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Mm ba ba de
Um bum ba de
Um bu bu bum da de
Pressure pushing down on me
Pressing down on you no man ask for
Under pressure that brings a building down
Splits a family in two
Puts people on streets
Um ba ba be
Um ba ba be
De day da
Ee day da - that's okay
It's the terror of knowing
What the world is about
Watching some good friends
Screaming 'Let me out'
Pray tomorrow gets me higher
Pressure on people people on streets
Day day de mm hm
Da da da ba ba
Okay
Chippin' around - kick my brains around the floor
These are the days it never rains but it pours
Ee do ba be
Ee da ba ba ba
Um bo bo
Be lap
People on streets - ee da de da de
People on streets - ee da de da de da de da
It's the terror of knowing
What this world is about
Watching some good friends
Screaming 'Let me out'
Pray tomorrow - gets me higher higher high
Pressure on people people on streets
Turned away from it all like a blind man
Sat on a fence but it don't work
Keep coming up with love but it's so slashed and torn
Why - why - why?
Love love love love love
Insanity laughs under pressure we're breaking
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 give love
'Cause love's such an old fashioned word
And love dares you to care for
The people on the (People on streets) edge of the night
And loves (People on streets) 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
Um bum ba de
Um bu bu bum da de
Pressure pushing down on me
Pressing down on you no man ask for
Under pressure that brings a building down
Splits a family in two
Puts people on streets
Um ba ba be
Um ba ba be
De day da
Ee day da - that's okay
It's the terror of knowing
What the world is about
Watching some good friends
Screaming 'Let me out'
Pray tomorrow gets me higher
Pressure on people people on streets
Day day de mm hm
Da da da ba ba
Okay
Chippin' around - kick my brains around the floor
These are the days it never rains but it pours
Ee do ba be
Ee da ba ba ba
Um bo bo
Be lap
People on streets - ee da de da de
People on streets - ee da de da de da de da
It's the terror of knowing
What this world is about
Watching some good friends
Screaming 'Let me out'
Pray tomorrow - gets me higher higher high
Pressure on people people on streets
Turned away from it all like a blind man
Sat on a fence but it don't work
Keep coming up with love but it's so slashed and torn
Why - why - why?
Love love love love love
Insanity laughs under pressure we're breaking
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 give love
'Cause love's such an old fashioned word
And love dares you to care for
The people on the (People on streets) edge of the night
And loves (People on streets) 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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the kind of music that you unfortunately seem hard to get from those so-called "mainstream" artists/musicians nowadays (ie: those you see or hear constantly on TV and radio, especially MTV, ouch!).
I like dizzypru's explanation of it being about homosexuality, but machinebacon's is also good. Guess it depends on wahat you want it to mean.
I just watched a show about credit card debt that used this song really effectively, with the pressure forced on people by credit card companies and the pressure of the debt. The people on the edge, then, would be people who go so deeply into debt that they want to die just to get out of it. Not a perfect interpretation, but I found it interesting.
The movie's called "Maxed Out", btw.
The first verse being about *your* kind of pressure, might it be work life, school life, family life.
That's OK so far. But there is also the pressure of knowing what happens to other people, whom you can't help.
Some of the days are just light gray, some are dark gray. That's why it is so easy to ignore the real big problems. Because we are stuck in our own problems. We can try to solve it with love. Brotherly love. If we give love, we can feel we are humans still.
It's our last chance: what else could we give? Only ignorance is easier to give. To turn away from it all like a blind man.
"Pressing down on you no man ask for
Under pressure - that burns a building down, splits a
family in two
Puts people on streets"
- could be interpreted literally as homosexuality being something "no man ask for" (i.e. can't "choose" to be gay).....and revealing something like that to a family that doesn't understand could cause splitting of families and the individual being disowned and put on the street.
"That's OK
It's the terror of knowing what this world is about
Watching some good friends screaming "Let me out!"
- could mean he's referencing the first lyric and indicating that he'd rather go through the heartache and trouble of revealing his true self to those loves and suffer their anger and ignorance, than go through the terror of life like some of his gay friends who suffer in silence.
"Turned away from it all like a blind man
Sat on a fence but it don't work"
- he tried to deny his true self by pretending he was something he wasn't, but "it don't work."
"Can't we give ourselves one more chance
Why can't we give love that one more chance
Why can't we give love.....
Cause love's such an old fashioned word
And love dares you to care for the people on the edge"
- here, I think when Mercury is singing about "why can't we give love that one more chance," I think he wants to help his family/friends understand who he is and that he's still the same person, he wants to reconnect to the people he loves - he's saying please love me for who I am
- then David Bowie's lines about "love's such an old fashioned word, etc." his "character" is the voice of Mercury's family/friend/society indicating that they can't accept his homosexuality because it's not their understanding of "proper love." And if they try to give their relationship with Mercury a chance, i.e.: let him back into the fold so-to-speak, they'll be forced or pressured to understand his homosexuality and they're unwilling to give up their fears. I think the latter is meant by the line, "love dares you to care for people on the edge." Maybe "people on the edger" are homosexuals as society sees them.