Only a few rock drummers are known for their songwriting. Phil Collins is one. Don Henley is another.
But Queen's drummer Roger Taylor wrote some great songs for the band over the years - some of which he sang himself, others he left to the band’s legendary frontman Freddie Mercury.
So which Queen song does Taylor think is his best?
“That’s hard to say,” he told Classic Rock magazine. “But I like Radio Ga Ga. It was a nice fusion of synthesizers and… what can I call it… epic pop.”
In the same interview, Taylor admitted that there are “a few” Queen songs that he dislikes, and there is one, from the band’s 1991 album Innuendo, that he really can’t bear.
“I hate Delilah,” he said. “That’s just not me."
Taylor also talked about the songwriters he most admires.
“Dylan, Lennon… and Springsteen is fabulous.”
Taylor covered songs by both Dylan and Springsteen on his 1984 solo album Strange Frontier.
“Springsteen always did Racing In The Street so slow,’ he said. “I thought it needed to be done mid-tempo. But better, probably, if it that was done by somebody else, like an American.”
He named Dylan as his favourite lyricist.
“You can’t really touch him. I love a lot of his old stuff. But then there’s something like Not Dark Yet [from Dylan’s 1997 album Time Out Of Mind]. As somebody who’s getting older, he summed it up in a phrase: “It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there.”
Taylor chose two songs of his own that he felt were strong lyrically: These Are The Days Of Our Lives, from Innuendo, and Heaven For Everyone, recorded first by Taylor’s side project band The Cross, and later by Queen.
"Heaven For Everyone had some good stuff about love and dignity, the usual anti-war thing,” he said. “These Are The Days Of Our Lives was quite nice in a reminiscing, rather old-fashioned kind of way.”
The latter song took on a greater meaning after the death of Freddie Mercury.
“At the time I wrote it, we knew Freddie wasn’t well,” Taylor said. “So yeah, it took on a resonance.”
