NOTE: This post was written during the run-up to our January 2017 "Fun In Space" scifi art show at The Tech Garden in Syracuse NY but never published: Will write up another on its spectacular results to accompany. But I knew at the time this was way too long, had lacked visual aids or music links, and there wasn't time to properly embellish it until after the show had opened. By then the buzz which fueled the urge to write it had become a pneumonia tinged hangover after falling ill. Found it in my blog drafts the other day and you know, it's got something. Worked in some sonic references & edited here and there, but apologies if it's a torrentially breathless stream of consciousness -- Have listened to Queen for forty years, had a lot to say, and used to live on various stimulant beverages.
Would suggest reading in installments using the linked songs as points to keep track of where to pick up next time. Feedback or additional insight always welcomed in comments below! and please be sure to bookmark or "Follow" the blog for future updates. Thank you!
"... The same situation just cuts like a knife,
When you're young,
And you're poor,
And you're crazy."
Queen is my favorite rock band ever. First encountered them as a specific entity to be known by name in about 1978 or 1979, 11 or 12 years old, when my older brother was loaned Queen’s 1977 album “News of the World”. I’d heard “We Will Rock You” on the radio of course, was intrigued enough to give the rest of the album a listen & found it agreeable. My father had required all three of his bratty kids to both play an instrument starting in elementary school (I chose the flute*) and join the choir once we got to middle school. Proud to make note that all three of us stuck with it through high school. Point being that we were taking music lessons as kids, all three of us actually developed both an ear for music + an aptitude for making it, and all three of us agreed that Queen wasn’t just some bunch of grinding noise that one would associate with the album oriented rock of the day.
And yet there was plenty of that going on too. I loved how loud and aggressive Queen could be when they made a point to, and eventually (age 13 or so) added guitar to my methods of musically expressing myself with the very typical adolescent fantasy of being a rock guitarist some day. Never found my way into a band but can still play well enough when inspired and keep a guitar handy at my studio when in need of the reflective state that music can create in someone. Actually took lessons & I still recall my guitar teacher being enthusiastic when I told her I’d been listening to Queen. She stressed how she could tell just by listening that they were all classically trained musicians of the highest caliber who had chosen rock music as their forte. She also was good friends with my parents and did me a huge service by convincing my father that I had talent, it should be encouraged, and Queen music should be allowed where other forms of loud rock music might not.
Thank God he listened.
the dentist's office muzak hookup. Trust me.
Thank God he listened.
"Once I could laugh with everyone. Once I could see the good in me."
My favored track from Queen's 1973 debut album. You won't be hearing it on the radio or overthe dentist's office muzak hookup. Trust me.
Before I was even 13 listening to Queen music had become one of the reasons to bother getting up in the morning and the band members became idols + role models. Which my folks actually approved of as they turned out to be (more or less) sober professionals who pushed themselves to excellence & accepted the need to be innovative rather than just churn out something which sounded like everyone else. Guitarist Brian May gave Queen a distinctive layered electronic sound which set them apart from other bands and he is now regarded as a pioneer in such rock guitar methods as tapping, pick sweeping, bell chords and altering the sound to resemble woodwind or string instruments. May had a commanding stage presence with back-length curled hair that kept him cool even after Queen “went disco” to strong peer disapproval, and his attention to the playing of his guitar above all other concerns loaned instant respect to those who otherwise found Queen music to be annoying. I got used to it quick: Being a Queen fan in culturally indifferent Central New York was socially difficult for a most of my younger years, but Brian May’s guitar work always brought out propz when those on the giving end stopped to consider what he did with the thing. That he also had a degree in astronomy did not escape our attention in the era when the coolest guy on earth was Dr. Carl Sagan and his “COSMOS” program.
Brian May and his distinctive "Red Special" guitar, hand-made by May with a hollow body
designed to create the harmonic feedback effect which made his sound so unique. Favored
pick is a 1Pound (sterling) British coin used to slide across his chords in a metallic manner
or gently vibrate the strings during solos just by lightly touching them.
"When I was You and You Were Me and we were very young ..."
Brian May's distinctive voice. Always liked Queen II and will cite it as my favorite of all their albums.
Very prog-rocksih, dark, and filled with references to classical art, literature & music history.
Bass player John Deacon didn’t just thump out a bottom for the beat, and by the time we discovered the band (1978) had adopted an almost nerdy taciturn stage persona at striking odds with how rock musicians typically appear. While the rest of the band looked like rock stars, Deacon looked like a trained Union-carded electrical engineer turned musician even with the long hair, which is exactly what he was. Deacon was the last of the quartet to join up after nearly two years of the embryonic Queen's search for their right bottom. His contributions to the group's legacy included the small "Deacy Amps" custom built by Deacon to make the most of May's style of playing with unique distortion properties. Which when crossed with May's controlled feedback resulting in many of the band’s best known passages of music. Commercially available authorized reproductions can be found online. John Deacon's bass playing always served to move the compositions forward rather than simply harmonizing on the deep end while pulsing the rhythm often in counterpoint to the drums. He also reportedly served as the group's ad-hoc internal business manager for most of its lifetime. These were capable guys, not just drug addicted hooligans who had turned to rock music rather than get a haircut & a real job. Classically trained musicians who had turned from their degrees to rock music after being inspired by Jimi Hendrix, Cream, The Who, and The Beatles.
Brian May and his distinctive "Red Special" guitar, hand-made by May with a hollow body
designed to create the harmonic feedback effect which made his sound so unique. Favored
pick is a 1Pound (sterling) British coin used to slide across his chords in a metallic manner
or gently vibrate the strings during solos just by lightly touching them.
Brian May's distinctive voice. Always liked Queen II and will cite it as my favorite of all their albums.
Very prog-rocksih, dark, and filled with references to classical art, literature & music history.
