Queen: The Complete Works by Georg Purvis

Author:Georg Purvis [Purvis, Georg]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781781162873
Publisher: Titan
Published: 2012-08-28T00:00:00+00:00

A NATION OF HAIRCUTS (Taylor)

• Album (Roger): Electric • B-side (Roger): 3/99 [38]

Attacking the fashionistas of the world, Roger’s ‘A Nation Of Haircuts’ is a fine, driving rocker on Electric Fire, buried among songs that deal with far weightier subjects like domestic discord and success stories. A nice complement to ‘London Town, C’mon Down’, the song rolls along at a decent clip, with Roger’s diatribe (distorted by the “shouting down the telephone” effect he prefers on much of his latter-day material) cutting down a peg the moody heroin chic models more concerned with their coif than with anything of substance.

Believing that the very poseurs that he was lambasting wouldn’t appreciate the grittier album version, Roger deconstructed the song into a sleek, sexy “club dub” remix, removing the backing track completely and adding faceless programmed drums and percolating synths. Released as the B-side of ‘Surrender’ in 1999, this rendition is worth a cursory listen or two, but isn’t a match for the less image-conscious original.

NAZIS 1994 (Taylor)

• A-side (Roger): 5/94 [22] • Album (Roger): Happiness?

It had been just over a decade since Roger’s last true solo album, so imagine the response when faithful listeners purchased Happiness? and were greeted with the opening kick-march strains of ‘Nazis 1994’, the first song on the album. Set to a dirge-like rhythm, with little embellishment, the song expresses the drummer’s outrage over the recent uprising of neo-Nazism and its proponents’ ridiculous claim that the Holocaust never happened.

When asked about the song in 1994, Roger exclaimed, “You want to talk about ‘Nazis’, eh?! I believe that it is a real problem ... one of the main dangers that exist in today’s society and particularly in Europe, of all places. I wanted to write something simple and direct which gives the main idea, one which repeats throughout the whole song. In my opinion the repetition fixes firmly the idea in people’s heads. This sentence that continually comes back is, ‘They say that it never happened’. To think that of the Holocaust is purely and simply outrageous. How can they be stupid enough to think that? The general atmosphere of ‘Nazis’ is cold and without feeling. That’s at least what I wanted to create. The only emotions that we can set against these people are the strongest emotions. That’s all there is which can stand against them.”

Set to a terse backing of goose-stepping drums and Roger’s hushed vocals, the song positively seethes anger and outrage. Originally, the repeated line was “We’ve gotta kick these fucking Nazis” instead of “stinking Nazis”, but after careful consideration Roger altered the line to make it more accessible. Released as the first single from Happiness?, it created quite a controversy when radio stations refused to air it and record stores wouldn’t stock it. Roger was surprised, telling The Independent On Sunday, “For me it is not political. It is a case of fundamental right and wrong. Peddling hatred through ignorance is wrong. The record is fairly outspoken but it doesn’t make any political statements in my view.

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