scapp70's Full Review: Fun in Space by Roger Taylor (Queen)
Even during Queen's most successful era of their musical career, drummer Roger Taylor had found the time to record his first full-length solo album, Fun In Space. The album was recorded sometime after Queen's 1980 tour for their smash success The Game, and before their tour for their Flash Gordon soundtrack album. Actually, Roger kept himself even more occupied than just Queen during their busy season. Taylor appears on multiple songs by other artists including Kansas, Mel Smith and Gary Numan.
Roger had released a solo single in 1977 during Queen's creative peek, a proper solo album may have been itching to get out of him for some time by the time Fun in Space was released in 1981. Roger Taylor also played all the instruments, (drums, percussion, bass, guitar, keyboards and all the vocals), with some help from David Richards on keyboards as well as co-production of the album.
The album kicks off with No Violins, a raunchy rock track, letting the listener know right away that he means business. My impression now, as it was when I first heard No Violins, is that it single worthy. It's surprising that Roger never opted to use the song as a promotional tool, as it's catchy and early 80s contemporary. Instead, Roger chose Let's Get Crazy for the single in the US. A good way to describe this track is a rock/funk number dressed up in a zoot suit. The lyrics and feel are reminiscent of his track on Queen's The Game album from 1980, Rock It (Prime Jive). Let's Get Crazy is nowhere near as good as No Violins despite the impressive drumming and the incidental guitar licks from Taylor. Perhaps the album would have fared better in the US charts, if a more accessable song were chosen instead.
A 1981 review from the British Record Mirror magazine calls this album 'Son of Flash Gordon', and I can see where they're coming from, but if you do take the time to listen to the music you'll find it's much more interesting and complex than that simple analogy. The reason Record Mirror came to that conclusion is because of the inclusion of heavy synthesizers that sometimes sound similar to the sci-fi 1980 soundtrack. Any similarity that I’ve found is in the short introduction of My Country I & II. This epic like track however is nothing like Flash, and within the body of the song - it stands out as the most imaginative piece on the album. The different melodies within this war protest song is like a pastiche of three different songs fusing Rock, Reggae and New Wave.
The best track is Future Management, which was the choice for the UK single. The single charted at its peek at #49 in the UK and helped Fun In Space reach its Top Twenty status at #18 in the album charts. Much better than the US chart performance at #121. Future Management has a spacey Reggae feel, the first time anything Queen related tackled the genre. Roger's vocals are usually raspier than even Rod Stewart, and on Fun In Space it sounds like he put an effort to present his voice in a much cleaner way. The result with a song like Future Management is that it sounds very much like Sting and the Police. It's possible that Roger was influenced by the band, by the time Fun In Space was released, The Police had already released four out of their five studio albums and Roger always made a point of staying aware of current trends in music.
Roger Taylor gives a nod to The Who with the ballad Laugh or Cry. The lyrics aren't as inspiring as something Pete Townsend would create, but it's not hard to imagine Roger Daltrey belting this one out. There are some incidental guitar leads performed by Roger which are both interesting and impressive. We never hear this musical side of Roger (as he is the drummer), although on Queen's next album Hot Space he plays some more lead guitar on his Calling All Girls track. Speaking of The Who, I can hear their inspiration in the quasi-instrumental track Interlude in Constantinople within the keyboards. To my ears the song sounds like something that would fit comfortably within the movie soundtrack to Tommy.
As far as other Queen solo albums, guitarist Brian May almost equaled Fun In Space with his first solo album Back to the Light. Lead singer, Freddie Mercury’s first solo album, Mr. Bad Guy is the absolute worst, and is downright awful in its own right. While Brian sounded most like Queen, Roger’s music is always furthest from their sound, as it is within the band unit anyway. Sometimes, a solo project outside of a working outfit may give the impression of a collection of rejected songs, but this is not the case here on Fun In Space. Roger is a strong songwriter, even amongst big heavyweights Freddie Mercury and Brian May, and as the years went by, Roger only grew stronger. Roger had many songs that weren't right for Queen, and some of these ideas go as far back as 1978 when Queen were recording Jazz. So here, Roger Taylor puts forth the other musical side of himself. The side that seems heavily influenced by David Bowie, The Who and even Pink Floyd. Do I recommend this album? Sure, if you could find it. Unfortunately for Roger his solo projects only head south quality wise from this point on, like with Strange Frontier or Happiness?. The caliber of Fun In Space may well have been a fluke, but it’s a welcome one.
the songs
1. No Violins
2. Laugh Or Cry
3. Future Management
4. Let's Get Crazy
5. My Country I & II
6. Good Times Are Now
7. Magic Is Loose
8. Interlude In Constantinople
9. Airheads
10. Fun In Space
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