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MARC BOLAN AND T. REX
20th Century Superstar (Universal)
Reviewed by Alan Wright
The second attempt at a box set of Mr. Bolan, but unlike A Wizard, A True Star, this one documents his entire career. Whereas A Wizard only focused on the full band T. Rex period from 1972-77, this one starts with his first solo single recorded as Toby Tyler in 1964. Having never heard this, I was surprised at the Dylan-ish quality as he strums and sings his way through Dion's "The Road I'm On" and Dylan's "Blowin' In The Wind." Next up are his first three Decca Records - produced by then mentor Simon Napier-Bell - singles under his new moniker of Marc Bolan, including "The Wizard," "Beyond The Rising Sun," "San Francisco Poet," "The Third Degree," "Hippy Gumbo" and "Misfit." Certainly more pop in approach, these are nevertheless interesting and fun curios similar in some ways to David Bowie's Decca period stuff. Also included are a couple of rarities from around the same period, "Jasper C. Debussy" and "The Lilac Hand of Menthol Dan," the latter featuring John's Children as his backing group. Bolan of course, also joined John's Children for about three months, appearing on one single proper, which was then quickly withdrawn, and the A-sides of a couple more. Both sides of the withdrawn release, "Midsummer's Night Dream" and "Sara Crazy Child," along with the great "Desdemona" appear in this set.
Then we start to get to the real attraction for Bolan fans in this set: a slew of previously unreleased early Tyrannosaurus Rex demos, recorded for Simon Napier-Bell and Joe Boyd in 1967. Sparse musically, but still incredibly engaging was the duo of Marc Bolan on lead vocals and acoustic guitar, and Steve Perregrine-Took on bongos, vocals, African Talking Drum, "pixiephone" and vocals. The acoustic sound would dominate the next two LPs, "My People Were Fair and Had Sky in Their Hair, But Were Content To Wear Stars on Their Bows" and "Prophets, Seers and Sages - The Angles of the Sages."
Disc two kicks off with the great "King of the Rumbling Spires," the first Tyrannosaurus Rex song to feature electric guitar. The original Tyrannosaurus Rex duo of Bolan and Took completed one more LP, Unicorn, incorporating electric guitar, as well as other instrumentation, into the sound. Took was also contributing bass, guitar, piano, and kit drums. Due to increasingly erratic behavior, and possibly a bit of an ego thing on Bolan's part, Took was ousted. He subsequently went on to form the short-lived group Shagrat, and recorded some very good solo material in 1972 (which wasn't released until the late 1990s), recorded and performed with Hawkwind, Twink and Syd Barrett, but was fairly inactive musically after 1974. Unfortunately he choked to death on a cherry after a dose of magic mushrooms numbed all sensation in his throat in 1980.
Bolan brought in a replacement, Mickey Finn, on backing vocals, bass, pixiephone, bongos and congas. 1970's "Beard Of Stars" hinted somewhat at the T. Rex sound to come, especially on the chaotic "Elemental Child." When the duo debuted "Ride A White Swan" in 1971, the song took off with its engagingly primitive rock and roll riff and early attempt at utilizing strings in a way that would come to be T. Rex's trademark. The next album, simply titled T. Rex showed a shortened name change, and Bolan then added fulltime bassist Steve Currie and drummer Bill Legend to the group. The rest, as they say, is history, as the band's sound was now firmly in place, as evidenced by their first two singles "Hot Love" - an alternate version of which is included here - and "Get It On (Bang A Gong)." The lyrics became less mystical, but no less abstract, and those string parts and falsetto backing vocals (courtesy of former Turtles Flo and Eddie), congas, crazed electric guitar blasts and full rhythm section were all now firmly established as part of the "T. Rextacy Sound." A large part of that was also the result of Bolan's partnership with producer Tony Visconti who worked similar magic with David Bowie.
Speaking of him, Bolan guests on guitar on the single version of Bowie's "Prettiest Star," which is also included in this set. Electric Warrior, a groundbreaking album chock full of great glam-rock songs, hit the streets and established T. Rex as a full-force hit machine in Britain. The Slider soon followed, and the next two discs - aside from a BBC live recording of "Sailors of the Highway" - are all culled from albums T. Rex released between 1972-77. So, you get selections from all of those albums: Tanx, Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow, Bolan's Zip Gun, - by which time Finn had left and the band had officially become Marc Bolan and T. Rex - Futuristic Dragon and his swansong Dandy in The Underworld as well as choice singles only tracks. Thus, most of his best-known number are here: "Telegram Sam," "20th Century Boy," "Solid Gold Easy Action," "Metal Guru," "Teenage Dream," "Light Of Love," "I Love To Boogie" and even his duet with then-girlfriend Gloria Jones on "To Know Him Is To Love Him."
Fairly extensive liner notes and excellent sound make this a worthwhile investment. My only complaint is the lack of info about exactly who is backing him up on all this stuff, as that's not really detailed anywhere, although a full singles and LP discography is included. I have to admit that I'm also amazed at the wealth of previously unreleased material (much from producer Tony Visconti's collection) of top quality here, considering the amount of posthumous releases of Bolan's material there has been where it seems like everything the guy ever committed to tape has been released since his untimely death in 1977. With the recent news of Mickey Finn's death, the timing of this set could not have been better.
© 2003 - Alan Wright