The Cosmos Rocks - Surf's been up for 5 years this weekend

Wow... Five years already.

I agree with most of the consensus on here - it's not a terrible album, it's just so weak considering the people involved in making it.

Interesting article in 'Uncut' magazine this month - PR goes over a few prominent albums from his career including TCR. Amongst other things he says Brian & Roger were calling the shots and 'we could have done it better'.

Interesting article in 'Uncut' magazine this month - PR goes over a few prominent albums from his career including TCR. Amongst other things he says Brian & Roger were calling the shots and 'we could have done it better'.

That's the point really, that this album could have been so much better than it actually turned out as.

Interesting article in 'Uncut' magazine this month - PR goes over a few prominent albums from his career including TCR. Amongst other things he says Brian & Roger were calling the shots and 'we could have done it better'.

That's the point really, that this album could have been so much better than it actually turned out as.

And that's being very kind...

It's a joke, it should never have been made. Paul Rodgers is a damned fine vocalist and he must surely be embarrassed by this childish nonsense.

Still, I remember being blind drunk and dancing away to The Cosmos Rockin' (was that what it was called?) at the O2...well, being drunk definitely helped and the more I drunk the better that show got. Shame I had to sober up again, 'cos it's still shit.

Interesting article in 'Uncut' magazine this month - PR goes over a few prominent albums from his career including TCR. Amongst other things he says Brian & Roger were calling the shots and 'we could have done it better'.

That's the point really, that this album could have been so much better than it actually turned out as.

And that's being very kind...

Hey, what can I say, I'm a kind person

It's a joke, it should never have been made. Paul Rodgers is a damned fine vocalist and he must surely be embarrassed by this childish nonsense.

Still, I remember being blind drunk and dancing away to The Cosmos Rockin' (was that what it was called?) at the O2...well, being drunk definitely helped and the more I drunk the better that show got. Shame I had to sober up again, 'cos it's still shit.

What really makes me laugh(or cry depending on how you look at it) though is the promotion for this album!

At the time it was released I was managing one of the biggest record shops in the country, and I didn't even know it had been released, and I'm a huge Queen fan, honestly it was that bad

It's a joke, it should never have been made. Paul Rodgers is a damned fine vocalist and he must surely be embarrassed by this childish nonsense.

Still, I remember being blind drunk and dancing away to The Cosmos Rockin' (was that what it was called?) at the O2...well, being drunk definitely helped and the more I drunk the better that show got. Shame I had to sober up again, 'cos it's still shit.

What really makes me laugh(or cry depending on how you look at it) though is the promotion for this album!

At the time it was released I was managing one of the biggest record shops in the country, and I didn't even know it had been released, and I'm a huge Queen fan, honestly it was that bad

You know, in Canada it was worse. If I wasn't a member here and if not talking with people here, I don't think I would have known about it.
It's not only my least played Queen album, but one of my least played albums.

It IS a classic! You all are right! Congratulations on coming around! We should all buy copies for...our daughters and sons! Hopefully they will record and tour again in the next few years! I can't wait!!! Of course it should only happen after a new studio l.p. with Adam Lambert...and maybe more than one with either him or some other person or people! FUCK! I am SO excited about it!!!

I will always defend Hot Space, I think it's a really enjoyable, interesting, challenging and fun listen

I totally agree!

Oh well...I have always loved The Cosmos Rocks album. I'm glad they made it and am sad that it wasn't a success because I would have liked to have heard more from that collaboration.

I don't know if you realised when you wrote that but it's exactly a year since I made this thread so that means surf's been up for 6 years on Monday!

I actually praise "The Cosmos Rocks" but it will always be compared to Freddie Mercury era Queen unfortunately, it'll never get a fair shake despite then outstanding collection of new material.

C-Lebrity had massive airplay via PIXY 102.9 FM, the local classic rock station here on Cape Cod of Massachusetts USA, I don't know about anywhere else stateside.

The Hyannis, MA retailer in store Best Buy stocked up on the vinyl release, I don't know how well it sold though.

Spinnakers, a actual mom and pop CD store in Hyannis had no trade ins or returns of "The Cosmos Rocks" but had plenty of Freddie era Queen unfortunately and Spinnaker's was the sole place on Cape Cod to get imports - official and bootlegs up until DSL & Broadband & the MP3 made an appearance here in the states. Spinnakers still does carry all that too.

