I love everything by David Bowie and Queen, and Freddie Mercury’s voice is just fantastic, so here’s a lesson with these legends. Good for phrasal verbs, prepositions or general discussion about the pressures facing us in our lives.
+ Lead-in: Show students a photo of Freddie Mercury and David Bowie to elicit prior knowledge and fill in any missing information where necessary.
+ Listen to the song once then spend a few moments noting down any words they heard. Feedback to the class quickly.
+ Hand out a copy of the lyrics per student with some missing words appropriate to the level or language you wish to focus on. Here’s what I did:
Pressure pushing _______ on me
Pressing _______ on you, no man ask for
Under pressure that burns a building _______
Splits a family in two
Puts people ___ streets
It’s the terror of knowing
What this world is about
Watching some good friends
Screaming, “Let me _____!”
Tomorrow gets me higher
Pressure ____ people – people ____ streets
Chippin’ around, kick my brains ’round the floor
These are the days – it never rains but it pours
People ____ streets – people _____ streets
It’s the terror of knowing
What this world is about
Watching some good friends
Screaming, “Let me _____!”
Tomorrow gets me higher, higher, higher…
Pressure ____ people – people ____ streets
Turned _______ from it all like a blind man
Sat on a fence but it don’t work
Keep coming _____ with love but it’s so slashed and torn
Why, why, why?
Love
Insanity laughs under pressure we’re cracking
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?..
‘Cause love’s such an old-fashioned word
And love dares you to care ______
The people on the edge of the night
And love dares you to change our way of
Caring _______ ourselves
This is our last dance
This is our last dance
This is ourselves
Under pressure
Under pressure
Pressure
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/queen/underpressure.html
and you can find the original here:
Pressure pushing down on me
Pressing down on you, no man ask for
Under pressure that burns a building down
Splits a family in two
Puts people on streets
It’s the terror of knowing
What this world is about
Watching some good friends
Screaming, “Let me out!”
Tomorrow gets me higher
Pressure on people – people on streets
Chippin’ around, kick my brains ’round the floor
These are the days – it never rains but it pours
People on streets – people on streets
It’s the terror of knowing
What this world is about
Watching some good friends
Screaming, “Let me out!”
Tomorrow gets me higher, higher, higher…
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
Insanity laughs under pressure we’re cracking
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?..
‘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 our last dance
This is ourselves
Under pressure
Under pressure
Pressure
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/queen/underpressure.html
+ Allow time for them to fill in any words they heard previously.
+ Play the song again then allow time to check in pairs before feeding back the answers as a whole class discussion. Have students read parts of the song.
+ Some interesting points to mention or elicit when going through the song depending on the levels you are teaching (www.genius.com is a great website for this) :
- Freddie used to do vocal warm ups with his audiences at shows and used this in a number of songs such as this one.
- Check understanding of “people on streets”, eliciting that it might refer to homeless people, or protest perhaps (very fitting with recent events around the world…)
- Get them to think about the line “no man ask for” and correct it grammatically.
- If asked, explain that “chipping around” could refer to doing nothing, wasting time or even using cocaine.
- Elicit “to sit on the fence” with reference to making decisions.
+ Play the video if you have time. It’s great and can lead to lots of discussion. You could even talk about whether there are any similarities or differences between the time when it was written (1982) and today.
+ Discuss the following questions in groups, pairs or get students moving by creating discussion corners:
- What do you think this song is about?
- What can make people feel under pressure, according to the song? Are there any other things?
- “It never rains, but it pours” – comes from a well-known expression “When it rains, it pours” – What do you think this means?
- Turned away from it all like a blind man – Explain this in your own words.
- What do the singers think about love? Do you agree?
- (Depending on how well you know your older teens/adults) Have you ever felt under pressure? E.g. work, school or something else (e.g. parental or family pressure)
- What should people do if they ever feel under pressure?
+ Bring the class back together for some final comments, good language heard and error correction.
I hope you enjoyed this lesson. I’d love to hear how it went, or any other comments and suggestions you have!
I’ll try and post something on here every week, so keep checking back regularly for new lessons.
