Steve Taylor

For other people with a similar name, see Steven Taylor.

Roland Stephen Taylor (born December 9, 1957) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and film director born in Brawley, California, and reared in Denver, Colorado.

Biography

Taylor's life took an unusual turn in 1979 when he was first of the 100 chosen, from 20,000 applicants, to spend the summer at John Davidson's summer camp. At the camp, Taylor spent time learning from singers like Tony Orlando, Florence Henderson, and John Davidson. Also that year, Taylor heard one of his biggest influences, The Clash's London Calling. "It saved my life, musically," said Taylor.

Taylor recorded a demo of original songs that took the Contemporary Christian music world by surprise. Taylor first began to write for the musical group The Continentals, then recorded his debut solo project I Want To Be A Clone in 1982 and released it in January, 1983.

Taylor quickly gained a reputation as a "controversial" artist, using his lyrical ability to sharply criticize other Christian beliefs and practices that he believed were incompatible with Biblical Christianity. However, his lyrics would also prove to be quite humorous as well.

In 1984, Taylor recorded his first full length album, Meltdown with some of the demo material that was not included on Clone plus some new material. His video single of the title track, "Meltdown (at Madame Tussaud's)" was widely played on MTV, which was unusual for a Christian artist at the time. The video featured an appearance by actress Lisa Whelchel, from NBC's The Facts of Life television series. The album also included the sharp, anti-racist anthem, "We Don't Need No Colour Code", directed in part at South Carolina's Bob Jones University and its anti-interracial dating policy (Bob Jones University abandoned this rule in 2000.). "Guilty By Association", one of the recycled demo songs, includes a jab, with an impression in the middle eight, at televangelist Jimmy Swaggart: "'It's of a worldly design / God's music should be divine! / Try buying records like mine! / Avoid temptation!' Guilty by association.". Swaggart struck back later by devoting part of a chapter of Religious Rock 'N' Roll, a Wolf in Sheep's Clothing (ISBN 0-935113-05-3) to Taylor, whom he saw as playing evil rock music.

Taylor followed that release with On The Fritz, produced by Foreigner's Ian McDonald. Fritz, keeping with Taylor tradition, took aim once again at Religious leaders. This time, his targets included Bill Gothard ("I Manipulate"), greedy TV evangelists (again) ("You Don't Owe Me Nothing"), politicians using religion or avoiding questions of morality in order to get votes ("It's A Personal Thing"), and public schools teaching "values clarification" to children, asking them to determine who should be thrown overboard in an overcrowded lifeboat ("Lifeboat").

File:IPredict1990.jpg

The Controversial I Predict 1990

In 1987, Taylor once again lived up to his controversial reputation with a song called "I Blew Up The Clinic Real Good". The song criticizes anyone who claims to be a pro-life activist who would blow up abortion clinics or kill doctors. Like much of his music, it was meant as a satire. Unfortunately, the point of the song was lost on many and resulted in Taylor's album, I Predict 1990, being pulled from the shelves at some Christian record stores. Taylor himself would occasionally call those stores to explain the song to them. With 1990, Taylor's targets included mainstream Universities ("Since I Gave Up Hope I Feel A Lot Better", featuring fiddle work from Papa John Creech of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna). The video for "Since I Gave Up Hope..." was filmed on the campus of Biola University, a Christian university in Southern California. Other standout tracks included "Jim Morrison's Grave", which once again brought Taylor some MTV exposure, and the Flannery O'Connor inspired "Harder to Believe Than Not To". Some stores also pulled the album as they thought the cover looked like a Tarot Card.

Taylor then took a break from music, until 1990 when he returned as the lead singer of Chagall Guevara. The first recording by Chagall Guevara was "Tale o'the Twister," which appeared on the soundtrack to the 1990 film Pump Up the Volume. The band released their only album, the self titled Chagall Guevara, in 1991 on MCA records that year. A follow up album was begun, but due to label restructuring the band was released from its contract.

Taylor returned with another solo album, Squint, and a live CD, Liver, in the mid 1990's. Squint included the track "Smug", which takes aim equally at both sides of the political spectrum, Rush Limbaugh and Barbra Streisand, both of which are praised as the masters of smugness. The album also included the song "Cash Cow", which criticizes our money desiring society while giving an additional jab at one more televangelist ("The golden Cash Cow had a body like the great cows of ancient Egypt/And a face like the face of Robert Tilton... without the horns").

A tribute to Taylor entitled I Predict A Clone was released in 1994, which features performances by Sixpence None the Richer, Fleming and John, Starflyer 59 and others.

In the years following those releases, Taylor focused his efforts on running a record label, Squint Entertainment, and producing projects for other artists, including Sixpence None the Richer's self titled 1997 release that featured the hit singles "Kiss Me" and a cover of The La's "There She Goes". He would be most noted for his work with Newsboys. Squint Entertainment lost its financial backing in 2001 and Taylor was forced out of the company.

Taylor is currently working full time as a film maker and has directed music videos for Fleming and John, Rich Mullins, Sixpence None the Richer, Newsboys, Guardian, and two video albums for himself. While still running Squint, Taylor had begun work on a major film project called St. Gimp, co-written with Ben Pearson and Willie Williams (lighting designer). That film was abandoned with the company. He co-wrote and directed the feature film The Second Chance starring Michael W. Smith, released February 17, 2006. He also directed the relatively little known Newsboys movie "Down Under The Big Top" in which the band stars.

Taylor appears in the documentary film Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music? (released on DVD in 2006), in interview segments and performing part of "We Don't Need No Colour Code".

Discography

• I Want To Be a Clone, 1982 debut EP
• Meltdown, 1983 album
• On the Fritz, 1985 album
• I Predict 1990, 1987 album
• Squint, 1993 album

With Chagall Guevara

• Chagall Guevara, Chagall Guevara, 1991 album

Live Albums

• Limelight, 1986 live album
• Liver, 1995 live album

Compilations

• The Best We Could Find (+3 That Never Escaped), 1988 album
• Now The Truth Can Be Told, 1994 two-disc box set
• Roaring Lambs Various Artists, 2000 compilation (one track by Taylor)

Video Collections

• Limelight, 1986 live video
• Videoworks, 1985 video collection
• I Predict 1990: The Video Album, 1987 video collection
• Squint: Movies From the Soundtrack, 1993 video collection
• Now The Truth Can Be Told, 1994 video collection

External links

• QRSTUV - The Quantitative Roland Stephen Taylor Ubiquitous Volume
• Sock Heaven
• On The Fritz - Includes free album downloads
• The steve-taylor Mailing List
• Andrew's Steve Taylor Resource
• Tale o' the Web Page
• The Steve Taylor Resource
• Official Website for The Second Chance