| Thistle 18.08.2013 09:53 |
Just been listening to the "Happiness?" album on my iTunes, and noticed something I hadn't before on the title track: on each alternate line, Roger's vocals float from being echoed to very sharp - i.e "in times of peace" is echoed, "in times of war" sounds sharp. I'm probably just being slow here, but is there a reason for such structure? For instance, is the song supposed to be portrayed as two people, or two sides, talking? "in times of peace" is a positive, so has a more distant, yet peaceful echo, but "in times of war" is stark reality, so is more "in your face". I'm sorry if I'm not coming across as articulately as I'd like here, but if anyone's any idea of what I'm talking about, I'd like to hear your thoughts. Has anyone else noticed this? Have I just missed the obvious? Or am I just reading too much into it? Sorry if it's been discussed before! Also, just wondering.....does anyone think the album should have started with the title track? I'm not a big fan of "Nazis", and think the album flows better with "Happiness" opening the story. Cheers!! |
| tero! 48531 18.08.2013 13:49 |
I'm a bit surprised you hadn't picked up on this earlier! I've always seen (heard) it as a simple effect to make a distinction between the two opposite sides in the lyric... I think it should have been recorded as a duet with two disctinct singing voices. Now it sounds a bit cheap and rushed. :/ |
| Thistle 18.08.2013 14:54 |
tero! 48531 wrote: I'm a bit surprised you hadn't picked up on this earlier! I've always seen (heard) it as a simple effect to make a distinction between the two opposite sides in the lyric... I think it should have been recorded as a duet with two disctinct singing voices. Now it sounds a bit cheap and rushed. :/Tbh, I have only actually listened to the album a handful of times since I got it. At least I know I wasn't overthinking it now lol :) A duet would have been a nice idea, however I'm now noticing that the effect tails off towards the end of the song. Not sure if I'd say it sounds cheap or rushed - despite not listening to the album so often, I do really like that track. What do you think about the running order? Would "Happiness" have been a better start? |
| Band Forever 18.08.2013 15:19 |
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| Band Forever 18.08.2013 15:19 |
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| Band Forever 18.08.2013 15:19 |
Roger's best work! |
| Thistle 18.08.2013 15:21 |
Band Forever wrote: Roger's best work!what smashing insight :) |
| billieraspberry 18.08.2013 19:09 |
Interesting! I actually feel more like "Happiness" should be the last song. It's the kind of beautiful little I like at the end of an album, but I can see how it would work great to start it off as well. As for "nazis", I can't say I like that song. I feel like it lacks something; the music is missing a sort of "punch" (for lack of a better word) that says 'Here's a great album'. So I do agree it shouldn't be the opening song. |
| tero! 48531 18.08.2013 23:11 |
Thistleboy1980 wrote: Tbh, I have only actually listened to the album a handful of times since I got it. At least I know I wasn't overthinking it now lol :) A duet would have been a nice idea, however I'm now noticing that the effect tails off towards the end of the song. Not sure if I'd say it sounds cheap or rushed - despite not listening to the album so often, I do really like that track. What do you think about the running order? Would "Happiness" have been a better start?I think It should have remained as an experiment in the studio. It doesn't really add anything to the song, so why make it at all? As for the song order... The album doesn't really have a lot of "rockers", and traditionally those are good for getting attention. That's why they're singles or opening tracks, and that's what has happened here. Nazis also work as the (shorter) intro song. The whole album could have benefited from trimming a few songs anyway. Perhaps it's worthy of a complete re-think instead of a single change? |
| scollins 19.08.2013 08:12 |
roger is a schizophrenic, no he isn't yes he bloody well is AH fuck off no you feck off, stuff this if offski, come back you plonker |
| princetom 19.08.2013 08:36 |
scollins wrote: roger is a schizophrenic, no he isn't yes he bloody well is AH fuck off no you feck off, stuff this if offski, come back you plonkerdoes anybody understand this ? kind of reminds me on john lennon: BEATLES, strawberry fields forever: (...) That is you can't you know tune in but it's all right, that is I think it's not too bad. (...) |
| tero! 48531 19.08.2013 10:43 |
tero! 48531 wrote:The whole album could have benefited from trimming a few songs anyway. Perhaps it's worthy of a complete re-think instead of a single change?I'm thinking of something like this... 1) Touch The Sky A perfect opener: Instrumental intro, fast tempo rocker, samples of Freddie, and the corny lyrics you expect from Roger. ;) 2) Happiness 3) Revelations From fast rocker to a light ballad and back to rock again. Lyrics as deep and meaningful as you would never have expected from Roger... Maybe that's why there's the "voice of outsider" singing the lyrics? :P 4) Foreign Sand Back to light ballad again. One of Roger's all-time greatest songs, and different enough to tell us that Yoshiki had a pretty big part in the writing. A slow fade-out that deserves to finish the A-side of the album. 5) Freedom Train 6) The Key ...And back to rock again. The fade-in of Freedom Train fits the beginning of B-side, and the hectic ending deserves a more up-tempo song (The Key) to follow it than 'You Had To Be There'. 7) Everybody Hurts Sometime 8) 'You Had To Be There' 9) Old Friends A good way to finish the album is to slow down the tempo, and set a melancholy mood. The finishing line "You have to be there" segues into Old Friends, which gives a positive spin on the finish of the album. |
| Pim Derks 19.08.2013 13:21 |
Samples of Freddie in Touch The Sky? |
