I was all set up last week to discuss the death of famed [if divisive] producer Roy Thomas Baker when the death of David Thomas of Pere Ubu blindsided me. In the cosmic scheme of things, Thomas is a towering artist next to the career of Baker, who stood more for commerce than art. But Baker did have areas of interest in his sprawling career that managed to catch my ear.
When the name Roy Thomas Baker comes to mind, I would guess that the first thing anyone would associate with his name is a record we all know: “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen. Many love it, but I am not one of those. I’ve always had a distaste for Queen from my first encounter. That would have been their earlier single “Killer Queen.” Possibly one of the few Glam Rock adjacent hits that managed to cross the pond to America where I was growing up in the mid-70s. It was a prime example of the RTB method of excess laid bare for all the world to hear.
Slave two 24 track boards together. Hell, why not three? Overdub 17 guitars. Stack the vocal harmonies 78 tracks deep. Then run it all through as many phasers and flangers you can legally obtain. Even to my green ears it was a tale told by idiots; full of sound and fury. Signifying nothing. But my god, did it sell. And the next year Baker and Queen managed to make it sound like a wax cylinder next to “Bohemian Rhapsody.” So obviously, Baker had certain predilections which that mid-70s market richly rewarded.
He was obsessed with stacked harmonies. and he had no fear of overdubbing. But where did he come from? Like many in the UK production biz, he come up through the ranks by first being a “tea boy” at the age of 14 at Decca Studios. He eventually began engineering at Trident Studios, who were the first in the UK to have an 8-track desk in 1968. Sessions included the crucial T.Rex “Electric Warrior album,” The earliest example of Baker handiwork in my Record Cell.
Baker had an interesting ear in that he went all in on the fat bottom and crystalline highs of the EQ spectrum while banishing midrange frequencies to the best of his ability. Truth be told, it probably made the vocal frequencies [which had to be there] pop out more, which could have been the key quality that led to so many radio hits for his work. It certainly fed into the band next to Queen that many would most associate with Roy Thomas Baker. Boston’s New Wave miners of platinum, The Cars.
Baker scouted out the band while doing A+R duties for Elektra Records. Services he provided free of charge to the majors; with quid-pro-quo happening if he could take it up to a signing and subsequent production. On a trip from L.A. to London he stopped over in Massachusetts to catch this band who had a local rep in a blizzard while they were playing to a tiny audience in a high school gym. Convinced, he got them signed and was soon producing their first album. Thinking that this was a band with definite long-term payback potential.
Even Baker himself wasn’t expecting the album to explode on release, but explode it did. I had just started my [short-lived] FM Rock period and AOR stations in Orlando were regularly programming seven of the album’s nine tracks on the FM airwaves heavily. When I listen to the album now it feels jarring when I hear “I’m In Touch With Your World” and “All Mixed Up” because I’ve not heard those two tracks hundreds of times.
His production of the first four Cars albums showed Baker learning new tricks deep into his successful career. The biggest trick was restraint. There’s a 1982 Trouser Press interview where Baker says that he didn’t feel that his typical approach was right for The Cars. But he did cite that when the BVs kick in on “Good Times Roll” there are still 78 stacked human voices…just that once, then they stay off mic. Baker typified that band as needing “staccato notes with air in between them.” That sense of space allowed The Cars to establish their presence effectively, and if anyone has heard the DLX RM of “The Cars,” it had a second disc with almost the complete album in demo form and The Cars knew exactly what they wanted. Baker had the insight to simply get it powerfully recorded with a little spritzing of his penchant for harmonies and nature took its course.
Baker’s tour of duty with Ian Hunter was nowhere near as effective. But in the case of 1977’s “Overnight Angels,” he was playing by the established Baker rulebook of the time. If anyone ever wanted to hear an Ian Hunter album that sounded just like Queen, then be my guest! It’s filled with phased guitars. Phased drums. Even phased vocals! Guitarist Earl Slick was the square peg here jammed into a round, Brian May-shaped hole. The album famously was only released in the UK and Columbia dropped Hunter after it bombed. I waited decades to hear it and only ever bought a copy in 2018. To my chagrin. Baker also produced the “Wild N’Free” B-side of the non-LP single “England Rocks” which would get a makeover on the subsequent Hunter album as “Cleveland Rocks.” I still need to play this 7″er having bought it over a decade ago, so I can’t say any more than that.
