Queen: The Complete Works (29 page)

Considering that Queen were at their busiest during the early 1980s, it was inevitable that the question of a solo tour would be raised. “No! Never!” the drummer exclaimed – once again to
Popcorn
. “First of all, Queen is much more important than my solo career. Second, the band demands so much from me that I have no time for a solo tour.” A shame, since
Fun In Space
remained Roger’s most neglected album in his solo tours over the years, with ‘Let’s Get Crazy’ being the only regular on The Cross’ first tour in 1988, though ‘Magic Is Loose’ would finally be premiered in 2001. Roger was admittedly “so mentally exhausted [afterwards] that I couldn’t even be trusted to select the single”, so it was appropriate for EMI to do all the promotion work while he worked on the next Queen record.

The album, issued in April 1981 after the release of ‘Future Management’ the previous month, was a modest success, peaking at No. 18 in the UK, though it stalled at a disappointing No. 121 in the US. The reviews ranged from kind (“This is
Son Of Flash Gordon
; it has similar comic book style characteristics. Listening to this is the most fun you’ll have apart from playing Space Invaders.” –
Record Mirror
) to caustic (“Revelling in bombastic arrogance, so redolent of Queen. A rich man’s self-indulgence run riot over two sides of an album.” –
Melody Maker
), but fan opinion of the album was whole-heartedly favourable. Although he would go on to bigger and better things over his next six albums (both as a solo artist and with The Cross),
Fun In Space
is a superb debut from a multitalented drummer.

BRIAN MAY & FRIENDS

STAR FLEET PROJECT

EMI SFLT 1078061, October 1983 [35]

Capitol MLP15014, November 1983 [125]

‘Star Fleet’ (8’06), ‘Let Me Out’ (7’13), ‘Blues Breaker’ (12’51)

Musicians
: Brian May (
vocals, guitar
), Edward Van Halen (
guitar
), Alan Gratzer (
drums
), Phil Chen (
bass guitar
), Fred Mandel (
keyboards
), Roger Taylor (
backing vocals on ‘Star Fleet’
)

Recorded
: The Record Plant, Los Angeles, 21/22 April 1983

Producer
: Brian May

April 1983 found Brian with little to do. Queen had just taken a temporary leave of absence from both the studio and the live circuit, with Freddie and Roger focusing on solo projects. Reluctant to do the same, mostly because he didn’t have a backlog of material, he felt compelled to get out, Brian nevertheless booked time at Los Angeles’ The Record Plant and flew from Paris to California in the middle of the month. After a minor dispute with the airline company – Brian refused to entrust his guitar to the luggage handlers and was forced to buy a seat for The Red Special since it was deemed too large for carry-on purposes – he arrived in the City of Angels and contributed guitar to Jeffrey Osborne’s ‘Stay With Me Tonight’ and ‘Two Wrongs Don’t Make A Right’.

He then entered The Record Plant with the germ of a project in the back of his mind and called upon a group of musician friends to help him out, hoping that whatever they produced would be worthy of release. The first call was to Eddie Van Halen, guitarist of then megarockers Van Halen, soon to score international success with the release of
1984
and the single ‘Jump’. Brian had admired Eddie for many years, and had even employed his two-handed tapping method on Queen’s own ‘It’s Late’ in 1977. REO Speedwagon drummer Alan Gratzer and Rod Stewart bassist Phil Chen made up the rhythm section, while Elton John keyboardist Fred Mandel, who had toured with Queen on the US and Japanese legs of their
Hot Space
tour the previous year, rounded out the group.

The initial idea was to jam for a few days and then maybe lay down a few songs, but those jams quickly produced two completed songs: ‘Let Me Out’, written by Brian many years before and initially intended for an undetermined Queen album, and ‘Blues Breaker’, inspired by original axe master Eric ‘Slowhand’ Clapton and influenced by his time with John Mayall. The only song brought to the sessions was ‘Star Fleet’, Brian’s revised musical rendition of the popular Saturday morning Japanese cartoon, with lyrics originally written by Paul Bliss. The sessions proved fruitful but Brian was unsure if he wanted to release the results; regardless, he received permission from all involved, just in case.

That October, Queen signed a new record deal with Capitol Records for distribution in North America, and Brian signed a solo deal for what would become
Star Fleet Project
and for other future solo projects, which were never realized. He quickly began mixing the tapes and, because there wasn’t enough material for a full-length album, decided that
Star Fleet Project
would be a three-track mini-album, or EP. Since it was essentially an all-star jam session, it was credited as “Brian May + Friends” and the results are a mixed bag of rock, sci-fi and blues, three genres which Brian adored.