Bass player John Deacon didn’t just thump out a bottom for the beat, and by the time we discovered the band (1978) had adopted an almost nerdy taciturn stage persona at striking odds with how rock musicians typically appear. While the rest of the band looked like rock stars, Deacon looked like a trained Union-carded electrical engineer turned musician even with the long hair, which is exactly what he was. Deacon was the last of the quartet to join up after nearly two years of the embryonic Queen's search for their right bottom. His contributions to the group's legacy included the small "Deacy Amps" custom built by Deacon to make the most of May's style of playing with unique distortion properties. Which when crossed with May's controlled feedback resulting in many of the band’s best known passages of music. Commercially available authorized reproductions can be found online. John Deacon's bass playing always served to move the compositions forward rather than simply harmonizing on the deep end while pulsing the rhythm often in counterpoint to the drums. He also reportedly served as the group's ad-hoc internal business manager for most of its lifetime. These were capable guys, not just drug addicted hooligans who had turned to rock music rather than get a haircut & a real job. Classically trained musicians who had turned from their degrees to rock music after being inspired by Jimi Hendrix, Cream, The Who, and The Beatles.
Deacon John onstage during Queen's earlier progressive rock styled era. Always the quiet steady professional
of the band he would later go on to write three of their biggest hits.
(Cheers to "Alamy" for the awesome pic, no infringement intended.)
My favorite John Deacon song from the band's history. He never sang lead vocals on any of his songs.
This one distinctive for its lack of the usual vocal harmonies which made their fame. It became a minor AOR
hit and a fan favorite during live performances, which is exactly what it was engineered for: Playing live.
Then there was the incomparable Freddy Mercury, rock music’s greatest voice ever and the ultimate on-stage rock star. Guy was a genius polymath determined to find success. Trained for the life in art school, Mercury reportedly exasperated the band during their formative years by insisting they should light their guitars on fire, wear costumes, and transform their concert events into theatrical experiences. Which of course had nothing to do with being a musician who could hardly afford proper equipment. Mercury's genius at creating lasting + significant rock music cemented for all-time in the history books by their acknowledged masterwork “Bohemian Rhapsody”, composed in advance by Mercury entirely in his skull. Who then painstakingly directed the other musicians on creating the individual component tracks over a grueling period of five weeks which were then woven into the mind-blowing enigma we know today. Nobody knew what the heck it was supposed to sound like in the end except Freddy, and his refusal to "explain" what the lyrics meant when it became a global sensation is one of the boldest decisions in the history of the genre. He knew it would mean more to us to come the gist of up on our own, listening alone ... I know what it's about, and won't tell either.
His openly flamboyant persona annoyed many childhood brethren who gave me my second taste of misplaced homophobia (*Gender Policing is the term we use today, and yes male flute players from chowderheaded suburban America suffered horribly from it as well) as Freddy followed his inclinations 1979 - 1981 or so to craft a new image for himself which embraced his bisexuality without spelling it out. Our first real hint in the States was the mustache, though it was only later that the implied meaning of it began to sink in. The Six Million Dollar Man grew one too, so what of it. Was Freddy gay? friends would ask. Sure, I would answer, but so what? Guy can sing like nobody else. And it didn’t mean the rest of the band was either, a point lost on the 12 - 15 year old dingbats who taunted me endlessly on openly identifying myself as a Queen fan. I sure wasn't, and the stupidity of their harassment simply based on the band's name baffled me: They could fuck off then and anyone else of the mind can fuck off now, though present day admiration of Queen and Freddy in particular is favorably potent. You can wear a Queen t-shirt to the mall and not be taunted by Yogan blockheads. People sing along when their hit songs come on in the bars. And then there's "Under Pressure", still the premier rock music social statement of the 20th century. You still hear it everywhere. So it is at last accepted -- and always will be -- that when all is said & done Queen’s legacy of rock music music owns, and without Freddy in specific as their public face they would have never impacted on our popular culture to the extent they did. His ever evolving identity was part of the mystique no matter whom he spent his free time with.
Queen effortlessly stealing the show at Live Aid in 1985, complete performance. They'd practiced,
rehearsed, spent weeks planning out every second granted to them, and it showed.
His openly flamboyant persona annoyed many childhood brethren who gave me my second taste of misplaced homophobia (*Gender Policing is the term we use today, and yes male flute players from chowderheaded suburban America suffered horribly from it as well) as Freddy followed his inclinations 1979 - 1981 or so to craft a new image for himself which embraced his bisexuality without spelling it out. Our first real hint in the States was the mustache, though it was only later that the implied meaning of it began to sink in. The Six Million Dollar Man grew one too, so what of it. Was Freddy gay? friends would ask. Sure, I would answer, but so what? Guy can sing like nobody else. And it didn’t mean the rest of the band was either, a point lost on the 12 - 15 year old dingbats who taunted me endlessly on openly identifying myself as a Queen fan. I sure wasn't, and the stupidity of their harassment simply based on the band's name baffled me: They could fuck off then and anyone else of the mind can fuck off now, though present day admiration of Queen and Freddy in particular is favorably potent. You can wear a Queen t-shirt to the mall and not be taunted by Yogan blockheads. People sing along when their hit songs come on in the bars. And then there's "Under Pressure", still the premier rock music social statement of the 20th century. You still hear it everywhere. So it is at last accepted -- and always will be -- that when all is said & done Queen’s legacy of rock music music owns, and without Freddy in specific as their public face they would have never impacted on our popular culture to the extent they did. His ever evolving identity was part of the mystique no matter whom he spent his free time with.
rehearsed, spent weeks planning out every second granted to them, and it showed.
Almost countering Freddy’s deliberately ambiguous crafting of Queen’s proto-glam rock identity as a band -- as well as representing the group’s essential nature as workaday rock musicians -- is dental student turned rock drummer Roger Taylor. Almost the "George Harrison" of the group, Roger was a talented songwriter of his own right who routinely contributed a song or two to every Queen album which were unlike the rest. He sang his own lead vocals on most and having admirable talent as a guitar player as well would often play most if not all of the instruments on his album cuts. Roger Taylor’s Queen songs always had a characteristically gruff and sharp-edged nature about them, standing out among the other songs on a given Queen album as more raw, basic, and about rock n’ roll subjects: Cars, girls, guitars, party life, and the ups or downs young people often experience between those very worthy subjects. Comparison to Harrison is further validated in how like Lennon & McCartney’s songwriting efforts it is often difficult for non-fans to discern a Freddy Mercury song from a Brian May or John Deacon song: They tend to sound similar enough to be recognizable as the classic Queen at work.
