Roger Taylor (Queen drummer)

Roger Taylor

Roger Taylor (born Roger Meddows-Taylor on July 26, 1949 in Dersingham, Norfolk, later moved to Kings Lynn) is an English musician best known as the percussionist and backing, sometimes lead, vocalist of the British rock band Queen. As a drummer he is known for his "big" unique sound and is cited as one of the most important and influential stadium rock drummers. As a songwriter he contributed songs to the band's albums from the very beginning, composing at least one track on every album, and (in the early days) usually sang lead vocals on his own compositions. He also wrote five of the band's hits, "Radio Ga Ga", "A Kind of Magic", "The Invisible Man", "Breakthru" and "These Are the Days of Our Lives". He is also capable of playing multiple instruments, including guitar, bass and keyboards, as heard on his debut solo album in which he played all instruments and sang all vocals. He has played with such artists as Eric Clapton, Roger Waters, Roger Daltrey, Phil Collins, Genesis, Jimmy Nail, Elton John, Gary Numan, Shakin' Stevens, Foo Fighters, Al Stewart, Steve Vai, Yoshiki Hayashi and Bon Jovi.

As a producer he has co-produced albums by Virginia Wolf, Jimmy Nail and Magnum.

In 2005 Taylor was voted the 8th greatest drummer in classic rock music history in a poll conducted by Planet Rock Radio.

Biography

Roger was born to parents Winifred and Michael Taylor, in Dersingham Norfolk, England. Several years later he and his family (along with younger sister Clare, born 1953) moved to Cornwall. At age 8, he was inspired by his older cousin (who played guitar) to start learning the guitar. He started by teaching himself ukulele, and later taught himself to play the guitar. In his pre-teens, Taylor formed a school skiffle band known as "The Bubblingover Boys", which lasted but two school performances. In 1960, Taylor joined Truro Cathedral School on a musical scholarship - meaning he had to join their choir. He didn't enjoy life as a choirboy as they had to sing three times every Sunday and at special events such as weddings and at midnight mass every Christmas. By 1961, he had learned to play the guitar, but found his interest in drums. In 1963, Taylor joined "Beat Unlimited" which later became "The Cousin Jacks" and "The Falcons", playing a mixture of guitars and drums. The big change came in 1965, when he joined "Johnny Quale and the Reaction" as drummer playing Shadows, Rolling Stones and pre-Soul covers, especially James Brown and Otis Redding. In 1965, "Johnny Quale" left and the band reshuffled. It became known simply as "The Reaction" with Taylor on lead vocals as well as drums. In 1966, they won the local battle of the bands, the Rock and Rhythm Championship, which they had failed to do the year before.

While maintaining his keen interest in music, Taylor decided his professional career lay in dentistry, and in 1967 moved to London to enroll at the London Hospital Medical College, but quickly grew bored and moved to a London Polytechnic where he studied biology, obtaining a BSc in the subject. In 1968 Taylor met Brian May and Tim Staffell at University and formed Smile, answering an ad for a "Ginger Baker/Mitch Mitchell-type drummer". Smile was signed to a record label and released a promotional single in America. Two seemingly official releases by the band were made in 1982 and 1997. The first was released only in Japan; the second was released only in the Netherlands. Both contain the same tracks. Later, Tim Staffell left the band thinking it wasn't going anywhere. By then their good friend Farrokh 'Freddie' Bulsara jumped eagerly into the slot of vocalist, leaving the band to look for a new bass player. After trying several unsuccessful bassists, John Deacon stepped forward in 1971 and Queen was born.

Taylor has five children, two with Dominique Beyrand (from whom he is separated): Felix Luther (born 1980) and Rory Eleanor (born 1986) and three with former Flake chocolate advertisement model Debra Leng: Rufus Tiger (born 1991), Tiger Lily (born 1994) and Lola Daisy May (born 2000).

Taylor married then separated from partner Dominique Beyrand on the same day. The registry marriage ceremony, witnessed by Freddie Mercury, had a dual purpose - it offered Ms Beyrand and her children financial security and meant Taylor was free to continue dating girlfriend Debra Leng (who he later married and divorced).

As a performer

Let's just say that the product of drummer Roger Meddows Taylor and bassist Deacon John is explosive, a colossal sonic volcano whose eruption maketh the earth tremble. — Gordon Fletcher - Rolling Stone 149

Queen in 1979.

As a drummer, Taylor possesses a sound which involves several trademarks including an involuntary opening of the hi-hat on every back beat for a rhythm emphasis. He has played styles such as speed metal ("Stone Cold Crazy"), thrash metal ("Ogre Battle"), and rockabilly ("Crazy Little Thing Called Love") among others. He has also played a great deal of percussion along with his standard drum kit, the most famous being the timpani solos during live shows; he is also one of the earliest drummers to use electronic trigger pads.

