Roger Taylor ~ Electric Fire (album review) ... Working class hero for a Queen!

Style: hard rock, pop
Label: EMI
Year: 1998
Home: England

Members: Roger Taylor ~ vocals/bass/drums/keyboards/programming
Keith Airey ~ guitar
Steve Barnacle ~ bass
Mike Crossley ~ keyboards
Keith Prior ~ drums
Jonathan Perkins ~ keyboards/b. vocals

Largely forgotten except by fans Queen drummer Roger Taylor once had a band called Cross. The idea that he had a band outside of Queen is more interesting than the band itself which became so popular that by its second albums distribution stopped in America while their third & final album was released in Germany only. Ironically, its on that final Cross outing that Taylor dumped the stiff electronic drums, got a co-lyricist & actually put out a good hard rock album ... for those that can find it. RT's later solo albums, whose probably come to realize that a solo career really isn't in the cards for him as it was for his bandmates Freddie Mercury & Brian May, may still be better as an idea & for fans only, but they're a major improvement over Cross & for a variety of reasons everything Cross should have & could have been. Cross wanted to be a hard rock band but ended up with weak Queen-like musical landscapes that stretch across the musical boundaries. Fans were confused & uninterested & RT's weak lyrics aiming for Bono-esque save the world advice didn't help matters. But, as a solo artist, RT isn't advertising himself as anything but RT & thus his solo work can cross as many boundaries as it wants & fans go away interested & happy & one hopes so does he. It's often a toss-up of which of the four solo albums works the best as each climb & fall to equal measures, but the fourth & so far final Electric Fire often comes out on top for no other reason than it has some of the most memorable songs. It's more soft rock than one might expect, though the songs are slow but not necessarily ballady or preachy, & it doesn't do away with the electronica that RT seems strongly attracted to, but yet for the 1990's it doesn't seem out of place either. It might be underground avant-garde alt rock if it wasn't so sleek. It's a literal soup of rock & electronica. Think Bill Laswell for lack of a better reference. For example, RT's cover of John Lennon's "Working Class Hero" is a soupy electronic affair with guitar solos lost under clouds of echo while "Believe In Yourself" is a piano heavy rocker where the electronica is more in the stereo vocal effects. Actually, "Believe In Yourself" has a very later era Beatles feeling, right down to the sparse guitar solo, that could stand alongside side "The Inner Light" & nobody would blink. The hypnotic wash that George Harrison was aiming for in that song is the same kind of musical wash that RT is trying to create with Electric Fire. He is really treating the music as a fire that's sometimes blazing & sometimes timid. The rest of the album follows suit going back & forth with different musical elements with surprise. It's an experiment more than a cohesive album at times but ends up being a fun experiment worth checking out. As for sounding like Queen? You won't have a clue this guy played some of the best & most under-rated rock drums out there for one of the greatest bands.

The Yardbirds ~ Birdland (album review) ... Leftovers of the pecking order!

Style: hard rock, progressive
Label: Favored Nations
Year: 2003
Home: England

Members: John Idan ~ vocals/rhythm guitar/bass
Jeff Beck, Gypie Mayo ~ lead guitar
Chris Dreja ~ rhythm guitar/percussion
Jim McCarty ~ drums/b. vocals
Alan Glen ~ harmonica

Additional: Martin Ditchum ~ percussion

Guests: Jeff Baxter, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Slash, Brian May, Steve Lukather ~ guitars
Johnny Rzeznik ~ lead vocals