The project was creatively liberating for the guitarist, who hadn’t yet worked with other musicians while he was in control. Take, for instance, the running times of the songs: the shortest song just breaks seven minutes, while the longest comes close to thirteen minutes, meaning that any and every good idea was used. For fans of blues and rock,
Star Fleet Project
was a treat; for fans of Brian, it was especially interesting to see what direction he was taking, and after the disappointing
Hot Space
album the year before, it was a relief to hear the guitarist let his curly locks down and have some fun.

The mini-album was released at the end of October 1983, and it reached No. 35 in the UK charts (No. 1 in the British Heavy Metal Charts), peaking at a less impressive No. 125 in the US. It has since become one of the more sought-after Queen-related solo projects, since it remains unreleased as a stand-alone CD. In 1993, it was released as part of a two-part CD for Brian’s ‘Resurrection’ single, but is long overdue for a proper re-release.

ROGER TAYLOR

STRANGE FRONTIER

EMI RTA 1, June 1984 [30]

Capitol SJ 12357, July 1984

Parlophone CDPCS 7381, August 1996

UK vinyl
: ‘Strange Frontier’ (4’16), ‘Beautiful Dreams’ (4’23), ‘Man On Fire’ (4’04), ‘Racing In The Street’ (4’27), ‘Masters Of War’ (3’51), ‘Abandonfire’ (4’12), ‘Killing Time’ (4’57), ‘Young Love’ (3’21), ‘It’s An Illusion’ (4’02), ‘I Cry For You (Love, Hope And Confusion)’ (4’20)

US vinyl
: ‘Man On Fire’ (4’04), ‘I Cry For You (Love, Hope And Confusion)’ (4’20), ‘It’s An Illusion’ (4’02), ‘Racing In The Street’ (4’27), ‘Masters Of War’ (3’51), ‘Strange Frontier’ (4’16), ‘Beautiful Dreams’ (4’23), ‘Abandonfire’ (4’12), ‘Killing Time’ (4’57), ‘Young Love’ (3’21)

Musicians
: Roger Taylor
(vocals, drums, percussion, guitars, bass guitar, synthesizers, programming
), David Richards (
synthesizers, programming
), Rick Parfitt (
guitars on ‘It’s An Illusion’
), John Deacon (
bass guitar on ‘It’s An Illusion’
), Freddie Mercury (
backing vocals on ‘Killing Time’
)

Recorded
: Mountain Studios, Montreux and Musicland Studios, Munich, March 1983–May 1984

Producers
: Roger Taylor, Mack, David Richards

Although
Fun In Space
hadn’t been an overwhelming hit, Roger still enjoyed the process of writing and recording an entire album’s worth of material. In early 1983, a brief hiatus saw Queen exploring their separate interests: John, once again, spent time with his family, and Roger flew to Scotland to ski. While
there, he and his assistant Chris ‘Crystal’ Taylor (no relation) got into a bit of mischief by posing as vacuum cleaner salesmen; Roger’s mind was on anything but recording. Still in a skiing mood, the two flew to Switzerland where they met up with Rick Parfitt of Status Quo; when Roger mentioned his intention to record another solo album, Parfitt expressed an interest in assisting him.

Roger booked time at Mountain Studios but it soon became evident that several of the proposed songs weren’t working as well as he’d hoped, so he scrapped most of what he had recorded and started again. (“I’m still putting the final touches to my own effort,
Strange Frontier
, and hope it will be out sometime in April,” Roger wrote in the spring 1984 issue of the Queen Fan Club magazine. “I’ve chucked out some and written some better ones. I hope you’ll be surprised.”) This time, he was determined to work at his own pace, instead of cramming time in between Queen activities. “[
Fun In Space
] was a bit of a rush job, actually,” he told
Modern Drummer
in 1984. “I thought I’d run out of nerve if I didn’t move on it quickly. And I did it much too fast. I spent most of last year when we weren’t making
The Works
, making another solo album. It’s in a much different class than the first one. It’s a much, much better record ... I took a year making it. I made sure the songs were stronger and simply better. I threw out a lot of songs in the process. I also did two cover versions of other people’s songs that I’m quite happy with.”

Something else inspired Roger to rethink the material he had written. In the early 1980s, international relations were crumbling, with nuclear armaments falling into the wrong hands and incompetent world leaders fumbling their way through the chaos. “The idea of
Strange Frontier
– the whole title really – is supposed to be a point in time that we’ve supposed to have reached, that which is a point of self-annihilation that we’ve never been capable of before,” Roger told Jim Ladd in 1984. “That’s the idea. It’s a part of ‘temple frontier’ really.”

