Summing up Roger’s solo catalogue

When I tentatively began exploring Roger’s solo catalogue in 2002, I was quite nervous and expected the worst. Thanks to the loud voices of the older guys on my Who mailing lists, I was led to believe it was hit-or-miss at best and embarrassing garbage at worst. Of course, the consensus on my estrogen Who lists was much different. As proudly tomboyish and gender-defiant as I’ve always been, I can’t deny the experience and opinions of male and female Who fans are often radically divergent!

I decided to sample Roger’s solo stuff because I was familiar with his voice and liked it very much. I had a general sense of what I’d be getting, despite how unreasonably nervous I used to be about trying anything new musically.

Roger himself understood early on he’d probably never be a huge solo star, and approached it as a fun hobby to pass the time and keep singing when The Who weren’t touring or recording their own albums. He didn’t do much marketing for his solo work, and didn’t even tour by himself.

All that aside, however, his solo albums aren’t nearly as bad as they’ve gotten the reputation of. The whole point of going solo, for many artists, is to try something new and break away from the type of music they made with their bands. Most of Roger’s solo albums don’t have a Who-like sound because that’s not what he was going for!

I will never understand so-called fans who whine and rant because a band or artist dared to experiment with a new style of music instead of spending their entire career constantly remaking their quintessentially greatest albums. No one is denying the strength and awesomeness of those records, but it would get really boring fast if all their songs sounded like mindless carbon copies. Many artists become one-hit wonders because their follow-up sounds way too much like that first big hit, and people laugh about it.

Roger also understood most Who fans weren’t wild about his solo albums, and that he was targeting a different type of audience. The voice is the same, but the songs aren’t. If you can recognise and respect that, you’ll probably enjoy his solo catalogue a lot more.

Hearing the worst and subsequently having very low expectations also helped me to like most of his albums far more than I thought I would. They’re not nearly as bad as I was falsely led to believe.

Just about everyone recommended McVicar first, since it’s a de facto Who album. Not only do Pete and John play and sing background vocals, but the songs also have a very Who-like feel. If you didn’t know this is a Roger solo album, you’d think it was The Who playing as The Who.

Another great place to start, or to go after McVicar, is Under a Raging Moon. It too has a very Who-like sound (which Roger was deliberately going for), and Pete even wrote the first track. As you might guess, the eponymous closing track is a tribute to Keith Moon.

My third-favourite album is One of the Boys, which was a hugely pleasant surprise. Every single song is a winner for me, and the album’s eclectic nature works for it instead of against it. Roger used a much wider group of songwriters than usual, so he wasn’t tied to just one style. This is perhaps his most criminally underrated album.

I also adore Can’t Wait to See the Movie, which is a marvellous trip down memory lane for me as a proud Eighties kid. While it has those trademark synths that musically defined my childhood decade, it’s not exclusively welded to that era like some other Eighties albums.

I couldn’t resist getting his eponymous 1973 début, since it was only $2 and Roger looks so beautiful and angelic on the cover. It makes no pretension of being timeless music or even a 5-star album, but it is a really fun listen. Not all music is meant to be serious and tailored to perfection. Sometimes you just want to kick back and listen to something lightweight, just as there are times you go for eating ice-cream and corn chips on the davenport instead of a five-course meal at a super-expensive restaurant.

Rocks in the Head is another fun romp, this time marked with the trademark style of the early Nineties. I only recently finally got acquainted with it, but it only took a few listens to start getting into it and really liking it.

Ride a Rock Horse is also a fun, rocking romp, but it’s never been one of my favourites. I appreciate and like it more now than I originally did, after listening to it again for the first time in many years, but it’s not what I’d personally recommend for someone just getting into his solo work. You always want to start with the strongest examples.

Parting Should Be Painless is his weakest solo effort, in my opinion. It’s not that the material is necessarily bad, just not presented in the strongest way. The individual songs would probably sound a lot better if they came up by themselves on the radio or a playlist, but they don’t work when collected on the same album. Even an album with a deliberately depressing theme should have more energy than this!

