Star Fleet Project
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| Star Fleet Project | |||||
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| Studio album by Brian May | |||||
| Released | October 1983 | ||||
| Recorded | April 21 and 22, 1983 | ||||
| Genre | Rock | ||||
| Length | 28:11 | ||||
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| Brian May chronology | |||||
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Star Fleet Project is a solo project by Brian May, most famous as the guitarist from Queen, which resulted on an album with the same name. The project was not entirely the work of May, and was officially released under "Brian May + Friends", the friends being guitarist Eddie Van Halen, drummer Alan Gratzer (of REO Speedwagon), Phil Chen (session bassist who played with Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart) and Fred Mandel (session keyboardist who also played on The Works). Roger Taylor, drummer with Queen, provided backing vocals for the title song. It was not meant for the tapes to be released and they had minimal mixing before release. "I could have put away these tapes in a bottom drawer and kept them as a private record of one of the best experiences of my life. But the few people I've played them for have urged me to 'publish'...I haven't messed one scrap with the tracking done on the day. The rest is simply mixed 'naked'."
Recorded on the 21st and 22 April 1983 at the Record Plant Studios, Los Angeles, it was released in October of the same year as a "Mini LP", a "Challenge to the established principle that a piece of rock music must fit into either a 2x4 minute single, or a 2x20 minute LP format". The LP consisted of three songs, "Star Fleet", "Let Me Out" and "Blues Breaker".
The idea for the album came from May's son, Jimmy.
- "Star Fleet is the theme tune for a superb TV sci-fi series broadcast in England for kids of all ages; Japanese visuals and British soundtrack including music by Paul Bliss. The heroes pilot space vehicles which can assemble into a giant robot for land battles. The aliens fly fantastic insect-like craft which spawn smaller fighting machines; all intent on possession of the secret of F Zero One...Having been introduced to all this by my small boy, I became equally obsessed by it, and formed the idea of making a hard rock version of the title theme."
"Let Me Out" was an old Brian May song which until that point had not been committed to record. During the song Eddie Van Halen "tortures his top string to its audible death", and plays the rest of the song on the remaining five.
"Blues Breaker" was dedicated to Eric Clapton, whom both Van Halen and May were huge fans of. This song, as well as "Let Me Out" were more spontaneous than "Star Fleet", showing both guitarists enjoying a jamming session, with Brian showing off his signature sound and Van Halen using his tapping technique to great effect (Although the best example of this is at the beginning of "Star Fleet").
Long only available on vinyl, "Star Fleet" is now available on CD in two forms. It was first re-issued on CD as part of Brian May's "Back To The Light" single. There were two CD singles - the first (which came in a special pack with space for the second CD) featured "Star Fleet" and "Let Me Out". The second had "Blues Breaker" in it. Then in 1993 it was re-issued as part of the Japanese mini-album "Resurrection", featuring the three Star Fleet Project songs as tracks 6-8, albeit in a different order from the original vinyl release.
There was a mini album printed in England, on the EMI label. You can find the release on the discogs page: http://www.discogs.com/release/1022767
[edit] Track listing
- "Star Fleet" - (Bliss/Arr. May) – 8:05
- "Let Me Out" - (Brian May) – 7:13
- "Blues Breaker" (Dedicated to Eric Clapton) - (May/Van Halen/Gratzer/Chen/Mandel) – 12:51
[edit] Personnel
- Brian May - guitar, vocals, production
- Eddie Van Halen - guitar, backing vocals
- Alan Gratzer - drums
- Phil Chen - bass guitar
- Fred Mandel - keyboards
- Roger Taylor - backing vocals on "Star Fleet"
- Mack - mixing
- Mike Beiriger - engineering
- Nick Froome - additional engineering
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