Reflections Of Queen + Paul Rodgers "The Cosmos Rocks"

I actually praise "The Cosmos Rocks" but it will always be compared to Freddie Mercury era Queen unfortunately, it'll never get a fair shake despite then outstanding collection of new material.

C-Lebrity had massive airplay via PIXY 102.9 FM, the local classic rock station here on Cape Cod of Massachusetts USA, I don't know about anywhere else stateside.

The Hyannis, MA retailer in store Best Buy stocked up on the vinyl release, I don't know how well it sold though.

Spinnakers, a actual mom and pop CD store in Hyannis had no trade ins or returns of "The Cosmos Rocks" but had plenty of Freddie era Queen unfortunately and Spinnaker's was the sole place on Cape Cod to get imports - official and bootlegs up until DSL & Broadband & the MP3 made an appearance here in the states. Spinnakers still does carry all that too.

Why Queen + Paul Rodgers failed to tour the United States has never been fully explained or talked about by any member of the band that I know of but if you know where an interview exists, lead the way please.

As a whole, the production is similar to the slick "Made In Heaven" and the only down point of the release is that most of the material were jams originally, then written out thoughtfully and recorded meticulously with exception to "Voodoo" and even that is take two of an impromptu jam. Had "The Cosmos Rocks" been subject to production similar to Queen's first release, would've it made much of a difference? I think so for Queen's first full length album best represents Queen as a live band in the studio and QPR was made for the concert stage imho.

My favorite song to this day from "The Cosmos Rocks" is "Time To Shine" and imho, it suffered from lack of live performances, only being played under 5 times or less that I am aware of. "Time To Shine" is easily the most uplifting song on the whole album, never ceasing to create wonderment and a feeling of positiveness about life as a whole, one of those, pick you off the ground and stand you straight up kind of songs.

"Call Me" - why they ignored this song as a single here in the States despite being listed on a sticker on the album and Rolling Stone stating it should be downloaded - is a standout track is beyond me. QPR never performed this rock-a-bily song live either, opting for the preachy boring - never should've been performed live "We Believe".

"Small" & the reprise never were performed live despite being a standout but the frailty of the song, the quietness and strong words of being humble well, I couldn't imagine trying to win over a large crowd of 350,000 people like QPR had in the Ukraine, the free gig. "Small" would best sound better live in a club perhaps? Could've QPR got 350,000 people to sing along to the chorus had it been more well known, a single instead of an album favorite and cut? One will never know.

Brian May caught much flack for including a sample of "We Will Rock You" in "Still Burnin'" and I am in line with the flackers on this. What starts out as a bombastic bluesy slow burning rocker is turned into a façade of itself when the stomp-stom-clap of "We Will Rock You" is introduced towards the end. "Still Burnin'" would've succeeded without Brians meddling in my humble opinion.

The song "The Cosmos Rocks" was first reported to be known as "Whole House Rockin'" according to first reports about the song, one reviewer didn't know the proper title at the time. It should've started the concert first song done in backed with "Tie Your Mother Down" following "The Cosmos Rocks" instead of the first encore slot it got. Other than "Voodoo" it easily represents the band as a adlib-freestyle-blues rock-jam type band that opted for one of the first recordings of the song instead of recording it over and over again, they did this song fairly quickly and the results are excellent.

"Surf's Up....Schools Out", well, if not "The Cosmos Rocks" to start the album, would've best been first? At some point during the tour, the song was the show opener and it did quite well. Paul Rodgers blues performance with the harmonica was a welcome intro to him and Queen and is one of only a handful of Queen songs, Freddie Mercury era included that features another instrument besides synth, piano, guitar, bass and drums. "One Year Of Love" has the saxophone and would've been awesome live with a guest performer playing sax but Queen never had that many live guests, if any at all until the Freddie Mercury tribute concert - and I'm not including Jackson or Bowie and the studio recordings either, just live performances.