If you just want a sample of everything before committing to an entire album, you can try the greatest hits compilations Best Bits (1981), Best of Rockers & Ballads (1991), Martyrs & Madmen (1997), Anthology (1998), and Moonlighting: The Anthology (2005). Best Bits contains two previously-unreleased songs, “Treachery” and “Martyrs and Madmen” (#38 in the U.S.). “Say It Ain’t So, Joe” was also re-released and went to #41 in the U.S.

Roger sings lead on some of the songs on the Lisztomania soundtrack, which is a fair bit better than the movie.

In 2014, Roger released Going Back Home, a collaborative album with guitarist Wilko Johnson (who was fighting pancreatic cancer at the time). Another new album, As Long As I Have You, came in 2018. I’ve heard a few of their songs on auto-generated Spotify playlists, but have yet to listen to either in entirety.

I’m really glad I took a chance and gave Roger’s solo work a fair listen. While my preference will always be for The Who, followed closely by Pete’s solo work, there are a lot of treasures on Roger’s solo albums. They’re all worth multiple listens.

A criminally underrated Eighties classic

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Maybe this is just my inherent bias as a proud Eighties kid, but I’ve always absolutely adored Can’t Wait to See the Movie, Roger’s seventh solo album, which released June 1987. It’s full of that signature Eighties sound, and has so many incredible songs that also have a timeless feel. It’s a shame this criminally underrated classic only went to #41 in Sweden.

Roger has admitted he wasn’t very ambitious about his solo career, didn’t do nearly enough marketing for his albums, and saw it as just a fun side hobby to fill his time when The Who weren’t touring or making an album. Even after the band broke up, he didn’t approach his solo work like a serious full-time job.

As he said in 1987, “I know it frustrates the hell out of my record company. If this album is a big success, I’d be happy. But if it just sells enough to recoup its costs, that’s okay by me too. I’m not making them for the money. I’m just doing these solo albums because I want to keep singing. I don’t have The Who to sing in anymore. If I had The Who. . . .”

Roger also made the decision early on, back when he released his first solo album in 1973, that he didn’t want to tour by himself to promote his solo work. Touring was mentally and physically exhausting enough with The Who, and doing it for something he approached as just a hobby didn’t make much sense.

Roger also realised most Who fans weren’t that into his solo stuff, and that he was targeting a different market.

Some contemporary critics lambasted CWTSTM as “too polished,” as though Roger were contractually obligated to only ever make Who-like records and never try anything new. I’ve never understood so-called fans and professional critics who expect artists to spend their entire careers constantly making the same album over and over again. It’s called evolving with a changing musical landscape and experimenting with different styles!

And as an Eighties kid, I don’t mind the heavy synths at all! I like that trademark musical calling card of my childhood decade!

Track listing:

“Hearts of Fire” (written by Russ Ballard) (#88 in the U.K.)
“When the Thunder Comes” (Damon Metrebian and Chas Sandford)
“Ready for Love” (Kit Hain)
“Balance on Wires” (Roger and Don Snow)
“Miracle of Love” (Mark Morgan and Jimmy Scott)
“The Price of Love” (Jack Blades and David Foster)
“The Heart Has Its Reasons” (Jimmy Scott)
“Alone in the Night” (Steve Bates, Larry Lee, Tom Whitlock, Richie Zito)
“Lover’s Storm” (Tom Kelly and Gary Usher)
“Take Me Home” (Roger, Axel Bauer, Michel Eli, Nigel Hinton) (#46 in the U.S.)

My favourite tracks are “Balance on Wires” (possibly one of the best songs Roger ever wrote, and one of the album’s standouts), “When the Thunder Comes,” and “Hearts of Fire.” The only complaint I have is that “Take Me Home” doesn’t quite feel like a proper closing track!

“The memories smoulder, and the soul always yearns”

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Under a Raging Moon, Roger’s sixth solo album, released September 1985, is widely considered his very best after McVicar. It has a very Who-like sound, really perfectly capturing that raw energy and hard rock edge most fans expected Roger to keep using as a solo artist. The title track is also a powerful, emotional tribute to Keith Moon.

In a 1987 Los Angeles Times interview, Roger claimed UARM was the last hurrah and grand finale for that Who-like type of singing. “I purged myself of that style. I got it all out of my system.” And what an incredible grand finale it is!

