RexTYRANNOSAURUSREX / T. REX'I come from a time where the burningof trees was a crime'Best Marc Bolan/T. Rex related site on the Web:!Class C Main Category:Also applicable:,Starting Period:Also active in:,ALBUM REVIEWS:.

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1975:. 1976:. 1977:. 1982:Disclaimer: this page is not written byfrom the point of view of a Marc Bolan fanatic and is not generally intendedfor narrow-perspective Marc Bolan fanatics. If you are deeply offendedby criticism, non-worshipping approach to your favourite artist, or opinionsthat do not match your own, do not read any further. If you are not, pleaseconsult thebefore doing so.

For information on reviewing principles, please see the. For specific non-comment-relatedquestions, consult the.For reading convenience, please open the in a parallel browser window.IntroductionIn my earliest days I used to think of T. Rex as a generic heavy metalband (sic!) of a cult appeal to braindead teenagers, the kind of stuffthat totally corresponds to the 'music' garbage that gets poured on theaverage listener today. I dare say that this misconception is shared byquite a few people; however, the real situation around Mr Marc Bolanand his band is actually way more complicated than it seems even to thosewho think they have gotten into Bolan and his world of fun, buttrashy glam-rock. In other words, the scepticism around Marc should beevaporated according to the following two steps: (a) put on 'Bang A Gong'or any of his other innumerable glam hit singles and witness the man'stalent and rather uncommon way of getting under your skin with even thesilliest of his ditties; (b) next, realize that there's much, much moreto Marc's music than 'Bang A Gong', especially if you hunt for his earlieralbums and his later ones.Indeed, it's a great irony that Marc Bolan is best known for his earlySeventies' glam albums. Historically speaking, his 1970-73 period, duringwhich he was causing 'TRextasy' among Britain's starry-eyed teenagers,may indeed be his most important one; after all, albums like ElectricWarrior signalized his major breakthrough, his rise to stardom andthe beginning of 'classic' glam rock as we know it: without ElectricWarrior, there'd be no Ziggy Stardust, that's for sure, as Bowie'simage in the early Seventies' was closely patterned along the lines ofBolan.

And it's also true that his classic glam stuff is the most acceptablein his career. Why shouldn't it be? Simplistic, derivative ballads andtraditional boogie-woogie, all based on solid hooks and all of them withan interesting edge - Marc's mystical, 'bleating' vocals, the sharp, catchysound of his band, and the incredible drive usually makes his materialstand far ahead of many of his less imaginative peers.Even so, for the most part it's product. Glam's main flaw is the very essenceof glam - an emphasis on theater, mystification, pomp and braggardness.No, even in his prime glam days Marc Bolan was always more thanyour average glam posturer like Gary Glitter; but why was he more?Because he had a superb legacy, that's why. Few people know it, but MarcBolan's career didn't begin with 'Bang A Gong'; it started with 'Deborah',way back in 1967. And for two or three years, when his band (or, franklyspeaking, his duet with Steve Peregrin Took) was still sporting the full,unabbreviated name without the silly dot, Marc was something of a hippieguru, playing trippy, unprecedented acoustic 'mantras' that were equallyinfluenced by Indian music, Bob Dylan, and J. The earlyTyrannosaurus Rex style may be a hard thing to swallow for many people,and even today, it's tough luck to meet a critic that wouldn't condemnthis music as 'badly dated'; hell, it would even be tough luck to meeta critic that would have actually heard some of it.

History (orshould we say - American music industry) has passed its verdict, and there'sno doubt in my mind that it's one of the most unjust verdicts ever made.If you haven't heard any of Bolan's better early albums, you basicallydon't understand what the man is about, and that's that. I'm serious.Only selected traces of his early style, however, are evident in Bolan'sglam compositions. These are mostly prominent in his lyrics, which shouldoften be paid attention to: while he did occasionally let himself downby penning teenage girl-attracting odes like 'Life's A Gas' or 'Jeepster',much of that stuff is pretty funny and intelligent, and sometimes his wordplayis downright fascinating, though it never reaches the heights of the Guru- Bob Dylan. As for the music, that's another thing: the music had changeddrastically into a more generic, easily accessible direction. But at leastit perfectly suited the teenage ideal - and yeah, young men did have somethingto boogie along to on a Saturday night.

