Brian May Or Roger Taylor Solo, Who's Better?

Brian for me.

I love the Back to the Light Album since the day it came our. I never get tired of Resurrection, Love token, Back to the Light, too much Love and Driven by you!
Taking into account that also Headlong and I can't live with you were meant to be for Back to the Light, in my opinion
it is one of the strongest Queen - Solo effort.

Another World also has some strong moments, like China Belle but is much weaker than BTTL.

'Dream of thee' and 'What are we made of' not to be forgotten, as well as 'Let me out' and also I consider 'Dangerland' as kind of a Brian Solo effort.

And I like Brians Version of 'hot Patootie' a lot.

I wish Brian would have been more productive, and I would prefer a Brian Solo Tour a lot over Queen + AL.

Roger - definitely, Roger.
I am not a fan of Brian's voice at all. Too boring. Roger's music has his own distinct stamp on it, even on the Queen albums. Brian's music is very much the same, whether it is for Queen or his solo stuff. And his voice just does not have that 'star quality'.

I think the problem with some of Brian's output is that he tries too hard for it to sound like Queen. Sometimes he pulls it off quite well but if you're going for the Queen sound without Freddie on vocals, you're bound to fall short at some point. Case in point - Too Much Love Will Kill You sounds way better for me as a Queen track, I very rarely listen to Brian's version now. Although you can also argue that Heaven For Everyone doesn't sound great as a Cross track (I like it a lot mind you, especially the middle eight that was omitted) but the essence of the song was always there, rather than it going from acoustic to electric.

Roger's voice is well suited to a lot of styles as well, and obviously his range is way better than Brian's - listen to those lovely low notes on Manipulator! Queen's tracks were diverse and so are Roger's in a lot of ways.

I really wish that Brian and Roger continued recording solo material and touring it, rather than reviving Queen over the last 10 years. There's absolutely no chance they'll go back to recording solo material now that they're both in their mid/late 60s. Fun On Earth was a disappointment both musically and sales-wise and something Roger should have really done right after Electric Fire.

In overall I like Rogers solowork more than Brians.

Good stuff Roger:
I wanna Testify
The complete Fun in Space album
Beautiful Dreams
Nazis (The rest of Happiness? sounds like a keyboard demo album)
The complete Electric Fire album
Be with you

Bad stuff Roger:
Abandonfire
Most of the Cross
The complete Happiness? album except Nazis

Good stuff Brian:
Driven by you
TMLWKY
Cyborg
Let your heart rule your head

Bad stuff Brian:
Star fleet project
Most of Another world

I love posting these messages during work time. People look at me now and think I am working on a complicated project.

Well, ranking Queen solo material is a very serious business!

[QUOTE] [b]FlorianS wrote:[/b]


'Dream of thee' and 'What are we made of' not to be forgotten, as well as 'Let me out' and also I consider 'Dangerland' as kind of a Brian Solo effort.

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Kerry Ellis's Anthems is pretty much a Brian solo album with Kerry on vocals..........(and thats a good thing! imo)


I'd go with Brian over Roger myself.........BTTL is great, AW good but not quite as good as BTTL.......Starfleet Project is freakin epic......

Not that I don't like Roger's stuff, though!!!! (and I don't lump The Cross's work in with Roger's solo albums, btw, as it was a separate band....)


I wonder if we'll ever see another Brian album............(I think a Queen + Adam album is more likely)

[QUOTE] [b]ili wrote:[/b]

well, I'm a big fan of Queen like the rest of you and IMO Brian's solo stuff is the best; and most Queen-like among the four members (including John's No Turning Back). Queen's distinctive rock sound comes form Brian's Red Special. Freddie, Roger or John's solo works are lighter; more like pop most of the time and I can't say I like them as a whole. though Brian's solo work is a bit heavier, it is much more better than the rest of the group. I like all the songs in Back to the Ligt and Another World. I had big expectations when I bought Roger's Happiness? years ago, but the only song I could stand listening was Foreign Sand. I gave it another chance when he released Electric Fire; but it was worse. I did not like one single track in that album and never listened to it again. I'd never buy another solo stuff from Roger again.[/QUOTE]

What John Deacon's solo career? Appearing in a video for `Morris Minor and the Majors, playing bass on How can I go on and on Nothin' But Blue doesn't qualifies John as a solo artist. And I really love John. He's the best bass player for me. But he's no solo artist.

