I don't understand why there isn't more discussion about this song. I can't hear Under Pressure without momentarily reliving the AIDS era, without tears biting my eyes (to borrow my daughter's phrase.) Although it was released a couple of years before Freddie Mercury publicly admitted being gay or having AIDS, I think it was very much the last public plea in rock music, for all eternity, from an enormously powerful and gifted artist. What was he trying to tell us, asking us to consider, begging us to change? The song builds to a crescendo with Mercury singing these lyrics:

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?..

Freddie Mercury's voice fades out, forever, simultaneously pleading and commanding: Give Love.
Then Freddie is gone. I believe the production was intentional. Its very difficult to remember now, in the age where the right to marry is a political discussion, just how covert and controversial homosexuality still was in the late 80s. Bowie steps in to answer:

'Cause love's such an old-fashioned word
And 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
This is our last dance
This is ourselves
Under pressure