There’s a Roy Thomas Baker album from 1980 I have in the Record Cell but have never played [fully] for the most obscure of reasons, but the one track I have played was the proverbial lightning in a bottle! The artist? Alice Cooper. The album? “Flush The Fashion!” The reason? “Clones [We’re All]” was such a resounding triumph of False New Wave that I have been intimidated for the subsequent 45 years to even begin to play the other nine tracks on the album! Now that he’s gone, I owe it to him to see if he was able to work that Baker magic on the rest of the album. If so…wow!
Baker was friends with the band Yes and actually produced the Paris Sessions before the band famously exploded and allowed Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes to join the group for their then divisive, now lauded “Drama” album. I always loved it. Still do! The DLX RM of that CD contained the Baker productions but as they are of the post-“Tormato,” pre-“Drama” lineup of the band [complete with Jon Anderson on vocals] they are for Yes collectors only.
More successful was his production of the last “imperial period” DEVO album, “Oh No, It’s DEVO!” These were the last near-hits the band would have under his guidance and quite frankly, their sound might have been influenced by Baker’s penchant for excising the midrange from the get-go. That DEVO album plays like a more synthetic Cars variation and is probably an example of the band and producer meeting on equal terms. Hell, You might even say that there’s only a thin line between the vocal approach of Ric Ocasek and Mark Mothersbaugh. So whoever thought to get Baker to produce that album was probably thinking logically. And to his credit, Baker didn’t blanch when DEVO pushed for including a song [“I Desire”] with lyrics adapted from a John Hinckley, Jr. poem in the album’s running order.
Following that, the last time I have any RTB in my Record Cell was for the tenth [also divisive] album by The Stranglers. The out-of-creative gas example of their “10” album. As if one couldn’t tell by the title alone. Thought I have the entire run of the band with Hugh Cornwell, this period is on the chopping block as there was a clear lack of inspiration throughout the project. It does have an amazing cover, though.
Like any producer, Roy Thomas Baker’s fortunes were tied closely to the bands he produced. These could be ghastly to me because of the band themselves. See: Queen. Foreigner. Journey. They could be ghastly due to any number of reasons [fire, injury, mayhem, songwriting] like “Overnight Angels.” Or they could be triumphs of art and commerce like The Cars, DEVO, and Alice Cooper! It bears mentioning that there are some RTB productions that I’m still gunning to include even in the Incredible Shrinking Record Cell™. Albums like the only Be Bop Deluxe release I lack, “Futurama,” or that first Hilly Michaels album, “Calling All Girls!”
I can’t be completely impressed with the oeuvre of Roy Thomas Baker, but then again, neither was the man himself. Quoth RTB: “I’m a better cook than record producer!” Let’s be thankful he produced a few lofty souffles we can all enjoy. No matter where our tastes lie. Condolences to his family, friends and all of the musicians who’ve looked at the man behind the glass in the control room.
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Post-Punk Monk 
love the Cars, especially the early stuff…also like Queen, although sick of Bohemian due to overexposure and some high school antics of some friends-came here mainly to comment on The Methods of Dance…bought a three set CD of late 70s early 80s cuts….it was from Japan, thank goodness has an English insert…phenomenal CD set…truly have enjoyed your recommendations over the years for my very small CD closet…and RIP to this producer/engineer…man they are dropping like flies lately…sad….
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Deserat – Wow, so there’s a JPN 3xCD collection of “Methods Of Dance?” Can you grab a Discogs link or send a photo? You’ve got me curious to see if it’s the same Virgin Records groove thang. Possibly elaborated for the Japanese market.
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I was curious myself, turns out it’s not an expanded version of the 1981/82 compilations but is an excellent collection by itself (a couple of puzzling inclusions notwithstanding): Various – Methods Of Dance – Electronica & Leftfield ’73 – ’87 | Releases | Discogs
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strange_iidol – Aaaah! I knew about this and swear that I blogged on it but I can’t find any posts! And in the subsequent years…have forgotten about it! No, wait…! I had blogged aboutone of the companion comps in the Virgin40 series.
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That’s it! It is super cool – great melange of the music genre over those decades….has lot of great songs and sounds.
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Deserat – Boy howdy, you’ve got that right! The thing was, I owned as much as 75% of the tracks on those Virgin40 CDs so I could never justify getting any of them.
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Great piece here. I’m a total Cars nut (hey, Queen isn’t too bad either), and also have a kind of weird fascination with Alice Cooper’s “Flush the Fashion” record, which I have indeed listened to in its entirety. You can almost hear the suits at the label saying, “this Alice Cooper and his gloomy 70s rock is all washed up… what he needs is some of that New Wave magic the kids are eating up… get Baker on it!” As you correctly imagined, the rest of the record is pretty gloriously forced and awful in a slightly charming way. OTOH, “Clones” is pure disaffected New Wave perfection. Why, I love it so much, I covered it, complete with 178 tracks of vocals (maybe not that many, but a lot) and era-correct vocoder, huzzah!