| tero! 48531 19.08.2013 14:31 |
Pim Derks wrote: Samples of Freddie in Touch The Sky?Doesn't it have a couple of Yeah's in there? First at around 2:20, and again at 3:09? |
| Thistle 20.08.2013 08:49 |
tero! 48531 wrote:That's the very chap! Would have been a much better way to put that album out :)tero! 48531 wrote:The whole album could have benefited from trimming a few songs anyway. Perhaps it's worthy of a complete re-think instead of a single change?I'm thinking of something like this... 1) Touch The Sky A perfect opener: Instrumental intro, fast tempo rocker, samples of Freddie, and the corny lyrics you expect from Roger. ;) 2) Happiness 3) Revelations From fast rocker to a light ballad and back to rock again. Lyrics as deep and meaningful as you would never have expected from Roger... Maybe that's why there's the "voice of outsider" singing the lyrics? :P 4) Foreign Sand Back to light ballad again. One of Roger's all-time greatest songs, and different enough to tell us that Yoshiki had a pretty big part in the writing. A slow fade-out that deserves to finish the A-side of the album. 5) Freedom Train 6) The Key ...And back to rock again. The fade-in of Freedom Train fits the beginning of B-side, and the hectic ending deserves a more up-tempo song (The Key) to follow it than 'You Had To Be There'. 7) Everybody Hurts Sometime 8) 'You Had To Be There' 9) Old Friends A good way to finish the album is to slow down the tempo, and set a melancholy mood. The finishing line "You have to be there" segues into Old Friends, which gives a positive spin on the finish of the album. |
| Thistle 20.08.2013 08:51 |
princetom wrote:I understood both quotes, yes. There's a couple of typos in there and lazy grammar (sorry Stu!), but it's quite easy to follow....as is the Lennon lyric.scollins wrote: roger is a schizophrenic, no he isn't yes he bloody well is AH fuck off no you feck off, stuff this if offski, come back you plonkerdoes anybody understand this ? kind of reminds me on john lennon:BEATLES, strawberry fields forever: (...) That is you can't you know tune in but it's all right, that is I think it's not too bad. (...) |
| Wiley 21.08.2013 10:42 |
Never thought about it but Touch the Sky would have worked as an opener. I once wrote an upbeat rock song and wanted to add a synth/string slow paced intro so it built up into the rockier part. Inadvertedly, I ended up plagiarizing Touch the sky, hahaha :). Not really, but after a while I started thinking "I've heard this before". I was puzzled for a couple of days until I listened to the Happiness album again and though "THAT'S what I was thinking about!". Great song (Roger's, not mine. That was crap.) Actually, I think one of Roger's best solo releases was the Foreign Sand CD single with the title track, Touch the sky and Final Destination. |
| TomP63 21.08.2013 14:12 |
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| TomP63 21.08.2013 14:13 |
Well to me the both Yeah, around 2:09 and around 3:10 doesn't shoud like Freddie at all. At least no to my ears, I could be wrong though.... Tom |
| Thistle 23.08.2013 08:11 |
TomP63 wrote: Well to me the both Yeah, around 2:09 and around 3:10 doesn't shoud like Freddie at all. At least no to my ears, I could be wrong though.... TomI concur. |
| Thistle 23.08.2013 08:13 |
I think that some of the guitar work on "Touch The Sky" sounds like that on "We Believe" from "Cosmos Rocks". I always thought that was a very Roger sounding album, despite what most people have said about the Paul Rogers heavy influence. |
| Wiley 23.08.2013 10:30 |
Maybe some people though it was heavily influenced by Paul Rodgers because it didn't sound a lot like the original Queen. Well, guess what? Roger's solo output didn't sound that much like Queen either. Roger was a big influence on The Cosmos Rocks. Wasn't he the main writer for 6 tracks? That's 6 out of 14 tracks (or 5 out of 13 if you don't count Small's reprise). Brian contributed with 3, Paul with 5. |
| Thistle 23.08.2013 16:49 |
To this day, I've never actually checked the songwriting credits to CR, but just knew it was heavy on Roger output. Some very similar tones in there to the Happiness? LP. |
| thomasquinn 32989 24.08.2013 04:39 |
tero! 48531 wrote: 4) Foreign Sand Back to light ballad again. One of Roger's all-time greatest songs, and different enough to tell us that Yoshiki had a pretty big part in the writing. A slow fade-out that deserves to finish the A-side of the album.Looking at the harmonies, I don't think Yoshiki was all that involved in the writing - it's really fairly typical for Roger, no really complex chords, a simple modulation, most of the song in G, I really think it looks like a Roger-song. I mostly think she might have had a strong influence on the arrangement. |
| Wiley 25.08.2013 13:55 |
Wasn't Yoshiki a guy? About Cosmos, Roger was the main writer on Cosmos Rockin', Small, Say it's not true, Surf's up School's Out, Small (reprise) and C-lebrity. Some album editions credit all songs to Queen and Paul Rodgers but others list the three names separately and in different order for each track. The ones listed above have Roger listed as the first name. I guess the only surprise is Small, which most people assumed it was Paul's. Similar case with us thinking Brian was behind the whole Cosmos thing but Roger wrote that one. Of course, maybe Roger wrote it originally as The Whole House Rockin' and then changed it to tie in with the album's title. Can't wait for "The Lot"! Not expecting any unreleased stuff. Just Roger's complete works, including B-sides, remixes, a DVD with all promo videos. Any live stuff would be great but I'm not holding my breath for it. |
| Thistle 25.08.2013 18:29 |
Wiley wrote: Wasn't Yoshiki a guy?Yes. But he looks incredibly like a girl - I had to double-check it at first all of those years ago. He is very, very effeminate. |
| thomasquinn 32989 26.08.2013 04:48 |
Ah. Well, news to me. Change "she" to "he" in my post. |