If that's your problem, scoop upThe Slider today.It's equally sad that, as the glam craze passed away and Bolan lost hisgolden commercial touch (which was somewhere on the border of 1973 and1974), nobody paid any further attention to his music anyway. Meanwhile,he released album after album, up to his very death in 1977, and kept varyinghis style, experimenting with different genres, from soul to disco, andalways verging on the brink between great simplicity and worthless banality,but never really crossing it except for a couple of really unfortunatetimes. He'd had his artistic ups and downs, but he was never completelyburned out: his very last album, Dandy In The Underworld, stillshows an artist with enough talent to burn, and, while it doesn't varyfrom the 'formula' that much so as to show us what further directionsthe man would have taken, it's still an incredibly strong record for 1977.Maybe Marc would have gone on to become a punk star? Nobody knows, as heperished in a car crash that year, leading him to a 'dead legend' statusand causing record companies to shoot off an endless current of posthumousreleases that are still flooding the market up to this very day.In brief, Bolan is an artist well worth to get to know; however, passinga judgement on him based exclusively on records like Electric Warrioror Slider is like passing a judgement over Bowie for Ziggy Stardustwithout having heard anything else. Please take my intro (and the ensuingreviews) as a warning, and as a recommendation: whenever you see a Sixties'Bolan album (especially My People Were Fair and Unicorn),be sure to grab it fast.Line-up (this is not very important, of course, as T. Rex is Bolan,but still, some of the other guys did make important contributions to thesound): Tyrannosaurus Rex - Marc Bolan (guitar, vocals), StevePeregrin Took (percussion, vocals).

Steve was fired in 1970, replacedby Mickey Finn (percussion, keyboards, vocals). The duet abbreviatedits name to T. Rex at the end of the year.The 'classic' T.

Rex (grown to a full-fledged band in 1971): Bolan - guitar,vocals; Finn - percussion, vocals; Steve Currie - bass; BillLegend - drums. Legend quit, 1974, replaced by Davey Lutton;in 1975 the band expanded, adding Dino Dines on keyboards. Finnquit, 1976; for the last two albums, a whole pack of session players wasused, and I don't really know whether any of them were official membersof the band. I don't care either.Believe it or not, I have finally managed to assemble a full collectionof all the regular Tyrannosaurus Rex and T. Rex studio output, but I haveto warn you from the very beginning that Bolan's posthumous catalog isonly second to that of Jimi Hendrix, and it's very easy to get lost inthe zillions of archive releases - for instance, you can easily scoop upthe so-called 'alternative' versions of most of T. Rex's original albumswhich are actually just collections of demo versions and only present anyinterest for the hardcore fan. On the other hand, certain archive releaseslike Bolan's BBC sessions are definitely not to be missed by anyone.

Therefore,be sure to follow the exact discography presented here on the site.General Evaluation:Listenability: 4/5. Melodicityis almost always a top priority with Bolan.Resonance: 2/5. The mask thisguy keeps wearing is disconcerting, but at least there's no doubting hisrocking heart.Originality: 2/5. Immense originalityin terms of image, but not really a huge package in terms of music, apartfrom the early 'folkie' phase.Adequacy: 3/5.

