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aaronk
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| Posted: 13 August 2005 at 1:35am | IP Logged
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I just recently purchased Best Of Bowie, which has the track with Queen, "Under Pressure." On a first listen to this track, I thought it sounded different than what I was used to hearing, but I wasn't sure. Todd just sent me some of his notes, and he says that the 45 has some vocal overdubs.
Finally, I pulled out my copy of Classic Queen and compared it with Best Of Bowie and sure enough, the mixes on those two discs are different. The mix on Best Of Bowie has more reverb on the vocals and some of the instruments are mixed differently. For example, the high hat cymbal is farther back in the mix on the Best Of Bowie cd.
Does anyone know which is the 45 version, or is it neither of these CDs?
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aaronk
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| Posted: 23 August 2005 at 2:22pm | IP Logged
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I just examined these two versions further, and here's some more differences:
- on Best Of Bowie at (0:54), there's the vocal "that's okay" which is not present on Classic Queen
- also, on Best Of Bowie at (3:19) there's an edit that cuts out "this is our last dance" one time (on the Classic Queen version, this line is repeated twice)
- Best Of Bowie run time is (3:56); Classic Queen run time is (4:02)
Hopefully, I will be able to listen to the 45 this evening to post my findings on which is the 45 version. I'm guessing it's the shorter one from Best Of Bowie.
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aaronk
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| Posted: 24 August 2005 at 12:17am | IP Logged
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OK, after listening to the 45 of "Under Pressure," here is my conclusion:
- Versions listed as "missing some vocal overdubs" are NOT the 45 version (like on Classic Queen).
- Versions running about (3:56), such as the version on Best Of Bowie, are edits of the 45 version.
- Versions with no comments and running around (4:02) are the 45 version (and LP version). This mix can be found on the old Queen's Greatest Hits CD (Elektra 564).
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Todd Ireland
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| Posted: 26 August 2005 at 10:58am | IP Logged
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Aaron:
Thanks for straightening out the differences between the versions of "Under Pressure" available on CD. I have seen cases with songs by British artists where the British 45 version is included on a CD compilation instead of the U.S. 45 version. I wonder if the version missing some vocal overdubs or the one running 3:56 are either a British 45 version or even a DJ edit?
Edited by Todd Ireland on 26 August 2005 at 10:59am
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aaronk
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| Posted: 26 August 2005 at 7:18pm | IP Logged
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That's a good question, Todd. It certainly seems odd that the edit, which only shortens the song by about four seconds, would have been made years later for a CD release. Personally, I think the version missing the overdubs (like on Classic Queen) is a better mix--it's much brighter and clearer sounding.
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aaronk
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| Posted: 14 April 2006 at 12:53pm | IP Logged
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Bring this old thread to the top of the board because of a question on another thread...
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Todd Ireland
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| Posted: 05 August 2008 at 3:13pm | IP Logged
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According to abagon, the actual commercial 45 run time of Queen & David Bowie's "Under Pressure" is 4:01, not 4:05 as stated on the record label.
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crapfromthepast
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| Posted: 10 November 2013 at 12:43pm | IP Logged
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Man, what a mess... Queen and David Bowie both have their CD catalogs heavily scrambled, so it makes sense that their collaboration is also a mess on CD.
I'll contribute what I can decipher, based on Aaron and Todd's comments from above, and a little detective work:
True 45 version
This was the only version released in 1981.
It runs 4:03.
Found on:- Queen's Hot Space (1991 remaster; does not have any extra noise reduction - closing handclaps at the fade have nice reverb on them)
- Queen's promo CD single for "Headlong" (1991)
- Queen's CD single for "Innuendo" (1991, Holland)
- EMI/Virgin UK's 2-CD Now Smash Hits Of The '80s (1987)
- EMI/Virgin/PolyGram's 2-CD Now The Millennium Series 1981 (1999)
None of the above are digital clones of any others. The 1999 Now disc is a bit loud, but all sounds pretty decent. Aaron reports that this version is also on Queen's GH on Elektra; I'd always thought that the song was released after the GH LP at the time, and the UK EMI CD release of GH doesn't include "Under Pressure".
Edit of 45
I'm pretty sure this edit was done for Queen's Greatest Hits II CD in 1991, and was done for length reasons. The CD features a credit of "Tracks edited by David Richards for CD." Plus, the edit segments from the GH2 version digitally align with the corresponding segments from the 1991 Hot Space remaster, as noted below.
