Not a lot to add, I think ShardEnder summed this up very well. According to an old Roger interview, Noone, Macrae and Moss recorded some additional overdubs (in Ibiza) in order for them to get royalties. Peter Noone's brother auditioned as guitarist but lost out to Clayton Moss. There are a few uncredited 'guest stars' on the album including Sam and Vicki Brown (backing vocals), Phil Spalding (bass) and Gary Barnacle (sax). The album title was a favourite expression of Roger's assistant Chris 'Crystal' Taylor (no relation). I like most of this album although some parts don't cut it for me, especially the title track which is so lyrically weak and the Queen snippets were pointless when you consider that Taylor's intent was to create a group that was a total separate vehicle from Queen. 'Love On A Tightrope', 'Heaven For Everyone' (Roger vocal) and 'Feel The Force' being my favourites. Not a bad album, but probably would have been better as a Roger solo release in its original form and/or record an entirely new album with the band.
My take on „Shove It“ is that it was one coke-fuelled studio session where Roger & David Richards let the machines speak. Adding all the flavor of the month bass synths, e-mu samplers and Roger‘s rapping (did he lose a bet or something?) on top. After sobering up, Roger was probably too embarassed to release the results under his own name. But really, what do we have here? Utterly brain-dead guitar riffs a la Airheads, fair enough. But those lyrics! Check out Love On A Tightrope for one of the dumbest set of lyrics ever... I imagine the rationale was, if Mötley Crüe can get away with such silliness, so could a new group called The Cross. Elsewhere an alarming lapse of taste is displayed: the kitch of Cowboys and Indians, and female backing vocals revving up Stand Up For Love which also reminds me of Yes‘ Almost Like Love. In the end someone decided the album had a better chance if it had some Freddie Mercury and Brian May cameos. Oh and fill up the title track with Queen samples, just in case someone thinks this is the Duran Duran Roger Taylor guy... Heaven For Everyone at least is one of those ballads like A Kind Of Magic that Roger does so well for some reason, but as noted above, totally misleading as the first single. I also enjoy Feel the Force as a belated tribute to Star Wars, even though that edit/transition after the intro is very badly executed. Oh well, the other two albums at least are a lot moe enjoyable (by default).
Found this review of A Kind Of Magic from Smash Hits in July 1986. Considering that it’s both Queen and Smash Hits, it’s not bad.
Shove It We start with that big synthetic drum sound ... we actually aped this sound with an early sampler keyboard, by blowing hard and close into the sampler mic and then playing a high and low range 5 or 6 keys at a time ... we laughed and laughed, we also made a song lol Anyway this is somewhat an experimental song, and it is actually pretty well done. Taylor is using several popular techniques here of the time to create this song. This is less melodic than Taylor is normally known for, but that seems to be the point. He has put together an interesting song that starts this album pretty well.
I think the drum sound includes the stomps and claps sampled from We Will Rock You. Further samples I could detect: - Bohemian Rhapsody ("Fantasy", the high "For me", "No!) - Bicycle Race ("By...") - Fat Bottomed Girls ("Oh") - Flash ("Aah", guitar orcshestra trills) But from where is that manic Freddie shout "We love"?
I can't wait until we get to The Miracle and Innuendo, as I love both of those records. Re-listened to Made in Heaven last night and found myself enjoying it a lot.
I was surprised how much I liked The Miracle. It had been a long time since I listened to it. Innuendo is fairly new to me, but the title track is great, at the very least
As for A Kind of Magic, while I find it a highly listenable collection of songs, it's one that I rarely feel like listening to in full, and when I do put it on it's pretty much to hear the singles. "Princes of the Universe" is a dazzling composition, though - Mercury seemed to have this ability to cram so much information into so little time and have it sound like he could do it without breaking a sweat. "Bicycle Race" is another one like that - on the surface, it's a frivolous lyric, but musically it's utterly mind-boggling.
The only real problem I have with The Miracle is that they couldn't have chosen a worse track to open the record... after that, I pretty much have no complaints.
Cowboys and Indians We get a trick intro, that sets a musical tone that gives one impression, and then gives way to a dance type tune. One thing I will say for Taylor is he wasn't afraid to mix it up, and I'll give him full kudos for that. This song isn't bad, but it doesn't really appeal to me.