"Stay sweet, Baby ..."
And a free cigar for those who can correctly identify the song's composer.
(Not fair looking it up.)
By contrast and like Harrison’s Beatle contributions, Roger Taylor’s Queen songs were always noticeably different in tone, nature, delivery and content than those of his band mates. Even as an eleven year old first listening to “News of the World” I knew there was something very different going on with “Fight from the Inside” and the jaw-dropping “Sheer Heart Attack” which had little in common with results like “We are the Champions” or “Spread Your Wings”. Upon delving further into Queen’s catalog I was delighted to find at least one such song on all of their albums to be of Roger's writing and came to regard them as something other than the band’s typical output which most AOR listeners would be familiar with. "That's really Queen??"
Roger's first solo effort from 1977, a cover of The Parliaments' "I Wanna Testify."
He plays all instruments and sings all of the vocalizations, and would be miming
to more of his own songs soon.
Roger Taylor songs were special because just they were so different than everything else on the albums, and other than “I’m in Love with My Car” were pretty much fan-kept secrets. It wasn't until "Radio Ga-Ga" in 1983 that Taylor produced a significant hit for the band as a composer, with Fred singing the lead vocal. Before then, unless you played the albums you just never heard what Taylor had to say. Even Brian May voiced songs got more play, no derision intended, as his superb "Long Away" actually did get a single release in North America. I even heard "Sleeping on the Sidewalk" and "Good Company" on the radio a couple of times, as it makes the perfect intro to "Rhapsody". Like Harrison the Beatle, Taylor was the non-commercial experimentalist of the band, embracing new or exotic music approaches which tended to be steeped in overt psychedelia that wasn't friendly to late 70s FM radio programming. Let alone the pop radio format they had pursued on "The Game", most of which I do recall hearing on radio at the time, it was that big of a hit.
Once I had my own stereo I took satisfaction in sneaking Roger Taylor songs onto mix tapes for friends who were outspoken in their dislike of Queen’s music, then having them ask things like “What was that “More of That Jazz” thing about? It had bits of Queen songs but the rest of it was actually pretty cool.” And proudly tell them “Yeah, that’s a Queen song by the drummer, who is also the one singing and on guitar. They just don’t play his Queen songs on the radio, and since you won’t listen to their albums when we party up you’ve never heard it before.” Gotcha.
He plays all instruments and sings all of the vocalizations, and would be miming
to more of his own songs soon.
Roger Taylor songs were special because just they were so different than everything else on the albums, and other than “I’m in Love with My Car” were pretty much fan-kept secrets. It wasn't until "Radio Ga-Ga" in 1983 that Taylor produced a significant hit for the band as a composer, with Fred singing the lead vocal. Before then, unless you played the albums you just never heard what Taylor had to say. Even Brian May voiced songs got more play, no derision intended, as his superb "Long Away" actually did get a single release in North America. I even heard "Sleeping on the Sidewalk" and "Good Company" on the radio a couple of times, as it makes the perfect intro to "Rhapsody". Like Harrison the Beatle, Taylor was the non-commercial experimentalist of the band, embracing new or exotic music approaches which tended to be steeped in overt psychedelia that wasn't friendly to late 70s FM radio programming. Let alone the pop radio format they had pursued on "The Game", most of which I do recall hearing on radio at the time, it was that big of a hit.
Once I had my own stereo I took satisfaction in sneaking Roger Taylor songs onto mix tapes for friends who were outspoken in their dislike of Queen’s music, then having them ask things like “What was that “More of That Jazz” thing about? It had bits of Queen songs but the rest of it was actually pretty cool.” And proudly tell them “Yeah, that’s a Queen song by the drummer, who is also the one singing and on guitar. They just don’t play his Queen songs on the radio, and since you won’t listen to their albums when we party up you’ve never heard it before.” Gotcha.
"Rock and roll just pays the bills."
Things improved drastically for Roger Taylor song nutcases starting with “The Game” in 1980 featuring two Roger Taylor songs, and especially the enjoyable “Flash Gordon” soundtrack where his two credited contributions as a songwriter constitute the work’s most interesting music. And yeah, that includes the theme song. Heavy use of electronic instrumentation and the science fiction theme both worked to prime me up for the release of his first album in the spring of 1981 perfectly titled “Roger Taylor’s Fun In Space”, a dissection of which will be the focus of another post. I will very strongly contend until the day that I die that “Fun In Space” is the finest rock and roll album ever made. At least for the 14 year old Queen fanatic in those of us who had a pre-existing preference for Taylor’s songs out of all the others. "Holy Mother of God ..."
The complete "Fun In Space" album on YouTube. Queen should be commended for
allowing users to post their songs and earn revenue from it via advertisements.
Bands who do not pursue such an arrangement are shooting themselves in the foot.
For me it was nothing short of an event. Until 1991 the release of a new Queen album was always what the FB generation would call a Life Event. But the release of an album of nothing but Roger Taylor songs? GET OUT OF HERE. Holy Mexican Jesus was I stoked, as while I had liked “The Game” I will admit having been somewhat at odds with Queen re-defined as an AM radio pop band. “Dragon Attack” was cool and both “Need Your Loving Tonight” and “Don’t Try Suicide” surprisingly fulfilling for three minute pop songs. But for me the standouts were Roger’s “Coming Soon” and the silly “Rock It (Prime Jive)” about rocking in space. That's where it's at, see? An additional Easter Egg / Cracker Jacks box surprise revelation being the B side to the “Play the Game” single, “A Human Body”, which remains one of my five all time favorite Roger Taylor Queen songs. But the prospect of an entire album of such material was electrifying to my 14 year old glands. Almost better than girls.