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Celebutante – Welcome to the comments! This being a Very Special Musical Comment. A first here @PPM after 15 years of tireless commentary from the community of readers. Wow, so that is a fantastic cover of “Clones [We’re All],” and I’ve got to say [with no disrespect intended], that I’ve heard a few and actually, ALL OF THEM are great! Yours hooked me immediately, of course! It was only tentative love until I heard your vocal [the make or break point in any music for me] and stopped the playback to simply embed it in your comment. If it were for sale on Bandcamp, that’s the point where I’d have simply hit the buy button. I’m very decisive!
I have to say that this song is so bulletproof in the writing that it’s a gift to any performer. Just like one other song I could name… “Surrender,” by Cheap Trick. And I have to say your comment [re: The Suits] made me laff! Hard. You’re probably right on target there! Now that you’re in the system don’t be a stranger!
I should probably elaborate on my Queen distaste. I couldn’t enjoy them owing to two factors: Brian May’s tone [heavy on the chorus and sustain] and Freddie Mercury’s vocals. After that I would complain about the material. The one Queen song I don’t mind? Extreme outlier “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.” Which I’ve grown to accept and enjoy in the decades following its chart heyday. Which was not a RTB track as it was produced by Reinhold Mack.
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That is one mighty fine piece of music – thanks for the link,,,
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Deserat – Happy to oblige!
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Thanks again for the kind words on the “Clones” cover. Not actively trying to sell music these days, but thank you. The only other cover version I’m aware of is the Smashing Pumpkins one, which is fine, but seems a bit like a, “hey we’ve got a free day in the studio, let’s toss something together” kind of affair.
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celebutante – OMG. You’re not aware of The Epoxies version from their “Synthesized” EP of 2006??!
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Very cool cover indeed. I’m surprised I wasn’t aware of them; I was knee-deep in my Celebutante project around that time, which was in the same wheelhouse (a little less punky, little more programmed, but still).
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celebutante – I discovered The Epoxies during My Year With Pandora. It was 2005 and my loved one gave me a ad-free year with Pandora. I made a station with but a single band named as “seed DNA.” Gina X Performance. I was eventually served up with The Epoxies and found a shiny new toy!! I have all of their stuff, as well as most of Roxy Epoxy’s solo career.
We were visiting Portland for the first time [we live about as far away from Portland as possible in Asheville] in 2008 for a friend’s event birthday and was hoping against hope that they might have a local show only for the band to break up a few months prior! But you can’t go wrong with The Epoxies! They reek of 1979 which is high praise from these quarters!
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No discussion of Roy Thomas Baker’s career should leave out his work on Hawkwind’s ‘Hall Of The Mountain Grill’, and their singer Robert Calvert’s ‘Captain Lockheed And The Starfighters’, both 1974. Although he’s only credited as engineer, the Mellotron arrangements on the former (played by keyboardist/violinist Simon House, who knew a thing about arrangement, himself) are reminiscent of the layered harmonies Baker is famous for (especially “Psychedelic Warlords”, “D-Rider”, and the non-LP B-side “It’s So Easy”). The latter album highlights -that- big vocal production on the final track, “Catch A Falling Starfighter”, where heavy metal pioneer Lemmy can be heard harmonizing with ambient/synthesizer pioneer Brian Eno (really!) in a choir format. Eno probably learned a thing or two about production by observing Baker during the making of that album (especially given that Calvert’s next solo album in ’75 was the first “outside” album Eno was hired to do – before Devo, Bowie, Ultravox, Talking Heads and U2).
(And yes, the Epoxies cover of “Clones” is great, I saw them a few times when they were around)
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DougP -Welcome to the comments! Your commentary points out a huge Lemmy sized hole in my musical matriculation. In spite of interest based on decades of reading, I’ve yet to hear two crucial 70s bands who were outliers away from the stifling Prog Hegemony I was familiar with; Van DerGraaf Generator and Hawkwind!
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“False New Wave” is an excellent name for a minor musical phenomenon that really fascinates me, when established artists with declining careers latched onto New Wave like a lifeline thrown to a drowning man. “Clones” is both an example of that AND a fabulous song.
At the risk of self-promotion (well, if celebutante can do it…), you might enjoy these compilations from my blog. Or maybe “enjoy” is the wrong word:
https://jonderblog.blogspot.com/2025/05/do-ya-think-im-new-wave-pt-2.html
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jonder – ALL promotion begins with self-promotion!
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