Pressure!

GO BILLY JOEL!

By Angie the Archivist 📚🪶Published 2 years ago • 3 min read

Pressure! I've yet to meet one person who walks this earth and is immune to pressure. Despite my laidback approach to life, pressure all too often rears its hideous head and slams me. Billy Joel’s 1982 New Wave Experimental Pop song "Pressure" snuck up on me and hit me over the head, much the same way pressure is prone to do!

I first met this brilliant song whilst cruising around Australia for three terrific months with my ‘sister’ Ann. Billy’s 1985 “Greatest Hits – Volume I & Volume II album” was one disc that kept us company on our Aussie adventures. Tired of driving for hours on end along arrow straight roads across the Nullarbor… Pressure, kept the pedal to the metal and kilometres just flew by. Who kept us chirpily singing in unison, while ensnared in Perth’s downtown traffic? There, adrift and clueless… our only guide, was a sketchy map acquired free of charge from the Tourist Information Bureau. Our good pal, Billy cheered us on... what could possibly go wrong?

It seems that Billy wrote the song when under intense pressure to write successful songs and make ends meet. Writer's Block?! At times, the tempo is manic and vividly portrays emotions experienced when exposed to stressful pressure. It's weirdly therapeutic to play this song at high decibels when my life is spiralling out of control… when I have a compelling urge to relieve my frustration by screaming! Billy Joel perfectly captures those emotions.

I relish plunging straight into the synthesiser’s frenetic tempo, which then segues into more calm, steady verses. Tension and pace build when he sings Pressure at the close of each verse, with a return to the original manic pace. The pendulum swing between the two melodies and tempos adds to the off kilter feel of the song.

He sings,

What does it mean?

And then waits a few beats before speaking his answer...

I'll tell you what it means.

The answer is sung on repeat, for added effect...

Pressure...
Pressure...

separated by several beats before calmly continuing on to the next verse.

I love that the word Pressure is always sung aggressively... as it rightfully deserves!

Back in the eighties, I was young, fancy free and not at all into politics of any kind... let alone America, so I left lyric analysis to others 'in the know'.

I do know that some of my favourite lines are:

All grown up and no place to go
Psych 1, Psych 2
What do you know?
All your life is Channel 13
Sesame Street
What does it mean?

The other line that strikes me as a thing of great beauty is:

I'm sure you'll have some cosmic rationale

In the face of Billy's smooth singing and the sound of these words, I am powerless to resist singing along with him.

Every day, is an opportunity to learn something new. Today was no different! Not being into baseball... I have always enjoyed the mystique surrounding the lines:

But here you are in the ninth
Two men out and three men on
Nowhere to look but inside
Where we all respond to
Pressure

Belatedly, today... the mystique disappeared! These lyrics turn out to be crystal clear to any of Billy Joel's fellow Americans! On the slim possibility anyone else is still in a darkened room with the lights firmly turned off... it's about baseball! Obviously! Apparently, it's the last chance to hit a ball... extreme pressure... if baseball is your thing!!

This magnificent song grips me from its first note to its fever pitch ending...