Thread Guide Smile 68-70 - Queen discography and appreciation thread Queen I 1973 - Queen discography and appreciation thread Queen II 1974 Queen discography and appreciation thread Sheer Heart Attack 1974 - Queen discography and appreciation thread A Night At The Opera 1975 - Queen discography and appreciation thread A Day At The Races 1976 - Queen discography and appreciation thread News Of The World 1977 - Queen discography and appreciation thread Jazz 1978 - Queen discography and appreciation thread Live Killers 1979 - Queen discography and appreciation thread Queen discography and appreciation thread The Game 1980 - Queen discography and appreciation thread Flash Gordon (soundtrack) 1980 - Queen discography and appreciation thread Roger Taylor - Fun In Space 1981 - Queen discography and appreciation thread Hot Space 1982 - Queen discography and appreciation thread Outtakes/demos/one off songs - thank you @Giant Hogweed - Queen discography and appreciation thread Jive Junior and Man Friday - Picking Up Sounds Queen discography and appreciation thread Who Needs You alternate Queen discography and appreciation thread Star Fleet Project (Brian) Queen discography and appreciation thread The Works 1984 Queen discography and appreciation thread Mr Bad Guy/Love Kills (Freddie) 1985 Queen discography and appreciation thread Strange Frontier (Roger) 1985 - Queen discography and appreciation thread Live Aid 1985 Queen discography and appreciation thread Time (soundtrack single from Freddie) Queen discography and appreciation thread No Turning Back (soundtrack song - John Deacon and the Immortals) Queen discography and appreciation thread A Kind Of Magic 1986 Queen discography and appreciation thread Freddie Mercury - The Great Pretender Queen discography and appreciation thread Exercises In Free Love Queen discography and appreciation thread The Cross (Roger Taylor) Queen discography and appreciation thread Shove It - Queen discography and appreciation thread
For anyone interested in participating in a discussion about the 5.1 A Night At The Opera Surrounded On Sundays - 5.1/quad reviews and summaries
Contact This isn't bad, but it isn't among Taylor's best work for me. Kudos to him for trying a wide variety of things though.
Heaven For Everyone Single by The Cross from the album Shove It B-side "Love on a Tightrope", "Contact" (12" single only) Released 1988 Format 7" single, 12" single, CD single Recorded 1987–1988 Genre Rock Length 5:08 Label Parlophone Songwriter(s) Roger Taylor Producer(s) Roger Taylor, David Richards "Heaven for Everyone" is a song written by Queen drummer Roger Taylor. It originally appeared in his side project The Cross's album Shove It, with Freddie Mercury as a guest vocalist, and it is the album's fourth track. It was reworked with Queen's music and appeared in the 1995 album Made in Heaven where it was the seventh track, and was released as the first single – four years after Mercury’s death. The song reached number two on the UK Singles Chart.[1] ------------------------------------------------------ The start of the song reminds me a little of that Sunscreen song for some reason, perhaps it's just the talking. We move into a moderate pop song, and I think it works quite well. It's nice to hear Freddie singing on Roger's album, to me, whether it's the case or not, it seems to show a little camaraderie, outside of the confines of Queen. The song has a nice feel and is well written. It isn't hard to see it being transformed into a Queen song later. The instrumentation is nicely done and at the end of the day, I think this song works well.
I'd never heard this version and minus the spoken section at the front, which is corny, I rather like it. Overall I find Taylor's work with The Cross a bit boring. We'll likely get to it later, but his more recent work is much better.
Stand Up For Love This is an interesting little tune. It starts like an eighties pop song. Then moves into a variation on an eighties moderate rock song, then it sort of moves into a stax/motown kind of soul rave up or something. I'm not exactly overjoyed at the start of it, but it develops into like a cover of a long lost Marvin Gaye song or something, and that's pretty cool. Although I am probably not going to race out and buy this album, it shows that Taylor was/is certainly a musical chameleon, and a good writer with nice arranging skills.
Not a bad 80's song, I rather like it. Isn't it interesting how much (not all) of Queen's work is timeless but Roger & Freddie's solo work is very dated.
I think they are one of those bands that worked really well as a team and brought out the best in each other.