I would like to think Queen weren't cheap and would've welcomed a gospel group for "Somebody To Love" & "Bohemian Rhapsody" in concert, I mean, how expensive could've it been to hire singers as a large group - a proper chorus to do justice with Queen in concert?

Now that Paul Rodgers is done with Brian May & Roger Taylor, there is one studio album to listen to and dozens of variations of live performances from both tours to enjoy.

As of late, perhaps Adam Lambert could "step up to the plate" and deliver a proper Queen + Adam Lambert studio album? A full length release? It's been hinted at.....

I much prefer Paul Rodgers over Adam Lambert with Queen any day of the week.

WK

I think that a Queen + Adam Lambert studio album will be not like The Cosmos Rock, may be with the lead vocal of Roger and Brian, and of course Adam´s voice.

Never listened to it.

Listened.. And tried again... One song had bits i liked.. Cant recall which one:)

The Rosmos Cocks.

Still Burning is a nice song, that have some Queen-like elements and some Brian solo elements.
I remember I wrote to Brian telling him how much I like the Still Burning solo and he replied that he had forgotten about that song!

Small, We Believe, Some things that glitter and Through the Night are amazing songs that many people dont like not because they are bad (because they are not) but because they dont sound like Queen or Paul... Which is the main criticism for this album.

TCR and Surf's Up are very funny songs.
The only song I dont like is Call Me.

i liked it all.........thats my unprofesional review...

Listened. Was disappointed. Confused.

I've written to length about my feelings there.

Brian May. ... It's got Brian May!

This SHOULD BE great!

I gave up. Liked the lead C- lebrity (though it sounds like Judas Priest's A Touch of Evil)

Went back to it after a QZ poster discussed how much they liked it.


It was still bad (for the parties involved)

I don't listen to it.

In my opinion. .. Surfs up schools out is the most embarrassing release the guys have EVER done. It's absolutely retarded.

"Yeeeeaaaahhh!" I said it. ... retarded

[QUOTE] [b]WKMahlerMahlers.Com wrote:[/b]

Why Queen + Paul Rodgers failed to tour the United States has never been fully explained or talked about by any member of the band that I know of[/QUOTE]

That's likely because they did tour the US, in 2006.

[QUOTE] [b]WKMahlerMahlers.Com wrote:[/b]

Paul Rodgers blues performance with the harmonica was a welcome intro to him and Queen and is one of only a handful of Queen songs, Freddie Mercury era included that features another instrument besides synth, piano, guitar, bass and drums.[/QUOTE]

A handful?

Harpsichord, ukulele, koto, harp, gong, tympani, horns, strings and sax means there are dozens of songs.

[QUOTE] [b]WKMahlerMahlers.Com wrote:[/b]

Why Queen + Paul Rodgers failed to tour the United States has never been fully explained or talked about by any member of the band that I know of but if you know where an interview exists, lead the way please.

WK[/QUOTE]


They failed to tour the US?? Then what the heck did I see in March 2006???????

Don't be a wise ass okay?

It's obvious at least to me that by stating they failed to tour was in reference to support of "The Cosmos Rocks" here in the USA, 2008. It's also here in the USA where not even a late night television live performance and interview with hosts such as O'Brien, Letterman or Leno took place, not once. As a Queen fan and Paul Rodgers fan, writing on behalf of not only myself but countless listeners of both artists all over the USA, we felt abandoned.

Had Brian and Roger took to the idea of a tour in the states, perhaps Paul would've considered staying on with the two and not felt like an employee over being an artist perhaps? After all, he himself, Paul Rodgers can be quoted as stating in a recent interview that both Brian & Roger called the shots during the recording process of "The Cosmos Rocks" in it's entirety.

Now, for my other comment about only a handful of Queen songs having more than synth, piano, drums, bass, vocals and guitar, there's probably under ten songs in total by the band, officially released by the band out of hundreds of songs, performed live and or in studio that come to mind.