The situation brought to my attention by chancing to hear Roger’s appearance on what I believe was called “Rock Line Inner-View” in the spring of 1981, a weekly radio show featuring interviews with the name brand rock stars of the day. Risked curfew by staying up until midnight to listen and managed to record it on a makeshift radio to cassette recorder setup funneled through an old plug style AM radio earphone without getting busted — Lost the FM stereo sound but still have the tape tucked away safely and will make an effort to find it and make a digital copy to share. The interview was a dream come true: Taylor spoke for an full broadcast hour about Queen’s music particularly “The Game”, still in heavy promotion, and when edited down to remove the songs clocked in at about half an hour of Roger being surprisingly candid with the interviewer. The climax of the interview was a surprise announcement of “Fun In Space” including playing most of the title track and if memory serves I did not get to sleep that night due to unbridled lust to obtain my own copy.
Taylor's marvelously creepy"Future Management" promotional video. It is perfect.
More on that another time, just obtaining the album (on cassette, as that’s all I had a player for) was an epic journey all of its own after being assured by home town area record stores that they would likely never stock it. This before the era of special orders or Muze Machines, Amazon shipments, iTunes stores or other forms of access to music that we can now happily take for granted. Fans may have been hypnotized but retailers weren’t buying it and Queen side project releases were always a tough score prior to the compact disc revolution when the need to generate income from back catalog releases prompted bands to resuscitate prior albums re-packaged for CD. I was finally able to obtain “Fun In Space” on CD in 1999 and a recent re-master adds a bit of bonus content long whispered about in fan circles.
My version, created to screen at the Fun In Space show using the graphics from the album sleeve, the very
My version, created to screen at the Fun In Space show using the graphics from the album sleeve, the very
hard to find single sleeve, and about twenty-four seconds of his promotional video. Rinse and repeat.
The album was not successful commercially in North America, though even certain non-fans of Queen who happened to encounter “Fun In Space” spoke and wrote favorably about it being a welcome change of pace from Queen’s headlong pursuit of pop rock superstardom. But there was no radio play to speak of, the single releases were not promoted effectively and received indifferently by an audience who just wanted more Queen music. Taylor’s album cuts were always at odds with the Queen formula and most listeners probably didn’t know what to make of it even while enjoying the listening experience. Taylor’s growth as a composer may have given him a wealth of songs beyond what Queen albums could feature but he had not matured as a songwriter yet to the extent that his band mates had to expand beyond his “rock music about rock music” approach. Though it’s without a doubt that the favorable critical reception “Fun In Space” did receive bolstered his ambitions to write and record music for himself which might not necessarily end up on Queen’s official releases.
Another video I'd created for screening at the opening of the Fun In Space exhibit. This one more of
a lava lamp for those who have gotten lost out on the weeds. Uses four pictures & lots of Ken Burns.
Taylor had actually first delved into solo artistry in 1977 during the wave of popularity that followed “News of the World” with a very odd single release covering The Parliaments “(I Wanna) Testify” which Queen’s label Elektra Records was serious enough about promoting to create a simplistic music video for, consisting of Taylor pretty much just miming the song while looking cool. But it had the multi-tracked vocal effects Queen was known for and a funky enough vibe to sell enough copies to get some positive attention without actually charting. More interesting to my ears at least is the single release’s B side “Turn on the TV” which satisfies almost all of the points on the Roger Taylor Song Attribute Checklist towards the bottom of this post. Referencing stereos, televisions, girlfriends in tight sweaters and driving off in a flashy car in pursuit of a false utopia free from responsibility. And as with “Testify” Taylor played all of the instruments & provided all of the vocals, anticipating “Fun In Space” where he pretty much served as a one-man band with help on keyboards from longtime Queen producer David Richards.
One more lava lamp for the art exhibit screening room. I actually started "videos" for all of the "Fun In Space"
cuts but only the four used here were good enough to bother posting. The others were just static images of the
superb inner sleeve graphics commissioned by Hipgnosis, which inspired the concept of faux pulp scific
magazines that the exhibit showcased. We played the album at the reception and six artists made my day
by making faux covers for a fictional publication called Fun In Space as full sized paintings.
Taylor’s ambitions as a songwriter were apexed by his capacity as a multi-instrumentalist for most of Queen’s pre-pop stardom career. He was content to keep his lyrical ambitions focused on his personal interests and avoided the grander aspirations of his bandmates in favor of straight up rock and roll. While interesting and refreshingly different from the typical body of Queen’s work, it was the almost deliberately un-sophisticated nature of his songwriting which gave his tracks distinction when presented with the gamut of your archetype Queen album. For every “Drowse” there are three times as many “Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy” or “You’re My Best Friend”, which were great and all but kind of sappy and lacking the hard macho edge that teenage boys listen to rock music for. Especially those drawn to the angst and comparatively primordial punk music evolving at the same time Queen as was becoming a global draw.
"Never wanted to be the Boy Next Door.
Always thought I'd be something more."
No surprise now as an adult trained as a cultural observer to note that my first Queen album “News of the World” was a reaction to punk as much as an extension of Queen from eclectic Glam Rock sideshow act into the realm of arena rockers performing anthems for thousands of synchronized fans. Unlike “A Night at the Opera” with “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “A Day at the Races” with the equally over the top “Somebody to Love”, “News of the World” stripped away the abandoned overkill in favor of a more streamlined sound that would be less of a technical chore to perform live in front of an audience. The result was a highly successful album + world tour that set a new standard for guitar band AOR programming and helped pave the way in mainstream music towards acceptance of punk’s harder edged sounds without being obvious about it.
"It takes a tough guy to learn some new tricks."
Back then people still bought albums of music, LP records or expensive tape playback systems that were meant to play an entire side of a record at once rather than skipping around on iTunes making a list of songs to shuffle on your iPod. You heard the entire album in a specified sequence of songs in a particular order, an idea The Beatles had pretty much standardized as early as “Sgt. Peppers” if not “Revolver” and “Rubber Soul” as well. In 1977 album oriented rock radio had served to help lessen the importance of songs released as singles in maintaining a given music act’s commercial viability. Especially with rock music of the kind Queen was making — Hit singles were helpful in recruiting new fans but not as necessary in continuing the band’s commercial success as were full album releases paired with a live tour.
