David Bowie cover of the Week: The One Vision Band covers “Under Pressure”

This week, an unusual number of high-quality Bowie covers were posted online for the first time, making my choice for ‘cover of the week’ difficult. Cutting to the chase, I settled on the one I simply enjoyed listening to the most: The One Vision Band’s faithful performance of “Under Pressure.”

I am often attracted to covers of more obscure Bowie songs, or covers that take what Bowie left us in new and different directions. This cover checks neither box. “Under Pressure” is one of the most beloved songs in the catalogues of both Bowie and Queen. The One Vision Band performs it like we know it. The singing voices are clearly not those of Bowie and Freddie Mercury, but the instrumentation is almost indistinguishable from the original track. For me, that’s often not a plus. When Bowie would perform songs in concert, perhaps especially his better-known songs, he and his bands usually wouldn’t try to duplicate the exact sound of the studio recording. I always appreciated that because he was giving us something we didn’t already have. That’s often what I like about covers—what can the artist do with the song that we haven’t heard before?

Yet the verisimilitude of the musical performance here is something to behold. It’s comforting and admirably well done. There’s a reason I like the song in the first place; there’s a reason it is beloved. The vocals, while performed in the style of Bowie and Mercury, sound different enough for this cover to constitute something new. But all that takes a back seat to what I started with—I just liked listening to it.

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I can’t tell much about the band from what I can find online. The YouTube channel indicates that the One Vision Band is a Queen tribute band from Germany. I found a website for a band of the same name that purported to be a more general classic rock tribute band, but I’m not entirely sure that this is the same outfit. “One Vision” is the name of a Queen song, and I am aware of at least two acts that use the song name in their band name, so I’m a little unsure as to whether this “One Vision” is the same as one of the others. I guess there is, in fact, more than one vision. Nonetheless, if this song is an indication of how this band approaches covering Queen, I’m sure they put on a fantastic show.

I hope you enjoy this week’s selection as much as I did!