08-05-1998 – Electric Fire
Roger Taylor, multi-instrumentalist and Queen’s drummer, resumes his solo career in September with his long awaited fourth album, Electric Fire, released on the Parlophone label September 21st. A single, Pressure On, precedes the album on September 14th.
Recorded at his own Cosford Mill studio over a period of two and a half years, Electric Fire includes eleven new, self-penned songs plus a compelling version of John Lennon’s Working Class Hero.
Although best known for his powerhouse role in Queen, Roger Taylor is anything but a drummer confined to his kit. Also highly-regarded for his songwriting, his credits include I’m In Love With My Car and the hit singles Radio Ga Ga and A Kind Of Magic.
Throughout the late 80’s and early 90’s, Roger fronted his own rock band The Cross, and with his three previous solo albums, Fun In Space (1981), Strange Frontier (1984) and Happiness? (1994), he established himself as an artist with a strong sense of identity; one with a wide musical perspective and an enviable gift for melody.
Roger Taylor is an observational songwriter. he writes from experience, and Electric Fire is full of attention-grabbing songs tackling thought-provoking and sometimes challenging issues – national obsolescence (A Nation Of Haircuts), domestic violence (Surrender) and poverty (People On Streets) among them. The titles of the last-named track is taken from a line in Queen & David Bowie’s Under Pressure, whilst the song itself was inspired by a visit Roger made to India and the inequalities he witnessed in the fortunes of that country’s vast population. Several super-rich and powerful world figures get namechecked in the song, although given the indictments in the lyrics they may well wish they hadn’t!
There’s subtle humour on the album too, not least in the hugely effective Believe In Yourself. In an age of declining traditional values, this brilliant pop song is an inspiration on the one hand, but tongue in cheek on the other, with it’s lyrical references to “space-wasting journalists, bosses, lawyers with fees, Elvis and deciduous trees” There’s also an understated nod to the Beatles in the orchestrated backing, which recalls the glory days of 60’s psychedelia.
Elsewhere, the rhythm-led opener, Pressure On, deals with the confines of domestic life – “stress, the modern world, everyday problems experienced by all”, while in the moving Is It Me?, Roger addresses the tricky question of insecurity within relationships. Present lovers and absent friends are celebrated in Tonight and Where Are You Now?, while the carefree rock’n’roll lifestyle of decades past is mourned in the heaviest track on the album, the all out rocker No More Fun.
Author Nicholas Evans provided the inspiration for the spiritually-inclined The Whisperers. This song tells of the ancient art of training wild horses via softly spoken verbal commands, a more subtle approach than the harsh tradition of dominating the animals through force. Roger quotes several lines from Evans’ book, The Horse Whisperer, and Evans receives a co-credit for the lyrics.
In sharp contrast is the closing track, London Town, C’mon Down, a seven minutes adventure which begins life as a funk-based tour of the capitals highlights and lowlights – “first, fresh, exciting student impressions of London” – then probes the darker side of the city in a claustrophobic, disorienting finale, with spoken piece quoting from London Fantasy, an article by Mervyn Peake, an artist and writer much admired by Taylor.
The musicians on Electric Fire are Roger Taylor (Vocals, drums), Jason Falloon, Keith Airey (guitars), Steven Barnacle (bass), Mike Crossley (keyboards), Keith Pryor (drums) and guest vocalists Treana Morris and Jonathan Perkins.
Electric Fire is a unique album full of diverse musical textures and ideas, from romantic ballads to live-in-the-studio rockers. Roger Taylor’s songs are contemporary reflections on life, often richly melancholic, with socially aware lyrics calling for justice, awareness and equality. Turn up the heat!