Though Roger quickly realised he’d never be a huge solo star and made peace with the fact that this would just be a fun hobby to pursue so he could keep singing when The Who weren’t touring or making albums, he did begin putting more effort into his solo career after The Who broke up. He said of UARM, “That was the album I really wanted to make…it got great airplay and sold an awful lot.”

UARM charted at #33 in Canada, #42 in the U.S., and #52 in the U.K. Keeping with established tradition, Roger’s cousin Graham Hughes designed and photographed the cover.

Zak Starkey, Ringo’s son, played drums on the title track, and is absolutely brilliant. As fans know, Zak later became the primary drummer for The Who after they began regularly touring again.

“After the Fire,” which was written by Pete, was originally planned to be performed by The Who at Live Aid, but since they came on at the last minute, there wasn’t time enough to rehearse properly. Instead, Pete gave it to Roger for his next solo album. The lyrics are about the famine in Africa, but they can definitely be interpreted in other ways. Until I heard the song’s origin story, I thought it was about the poignancy of going through middle age and still longing for a lost love.

In addition to singing one of Pete’s songs for the first time since The Who broke up, Roger also co-wrote four of the ten songs.

Track listing:

“After the Fire” (#3 on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart; #48 on U.S. Billboard; #50 in the U.K.; #60 in Australia; also had a music video featuring Roger’s young son Jamie)
“Don’t Talk to Strangers” (Roger, Julia Downes, and Kris Ryder)
“Breaking Down Paradise” (Russ Ballard)
“The Pride You Hide” (Roger, Alan Dalgleish, Nicky Tesco) (#92 in the U.K.)
“Move Better in the Night” (Roger, Chris Thompson, Stevie Lange, Robbie McIntosh)
“Let Me Down Easy” (Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance; originally written for Stevie Nicks, who may never have heard it) (#11 on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart; #86 on U.S. Billboard; also had a music video)
“Fallen Angel” (Kit Hain)
“It Don’t Satisfy Me” (Roger and Alan Shacklock)
“Rebel” (Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance)
“Under a Raging Moon” (Julia Downes and John Parr) (#10 in the U.S.; #43 in the U.K.)

The CD and cassette also included the song “Love Me Like You Do,” written by Andy Nye, between “Move Better in the Night” and “Let Me Down Easy.” In 1986, it was re-released as the B-side of “Quicksilver Lightning,” which went to #11 in the U.S.

I love every single song on this album! This is the kind of album Roger should’ve been making for his entire solo career, and proves he was more than capable of producing a very strong effort when he worked with the right people and had the right material. It also holds up so well with the passage of time, instead of feeling tied exclusively to the Eighties. I highly recommend it as one of the best albums to get if you’re interested in his solo work.

Daltrey does depressing

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Parting Should Be Painless, Roger’s fifth solo album, released February 1984 and was quite the bomb. It only reached #102 in the U.S. and #90 in Canada, though it made the respectable position of #45 in The Netherlands. The collection of songs and their depressing mood makes more sense if you know Roger was in a low headspace after the breakup of The Who and didn’t intend for it to be a cheerful listening experience.

As he said in a 1987 interview in The Los Angeles Times, “[I]t’s a depressing album. It wasn’t what people wanted to hear from me. To appreciate it you have to be depressed. That’s the frame of mind I was in.”

Most contemporary reviewers panned it and echoed my own sentiments. There are a couple of strong tracks, but they’re padded out with too much filler and mediocre material. On the whole, these songs just aren’t very memorable. It’s one of those cases where the tracks on an album might not sound so bad if they came up individually on the radio or a playlist, but totally misfire when collected together.

Roger himself has admitted he knew he’d never be a huge solo superstar and thus didn’t approach his solo career very seriously, esp. during the Seventies. He saw solo work as a fun hobby to do when The Who weren’t touring or making an album. So when Pete pulled the plug, he had no choice but to start trying to get serious about it.

I understand and respect the mood and theme Roger was going for, but he just doesn’t present the material in the strongest way. Most of the songs on The Who by Numbers are a musical suicide note, yet Roger sings them with such a hard edge, adding his anger to Pete’s depression. They tell the authentic, powerful, emotional story of hitting midlife and realising youth is fast slipping away, instead of wallowing in the lowest of moods and making no attempt to sound anything but depressing.

For the fourth time, Roger’s cousin Graham Hughes designed and photographed the album cover.