In addition to his drum work, he routinely played the guitars and bass on his own songs and, during the 1980s, he formed a parallel band known as The Cross, in which he was the singer and rhythm guitarist. According to Brian May, the guitar break and feedback outro to the Queen song "Calling All Girls" was played by Taylor.

As one of the band's three vocalists, Taylor's voice is notable for its raspiness, which has been compared to Rod Stewart's. He is famous within the Queen fandom for his ability to reach very high notes (e.g. the high B-flat at the end of "Bohemian Rhapsody"'s operatic section, and the high falsetto notes in '39). His solo career demonstrates he was very good at the low range as well; for instance, in his cover of "I Wanna Testify," he sang all four choir parts (soprano, alto, tenor and bass). In some Queen tracks he recorded his voice in octaves, and in "I'm in Love with My Car" he arranged and sang all the cascading harmonies. Another fine example of his vocal talents is in the music hall-esque 'Seaside Rendezvous' where he and Freddie Mercury imitate tubas, clarinets and kazoos through mere voice manipulation. One of Taylor's other talents was his ability to play fairly complicated drum parts while singing, as can be seen in numerous Queen performances.

Taylor in 2005.

His compositions include the hits "Radio Ga Ga", "Heaven for Everyone" and "A Kind of Magic", as well as other tunes that did not receive as much airplay, such as "Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll" (Queen), "Tenement Funster" (Sheer Heart Attack), and "I'm in Love With My Car" (A Night at the Opera) and "Drowse" (A Day at the Races), all of which were sung by him. Taylor is notorious for an incident relating to the release of "I'm in Love With My Car". Taylor desperately wanted to include it as the B-side of "Bohemian Rhapsody", but Freddie Mercury didn't agree. Taylor locked himself in a cupboard until Mercury changed his mind. Taylor, being the composer of the B-side, acquired the same amount of royalties as Mercury himself (which apparently led to argument later on in their careers). The UK #1 hit "These Are the Days of Our Lives", though credited to all the band, was actually written by Taylor, as well as "Invisible Man", "Breakthru" (except the intro), and "You Don't Fool Me" (with lyrics by Mercury). A significant portion of the lyrics in Queen's epic "Innuendo" are by Taylor, with the music by Mercury.

His first solo album, Fun In Space, was released in 1981 and did quite well. He appeared on various European TV shows to promote the single "Future Management". A few years later he would perform various tracks of the album with The Cross. After Queen finished their The Works album in 1984, Taylor worked on his second solo album Strange Frontier. Released in July 1984, it included guest appearances by bandmates Freddie Mercury and John Deacon.

After Queen finished their 1986 Magic Tour, Taylor wanted to start a new band, putting an anonymous advertisement in the newspaper hinting that he was from a famous rock band and that he was seeking other musicians. This side project, The Cross, did not turn out to be very successful. They released three albums over the six years that they existed, only having some minor success in the UK and Germany. In 1993 they split up, after performing one final gig at the Gosport Festival.

In 1994 he worked with Yoshiki Hayashi, drummer and pianist of X Japan and released the song "Foreign Sand" and a reworking of The Cross' "Final Destination," which was a minor hit in the UK. The album Happiness? - dedicated to Freddie Mercury - got positive reviews around the world and Taylor promoted it with his first solo-tour through Europe, mainly performing in the UK and Italy. A single from the album, "Nazis 1994," was banned by BBC Radio 1 and several stores for its controversial lyrics. Nonetheless, "Nazis 1994" became Taylor's first hit single in England and was followed by two other Top 40 U.K. hits, "Happiness" and "Foreign Sand."

In 1998 he released his most recent offering, Electric Fire. To promote it, he did one of the first Internet-gigs - for which he got a mention in the Guinness Book of World Records. The album spawned two singles: "Pressure On" and a remix of "Surrender", though neither set the charts alight.

Solo career

Taylor has also enjoyed a solo career, releasing four albums. His first single was his 1977 cover of The Parliaments "I Wanna Testify". He recorded it during Queen's sessions for the News of the World album. The A-side, although a cover, was completely different from the original. The B-side was a self-penned song "Turn On The TV".

His first album came in 1981 in the form of Fun In Space. Taylor played all the instruments and sang everything on the album, apart from about 50% of the keyboards, which were done by engineer David Richards.

With Queen still touring heavily and recording at the time of release, it was impossible for Taylor to promote the album to its fullest extent, so Taylor appeared on some European TV shows to promote the single, "Future Management", including Top Of The Pops. The only other single to come from the album was "My Country". The only single released from the album in the U.S. was "Let's Get Crazy".