Let's be honest. Outside of the name this isn't really the Yardbirds nor even the brief New Yardbirds. Yes, some of the original members are here & as they got a career boost so long ago behind blues king Sonny Boy Williamson II there's nothing wrong with having a guest heavy album. The Yardbirds were actually one of the most adventurous bands on the British scene, even eclipsing the early Beatles, as they moved from a blues band to a psychedelic band with their songs remaining undoubtable classics. But, times have changed ... the bird has been plucked. Gone are the experimental wild eyed blues boys to be replaced by a plodding near middle-age tribute band. The music falls flat while the 7 new originals are interesting, but the fact that they are the best songs on the album, only one including a guest guitarist & its the weakest, doesn't say much for keeping the Yardbirds name alive. The classic songs are weak & without the risk or even bluesy swagger that they once had. Even their peers Deep Purple, which is criticized today for its FM radio friendliness that was never present with Richie Blackmore, put in a more exciting show. Originally, the Yardbirds came to an end when everyone left except for new guitarist Jimmy Page, who recruited new members, labeled them the New Yardbirds, only to have the name of the band missing from the first album & thus all we have is the name of the album - Led Zeppelin. Before Page the band also had the guitar powerhouses of Jeff Beck & Eric Clapton ... Tony Topham where are you? ... pushing the band through distinct personality changes. Nobody is pushing now. Though Beck guests for a single track on Birdland all that's left of the band is the drummer & rhythm guitarist, returning to the studio 35 years after their last recording. We don't even have original singer Keith Relf, long gone from this world, & singers can make all the difference to a band. It's like someone other than Eric Burden fronting the Animals. You don't know what you've got till it's ... The remaining members might have co-composed the songs but we turn to others to make it pop. Some bands reunite & its like the music kept developing even though it wasn't played for decades. The reunited Doors with Ian Astbury, aka Riders On The Storm or previously Doors of the 21st Century, sound as if they never broke up but kept developing. Big Brother & the Holding Co., numerous singers post Janis Joplin, are the same for those still listening. While other bands reunite falling somewhere between a tribute band & a brand new entity. The Yardbirds here are like that. It's not bad, but it's not the Yardbirds. It's a nice tribute band with no guts except when they do the new songs, which are in a Yardbirds style whatever that means. Not even the guests are able to boost the songs. Actually, the guests seem unnecessary just adding flash where a little breath would be better. The songs, most obviously "For Your Love", started life so primitively that to flesh them out works against them. The result is often one not bluesy enough nor rock enough. This was always a problem with the band since day one, not helped by the "Over Under Sideways Down" psychedelic period, but becomes more so here 35 years later. One of the problems is that there was never any real dominant force within the band & the revolving guitarists didn't help, while the band also went through numerous musical changes. There still is no dominant face, just torch carriers. To be fair, though, to have only two members of a once five member band it doesn't matter whether the two members are Clapton & Relf back from the dead or the rhythm section. There's not enough parts of the equation to take it home & give it life beyond a second rate but high profile tribute band. For those that don't know the Yardbirds outside of their major hit "For Your Love" with Eric Clapton it's time for a musical education. Just don't start with this album as they've got a rich catalog that will keep you happy awhile before you get to this release. Since Birdland the line-up has changed again. McCarty & Dreja remain & so does the revolving door.

George Michael & Queen with Lisa Stansfield (live) (EP) (album review) ... These are the days of our lives!

Style: tribute, covers, hard rock, pop rock
Label: Hollywood Records
Year: 1993
Home: Britain

Members: George Michael, Lisa Stansfied ~ vocals
Brian May, Danny Jacob, Martin Bliss ~ guitar
Freddie Mercury ~ piano/vocals
Lynn Mabry, Shirley Lewis, Jay Henry ~ b. vocals
John Deacon, Deon Estus ~ bass
Roger Taylor, Peter Michael, Jonathan Moffett ~ drums
Chris Cameron, David Clayton ~ keyboardsAndy Hamilton ~ ewi

Additional: Maggie Ryder, Chris Thompson, Miriam Stockley ~ b. vocals
Mike Moran, Spike Edney ~ keyboards
Josh Macrea ~ drums