So it made sense for Queen to pare their act down — if that was possible — and concentrate on playing straight forward rock music to as many paying audiences as they could. “News of the World” was fabulously successful, I believe it is still Queen’s best selling North American release aside from the Greatest Hits collections, which sort of spoil some of the fun by stripping away that careful album-side-at-a-time structuring of how Queen’s music is heard. As Greatest Hits collections always fare better commercially due to casual listener interest in having those hit songs exposure to the album content which is not considered Greatest Hits collection material gets sidelined for the obvious favorites. And while some of Roger Taylor’s Queen songs did find their way onto Greatest Hits collections the best of them do not.
"Fight From the Inside", composed by Taylor specifically to give advice to
the punk musicians of the day. Some actually took it and ended up big.
One of which is the snarling, nasty, outright fed up response to punk rock posturing “Fight from the Inside” which was masterfully chosen to end side one of “News of the World” with a gnarly snarl of distortion. Unmistakably different than anything else on the album and no surprise as Taylor plays absolutely every instrument on the track from drums to bass to guitar. Slinky, raw, and downright macho, it was a marvelous dual introduction to and indictment of punk and its ethical dilemma of wanting to destroy absolutely everything just for the sake of destroying it. Taylor urges the listener to join up instead, work with a given power system and learn how to use it as a method to set things to right as needed. I was baffled later when friends who identified as “punk” expressed unbridled disgust for Queen music in particular, always thinking “They must never have heard “Fight from the Inside”” or the album’s other Roger Taylor cut, “Sheer Heart Attack”, which for me is the finest cut on the album and might be my favorite Queen song ever, with “Machines (Or Back to Humans)” from “The Works” a close second.
group show art exhibit at The Tech Garden during the fall 2015.
The song quite simply has it all, everything anyone could ever want from a Queen song, over and done with in less than three and a half minutes. No operas, seaside rendezvous or Elvis impersonations. Just blistering rock and roll with a gleefully hedonistic lyrical message basically just telling whoever to accept me for who I am and this is it. Loud, blaring, ragged speed metal crossed with cleverly multi-tracked vocal harmonies and a screeching Brian May feedback solo climaxed by all of it being pumped through a flanger and spat back out with rock music’s finest eighteen second drum solo. The song abruptly ends as the tape playback is halted without warning, a device Taylor would later employ on “Fun In Space” as well to equal sonic effect.
Roger Taylor ate punk up for breakfast & spat it back out after lunch.
Originally written for the superb 1974 “Sheer Heart Attack” album, the song was shelved after the band famously decided it wasn’t ready, yet retained the name for the album title knowing they’d get to the track eventually. Instant product placement for a release yet to be conceived of, and an early instance of Taylor’s use of nostalgia for a past set in a future which has not happened yet that distinguishes much of his work. It is a staggering work as recorded for “News of the World” that remained a fan-favorite of live performances including during contemporary Queen+ tours with guest vocalists. One reason I have always found the album track so satisfying is how it really does blend Roger Taylor and Freddy Mercury’s co-lead vocals to the point where one isn’t sure exactly whose voice is meant to be the focus. The blending also solves the issue of Taylor’s songs being at odds with the rest of the album by having the familiarity of Mercury’s voice serving as sort of a contextual re-assurance that this IS a genuine bonafide Queen song that just happens to completely kick ass. Every last second of it.
My favorite Roger Taylor Queen song. There is nothing else like it anywhere.
The song’s status was increased by serving as the B side to John Deacon’s “Spread Your Wings” — his finest Queen song and also from “News of the World” — giving each of the band members songs a position on the two successful singles for the album, the other being the platinum selling “We Will Rock You / We Are the Champions”. Taylor was simultaneously recording his “(I Wanna) Testify” single and made a point to lyrically reference “Sheer Heart Attack” in its B side “Turn on the TV” though it is doubtful that any but the most zealous of fans made the connection between the two cuts.
He wrote two songs for 1978’s “Jazz”, one of which (“More of that Jazz”) served as another B side (to “Don’t Stop Me Now”, one of my favorite Queen songs to quietly despise … too damn happy) and a number of Roger Taylor songs served as B sides to singles from The Game; “Rock It (Prime Jive)”, the “Live Killers” version of “Sheer Heart Attack”, and the non-album “A Human Body” were all on the B sides of singles from “The Game” which sold moderately well. It was only with the single releases from “Fun In Space” that Taylor finally had his own A side singles since “(I Wanna) Testify” though none of them were successful outside of Europe, where “Future Management” was received well enough to warrant television appearances where Roger mimed the song onstage.
Let it drip right down in your eyes.
I imagine the frustration must have been pretty keen. By 1981 Roger had seen all four of his bandmates release singles to thunderous commercial success but had only managed to have his compositions assigned to B sides. Not because they weren’t poor but his focus as a songwriter was in a different place than the other three. Mercury always had a masterful sense of pop rock craftsmanship and Deacon had emerged as a surprise top earner with “Another one Bites the Dust”. May’s “We Will Rock You”, “Tie Your Mother Down” and “Fat Bottomed Girls” were essential AOR hits with crossover AM play appeal as well. “I’m In Love with My Car” had gotten extra attention as the B side to “Bohemian Rhapsody” at Taylor’s legendary insistence of locking himself in a cupboard until Mercury agreed. But because his ambitions as a songwriter didn’t include hit singles it had never been a priority to bother trying.
That is up until 1982 when Taylor finally began to craft songs which the band contrived into hit singles, specifically starting with “Under Pressure” which was nothing short of a global sensation. According to the legend I believe Taylor had the bulk of “Under Pressure” already in development when David Bowie visited Queen in their Mountain Studios & suggested a jam session. They all went out to dinner and had a few adult beverages, which is what rock musicians do, then re-convened in the studio for Taylor to walk them through the basics of what he had ready. John Deacon provided the famous bass hook, Freddy and Bowie re-wrote sections on the spot to specifically highlight their individual attributes as vocalists, while May worked out a linking chord sequence to keep the purposefully pop oriented composition AOR radio-friendly.