His next venture came in 1984 when, after Mercury rejected a lot of his songs for the Queen album, The Works, he realized he had more than enough for an album. The album became Strange Frontier. The three singles from the album were the title track, "Beautiful Dreams" (in Portugal only) and "Man On Fire", the latter becoming a live favourite for him in later years. No attempts to promote the singles were made, Queen toured to promote 1984's The Works album, which made a Strange Frontier tour impossible, and Taylor didn't perform on any TV shows. The cover of the album is a 'pixelated' version of his portrait photo that appeared in the liner notes of the Works album.

Freddie Mercury sang backing vocals on "Killing Time", John Deacon remixed the B-side "I Cry For You," and Rick Parfitt co-wrote and played on "It's An Illusion". David Richards, the engineer and producer, also co-wrote two of the tracks. The album includes covers of Bruce Springsteen's "Racing In The Streets" and Bob Dylan's "Masters of War".

The Cross

Main article: The Cross

Shove It

Taylor performing with The Cross in 1990.

After Queen's 1986 Magic Tour, the band members went their separate ways to do various solo work. Taylor decided to form a new band with whom he could tour. He had already written and recorded the album himself before finding a band to play the songs with. He eventually placed an ad for band members in a national newspaper, hinting he was a famous rock musician. The position of keyboard player was duly offered to Spike Edney after two successful Queen tours with him handling the keys. When the auditions were over, the line-up was completed by Peter Noone on Bass, Clayton Moss on Guitar, and Josh (ua J.) Macrae on Drums. Taylor himself would take the responsibility on lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist.

The first album, Shove It, was released in 1988. In Europe, Heaven for Everyone (later a Queen song) contained Freddie Mercury on lead vocals and Taylor on backing vocals. However, on the single version and the American album version the roles were reversed. The European CD contained an extra track (compared to cassette and LP) in The 2nd Shelf Mix, the US version having "Feel The Force" as its extra track. The band promoted hard in Germany especially, with many TV performances of singles including an appearance at the Montreux Golden Rose festival in 1988. The tour took in dates in the UK and Germany. Three singles were released from the album: "Cowboys and Indians", "Heaven for Everyone" and "Shove It". Another single, "Manipulator," was released in 1988, but it wasn't included on any album. It was also the only song from the time that had joint writing credits, Taylor sharing them with Spike Edney and Steve Strange.

Mad: Bad: And Dangerous To Know

Taylor performing with The Cross in 1990.

After finishing Queen's 1989 album The Miracle, Taylor went into the studio with the rest of The Cross for the first time. The band composed the opening track "On Top Of The World Ma" with a riff bearing a resemblance to the Led Zeppelin track Whole Lotta Love. The rest of the album consisted mainly of individually written songs, except for "Power To Love" which was a joint venture by Macrae, Noone and Moss. Clayton Moss sang lead vocals on his own track "Better Things", and Spike Edney played mandolin on "Final Destination", which was written by Taylor. "Final Destination" was released as a single, as were "Liar" and "Power To Love", the latter being the last single to be released in the UK by the group. "Final Destination" came with a live rendition of Taylor's song "Man On Fire" as a B-side, and "Liar" (Noone) had a brand new track, "In Charge Of My Heart", which was also penned by Taylor. The 12" single and CD of "Liar" also included extended remixes of both "Liar" and "In Charge Of My Heart". The instrumental section at the beginning of "In Charge Of My Heart" was used as the opening to concerts on the accompanying tour. "Closer To You" (Edney) had been planned to be released in America, but the idea was never discussed again. The group having seemingly given up on the UK market, the accompanying tour only included dates in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Ibiza. Unusual for such tours, every song from the new album was played live.

Blue Rock

Made at a time when Taylor's efforts were concentrated on Queen and Mercury himself, Blue Rock gave the other members of the band a chance to take control of the upcoming album. It was in fact mostly written by Edney with him contributing three of his own tracks and contributing to four more. Once again the opening track was penned by the entire band, "Bad Attitude" was written (although not complete) by the Christmas fan club party of 1990. The album itself contained a lot of vocals not from Taylor, but mainly of Edney and Noone. Examples of this can be heard in "Put It All Down To Love" (Edney) "Life Changes" (Moss, Noone, Edney and Macrae) and "Heartland" (The B-side to Life Changes, penned by Noone). Blue Rock itself was only released in Germany (although promo copies were released in Italy and Japan), so it is pretty rare to find on the market, yet is widely accepted to be their best album. "New Dark Ages" (Taylor) was released in Germany with another live version of "Man On Fire", whilst "Life Changes" was released with the B-side "Heartland". It was however immediately withdrawn, due to the death of Freddie Mercury. The tour was in support of Magnum, so the concert lengths were short (45 mins.) and very few bootlegs survived. The tour was rapid, covering 20 dates in one month.