I remember when 'A Concert For Life: A Tribute To Freddie Mercury' originally aired ... I still have the VHS recording I did that day direct off of MTV, commercials & all ... though I sat glued to the tv all day I knew it would be something I'd want to watch again & again. To Queen fans like myself it was as important as Farm Aid or Woodstock in both the musicians it collected & the man/music who it celebrated. It was almost bigger than life ... it was certainly as big as Freddie himself. Everyone was there who was anyone in music. It was one of the first times I saw Spinal Tap & the first time I saw Metallica live, let alone it brought in so many musicians new & old where every performance was something special. Also, for those of us who were disheartened by the death of Freddie it brought hope that Queen would go on to make music once again. I remember thinking which singer I wanted to replace him. My choice was split between Gary Cherone of Extreme & George Michael ... Paul Rodgers was/remains no where in sight. For Cherone it was because of his light tenor & somewhat over-the-top energy & body movements, while for for GM it was the break some three minutes into "Somebody To Love" when he sends his voice soaring into falsetto after getting the audience clapping. It's a brief moment but has a tremendous impact towards showing GM's talents at their best. When GM released the Five Live EP sometime later I thought it interesting - he was the only performer to release any music from the concert, though far from the only person who should have ... I'm still waiting for Robert Plant's under-appreciated mystical take of "Innuendo" to be officially released ... & I thought this might be a sign of things to come with Queen. Sadly, it wasn't. But, without doubt, particularly listening almost 20 years later, this is a climactic moment for GM & one can see why he'd want to preserve as an album. I've always believed him to be one of the best rock singers of the past decades, sadly his studio output has been so varied & scattered that outside of his greatest hits collection it's sometimes hard to really get a feeling of his talent & overall range. But, luckily we have Five Live, which is GM at his best - live on stage with no overdubs to fool the listener or distort his voice & nothing to fall back on but emotionally powerful compositions. No originals but the covers are as strong as the originals. GM, though a great writer & studio wizard as is obvious from his untouchable Faith, has had a tendency to let the vocals be overwhelmed by the music, pulling away from from what makes him so great ... outside of his tight pants & sexy looks. In Five Live it's all about the voice - the way it should be. The focus & opening track is "Somebody To Love", performed with Queen at the tribute concert. This is followed by the R&B medley of "Killer" & "Papa Was A Rolling Stone", followed by the the lesser known "Calling You" from a Wembley Stadium concert which leans more on electronica than the rock as previously demonstrated by Queen. Inserted after the medley is Queen's "These Are The Days Of Our Lives", again featuring the remaining members of Queen but also with fellow Brit Lisa Stansfield. It's an under-rated nugget on the album, though there's really not a single bad track of the six selections. Today Stansfield has gone the forgotten way of many 90's singers whose musical style is no longer in vogue ... but in 1993 she was riding the wave of her successful album So Natural. Today her inclusion in the EP is almost nostalgic but listening again it should inspire one to go back & revisit her catalog & charming voice. The EP ends with "Dear Friends" from Queen's Sheer Heart Attack & is a somewhat odd inclusion particularly at but one minute & featuring exclusively Freddie singing & playing piano, though the lyrics belay the reason behind its inclusion. Overall, though musically delightful & a top-notch tribute that isn't forced, this is a strange little release. At first it feels almost like an unnecessary release that's just for publicity ... if it wasn't for the fact that all its proceeds were given to charity. While, it's so different than what GM had done until then ... though it does fulfill the requirement that every musician release a live album, something he didn't even do with Wham!. But, the secret to this release is in knowing what we do now about GM's personal life. At the time the general public didn't know GM was gay, let alone that his lover Anselmo died the month before this EP was released from AIDS complications. Today we realize that, like everything GM has done though it might not be immediately apparent, this EP holds a very personal statement. Of all the musicians who performed that day for Freddie & AIDS awareness here we had a publicly-closeted gay man who knew the threat of AIDS firsthand but felt he couldn't say a thing. Was there a moment when he wanted to speak up & share the news that his lover was at home dying from the decease? We'll never know but looking at this small release we can hope the answer is an affirmative. Today, some critics might call him a hypocrite for not speaking up, though at that time public perception of gay was different & coming out still potential career death, but there's a lot of closet gay men who have done much worse than make a tribute to a fallen friend, bring further awareness about a stereotyped gay disease & give all the profit to charity/research. Some might even say GM should be punished for not coming out but the anguish of making such an album for such a cause & not saying a word about his recently departed lover was probably mental punishment enough. Any further judgment is unfair ... so all that's left to do is enjoy the music.

Roger Taylor ~ Strange Frontier (album review) ... Exploring strange frontiers under the Queen's orders!

Style: experimental, hard rock
Label: EMI
Year: 1984
Home: Britain

Members: Roger Taylor ~ vocals/drums/guitars/bass/keyboards
David Richards ~ keyboard/piano
Rick Parfitt ~ rhythm guitar

Guests: John Deacon ~ bass
Freddie Mercury ~ keyboards/b. vocals

 