The result was nothing short of a hit that keeps selling copies, and the songwriting credit was correctly given to “Queen and David Bowie” rather than Taylor as the song had not been ready enough to record before Bowie came a’calling. Besides, John Deacon had been the one to come up with the iconic bass riff. The two forces acting together was a sort of divine retribution of the most positive nature for me when the single was unleashed as my open worship of both Queen and David Bowie had been the subject of peer group resentment for assorted idiotic reasons that fourteen year olds are concerned with. “Under Pressure” pretty much shut that all down, a majestic work of pop rock which also had a message at it’s core that was basic enough for even the most brain dead of my schoolyard associates to comprehend. It’s equally one of the finest Queen songs and Bowie songs simultaneously, picking out what it is about their traditional styles which fans respond to & laying it on just thick enough to stick. Good work, Gentlemen.
Wait, where's David ...??
The success of the song almost surely encouraged Roger Taylor in particular to start becoming more expansive or worldly about his songwriting and the band’s 1982 “Hot Space” album featured his first single release as a credited songwriter with “Calling All Girls”. With Freddy on lead vocals (the first for a Taylor composition as with the album’s other Taylor cut “Action This Day”) the single had an odd take on that traditional Queen song that quickly made it a fan-favorite even if the single pretty much disappeared without too many waves. The most memorable aspect of the song for the popular consciousness is likely the marvelous music video derived from George Lucas’ THX-1138 created to promote the song. Dismissed by Taylor and the band as being irrelevant a lot of people actually kind of liked it, and the song marked a favorable departure for Taylor as a writer that a year later bore fruit of greater significance with “Radio Ga-Ga”, one of Queen’s most important hit singles. He would go on to be credited as songwriter on “A Kind of Magic” (1986), was the principle songwriting force behind “One Vision” (1986), “The Miracle” (1989), the “Kashmir” referencing “Innuendo” (1991) and Queen’s last megabit before Freddy’s passing “These Are the Days of Our Lives”, which is about as far stylistically from “I’m In Love with My Car” as it was from “Bohemian Rhapsody”, which it it served as the B side for of it’s platinum selling single.
"Spreads like some silent disease, you'll get yours too."
Roger Taylor compositions graced every Queen album starting with their 1973 debut though it took until 1974’s Queen II for Taylor to develop his distinctively raw jangly style. “The Loser in the End” is powerhouse percussion-driven composition gleefully at odds with the rest of the album’s near dream-oriented fantasy rock, closing out the first “Side White” with a grinding squeal of distorted guitar that served as Taylor’s debut as a multi-instrumentalist. I even think I hear a little Hammond organ in there too, use of which would be unthinkable on most any other Queen song (the first album's epic "Liar" and “Now I’m Here” from "Sheer Heart Attack" being known exceptions, would love to find out if it's the case or not) and introduced the recurring theme of electronic music technology in Taylor’s compositions that pushed the band to eventually even embrace synthesizers, which were banned from Queen records until “The Game” in 1980. Most Queen albums prior to “The Game” contain a written statement saying “Nobody played synthesizer” in response to early criticism of their sound, which jumped to the conclusion that some of the more unique sound effects heard on the album could only have been made by a synthesizer.
"You're mom on whom they can always depend."
Evidence of the ears has Taylor using some sort of electronic percussion implement as early as his “Fun It” from the 1978 “Jazz” album, and in contradiction to Roger’s later displeasure with having to play “Another One Bites the Dust” onstage does have a disco beat. But it was famously at Taylor’s suggestion that the band members began fiddling about with the then revolutionary compact Oberheim OBX synthesizer when composing that which became “The Game”, most notably on album opener “Play the Game” and it’s at-the-time shockingly electronic noise introduction. I still recall the first time we played the record at a friend’s house during a family visit how both fathers rushed into the room thinking that a circular saw had been turned on and gotten loose to grind us all into pulp. Use of the OBX on the album is actually quite spare, with obvious usage only on “Play the Game” and Taylor’s two compositions “Rock It (Prime Jive)” and the overlooked “Coming Soon”, which was always my favorite cut on the album. And there is no synthesizer on “Another One Bites the Dust”, all those weird sounds are May’s guitar, a harmonizer pedal, and some backwards tape-looping.
that Roger's songs were my preferred Queen album moments.
Regardless by pursuing purely electronic or digitally created sounds Queen’s range as a band expanded dramatically during the 1980s and they became one of the leading proponents of purely electronic implements like sequencers, programming, sampling and reconstructing songs using studio methods that did away with the endless overdubbing & layering of sound that had served as Queen’s trademark. The massed harmonies and multi-tracked guitars were still there but the process of obtaining those sounds became less of a mechanical studio exercise, allowing for greater freedom and flexibility for the songwriting. They stopped using synthesizers for adding weird spaced out sounds like on the stupendous “Flash Gordon” soundtrack, and began composing on the synthesizers themselves. Experimentation with their possibilities influenced the songwriting and evolved Queen’s sound into something more cohesive. The distinctions between the band members’ compositions became less obvious and not just because Freddy sang almost all of the lead vocals starting with “Hot Space”.
My 3rd favorite John Deacon song from the band's catalogue. And yes, I like even the
worst of "Hot Space". It was by Queen. I listened, and some of it is quite remarkable
even if this video continues to be an understandable source of embarrassment for the
surviving players.
worst of "Hot Space". It was by Queen. I listened, and some of it is quite remarkable
even if this video continues to be an understandable source of embarrassment for the
surviving players.
“Radio Ga-Ga” serves as the key which turned the lock in the door to that evolution in Queen’s sound, and I will admit to having been non-plussed when hearing it for the first time on New Year’s Eve 1984 at a party. I was sixteen, in the process of discovering King Crimson, wanted more macho Queen guitar hooks & didn’t know what to make of its concoction of electronica and anthem-oriented arena rock. It was only the following summer of 1985 when finally obtaining “The Works” while on a class trip to Germany that I gave it the chance it deserved. Listening to the album repeatedly on headphones the brilliantly grandiose ambitions of the track became clear, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn it was credited to Roger Taylor. The song was even still a hit in Germany at the time we were there and one of my most memorable incidents as a Queen fan was seeing the words
QUEEN THE BEST
spray painted on the goddamn Berlin Wall when we toured West Berlin. Took a picture of it to remember, would pay good money to find the lost scrapbook it ended up in.