This was the hit mix released in 1981, but has 8 beats removed starting at 3:23.18. The removed 8 beats start on a snare hit and include the line "this is our last dance". The fade is also shortened, starting at 3:49.
It runs 3:56.
Found on:- Queen's Greatest Hits II (Parlophone, 1991; the edit segments are digitally exactly 0.2 dB louder than the corresponding segments on the 1991 Hot Space remaster, which confirms that this edit was done digitally from the full 45 version on the Hot Space remaster; no noise reduction)
- David Bowie's Best Of Bowie (2002; digital clone of Queen's GH2 but has added noise reduction. Listen very loudly to the handclaps on the fade. The claps on GH2 have a very nice reverb on them. The claps on Best Of Bowie have all the life sucked out of them. This is actually one of the clearest examples I've encountered that shows the before/after effects of noise reduction.)
New mix
I think this mix was made for the US release of Classic Queen in 1992, but can't confirm. It was clearly made after-the-fact, and it sounds great. The vocals are mixed quite differently, and are brought forward very nicely in this mix. It doesn't match up perfectly, though, and Freddie Mercury's "that's OK" is removed from the mix at 0:54.
It runs 4:01.
Found on:- Queen's Classic Queen (Hollywood, 1992; sounds really nice, but not the hit mix)
- David Bowie's 2-CD The Singles 1969-1993 (Ryko, 1993; digitally exactly 1 dB louder than Classic Queen)
I assume that we collectors want the hit version from 1981, so I'd recommend the 1991 remaster of Hot Space.
Edited by crapfromthepast on 11 November 2013 at 8:31am
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80smusicfreak
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| Posted: 10 November 2013 at 3:18pm | IP Logged
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crapfromthepast wrote:
| Aaron reports that this version is also on Queen's GH on Elektra; I'd always thought that the song was released after the GH LP at the time, and the UK EMI CD release of GH doesn't include "Under Pressure". |
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aaronk is correct; here in the U.S., "Under Pressure" first appeared on Queen's Greatest Hits album, released in October of '81 (Elektra 564). You're also right that the song didn't appear on the U.K. edition of GH, even back in '81 - this was a case where some countries got a version of the collection that included "UP", and some didn't, but us fans here in North America were among the lucky ones. :-) As was traditionally done back in those days, the "UP" single (Elektra 47235) was released here just a week or two prior to that album, to help boost sales of the new collection over the 1981 holiday season...
However, "UP" ALSO appeared on the group's next studio album, Hot Space, released about seven months later, in May of '82 (Elektra 60128); the lead single was "Body Language", released several weeks prior, in April. I suspect this was a case where Elektra decided that because some fans in the world had been deprived of "UP" on the GH collection when it came out in late '81 - yet had become a hit in the interim - that they would just go ahead and tack on the song to ALL worldwide editions of Hot Space in '82, even though it wasn't meant specifically for that album...
So forget about all the re-issues & remasters of both the Queen and Bowie catalog that have been made since the late '80s, if only for a moment. I suspect what we may have here is a 1981 GH version of "UP" (which matches the 45), a 1982 Hot Space version of the song (the one you've labeled "edit of 45"), and a '90s "new mix". Now, if somebody w/ both of the original U.S. LPs of Elektra 564 and 60128 could just come forward and do a comparison, we'd be one step closer. :-) I could be wrong - just making an educated guess here. (Have Elektra 564 on cassette, but have never owned 60128 in any format; otherwise, I would've checked myself before posting here...)
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crapfromthepast
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| Posted: 11 November 2013 at 8:16am | IP Logged
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To clarify, I think that the only version to appear back in the early '80s was the "true 45 version" running 4:03. That's the version that appears on the 45, on the Elektra Greatest Hits CD, and on the Hot Space remaster. I don't have the vinyl Elektra LPs to confirm.
I think the "edit of 45" was created in 1991 for Queen's Greatest Hits II CD. (I noted that you can edit this version down from the version on the Hot Space remaster - the edit was done digitally, and it was easy to reverse-engineer where the edit point was. I edited the above post to clarify.)
I think the "new mix" was created in 1992 for the Classic Queen CD.
Edited by crapfromthepast on 11 November 2013 at 8:28am
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abagon
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| Posted: 11 November 2013 at 8:27am | IP Logged
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I have both LPs. "Queen Greatest Hits" (Elektra 5E-564) the listed time "4:06", and "Hot Space" (Elektra E1-60128) the listed time "4:03"
The both actual running time on the LPs are (4:02).
--abagon
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Top 40 Music on Compact Disc : Chat Board
Topic: Queen & David Bowie - Under Pressure
