   
   'When sanity laughs under pressure we're cracking' references that despite the obvious, people are continuing to ignore that there is a serious disease not yet being confronted and society as a whole is hurt.
   
   'And love dares you to care
   For the people on the edge of the night' refers to opening our eyes and hearts to the those pleading for a chance to be heard and treated like a regular hard working 'joe' rather than like a blemish to be ignored or cleaned away.
   
   The 'this is our last dance' indicates that the night is over, we sleep, dream, and now it is time to wake up to what we have been doing to ourselves and take actions that we know need to be done in order to beat the hatred and resentment we have built up for so long.

   
   
   
   

4.  

   anonymous

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   Jan 13th, 19:20 report

   
   

   This song is clearly about Freddy's (barely) repressed homosexuality. "Under pressure to hide being gay. recall he had been dating mostly women early on.
   
   it's the terror of knowing
   What this world is about
   
   He's upset about the state of the world he lives in. A world where he simply can't be openly gay and has to hide his true nature.
   it's the terror of knowing
   What this world is about
   
   and again this part:
   Watching some good friends
   Screaming let me out!
   out of where? The closet that's where
   
   He talks about family's being split apart
   it was only a couple of years after they legalized homosexuality in great britain. before such a reform I'm sure many families were split apart because of it's(being gay) illegality
   
   and u know there was something going on with David Bowie, I mean, come on!

   
   
   
   

5.  

   anonymous

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   Oct 4th 2012, 06:27 report

   
   

   Having read through the interpretations so far, I think Under Pressure is a collision of the personal (Mercury confronting his own mortality with lines like "this is our last dance") and the wider political problems of the time, in which many people felt the same sense of helplessness and crushing despair because they were watching their livelihoods being destroyed and their belief in a fair society being attacked. Mercury I think is trying to express empathy with people who are feeling every bit as trapped by unemployment etc... as he feels because of his condition and the stigma that goes with it.
   
   In 1981 unemployment in Britain was racing out of control. There were 1.5 million out of work in 1980 - by 1981 it had nearly doubled. You can hear the "pressure" this placed on ordinary people throughout the song. For example the numerous references to "people on the streets" refers to the fact we began to see homelessness on a scale we'd never seen before during this period. Between the war and the late 1970s we prided ourselves on being a society in which you didn't see people sleeping rough in major cities like you did in the United States. This began to change dramatically in the period this song was written as people lost jobs on an industrial scale.
   
   You can hear the optimism of the post-war period and the ideals of the 1960s that had shaped society upto this point come clattering down in lines like "turned away from it all like a blind man, sat on the fence but it don't work" and in the desperate plea "why can't we give love that one more chance?".
   
   I also wonder whether the scat singing throughout the song - a style popularised in the 1930s - is supposed to evoke a memory of the great depression.

   
   
   
   

6.  

   anonymous

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   Aug 18th 2012, 21:52 report

   
   

   The be bops are everyday life, the rest is moments of clarity where he realizes that the god given meaning of life has been lost and replaced with the undying desire to succeed. We are driven by this pressure, it has become our life force. People screaming let me out are those that feel like they are losing their mind and their self. This is our last dance, our last contemplation of what life shouldn't be about. There's nothing we can do it about it. Love requires too much of a change and we are unwilling. This is ourselves, we are simply under pressure.

   
   
   
   

7.  

   anonymous

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   Feb 8th 2012, 17:43 report

   
   

   Under Pressure is the constant economic pressure we all face and the pressure to succeed in an arena that is so competatitive that once we do succeed keeping the pace is life-changing and leads only to burnout. Nothing in this life is easy. The idea that people want "out" is that they want a life where they can be themselves and not succumb to the constant rat race. I hear the question, why do we allow our fellow man to be homeless when we have so much? The never raining is the drought our soul feels with the burnout of "success" which brings only unhappiness and stress. There is a drought of love as well. And the pouring is the tears and blood constantly pouring from us and those we choose to ignore. There is the fence idea, where we try to ignore the problems of the world. No matter how much we turn our back, the problems do not go away. The fences we build cannot stop or shelter us from the reality that comes from a society that does not reach out to those in need and make sufficient gains for all. We have the resources and the ability, why must we succumb to competition and not allow mankind to flourish?