Bring Back That Leroy Brown
Fairy Feller's Master Stroke
Good Company
Seaside Rendezvous
Love Of My Life
Teo Torriate (Let Us Cling Together)
One Year Of Love
Surf's Up...School's Out


Not that many efforts as a whole by any incarnation of Queen. Also, for a band that didn't hold back in the studio, sparing no expense for songs like "Bohemian Rhapsody", "The Prophet's Song", "Father To Son", "Someday One Day", songs that incorporated layers upon layers of vocals and or guitar work, others like "It's A Hard Life", "All Dead, All Dead", "You Take My Breath Away", "Somebody To Love", "The Millionaires Waltz", please understand, the songs that fall into the category of classical, symphony, orchestras - translated into rock songs, well, what could Freddie, John, Roger & Brian expect when faced with the challenge of live performance and acceptance by the audience?

I was let down considerably when I first heard the live version of "You Take My Breath Away", just Freddie and his piano as he tried in vain to do justice to the elaborate ballad, so much so, it's as if he didn't bother to try more than merely just wanting to get it over with, it was that bad compared to the lovely studio version - and I still am let down to this day, over a decade after hearing the song live via a bootleg on cassette for the first time.1

I'd like to believe they could've afforded a chorus of people, 10 - 20 backup singers, set up behind Roger's drum kit for live renditions of "Bohemian Rhapsody", the operatic section and all the backing soulful vocals of "Somebody To Love" and I'd like to believe they could've found someone to play sax for "One Year Of Love" live in concert, were they really that stingy or just wanting to be a stripped down mainly four piece band for the longest time until they needed someone to play piano for Freddie seemingly couldn't do it anymore.

At least Brian May when he toured solo in support of both of his releases, he had back up singers with him at every show. I can't write about Roger's solo concerts or his live gigs with The Cross, I've not heard more than one or two shows and both were bootlegs too.

When Paul Rodgers joined in, it became apparent that Jamie M., Brian's accompaniment on guitar was singing back ups and the song of Mercury era Queen took on a whole new life without that much of a drastic change. When Freddie and the boys first performed "Fat Bottomed Girls" in concert and it was bootlegged, I heard that many years later and was shocked to hear them struggle to sing the beginning of the song, just Roger & Freddie at different octaves from each other, raw and pure, unconditional and unprocessed unlike the full and grand chorus of many repeated overlaying vocals for "Fat Bottomed Girls". Paul Rodgers version gave excellent respect to the original version of "Fat Bottomed Girls" meaning, the vocal intro seemed to flow better than any version Freddie did in concert - and it became one of the primary reasons I think why "Fat Bottomed Girls" was left off of "Live Killers" (and "Somebody To Love" as well.)

I could go on but it's 1:13 a.m. est here on the east coast of the USA, I should be sound asleep presently.

WK

As an album I like it, apart from call me, cod country & western yuch !! But there are good songs on there, it just wasn't Queen and wasn't PR , I think they both compromised so much that it became wishy washy, you can almost hear Brian holding back in the solo's, trying to not make it sound like Queen !

You're right to point out that the live sound was very different to the studio recordings (increasingly so as the years went by)
but I think that's because Queen live was meant to be a totally different experience from listening to their recorded output.
Nowadays, lots of bands use click tracks on stage with some pre-recorded backing as well. They play live over that. This allows the audience to hear a more faithful rendition of the studio stuff. Autotune also makes an appearance.
Personally, I like the fact that there was a contrast between Queen's immaculately produced multi-tracked albums and the raw energy seen on stage. it was very much a visual experience as well, rather than an auditory one. Hence, I'm not that keen on listening to Queen's live albums. Having said that, the Rainbow 74 gig does sound excellent

Some Things That Glitter is the only song that rises above average. TCR is okay but utterly unmemorable, It reminds me of one of the weaker Foreigner albums -- utterly average MOR rawk.