Why Queen + Paul Rodgers failed to tour the United States has never been fully explained or talked about by any member of the band that I know of but if you know where an interview exists, lead the way please.

As a whole, the production is similar to the slick "Made In Heaven" and the only down point of the release is that most of the material were jams originally, then written out thoughtfully and recorded meticulously with exception to "Voodoo" and even that is take two of an impromptu jam. Had "The Cosmos Rocks" been subject to production similar to Queen's first release, would've it made much of a difference? I think so for Queen's first full length album best represents Queen as a live band in the studio and QPR was made for the concert stage imho.

My favorite song to this day from "The Cosmos Rocks" is "Time To Shine" and imho, it suffered from lack of live performances, only being played under 5 times or less that I am aware of. "Time To Shine" is easily the most uplifting song on the whole album, never ceasing to create wonderment and a feeling of positiveness about life as a whole, one of those, pick you off the ground and stand you straight up kind of songs.

"Call Me" - why they ignored this song as a single here in the States despite being listed on a sticker on the album and Rolling Stone stating it should be downloaded - is a standout track is beyond me. QPR never performed this rock-a-bily song live either, opting for the preachy boring - never should've been performed live "We Believe".

"Small" & the reprise never were performed live despite being a standout but the frailty of the song, the quietness and strong words of being humble well, I couldn't imagine trying to win over a large crowd of 350,000 people like QPR had in the Ukraine, the free gig. "Small" would best sound better live in a club perhaps? Could've QPR got 350,000 people to sing along to the chorus had it been more well known, a single instead of an album favorite and cut? One will never know.

Brian May caught much flack for including a sample of "We Will Rock You" in "Still Burnin'" and I am in line with the flackers on this. What starts out as a bombastic bluesy slow burning rocker is turned into a façade of itself when the stomp-stom-clap of "We Will Rock You" is introduced towards the end. "Still Burnin'" would've succeeded without Brians meddling in my humble opinion.

The song "The Cosmos Rocks" was first reported to be known as "Whole House Rockin'" according to first reports about the song, one reviewer didn't know the proper title at the time. It should've started the concert first song done in backed with "Tie Your Mother Down" following "The Cosmos Rocks" instead of the first encore slot it got. Other than "Voodoo" it easily represents the band as a adlib-freestyle-blues rock-jam type band that opted for one of the first recordings of the song instead of recording it over and over again, they did this song fairly quickly and the results are excellent.

"Surf's Up....Schools Out", well, if not "The Cosmos Rocks" to start the album, would've best been first? At some point during the tour, the song was the show opener and it did quite well. Paul Rodgers blues performance with the harmonica was a welcome intro to him and Queen and is one of only a handful of Queen songs, Freddie Mercury era included that features another instrument besides synth, piano, guitar, bass and drums. "One Year Of Love" has the saxophone and would've been awesome live with a guest performer playing sax but Queen never had that many live guests, if any at all until the Freddie Mercury tribute concert - and I'm not including Jackson or Bowie and the studio recordings either, just live performances.


I would like to think Queen weren't cheap and would've welcomed a gospel group for "Somebody To Love" & "Bohemian Rhapsody" in concert, I mean, how expensive could've it been to hire singers as a large group - a proper chorus to do justice with Queen in concert?

Now that Paul Rodgers is done with Brian May & Roger Taylor, there is one studio album to listen to and dozens of variations of live performances from both tours to enjoy.

As of late, perhaps Adam Lambert could "step up to the plate" and deliver a proper Queen + Adam Lambert studio album? A full length release? It's been hinted at.....

I much prefer Paul Rodgers over Adam Lambert with Queen any day of the week.

WK

Why Queen + Paul Rodgers failed to tour the United States has never been fully explained or talked about by any member of the band that I know of but if you know where an interview exists, lead the way please.

WK

QPR toured the US in 2006 - I saw them on Apr 1, 2006 in San Diego. The did quite a few shows and sadly most were not well attended. I liked PR more than AL too (I saw Q+AL Houston in 2014) and I also liked The Cosmos Rocks and would have loved for QPR to have done a 2nd studio album, especially since Brian would have had more time as he was working on his thesis while The Cosmos Rocks was being put together.

With all the film stuff going on, we missed out a major anniversary in September. The 10th anniversary of TCR. Surf has been up for over 10 years now!