1. Barcelona
2. Back To The Light
3. Fun On Earth

That's it!

[QUOTE] [b]people on streets wrote:[/b]

[QUOTE] [b]Day dop wrote:[/b]

Of all the solo albums Barcelona and Mr Bad Guy are the better ones.[/QUOTE]

I agree.[/QUOTE]

Barcelona's not a solo album, it's a duets album, not the same.

As for Brian vs Roger, I pick the latter.

[QUOTE] [b]KJ wrote:[/b]

In overall I like Rogers solowork more than Brians.

Good stuff Roger:
I wanna Testify
The complete Fun in Space album
Beautiful Dreams
Nazis (The rest of Happiness? sounds like a keyboard demo album)
The complete Electric Fire album
Be with you

Bad stuff Roger:
Abandonfire
Most of the Cross
The complete Happiness? album except Nazis

Good stuff Brian:
Driven by you
TMLWKY
Cyborg
Let your heart rule your head

Bad stuff Brian:
Star fleet project
Most of Another world

I love posting these messages during work time. People look at me now and think I am working on a complicated project.



[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE] [b]ITSM wrote:[/b]

[QUOTE] [b]KJ wrote:[/b]


I love posting these messages during work time. People look at me now and think I am working on a complicated project.



[/QUOTE]

[/QUOTE]



Haha, I agree! This forum is perfect for "work." The only problem is the big headlines.

Roger wins by quantity and quality. But ONLY by quantity.

Does that make sense?


Brian has two albums. An EP. And an ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK.... plus the "stuff" he did with Kerry Ellis. (Not the stuff in latex the music stuff)

Also three very great moments on the ADVENTURES OF PINOCCHIO soundtrack. (The releases by he and Stevie Wonder were the only reason to get near that film)

Roger has a ton of (I don't know the count) mostly excellent rock records. (Excepting the last. Haven't bored myself old enough to bother listen to it)

Plus the stuff with THE CROSS.

(Was he trying to be like "the crass" and ride on the coattails of the post punk movement? )

In either effect he has a longer and more considerable output with great quality.

Freddie only has 2 albums and an EP/compilation

If it were a batting average comparable to what may b considered the best in MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL


I'd rate Brian's batting average as .275 pretty damn good

Roger as .315 Dammmmn good

Freddie as .400..... incredibly good.


Yep. Barcelona outshines anything the other two EVER did.

JOHN DEACON .... has a D.H. batting average of .217.

Ehhh.

Purely amongst the two Roger wins.

Brian May have had a better shot if he kept releasing live albums. His BMB was pretty damn good. I've only heard bootlegs after the BTTL tour however

The trouble with viewing Anthems as anything like a Brian Solo album - with Kerry as singer - is he seems to hold himself back quite a bit.

I've said this before: Dangerland is good but could've been great if he'd explored the potential for ripping guitar solos more. And that's just the most obvious example.

I actually don't think having Brian go "full throttle" while Kerry also does would've been a problem; The "stand a little in the shadows to promote Kerry's voice" thing didn't work so well.

Yeah. If you compiled every guest spot Brian May has done you'd have an incredible complication.

Jeffrey Osbourne to status quo to foo fighters to Toni Iommi. Good rips and solos.

Brian's the greater rocker. Roger has the better body of solo work

Following on from Martin Packer's very astute comments, what's most sad for me is that in Brian's non-Queen career he's only attempted one proper guitar album, The Starfleet Project, and even that was a blues jam format. I'd love to hear him do an instrumental concept album (hopefully not about badgers though) in which he can really let loose. I regret that Brian judges his work mainly in terms of commercial success and as Starfleet was a commercial (and critical maybe) failure, for his future albums he chose a traditional band-based approach with a lead vocalist. Maybe too late now to do something like a Steve Vai album, even if he changed his approach. I don't think he has the creative energy any more.