Obviously I’ve been listening to “Under Pressure”. I hadn’t in years, but it started running through my head the other day, so I bought it from iTMS.

And my God, it’s even more fantastic than I remember.

When the song came out, I was excited, because I remained a huge Queen fan, even after I’d become a New Wave/weird music partisan, and because I’d become a Bowie fan, if a contrarian one. I mean, I loved Scary Monsters… and The Lodger and his “classic rock” tunes (e.g. “Suffragette City”), and nodded at but didn’t really comprehend the brilliance of Low and “Heroes”, but hadn’t dived in and really come to understand the brilliance of his whole oeuvre.

Today, this singular collaboration strikes me as magic. Listen to the opening — the brilliance of Deacon’s bass riff, the incongruity of a rhythm machine against the unmistakable, almost preternatural clarity of a Queen production, then some scatting vocals, definitively Mercury. Yet May’s guitar is uncharacteristic — arpeggios, circular forms. And when the lead vocal kicks in, it’s Bowie in full-on cracked-actor mode, and Mercury has to prove that he can share the spotlight, sliding from lead to harmony vocal while providing what may be the most driving and understated piano track of his career.

In Bowie’s oeuvre, the track makes perfect sense — he’s a shape-shifter who’d already been through his Anthony Newley phase. But in Queen’s, it seems revelatory. You all know that I adore Queen and have even gone so far as to argue that they’re “the second greatest rock band of all time” (i.e. that whether you venerate the Beatles, Stones, or Zeppelin as number one — the three most canonical choices, I’d argue — Queen can hold their own as number two because of their virtuoso musicianship and exceptional, diverse songwriting and playing). But I never hear a band in Queen’s recordings. Instead, on each track I hear one songwriter’s vision executed by him and three gifted colleagues. (It’s telling that there are almost no co-write credits on Queen songs. “Under Pressure” is, I believe, the only track on which Taylor, Mercury, May, and Deacon share credit.)

Yet “Under Pressure” sounds like a track recorded by a band — a group of peers who pushed and pulled and chewed on the idea until they were all satisfied. It seems somehow not as “perfect” as Queen’s other studio output — not in the sense that it’s ragged or sloppy or poorly-played, but rather in the sense that it feels more like an early draft, as though the band hasn’t been able to re-think and polish and embellish every element in the arrangement.

It also feels as though it means something, like it’s a piece of genuine human experience, while most other Queen songs — which, again, I adore — feel like aestheticized takes on human experience. (May’s “Long Away” and Taylor’s “Sheer Heart Attack” are notable exceptions.)

Finally: Deacon is, of course, the “quiet” member of Queen: the least prolific songwriter and arguably least talented, “You’re My Best Friend” notwithstanding; the only non-vocalist; etc. But I’m gaining new appreciation for his bass playing — he’s an understated master across many styles, perfect for his bandmates’ eclecticism. His parts, his tone, his chops, all quite remarkable.