Remember Queen's techno-disco-pop phase driven not by heart-breaking piano ballads but drum machines & keyboards? You don't? Well, they had one from about 1980 to 1984 with the weakest albums of their career: The Game, Hot Space & The Works with the Flash Gordon Movie Soundtrack as the only break, however odd, from the pop mess. This era ended with the mix-bag but far better A Kind Of Magic which ended up being their final tour with Mercury. There were lots of hits to come out of this era but the ratio of hit to bum song is greatly unbalanced & the hits are so strong they cause us to forget the flops. We remember "Under Pressure" but forget that the ten songs that accompanied it on Hot Space are horrible. If you don't believe me recall from the era "Don't Try Suicide", "Machines (Back To Humans)" or "Body Language." Drummer Roger Taylor obviously didn't read the critics or fan reviews as his solo album Strange Frontier immediately reminds me of these Queen albums. "Strange Frontier" even features a bit of "Radio Ga Ga" from The Works in it. Taylor's biggest dilemma, on all his albums & even with his solo band The Cross, is weak lyrics. They have such a weak emotional quality that even a few well-placed clichés would make them better. Taylor likes to write about social & political dilemmas, which is commendable, if not love songs but most of his lyrics are so maudlin the point is quickly lost. What's worse is that he tries to be Bruce Springsteen, even changing his vocal tone, in the Springsteen cover "Racing In The Streets" which includes the way too familiar line: "Summers here & the time is right for goin' racing in the streets" with a refrain that could be out of "American Pie". Under Springsteen's skill this song worked & was a stable of early set lists, but under Taylor the result is imitative & largely embarrassing. Instead of a tribute to Motown & the Beach Boys, which it was for the Boss, it's a tribute to the art of poor cover tunes. This is followed by the Dylan cover "Masters Of War". At least he doesn't try to sound like Dylan on this one ... so the song just sounds like another bland Taylor song. Sometimes you just listen to an album wondering what the musician was thinking at the time & did the album come close? I get this feeling for many of Paul McCartney's solo albums. Did anyone hear this before it was released I ask? Obviously not. It's interesting to hear a talented musician away from their band. Queen was talent through the roof, albeit The Cosmos Rocks with Paul Rodgers should not have happened as a coda to their successful career. But, away from their bands ... some musicians should enjoy their time off & just cash royalty checks. Strange frontier is indeed the perfect title for this ... strange frontier. & what's even worse is that one of the great vocalists guests on backing vocals but it's hard to figure out on which song! It's that strange! Though, I will say, I love Roger Taylor's drumming in Queen ever since I first heard them as a boy & for years called him by favorite drummer (usurped by Zeppelin's John Bonham), so I don't think he's an untalented hack & I even like the songs he sang for the band. But, a drummer featuring drum machines on his solo album is called not using one's talents. & I'm not saying that drum machines are bad. Bill Bruford has shown their value over his 40 year career, but he actually plays them not just programs them. Though, not to be too harsh, I do like the very simple cover art.

The Firm ~ The Firm (aka debut) (album review) ... With a firm place in music history!

Style: hard rock, blues-rock
Label: Atlantic Records
Year: 1985
Home: England

Members: Paul Rodgers ~ vocals/guitars
Jimmy Page ~ guitars
Tony Franklin ~ bass/keyboards
Chris Slade ~ drums/b. vocals

Additional: Steve Dawson ~ trumpet
Paul "Shilts" Weimar, Willie Garnett, Don Weller ~ sax
Sam Brown, Helen Chappelle, Joy Yates ~ b. vocals

This is one of those albums everyone has in their vinyl collection ... & probably don't want to part with it but neither listen to it much either. Even when Paul Rodgers joined Queen ... the album probably got pulled out, looked at nostalgically & maybe Side A listened to ... & well, that says it all about this wanna-be powerhouse. This is one of the legendary supergroups of the 80's, up there with Asia & GTR, staying together long enough to release 2 albums, but the idea is stronger than the outcome as became particularly obvious to the follow-up to this debut Mean Business. It's got all the pieces there for something great - all the recognizable musical bits that forged their own legacies decades earlier - but something just never clicked for The Firm. The foundation just wasn't ... firm enough. Paul Rodgers of Bad Company & Free on vocals is in fine form as always, albeit, as demonstrated in his work with Queen, it's the limited range of a blues belter who doesn't always let loose enough that is his weakest trait. Led Zeppelin guitar god Jimmy Page creates his trademarked layered riffs & arrangements that at moments are reminiscent of later Zeppelin, albeit few of the songs ever really seem to rock out or even dig deep into his blues roots that laced so much of the Zep repertoire. Putting this together with his later reunion with Robert Plant one begins to realize how much John Paul Jones affected Plant's arrangements giving them a spice he seems to often miss & pushing Zeppelin to the forefront of music. Steady beats are laid down by famous bald-headed drummer Chris Slade of Manfred Mann & Uriah Heep & later AC/DC. The relatively unknown Tony Franklin from Roy Harper is on bass, his largest credit being the introduction of the fretless bass into metal, playing a thick & funky bass that gives the album a definite 80's feel. The Firm largely plays it safe, almost too safe at moments. It's an enjoyable listen & Page is always a pleasure, but his joining with David Coverdale a decade later would be far more exciting. Perhaps one of the problem is that this smells of its obvious commercial appeal, something Led Zeppelin never did, proof being that in Britain they refused to allow the release of singles, while Bad Company & Uriah Heep both existed in the shadows of prog-rock that believed in the art of music over pretty much everything else. Albeit, it should be said The Firm is better than I'm probably describing it & there's a reason somewhere why it appears in everyone's collection. It's just that these musicians are put up to such high expectations that one imagines that the album should be better. These guys came from good bands & would return to them in various ways. The Firm just wasn't meant to be, though it did nothing to damage any reputations.