"My only friend(s) through teenaged nights."
QUEEN THE BEST
spray painted on the goddamn Berlin Wall when we toured West Berlin. Took a picture of it to remember, would pay good money to find the lost scrapbook it ended up in.
"My only friend(s) through teenaged nights."
Point of which is that “Radio Ga-Ga” took on a kind of global significance that was likely lost on most Americans prior to Live Aid where the band performed a pretty damn macho version of it in unison with 300,000 fans live in Wembley Stadium while the world watched in awe. Their 24 minute set is now widely regarded as the greatest live performance ever by a rock band, or at least the greatest to receive such a global audience. And served as additional redemption for years as a loyal Queen fan to know they even made the Bonzo-less Led Zeppelin look sloppy, unrehearsed, unfocused, stoned, unprepared for their chance to knock the world out, and it wasn't because of Phil Collins. Queen did it seeming with one hand tied behind their back, choosing to play a medley of fan favorites peppered with newer compositions from “The Works”, “Radio Ga-Ga” being the standout for it’s readymade audience participation. Close to hundred thousand people sang along in perfect unison, and those were just the ones at the stadium. That must have been one hell of a feeling, though the song never really did catch on with American audiences until they started hearing it in dentist's offices nostalgia channel selections.
One of the cuts from "Strange Frontier" reportedly started using leftover instrumental
tracks from the "Radio Ga-Ga" sessions. John Deacon is credited with the bass production.
tracks from the "Radio Ga-Ga" sessions. John Deacon is credited with the bass production.
Legend has it that Roger Taylor had been developing “Radio Ga-Ga” for what would become his second solo album, 1984’s “Strange Frontier”, but mistakenly left his demo tape in the studio for Freddy Mercury to discover. Taylor had composed the bulk of it on his brand new Jupiter 8 synthesizer with drum pad interface but was allegedly stuck on a bridging section and ending. Mercury reportedly waited until Taylor went on vacation and re-worked the composition slightly & collaborated with bass player John Deacon on creating the signature bubbling sampled bass guitar lick which propels the song into the near dance rock territory which had confused me upon first listening. Upon return from vacation Taylor was lobbied strenuously by Mercury for inclusion of the song on what became “The Works” and urged it as a single release, with Taylor compromising on allowing Freddy to sing the main vocal. In exchange Mercury and Deacon ghost-guested on “Strange Frontier” along with Brian May, though without the strength of a “Radio Ga-Ga” like composition the album fared poorly in both critical and commercial terms. And Taylor could not have cared less, branching off to form his own touring band The Cross in 1987 as he continued to write far more songs than there was room for on Queen albums, some of them not bad at all.
The complete "Strange Frontier" album.
Queen’s status with American fans had suffered somewhat after “Hot Space” and it’s purposefully dance-music oriented nature. The album’s lead single “Body Language” was a slinky synth-oriented pop track exploring Freddy’s zeal for having lots & lots of sex. While a minor hit with a memorable music video it signaled the decline of Queen’s draw as a guitar rock live act for American promoters, who saw little use for a tour of the USA to promote either “The Works” or 1986’s “A Kind of Magic”, both of which were phenomenal hits in both the UK and Europe, which was where Queen focused their post Live Aid touring for “A Kind of Magic” which was their last jaunt as a live band. As the sound on their single releases softened to superficially resemble the lower-budgeted electronic based New Wave music of the era their general American audience simply turned to other sources of arena guitar rock. Rather than play to half empty North American arenas Queen looked elsewhere and their final “Magic” tour set attendance records wherever it went.
A watershed moment in how Queen became estranged from their casual American fans actually happened because of a suggestion Taylor had made and the band infamously pursued: While conceptualizing a music video for John Deacon’s overlooked pop wonder “I Want to Break Free”, Roger Taylor suggested the band parody the tradition of British soap opera television by appearing in what I will grudgingly refer to as “drag”, dressed up like housewives and Taylor in particular looking just darling costumed and made-up to look like a private school girl in pig tails + bobby socks. I’ll grant that Freddy looks great in a little dress with the vacuum cleaner, Brian May all frumpy in curlers, and John Deacon steals the show as a grouchy curmudgeonly looking creature who sits and scowls at the antics of the others in what might have been a bit of sly commentary on what was becoming of his nice little song.
It would require eight years, Freddy's passing and the popularity of goddamn "Wayne's World"
to compel American audiences to accept Queen as who they were. Glad they got around to it.
Problem was that beer-swigging American audiences looking for fiery guitar-riven rock music were not familiar with “Coronation Street” and the extent of their patience for British humor involving cross dressing males stretched only about to Monty Python’s Spam Shop sketch & back. They were not prepared for Freddy in his tight little dress nor the deliberately gender-bending middle section with Freddy cavorting with a pile of both male and female bodies in a manner which left little to the imagination. A followup video for “It’s a Hard Life” with an over the top costumed Mercury as the petulant heartbroken aristocrat at a surrealist party in a castle of some sort didn’t help much to clear things up.
I feel it is accurate to say that Queen worked for American audiences until they could actually see them freed from the constraints of being a touring rock band focused on selling out stadiums. Freddy had basically gone full biker butch with his leathers during the “Jazz” tour resulting in the “Live Killers” album but somehow it hadn’t clicked with us. Even "Bicycle Race" slipped under the radar when coupled with the raucous "Fat Bottomed Girls". But once the band was on MTV four to six times a day with such content mainstream American consumers became disaffected in ways which had nothing to do with the music. It would take goddamn “Wayne’s World” and Freddy’s passing before their image would be rehabilitated in North America as nostalgia for their work began to set in, especially amongst the post-baby boomers who had grown up hearing them on the radio.
I feel it is accurate to say that Queen worked for American audiences until they could actually see them freed from the constraints of being a touring rock band focused on selling out stadiums. Freddy had basically gone full biker butch with his leathers during the “Jazz” tour resulting in the “Live Killers” album but somehow it hadn’t clicked with us. Even "Bicycle Race" slipped under the radar when coupled with the raucous "Fat Bottomed Girls". But once the band was on MTV four to six times a day with such content mainstream American consumers became disaffected in ways which had nothing to do with the music. It would take goddamn “Wayne’s World” and Freddy’s passing before their image would be rehabilitated in North America as nostalgia for their work began to set in, especially amongst the post-baby boomers who had grown up hearing them on the radio.
