Roger Taylor discusses chemistry with Queen bandmates in 2016
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After weeks of teases, Queen drummer Roger Taylor has released another single from his upcoming new solo album Outsider. The latest is a cover of 1965 classic The Clapping Song. The popular track’s best-known version is by Shirley Ellis, while it’s also been sampled by the likes of Radiohead and Tom Waits.
Roger shared: “I loved the original by Shirley Ellis. It’s just so joyful and simple. It’s got a swing to it, and I’ve tried to recreate that swing using an ancient drum kit.
“It was just a real pleasure to do that song, it’s like a playground nursery rhyme for kids.”
For his take on The Clapping Song, the 72-year-old used a vintage Trixon Telstar drum kit, which was originally made in Hamburg.
The instrument is famous for its tapered tom-toms and conical bass drums and was used by some of the greatest jazz and rock drummers of the Fifties and Sixties like The Tornados, Lionel Hampton, Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, Ringo Starr, and Keith Moon.
Roger said of the drums: “It’s very rare, an old Trixon kit, very strange drums. It’s got a sort of old sound to it. Also on this track I had a horn section which is nice.
“My wife said, ‘Get some real horns on that, you don’t want sample ones.’ And that sort of gives it that, what’s the word? Authenticity.
“I love the track and I just wanted to do my own version of it. It’s such a nice, cool song. I hope I get some of the fabulous atmosphere of the original.”
The Queen drummer and his band are set to perform The Clapping Song, which can also be listened to here, on his upcoming 14-date UK tour.
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Roger’s solo tour begins in October and coincides with the release of his Outsider album.
The rock legend’s first single, an original song, is called We’re All Just Trying To Get By, which features KT Tunstall.
According to an official statement: “We’re All Just Trying to Get By is a gorgeous piece of dreamy pop with a sweeping widescreen melody, a radiant glow and a quietly profound, ultimately uplifting message.
“Couched in luxuriant liquid guitar and ambient seagull effects, Roger’s wry lyric marvels at how every living thing on Planet Earth, from mighty mammals to tiny insects, from humans to microbes, ultimately has the same aim: to survive, to thrive, and to co-exist as harmoniously as possible.”
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On We’re All Just Trying To Get By, Roger said: “It’s the simplest statement really. It’s what every life force on Earth is doing: just trying to get by and proliferate and exist.
“That’s all we are trying to do, from plants to animals to humans, trying to survive. For all our troubles and everything, every sort of life is all just trying to get by.
“Also, of course, we are in the middle of a bloody pandemic… I mean, even the coronavirus is just trying to get by too!”
Roger Taylor’s new solo album Outsider and tour tickets can be pre-ordered here.
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