Kit

The kit Taylor used on the latest Queen + Paul Rodgers tour is mainly a Ludwig kit (classic maple shells), with a Sleishman bass drum. He uses Vic Firth Extreme 5B wooden tipped sticks. His hardware comprises all new Ludwig, with a DW 9002 double bass drum pedal.

• 26" x 18" bass drum by Sleishmann
• 10" x 9" hanging tom Ludwig
• 14" x 13" hanging tom Ludwig
• 15" x 15" hanging tom Ludwig
• 16" x 16" floor tom Ludwig
• 18" x 16" floor tom Ludwig
• 14" x 6.5" or 14"x8" (depending on the venue) maple snare drum
• 12", 14" & 16" Remo Rototoms
• LP Double Row Studio Wind chimes
• Ludwig Cowbell size 6,7/8
• Ludwig Tambourine

Drum Heads

• Remo Powerstroke 3 head on the bass drum
• Remo Coated Emperor head on the hanging toms
• Remo Ambassador head on the floor toms
• Remo Powerstroke 3 head on the snare drum

Cymbals

The cymbals are all by Zildjian.

• 15" A New Beat Hi-Hats
• 17" K Dark Crash Medium Thin in Brilliant Finish
• 19" K Dark Crash Medium Thin
• 20" K Crash/Ride
• 22" A Ping Ride
• 20" Oriental China Trash in Brilliant Finish

Discography

Main article: Roger Taylor discography

See also: Queen discography

Stamps

In 1999 Taylor appeared in the background of a Royal Mail stamp commemorating the life of Freddie Mercury. This caused controversy as it was an understood rule that the only living people allowed to appear on British stamps could be members of the Royal family.

In 2002, Taylor appeared on the "Twelve Drummers Drumming" Christmas card in the "Twelve Days of Christmas" set sold at Woolworths to raise money for the NSPCC – alongside the other Roger Taylor, the drummer for Duran Duran.

Trivia

• When Queen shared a locker with Genesis in 1970, Peter Gabriel offered Taylor the job of percussionist in Genesis.

• Taylor, along with Mercury, was one of the party animals of the group. A heavy smoker until mid 80s, he has been known for his love for fast cars, drinks, and women. Throughout Queen's career he earned a reputation as a ladies' man.

• Whenever he played live, Taylor would always drink two shots of Scotch before going on stage, "no more, no less".

• Occasionally, Taylor trashed his drum-kits, as happened at the end of their 'Live At The Rainbow' concert (available in video format).

• Taylor, a natural blonde, was fond of using bleach to lighten his hair. One day in 1979 while doing so he accidentally dyed his hair green. Since it was just before a show, Taylor had to go on with green hair, much to Mercury's amusement. Only a few pictures of this unfortunate accident have survived, as Taylor has got hold of most of them. One fine example can, however, be seen in Jacky Gunn's and Jim Jenkins' 'Queen: As It Began'.

• Taylor also temporarily grew a beard shortly before Queen was formed, because he did not appreciate being mistaken for a woman.

• He has also been known to be one of the most politically inclined members of Queen, having in 1994 released a single condemning neo-Nazism, in response to a criticism from 10 years earlier that the music video for his song "Radio Ga Ga", in which a uniformed crowd numbering several hundred raise both fists and clap in unison, looked "like a Nuremberg rally".

• In his first solo effort, his 1981 album "Fun In Space," he poked fun at Queen's "No synthesisers" disclaimer from their 70's records by stating that he had used 157 synthesisers on his album.[1]

• Taylor's son Felix has recorded a song called "Woman, You're So Beautiful (But a Pain in the Ass)" that features the elder Taylor on backing vocals and drums.

• In spite of being born in Norfolk and having grown up in Cornwall, Taylor's speaking accent doesn't have notable similarities with either region's. On the contrary, he speaks with a mild RP.

• His favourite film is 2001: A Space Odyssey, and his favourite drink is vodka.

• Taylor sang backing vocals and played drums on Freddie Mercury's hit The Great Pretender. He also appears in the video dressed in drag.

References

• "Roger Taylor's Official Website" (HTML). http://www.queen-fip.com/. Retrieved 2008-01-15. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)

External links

• Roger Taylor full discography with rarities
• Taylor at Sleishman.com
• Queen Archives – Taylor Interviews
• Queenpedia - Roger Taylor Complete Song List
• Queen Concerts – Concertography Roger Taylor
• Roger-Taylor.Net
• Taylor at drummerworld.com
• Roger Taylor's drumpage

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