   
   
   
   

8.  

   Littlemonsterforeverandalways

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   Jan 19th 2012, 18:16 report

   
   

   Well it is about the world my seem like its crashing down and it is all because of hate if there was love we wouldn't be facing war, insanity, etc.

   
   
   
   

9.  

   anonymous

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   Feb 1st 2011, 17:59 report

   
   

   "these are the days it never rains but it pours". I see´this sentence as a man`s constant struggle for survivor.Physical and mental stress is taking over the world and we are the ones who have to cope with it. Some days just feel like you`ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders and it just keeps on coming.Thats what it means.

   
   
   
   

10.  

    anonymous

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    Jan 14th 2011, 05:24 report

    
    

    I think much of the song has been looked into thoroughly enough, but the one line that still seems to be left in darkness is "this is our last dance." The repetition of the line at the end of the song is a way of telling the listener that the line has a double meaning, one deeper than the other. Combine the two line with "this is ourselves... Under Pressure" and the meaning seems clear to me. Everyone in life struggles between the two pulls in life of self satisfaction, and making a difference. We want to give to the homeless man on the street, but we also want those new pair of shoes. The idea is that we only have one life to live; youth is fleeting and we need to live every day as if it is our last. So, when it comes down to that, who will we be?

    
    
    
    

11.  

    anonymous

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    Jan 7th 2011, 12:27 report

    
    

    The line "these are the days it never rains but it pours" is the same as saying when it rains it pours.Meaning when things bad happen it is so bad that it seems the world is ending.The line "this is our last dance" means this one life we have is our last chance to make all wrong right and do our best to show compassion to help others..Hope this helps..

    
    
    
    

12.  

    anonymous

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    Dec 11th 2010, 04:59 report

    
    

    This is an amazing song, which I think is about what it says its about. compassion, stress, madness, and choices.

    
    
    
    

13.  

    HateMyGeneration

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    Jun 14th 2010, 20:15 report

    
    

    I believe this talks about how stress/pressure takes is bad influence on people's lives and when some of the people realize that everyone is exposed to it and that they can't get out of the system, they ask for help. The solution they give for stress is mutual love not in a couple but amongst every human

    
    
    
    

14.  

    anonymous

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    Jun 1st 2009, 21:09 report

    
    

    I think its an anti Margaret Thatcher song. It makes references to the recession of the 80s.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
    
    
    
    

15.  

    anonymous

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    Aug 10th 2008, 23:32 report

    
    

    I think it's about how everyone expects you to live up to societies standards and how living up to everyone else's expectations puts pressure on yourself.

    
    
    
    

16.  

    anonymous

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    Apr 2nd 2008, 00:41 report

    
    

    In an interview with one of the still living band members, this song was said to be about the pressures of being gay in todays society

    
    
    
    

17.  

    anonymous

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    Jan 10th 2006, 20:35 report

    
    

    "Expert" Caspar Mulders at About.com says:
    "[Under Pressure] is one of the exceptions to the complexity-rule. It is a protest against the increasing selfishness of society, and urges the listener to give love another chance and care for your fellow people." (http://experts.about.com/q/566/3905582.htm)
    
    At Songmeanings.net others have commented the song is about romantic relationships. Some have said one could interpret Under Pressure as a protest to the treatment of homosexuals/bisexuals or those with sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS. Certainly the lyrics have room for such interpretations. I recommend you visit Songmeanings.net and read Child of Musics comment on 4/18/2005! (http://www.songmeanings.net/lyric.php?lid=13171&offset=25&page=2#comments)
    
    I agree with Caspar for the most part. I imagine the opening sequence with Freddie's vocals alluding to someone strolling down a city street and is then approached by a beggar but is conflicted to giving in to "love" and forces of selfishness and societal discrimination or maybe the inability to truly help due to feelings of self preservation.
    
    In any case I must agree with Caspar with his final note, "As Freddie once said, his songs have whatever meaning you want to see in them, and that is part of the magic."
    -Ash