Too much of thestuff looks 'inflated', if you know what I mean.Diversity: 3/5. Folk-pop-a-roll,the whole bunch.Overall: 2.8 = Con the rating scale.ALBUM REVIEWSTHE BEGINNINGOF DOVES (released by: MARC BOLAN)Year Of Release:Record rating = 7Overall rating =Early demos with a strong Dylan/blues influence; heavily recommendedif you dig Steve Took.Best song: JASPER C. DEBUSSYTrack listing: 1) Jasper C. Debussy;2) Lunacy's Back; 3) Beyond The Risin' Sun; 4) Black And White Incident;5) Observations; 6) Eastern Spell; 7) You Got The Power; 8) Hippy Gumbo;9) Sara Crazy Child; 10) Rings Of Fortune; 11) Hot Rod Momma; 12) TheBeginning Of Doves; 13) Mustang Ford; 14) Pictures Of Purple People;15) One Inch Rock; 16) Jasmine Forty-Nine; 17) Charlie; 18) Misty Mist;19) Cat Black; 20) Sally Was An Angel.This is certainly it - the 'Great Lost Bolan Album'. It, however, hasa particularly twisted and hard-to-follow history which I'm still not quiteaware of. Let me just make a half-baked historical excourse, then. It allbegins with Mark Feld, a teenage ambitious gentleman, who wanted very muchto be the next Dylan but who also loved Tolkien and the elves a lot; asa result, he changed his name to Marc Bolan (rumours have it that Bolanis actually just a contraction of Bob Dy lan) and startedpoking around early swingin' London, somewhere around 1966 and 1967.

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Thisalbum is constituted of various scraps and snippets of all kinds of projectshe'd been busy in during these two years: a couple of singles he put outall by himself, a couple of demos from his work with the psychedelic bandJohn's Children, some demos he'd recorded all by himself with an acoustic,and some outtakes from the My People Were Fair sessions - Marc workingwith Steve Took, about whom see below for more details.It must be noted, however, that the album itself was only released in 1974- at least, that's what history says about it. My CD liner notes, however,state that Marc's record company never wanted to fiddle much with the project,assuming that by 1974 the world didn't really need Marc's acoustic talents,and retrieved the release. I surmise they retrieved it, not cancelledit - if they'd cancelled the project, the date '1974' wouldn't probablybe sticking out in all discographies available. But 1974 or later, allof these songs date back to 1966 and 1967, and that's why I place the recordat the very beginning of the page.Unlike ninety-nine percent of Marc's archive releases that are in the firstplace 'documents' and can only be called 'artworks' with a big skewer andsmile, The Beginning Of Doves is by no means a 'document'.

Sure,some of the songs on here have later been redone by Tyrannosaurus Rex onseveral of their albums, but for the most part, the material is not duplicated,and, while the arrangements are naturally simplistic and stripped, onlythe shortest tracks on the record give the impression of hastily playeddemos. It is thus perfectly acceptable to count The Beginning Of Dovesas a logical predecessor to the Rex period, and a fascinating one at that.It is clear that in these early years Marc was still deeply rooted in thekinds of music he'd been raised on, mostly American one: traditional boogie,Delta blues and the Dylanish branch of folk ditties.

The first influencecan only be seen in the first and last tracks on the record. 'Jasper C.Debussy' is an instant classic, a frantic, sped-up variation on a honky-tonktheme with some hot-shot session player banging away on the piano and Marc'svocals coming across loud and clear as he cries out that 'Jasper C. Debussythat's his ki-i-i-nd of fu-u-u-u-n.' Honky-tonk blues, yes, but everheard someone bleeting away with such power and conviction over lyricsthat make so little sense? And 'Sally Was An Angel' is ripped off from'Heartbreak Hotel' (he even goes as far as to completely copy the line'but I'm so lonely'), but I really don't mind - and it's fun how the songsuddenly changes from an echoey acoustic shuffle to an all-out rockingversion (the two are spliced - not sure if the song was really done likethat in 1967 or it was re-edited later).The boogie influence is nevertheless subdued here - and it would soon disappearcompletely, not to return until Marc's reincarnation under the T. Rex moniker.But the rest of the numbers can be defined as a weird take on traditionalblues, with fluent guitar picking replaced by nervous, paranoid strummingand the booming, hoarse voice of the old bluesman replaced by the shrill,bleeting voice of the young mystical dandy (soon to be named 'the boppingelf' by critics).

Oh, and the lyrics, of course - if anything was rightthere from the very beginning, it's the lyrics. Schizophrenic and darkin 'Lunacy's Back', happy and aethereal in 'Beyond The Risin' Sun', magicaland mystical in 'You Got The Power' - this is as weird a cross betweenBob and J. As possible.The only thing I'm not too happy about is that the very fact that Marcis still so closely attached to 'traditional' song structures ultimatelyworks against him: there are too few really outstanding melodies, instrumentalor vocal, to completely justify the record's existence. I dunno, 'HippyGumbo', for instance, is a spooky little tune that I find a pleasure tolisten to, but I can easily substitute Marc's vocal for something moreroutine. It's just a boring, simplistic folk composition.