Roger was one of the less outspoken celebrities on the ‘No Nukes’ issue, though he was apparently a member of the UK’s CND and spoke briefly about it in a 1984 interview; he even wore a ‘No Nukes’ T-shirt throughout the
Queen Works
! tour in 1984 and 1985. Other artists were putting out records on similar themes, but it wasn’t until Bruce Springsteen’s mega-successful
Born In The USA
that people would really start to take notice. That album was released only three weeks before Roger’s
Strange Frontier
, yet the message is eerily similar. In an even stranger twist, Roger had recorded a cover version of Springsteen’s 1978 track ‘Racing In The Street’, though the message there had little to do with the threat of nuclear war. It would be Roger’s cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘Masters Of War’ that made the most impact, strongly condemning those who advocated war; sadly, the message was still appropriate over two decades after the song had been written, and remains so another twenty years on.

Three of the remaining eight tracks featured a co-writer – ‘Abandonfire’ and ‘I Cry For You (Love, Hope & Confusion)’ were written with David Richards, and ‘It’s An Illusion’ was written with Rick Parfitt – leaving half the tracks written solely by Roger. ‘Strange Frontier’ and ‘Beautiful Dreams’, which would provide a one-two power punch of an opener, are the strongest of the material, along with ‘Killing Time’ and ‘It’s An Illusion’. ‘Man On Fire’, itself an outtake from
The Works
, would never become the hit single it should have been, reaching only No. 66 in the charts.

Those anticipating a
Fun In Space II
would be sorely disappointed. Gone were the quirky, darker sci-fi songs;
Strange Frontier
was rife with world-weary – sometimes bleak, occasionally optimistic – messages, chock-f of synthesizers and programming, and devoid of humour. In most cases, Roger was taking himself a bit too seriously, sounding far too determined to make an impact and change the world. “There’s all these different causes that really don’t amount to anything,” Roger explained to Ladd, who had just quoted – and praised – a verse from the title track about fallen freedom fighters. “Because if there’s one religious fanatic, there’s the terrible need to become fanatical about something ... There’s a great new conservatism among young people that seems to be, and I can’t understand it. Where’s all the truth and rebellious spirits gone? It seems that people, a lot of teens today are incredibly conservative, and I find that a bit disappointing.”

Though most of the songs are strong – other than from ‘Abandonfire’, there is no real low point – and each song shows Roger’s impressive abilities as a multi-instrumentalist, the sound is sterile and over-produced, an issue that plagued most mid-1980s releases. Regardless, Roger had truly advanced as a songwriter, and seven of the originals could have easily rubbed elbows with any of the songs on
The Works
. The lyrics are consistent, with none of the tired jabs at politicians that would infect some of his later songs, and as a sophomore release, it’s a decent follow-up to
Fun In Space
. Not everyone was convinced, however;
Sounds
was particularly caustic in its review of the album, saying that “He can write the songs, but he can’t sing them like Freddie does. Which is why Queen get the hits.”

Strange Frontier
charted worse than its predecessor, peaking at No. 30 in the UK and not charting at all in the US, where its carefully constructed running order was completely and randomly shuffled around by Capitol. The singles were well chosen but performed poorly – ‘Man On Fire’ stalled at No. 66, while the title track barely cracked the Top 100, peaking at a disappointing No. 98. It was inevitable, then, that no solo tour would be forthcoming, but with Queen busier than ever in 1984, going fully solo was the last thing on Roger’s mind at that point.

FREDDIE MERCURY

MR BAD GUY

CBS 86312, April 1985 [6]

Columbia FC 40071, May 1985 [159]

Columbia CK 40071, May 1985 [159]

‘Let’s Turn It On’ (3’42), ‘Made In Heaven’ (4’06), ‘I Was Born To Love You’ (3’39), ‘Foolin’ Around’ (3’29), ‘Your Kind Of Lover’ (3’33), ‘Mr Bad Guy’ (4’10), ‘Man Made Paradize’ (4’09), ‘There Must Be More To Life Than This’ (3’01), ‘Living On My Own’ (3’23), ‘My Love Is Dangerous’ (3’43), ‘Love Me Like There’s No Tomorrow’ (3’47)

Musicians
: Freddie Mercury (
vocals, piano, synthesizer
), Fred Mandel (
piano, synthesizer, guitar
), Paul Vincent (
guitars
), Curt Cress (
drums
), Stephan Wissnet (
bass guitar, Fairlight, Kurzweil and drum programming
), Jo Burt (
Fretless bass on ‘Man Made Paradize’
), Rainer Pietsch (
arrangement on ‘Mr Bad Guy’
), Mack (
Fairlight, Kurzweil and drum programming
)