Track listing:

“Walking in My Sleep” (written by Jack Green and Leslie Adey) (#4 on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart; #56 in the U.K.; #62 on U.S. Billboard; also had a music video)
“Parting Would Be Painless” (Kit Hain)
“Is There Anybody Out There?” (Nicky Chinn and Steve Glen)
“Would a Stranger Do?” (Steve Andrews and Simon Climie)
“Going Strong” (Bryan Ferry)
“Looking for You” (Kit Hain)
“Somebody Told Me” (Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart)
“One Day” (Gerald Milne)
“How Does the Cold Wind Cry” (Colin Towns)
“Don’t Wait on the Stairs” (Steve Swindells)

My favourite tracks are “How Does the Cold Wind Cry” (probably the album’s standout), “Walking in My Sleep,” and “Would a Stranger Do?” (which has the familiar theme of two lonely strangers coming together for a one-night stand).

While I rate this as Roger’s weakest album, I still give it a respectable 3 stars. His vocals are fine, and there are a lot of nice lyrics, but the overall package just wasn’t presented very well. It’s inconsistent more than it’s truly bad.

Happy Duran Duran Appreciation Day!—Celebrating my fave music videos, Part II

It’s been two years since I wrote Part I of the spotlight on my favourite Duran Duran music videos. Last year on DDAD, I didn’t allow enough time to write a proper post, and so just featured the full Chapter 54 (with some edits) of Justine Grown Up, “Irene and Amelia Redecorate Their Room.” Now it’s time to show some more love to the band’s awesome music videos!

To make it clear, these are only official music videos, not fan-made videos.

11. “Union of the Snake.” I love all the trippy, creepy, macabre imagery and how the video tells a story. The story doesn’t necessarily make a lot of sense, but it’s right up my twisted alley! This is also the song that inspired the title of Chapter 41 of The Twelfth Time, “Union with a Snake.”

12. “New Moon on Monday.” I also love the story this video tells, and how it’s set in a small, quaint French village that gives it a very historical appearance. If not for the 1980s computers, I’d think it were a historical instead of a modern story! As always, there’s also a lot of beautiful, intriguing, mysterious imagery. We don’t have to understand 100% of the story a video is telling to get into it. There’s also a 17-minute version of this video.

13. “Save a Prayer.” I love the Sri Lankan settings—beautiful landscapes, the beach, elephants, the ancient rock fortress Sigiriya, and the ruins of a Buddhist temple, with huge rock carvings of Buddha, in Polonnaruwa. I’ve wanted to go to Sri Lanka for years. There are so many things I want to see and do there.

14. “Planet Earth.” Besides the trademark artsy, trippy visuals, I love the text running across the screen in old-school computer font, providing statistics about how many people are born every day, the ratio of men to women, the Earth’s surface area, and that the Shadouf Chant is the world’s oldest song.

15. “Do You Believe in Shame?” I love how it uses montage to tell the story, making a cohesive whole out of all those various photos and bits of video incorporated with the main video story. And what a haunting, bittersweet story it is, particularly if you know the song was a tribute to Simon’s childhood buddy David Miles (one of three songs dedicated to him).

16. “Serious.” With my dinosaur tastes, you know the black and white is right up my aesthetic alley! I also love the surrealistic distorted images (probably achieved with curved mirrors on the lens) and how happy and relaxed the band is.

17. “Too Much Information.” I love all the neat camera tricks and bizarre visuals. They’re the perfect representation for a song about too much information being flung at us fast and furious in the modern era, too speedily for us to process and make sense of.

18. “Skin Trade.” I love the rotoscoping effects transforming this from what might’ve been just an ordinary music video into a piece of neat modern, surrealistic art.

19. “Careless Memories.” It’s obvious this is one of their earliest videos, but I love that unpolished rawness and relative simplicity.

20. “Perfect Day.” I love the simplicity of the padded red stage commingled with trippy photos, animated drawings, and short film clips. As for the song itself, you can’t top Lou Reed’s praise, “I think Duran Duran’s version of ‘Perfect Day’ is possibly the best rerecording of a song of mine. I’m not sure that I sang it as well as Simon sang it. I think he sings it better than I. If I could’ve sung it the way he did, I would’ve. It wasn’t from lack of trying.”