Figures.And 'One Inch Rock'? It's just a Bolan-ic. Interpretation of a rock'n'roll(later redone far better on the T.

For the uninitiatedones, this may be shocking, but I tell you - after sitting throughthe first two Tyrannosaurus Rex albums, Doves will seem pretty straightforwardto you. It would take Marc just a bit more interaction with Took and presto,off the deep end they would go - into something completely unpredictable.That said, the record certainly has its share of solid moments - apartfrom the numbers I have already mentioned, the title track, 'Eastern Spell'and 'Sara Crazy Child' all qualify, and certain songs like 'Mustang Ford'and 'Misty Mist' would later be redone in slightly superior versions. Andits relative accessibility makes this an easier listen than the trustyTyrannosaurus, so if you're a, ahem, 'sissy' but would like to try theacoustic Bolan, go ahead and delve in.But I warn you - you must have a high tolerancy level for ble-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-eting.MYPEOPLE WERE FAIR AND HAD SKY IN THEIR HAIR BUT NOW THEY'RE CONTENT TO WEARSTARS ON THEIR BROWS (released by: TYRANNOSAURUS REX)Year Of Release:Record rating = 8Overall rating =Charming, totally drugged and spaced out acoustic hippie crap.

You'llprobably hate it, but I think it's kinda cool, in a perverse way.Best song: FROWNING ATAHUALLPA (MY INCA LOVE)Track listing: 1) Hot Rod Mama; 2) Scenescof;3) Child Star; 4) Strange Orchestras; 5) ChateauIn Virginia Waters; 6) Dwarfish Trumpet Blues; 7) Mustang Ford;8) Afghan Woman; 9) Knight; 10) Graceful Fat Sheba;11) Wielder Of Words; 12) FrowningAtahuallpa (My Inca Love).Tyrannosaurus Rex? Generic glam rock crap? Radio fodderof the Seventies?

This is not T Rex by anymeans. This is way before Marc Bolan decided to cash in on the nascentglam rock movement, became one of its forefathers and seduced millionsof teenagers just like Leo DiCaprio does it nowadays. This is not the glamrock band T Rex - this is the hippie duet Tyrannosaurus Rex, consistingof just Bolan on vocals and acoustic guitars and his companion Steve PeregrinTook on all kinds of weird percussion. It was recorded somewhere on thebrink of 1967 and 1968, a long way before Bolan took on all of his glamattributes. In those early days, after Marc had overcome his passion forElvis Presley and subdued his passion for Bob Dylan, his main idol wasquickly becoming Syd Barrett, and it's no small coincidence that a largepercent of these 'songs' (although 'acid mantras' is a more suitable term)are strongly influenced by Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. Bolan's hippiepast has been rejected by his later fans and himself, and critics prefernot to mention it at all, but to me, this stuff seems, in a certain sense,much more interesting and intriguing than the glam year products.If anything, this is simply a unique experience.

Silly, disposable, meaningless,boring (from a logical point of view) and monotonous, yes. But it's wellworth to hear this album at least once - and not just because it arguablysports the longest title in existence. Bolan takes an ounce of his newidol Syd Barrett, an ounce of his old idol Bob Dylan, an ounce of his earliestidols the Beach Boys, an ounce of Indian music and an ounce of Tolkienand throws this all together in one of the most bizarre and exciting meltingpots that were ever seen in the whole hip movement. Along the way he addssomething of his own, of course: tremendously off-putting (but also tremendouslyfun) 'bleating' vocals, later put to better use by David Bowie, enthralling,simplistic acoustic melodies, some of which are just bland strumming, butsome are almost punkish, and lyrics that verge in between the mysticaland the insane.It would also be necessary to notice that the album does not really grateon you like many 'masterpieces' of the epoch do. First of all, it's short;it's all over just after thirty minutes, which might even leave you beggingfor a bit more. Second, the individual tracks are also all short: nonego over four minutes, and some don't even go over two.

