Your favorite Roger Taylor releases

I'm about to dive into the Roger Taylor discography, but I think I need some direction here and there. Can anyone tell me what his best releases are? I so far heard 3 songs: The Unblinking Eye, Nazis 1994 and People On Streets, and they are all awesome. Can anyone advise me on this one?

The_CrY wrote: I'm about to dive into the Roger Taylor discography, but I think I need some direction here and there. Can anyone tell me what his best releases are? I so far heard 3 songs: The Unblinking Eye, Nazis 1994 and People On Streets, and they are all awesome. Can anyone advise me on this one?

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Hi The_CrY,

as per the three songs you´ve heard, I´d recommend you to pick his albums in this order:

Happiness
Electric Fire
Blue Rock (The Cross)
Mad, Bad and Dangerous To Know (The Cross)
Strange Frontier
Fun In Space
Shove It (The Cross)

This is my list ... according to my preferences.

Keep in mind that both "Blue Rock" and "Mad, Bad,..." aren´t easy to find unless you´re ready to pay a good sum. I mean, you won´t find them at e-bay at, let´s say, 12 EUR / 11 GBP / 16 USD.

If I had to sacrify  one album, that´d be "Shove It", no doubts about it.  

cheers

Personally, I think The Cross aren't worth your time, for the most part.  They're incredibly dated now as they were then.  There are a few great songs, but overall you're not missing much.  As for Roger's stuff, all four records contain great material, but I think the strongest one is Electric Fire, with Happiness coming in as a close second.

My favorite has to be Fun in Space and that one has Roger playing almost every single instrument. It's got a great 'feeling' or 'ambience' (is that even a word?) and you almost feel like it's got a concept.

One reviewer at the time called it "Son of Flash Gordon" and I can see some similarities in the sound and feeling but I like Fun in Space better.

Electric Fire and Happiness are tied in second place, while Strange Frontier does nothing for me, really.

Regarding The Cross: Blue Rock has great moments in it, I haven't heard MBADTK and Shove it is (a little less than) shit.

"... get hip to the beat in the hip-hop street..."
Awful!

My top 3:

1 Blue Rock 
2 Happpiness
3 Electric Fire

I read somewhere that a casual listener called Roger's solo material the strongest any member of a famous rockband has released and I have no reason to doubt that. Just compare Happiness to Back To The Light or Electric Fire to Another World. Where Brian throws together a couple of left-overs to fill the 2nd half of the album Roger actually seems to put some thought in the sequencing and feel of his albums. Sure, he doesn't have a track like Business, but he also doesn't have shit like The Guv'nor :D

Fun In Space and Strange Frontier are Rogers best solo efforts, Airheads, My Country,Strange Frontier,Man On Fire are stand out tracks. Happiness and Electric Fire have some good moments but some awfull stuff like Touch The Sky and People On Streets. Hold back on spending a lot of money on Blue Rock and Mad Bad as there could be a box set out at some point,

philip storey wrote: Fun In Space and Strange Frontier are Rogers best solo efforts, Airheads, My Country,Strange Frontier,Man On Fire are stand out tracks. Happiness and Electric Fire have some good moments but some awfull stuff like Touch The Sky and People On Streets. Hold back on spending a lot of money on Blue Rock and Mad Bad as there could be a box set out at some point,

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Having Blue Rock on LP vinyl is great. I can recommend it to everyone.

Pim Derks wrote:

"I read somewhere that a casual listener called Roger's solo material the strongest any member of a famous rockband has released and I have no reason to doubt that."

Roger's stuff is great, but it tops Brian Wilson, Phil Collins (first two albums), Roger Waters, Dave Gilmour, Sting, Lennon/McCartney/Harrison, Paul Weller, and Don Henley?  Maybe you should re-examine that statement.. :-)

Alright people, I've ordered Electric Fire and Fun in Space, they should arrive somewhere this week I guess. Thanks for your advices. Perhaps I'll let you know how I liked them.

Pim Derks wrote: I read somewhere that a casual listener called Roger's solo material the strongest any member of a famous rockband has released and I have no reason to doubt that. Just compare Happiness to Back To The Light or Electric Fire to Another World. Where Brian throws together a couple of left-overs to fill the 2nd half of the album Roger actually seems to put some thought in the sequencing and feel of his albums. Sure, he doesn't have a track like Business, but he also doesn't have shit like The Guv'nor :D

will you stop with that crap!...it's all opinion.....You think roger's solo stuff is so great, while i think it's forgettable at best.....I'm not a huge fan of brians solo stuff, but back to the light is much better than anything roger could ever dream of doing.   Now back to the subject at hand....My favorite is electric fire, i pop it in my CD player every 5 years or so. Not half bad.   Mr. Derks.....the original poster asked our opinion on roger's best solo stuff,  not a brian vs roger thread!

Sir GH wrote: Pim Derks wrote:

"I read somewhere that a casual listener called Roger's solo material the strongest any member of a famous rockband has released and I have no reason to doubt that."

Roger's stuff is great, but it tops Brian Wilson, Phil Collins (first two albums), Roger Waters, Dave Gilmour, Sting, Lennon/McCartney/Harrison, Paul Weller, and Don Henley?  Maybe you should re-examine that statement.. :-)
I don't know if barclona is considered a solo album,  but that piece of work is on another level of anything roger.....Roger taylor vs john Lennon?...lol....come on now.

"Blue Rock" is a must in my opinion. It's possibly the second best solo-project (after "Barcelona").

V.

The_CrY wrote: Alright people, I've ordered Electric Fire and Fun in Space, they should arrive somewhere this week I guess. Thanks for your advices. Perhaps I'll let you know how I liked them.
I think you picked the right two albums. Electric Fire has his strongest material, but also has some real duds (although I consider People on Streets to be a dud and you liked that so who knows!). Fun in Space is solid throughout (as is Happiness?) - no real standouts, but no dodgy moments either. Strange Frontier is probably my least favorite (although it contains two my favorite songs: Man on Fire and Strange Frontier) - the rest of the album is rather weak in comparison IMO.

Can't comment on any of The Cross stuff as I don't own the albums (only heard songs hear and there).

I'll be interested to hear what you think!

Can it be, that Roger used several Queen outtakes on his early albums?

"Man on Fire" sounds definitely like Brian May playing his Red Special here. 
The same goes for "Heaven for everyone" on the first Cross album, which does not only feature Freddie singing. Also the solo in the middle is a definite Brian May.