Pre-Queen track by Smile, with Taylor & Brian May's voices clearly audible singing
backup harmonies, and the ringing metallic sliding sound of his coin evident even as
far back as 1969. It would take them four more years to fully evolve into Queen.
It’s now quite fashionable to be a Queen fan again. Admiration for the theatrics of Briish Glam Rock have replaced the hesitancy to allow its implied gender-questioning social politics to become regarded as ahead of its time. Artists like David Bowie, Marc Bolan, creepy Gary Glitter and the Roxy Music / Brian Eno wing of proto-punk British art rock all pushed gender stereotypes which are now regarded as not just commonplace but to be expected. Queen and their legacy fit perfectly within that framework, with Freddy Mercury in his harlequin tights flailing his microphone stand about as a phallic extension no more off-putting for mainstream audiences than Prince doing the same with a guitar or Madonna releasing a book of nudie shots.
Freddy and the Lads were just guilty of giving their audience what they wanted, which for what it’s worth led to the dance rock shift after the success of “Another One Bites the Dust” that would temporarily alienate their American guitar rock oriented audience. An understandable miscalculation often credited unfavorably to Freddy’s manager at the time, who exerted an external influence on the band’s early 1980s direction that both Roger Taylor and Brian May quietly bemoaned then and now. They still sold millions of records but their direction became muddled by making music designed for an inaccurate perception of what their public wanted. Which was more kickass Queen songs. Another “News of the World”.
I always heard that distorted voice saying "Help us reach the age."
It doesn't.
Freddy and the Lads were just guilty of giving their audience what they wanted, which for what it’s worth led to the dance rock shift after the success of “Another One Bites the Dust” that would temporarily alienate their American guitar rock oriented audience. An understandable miscalculation often credited unfavorably to Freddy’s manager at the time, who exerted an external influence on the band’s early 1980s direction that both Roger Taylor and Brian May quietly bemoaned then and now. They still sold millions of records but their direction became muddled by making music designed for an inaccurate perception of what their public wanted. Which was more kickass Queen songs. Another “News of the World”.
It doesn't.
It was with “The Works” that Queen reclaimed their roots as a guitar rock band, expanding on it with zealous overkill when subsequently creating music for the “Highlander” soundtrack that makes up much of the “A Kind of Magic” album from 1986. While credited with composing the spacey pop-rock of the album’s song of the same name, I prefer the gritty electronic “Don’t Loose Your Head” — melded with “New York, New York” for the mix used in “Highlander — and regard it as the last standout Roger Taylor composition for Queen bearing all of his signature attributes, and pardon if my use of music terminology is somewhat awkward, I am a painter not a musician.
THE ROGER TAYLOR EFFECT:
"I live on a satellite. Sunsets across the shield."
THE ROGER TAYLOR EFFECT:
1) Composed around the use of percussion and/or “Drum and Bass” structure.
2) Use of heavily distorted guitars / bass, or instruments otherwise altered electronically to create sonic effects.
3) “Ringing” or “jangly” guitar strumming methods somewhat reminiscent of surf rock (one of Taylor’s first semi-professional teen year bands specialized in instrumental surf rock).
4) Creative use of electronic feedback.
5) Elemental chord progressions highlighting minor to major chord changes for establishing mood; Most are the same 8 - 12 chords just slightly re-arranged, a trait shared with Talking Heads, David Bowie, and pretty much every punk band.
6) Lyrics nostalgic for a “past future” looking back on the near present from a futuristic perspective and active use of terms associated with science fiction.
7) Use of technology to alter the sound of the human voice, often to make voices sound mechanical or robotic in nature.
Drum/bass structure as central motif.
Drum/bass structure as central motif.
7) A lyrical preoccupation with personal introspection and social consciousness tinged by a distrust of + disgust with global politics.
8) The creation of lyrical narratives on a global scale crossed with a preference for simple carnal existence (girls, cars, rock music) free from the yoke of authority.
9) A preference for establishing moods or atmospheres during middle eighty sections rather than showcasing standout solos.
10) The use of innovative technology as a vital component in the composition, structure and recording of music crossed with a lyrical skepticism regarding the implied de-humanization which can come about because of technological advances.
"The Roger Taylor Effect"
Quite the list, but Roger Taylor’s songs always stand out from the bulk of the Queen catalog for one or more of the reasons described above and it can stand as a checklist for what his fans have looked for & pretty much gotten now for the thirty eight years I have been aware of his music. He’s never let us down even with outbursts of applied silliness (The Cross), treading water in the wasteland of 90s synth pop (“Happiness”). He hit a stylistic home run in 1998 with “Electric Fire”, a reworking of his sound using methods borrowed from alternative rock bands, and aside from a real downer cover of “Working Class Hero” is exactly what his fans wanted, selling well enough to warrant a live your with a band of musicians half his age to sellout crowds in mid sized venues both the UK and Australia. He rocked it. Brian May guested on guitar + vocals at some of the shows, the recordings of which are quite moving to hear.
"Getting old is simply becoming the person you were always meant to be."
- David Bowie
The critical and commercial success of the tour in part led to the “Queen+” reunions of the 2000s. Like Brian May, Taylor has adapted well to playing the role of an Elder Statesman of Rock still capable of a pretty ballsy record in 2014’s “Fun On Earth”, where he brought the solo career began with “Fun In Space” back home to enjoy its semi-retirement. I trust Roger will continue making music and performing as he wishes and am forever grateful to him for making my life as a Queen fan even more interesting with his zany body of songs.
Best things on the album if you ask me, though I’m still not sure about “Modern Times Rock n’ Roll” … Think I gotta go with “The Night Comes Down” for best cut on the first Queen album. The rest of em though? He steals the show.
AAAND a one-two-three-four:
"Don't care where you get him from ..."
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