The only major exceptionis the lengthy album closer 'Frowning Atahuallpa (My Inca Love)', but it'salso the record's strongest cut, built on a lovely folkish melody, andI simply go crazy over the 'du-na-ra-du-na-ra-du' scat singing of Bolanwhich he does in between verses, alternating bleating syllables with gruff,low syllables. You just need to hear this to believe me. Unfortunately,just after two and a half minutes he goes into this krishnaite 'jam' -if you can call something played on an acoustic guitar and congas a 'jam'- that spoils the fun, before the song turns into a disjointed 'poem' readby disk jockey John Peel, a big fan of Bolan, and finally reverts to thegentle closing lines where Marc gets to actually spelling the album title.The other songs are simply impossible to describe. Well, a couple of themmight be classified as 'blues' (the opener, 'Hot Rod Mama', is fairly simplein that respect), but the others couldn't even be classified as 'folk'.Perhaps 'stream of conscience' would be a better word, as Bolan spits outlyrics like 'Lillyputian, evil in the eyes of a man with the leaf harp/Helusts for the urchin hiding under mountains of moleskin' ('Strange Orchestras')over his sometimes generic, sometimes very unusual acoustic work. And,by the way, that Steve Peregrin Took (whose real name was Stephen RossPorter, and who died tragically young in 1980; 'Peregrin Took', as youprobably know, is the name of a notorious hobbit) sure can play some percussion- his beats add quite a lot to the sound.

The weirdest stuff, though, comesin when Marc finishes half-singing, half-bleating, half-rapping, half-mumbling,half-whining (gee, just how many halves has this guy got?) the lyricsand begins simply improvising more vocals to make things seem even trippierthan they are. Check out that cool ending of 'Dwarfish Trumpet Blues',for instance, where he chants this 'da-da-da-da' mantra for what seemslike hours (although it's actually, like, about thirty seconds) and thenjust totally goes mad. Or the end of 'Strange Orchestras'?

Now THAT issome cool vocal experimentation! Howling, screaming, and harmonizing atthe same time!

Pretty adventurous and mind-blowing for an album whose budgetdid not exceed four hundred pounds, if I'm not mistaken.But that's not all - if you dig deep enough, you'll find some incrediblyrewarding stuff. Like I said, 'Frowning Atahuallpa' is simply beautiful,and there are other gorgeous melodies here: 'Scenescof' and 'Afghan Woman',for instance. Don't try to say they aren't gorgeous: they are, and noteven Bolan's bleating can spoil them. It can't, it actually adds to thesound. But if you doubt his vocal talents at all, check out the perfectlyharmonized, luxuriant 'Chateau In Virginia Waters' which reminds me ofBrian Wilson.

Yes it does, please do not laugh at me until you actuallyheard the record.Of course, I kept silence about the flaws of the album: I guess they'remore or less obvious. The worst is that it gets much too monotonous,and addition of fodder like ' Graceful Fat Sheba'or 'Wielder Of Words' doesn't do much to secure its glory. And perhapsthe weirdness is a bit overdone in general, too: I can't really imagineanybody wanting to listen to this over and over and over again, certainlynot me. But I give it an overall rating of eleven in any case, and that'spretty damn much for a 'hippie crap' album. It would be easier, of course,to simply say something like 'like most of contemporary Flower Power recordings,this one has dated beyond repair'; but it's simply not true. It has datedbecause nobody does stuff like that any more; but I tell you, I would personallyexterminate all modern MTV bands with a bazooka in hand for a record likethis to be made in our times.

Just imagine the artistic freedom in theSixties! This was actually written, recorded and - holy crap!

- even playedon the radio, by same lucky guy John Peel (I therefore forgive him foradding his stupid poem). And I heard some critics even gave it positivereviews back then. It didn't sell, of course, because hippies were probablyhaving problems with having to actually read the album's title from beginningto end, but that's okay. Me, I don't regret even a second for buying this.Note that the album seems to be out of print in the USA; but if you happento see it cheap in used bins or somewhere, grab it and grab it fast.

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