ROGER TAYLOR - FUN IN SPACE @40

 

April 6th marks the 40th anniversary of Roger Taylor’s first solo LP, Fun In Space, which was released on this day in 1981. As well as being his first solo album, it was also the first solo release from any member of Queen. Roger had previously only released a solo single, I Wanna Testify b/w Turn on the TV, back in 1977.

The album was recorded during downtime between Queen recording and touring beginning in 1978. For this album, in addition to writing all the songs and co-producing, Roger handled nearly all the performance duties including drums, guitars, bass, vocals and the majority of the keyboards. The remainder of keyboard contributions came from co-producer, David Richards, who would become a frequent collaborator with Queen on several of their albums throughout the 1980s. Though Queen were notorious for their “NO SYNTHESIZERS” proclamations on all their albums in the 1970s, up until The Game, Fun In Space counters with the tongue-in-cheek joke, "P.P.S. 157 synthesizers”.

The front cover design was inspired by a Jim Laurier cover of Creepy from the July 1980 issue. In that respect, it shares a similar origin story with the cover of Queen’s News of the World (1977), which was based on a 1953 cover of Astounding Science Fiction. The alien font shown on the front is mostly upside-down Hebrew, though it does not actually spell anything. On the rear, the artwork is reversed to show Taylor holding the original Creepy cover. The cover design was handled by Hipgnosis with photography by Peter Christopherson.

While the album just managed to scrape the lower reaches of the UK top 20 album charts, it went largely unnoticed across the pond in the North American markets. Even though I was a massive Queen fan throughout the latter half of the 1970s, by the time this came out, I was very much onto more progressive avenues and didn’t bother to check out this album at all until some 30 years after its release. That’s kind of a shame as I suspect I’d have enjoyed it if I’d given it a chance earlier. Roger’s songs with Queen have often been my favorites with tracks like Drowse, Tenement Funster, Loser In the End and Sheer Heart Attack being only a few of the standouts he contributed to the band. There are good songs to be found on this solo album, but I do have to say they never quite reach the heights of his Queen classics. Still, it’s an LP that is worth a listen.

Taylor would eventually compliment this album in 2013 with a sequel solo album, Fun on Earth, which was the album that reminded me that I should backtrack and spend some time with its 1981 companion. The two albums taken together offer a wonderful set of “then and now” music showcasing Roger Taylor outside the often overshadowing sphere of Queen.