RT - The Lot..revisited

been listening to the box set lately, and it has made me appreciate his output more than before. None of the albums are way up there, but there are great moments on each of them.
A shame his BEST collection was a lazy tracklisting, could and should have been so much more diverse...

a question to those in the know

The 1994 live footage - was there a release planned at the time? Why didn't it happen?

( also, I love listening to Unblinking Eye now in the midst of all this brexit hysteria :) are we in europe, half in europe, not in europe? :) )

Electric Fire is an amazing album. Unblinking Eye is typical Roger. Fantastic song!

I've always liked Electric Fire as well.

-Blue Rock and Happiness are nice too I think.

To be fair I love a lot of Rogers non Queen out put, albums like Strange Frontier and Fun In Space have some great moments. Mad Bad and Dangerous To Know and Blue Rock are great diverse albums, Happiness and Electric Fire are great too. I really loved Fun On Earth and some of the rarer cuts like the original full length Unblinking Eye and Dear Mr Murdock (naked mix)

Roger's solo work is intriguing to me. I do like it, especially his early albums but I wouldn't call his song writing mind blowing (some of his lyrics are quite cringe worthy). Fun In Space & Strange Frontier were some of my most played LP's back in the 80's. But in saying that it's a great collection and awesome that he released 'everything' like this.

The Lot was a good boxset, despite all the errors found in initial prints (I have 2 boxsets now, btw, the first one and the replacement).

Things I really missed and never understood why weren´t included:

- a DVD/BR with the complete Cyberbarn show, which became available in the official YT channel shortly after

- the promos/TV appearances for I Wanna Testify and Future Management. Really??? Roger Taylor couldn´t afford paying whatever was the amount to include them in the box?? I see many other boxsets from minor artists/bands being released these days that include TOTP / TV shows appearances, etc etc, so I can´t understand it.

That said, I really like all of Roger´s solo efforts. Shove It from The Cross is the lowest point to me, but even that album has songs I really like (Cowboys & Indians, Contact and Love Lies Bleeding).

Funny I decided to listen to Fun On Earth the other day after a long time. Nice songs in there too, I like the album but, in my opinion Say It´s Not True live with Jeff Beck & The Unblinking Eye abridged (awful edit compared to the original which I love) shouldn´t have been included. Dear Mr Murdock (nude mix) and Whole House Rocking as extra tracks in the album boxset version are "meh", and I would definitely have included "The Shores Of Formentera" as a hidden track at the end

Doesn't the booklet make reference to a couple of unreleased songs that were set to appear on the box set, but Roger then culled seemingly at the last minute? And is it Strange Frontier or Fun In Space where the new digital transfer is fucked up?

For me, Happiness is his best solo album with Strange Frontier coming in second. Regarding The Cross, I'd consider Blue Rock to be their best work. Meanwhile, I think Shove It is one of those albums that excelled in the live environment. Some good examples are Contact, Stand Up For Love, and the title track with the latter reaching its peak on the 1990 tour

[QUOTE] [b]NastyQueenie74 wrote:[/b]
For me, Happiness is his best solo album with Strange Frontier coming in second. Regarding The Cross, I'd consider Blue Rock to be their best work. Meanwhile, I think Shove It is one of those albums that excelled in the live environment. Some good examples are Contact, Stand Up For Love, and the title track with the latter reaching its peak on the 1990 tour[/QUOTE]

agreed. I love Strange Frontier. Roger's first two albums contained some very grown up themes and were (lyrically) very good.

As for the Cross - I tend to go for the stuff that doesn't seem that obvious: Cowboys & Indians, Liar, Manipulator, Old Men (lay down), New Dark Ages, Ain't Putting Nothing Down

again, I'd say that Roger's 80s solo/cross output was part of the whole "Harrison Factor". 8 years of one or two songs per album, the embryos have to be "born" at some point.

What surprises me about Roger Taylor's solo output is how unlike Queen it sounds. Of course it doesn't have Brian's guitar orchestra on it, but actually a few Queen songs don't have that either. I'm talking more about the actual songs. There are songs here which just wouldn't fit in the Queen canon.

Man on Fire of course sounds like a Queen song, and of all the albums it seems that Happiness is the one that could most be accused of being watered down Queen (if that's an accusation or even a bad thing), but there's a level of originality with Roger that shows he had ideas that were better outside of Queen.

Brian's solo albums sound very Queen-like, and of course when listening to Freddie's solo output it's very hard to disconnect him from Queen since he was the voice of the band.

I'm waffling but hopefully you know what I'm getting at.

Man on Fire sounds like a Springsteen song.
Aside from that, I agree with you.

[QUOTE] [b]brENsKi wrote:[/b]

again, I'd say that Roger's 80s solo/cross output was part of the whole "Harrison Factor". 8 years of one or two songs per album, the embryos have to be "born" at some point. [/QUOTE]

Considering it was the late 80s and early 90s when rock was more or less dead and then experiencing a renaissance in the form of grunge, I can't help but just see the majority of the output of The Cross as derivative.

I've found there to be 3 or 4 decent songs on three albums combined - a much lower ratio than the rest of Roger's solo output.

[QUOTE] [b]The Real Wizard wrote:[/b]

[QUOTE] [b]brENsKi wrote:[/b]

again, I'd say that Roger's 80s solo/cross output was part of the whole "Harrison Factor". 8 years of one or two songs per album, the embryos have to be "born" at some point. [/QUOTE]

Considering it was the late 80s and early 90s when rock was more or less dead and then experiencing a renaissance in the form of grunge, I can't help but just see the majority of the output of The Cross as derivative.

I've found there to be 3 or 4 decent songs on three albums combined - a much lower ratio than the rest of Roger's solo output.
[/QUOTE]

well - i named six Cross tracks, so we weren't miles apart on that.
his first two solo LPs worked better. there's a handful here that would've made good Queen album tracks:

Good Times Are Now
My Country
Strange Frontier
Beautiful Dreams
Man on Fire

[QUOTE] [b]brENsKi wrote:[/b]

well - i named six Cross tracks, so we weren't miles apart on that.
his first two solo LPs worked better. there's a handful here that would've made good Queen album tracks:

Good Times Are Now
My Country
Strange Frontier
Beautiful Dreams
Man on Fire

[/QUOTE]

Ah yeah, great stuff.

I actually enjoy his 90s albums even more. Electric Fire is pretty solid.

I prefer Blue Rock or Mad Bad albums than other so-called good Queen albums... (Sheer Heart Attack, Jazz, Hot Space-of course- or A Kind Of Magic)
Bad Attitude, Top Of The World Ma, Ain´t Put Nothing Down, Penetration Guru, The Also Rans, Power To Love, Life Changes, Sister Blue...Great great songs.