Anyone else like T Rex? I've recently bought the Born To Boogie DVD and the concert footage is really amazing - the band really do rock.
Considering the original reels were in such bad condition it's really amazing what a fine job has been made of restoring the picture and sound quality.It is almost like being on stage with the band - the sound and picture quality is so vivid.
I'd love to see the same restoration to the Stones Ladies And Gentlemen film.

I love 'Children of the revolution', as well as 'Hot Love' 'Telegram sam' Metal guru'. Sure it's glam rock but done extremely well. These songs as well as the classic 'Get it on' haven't lost their impact 30 years later.

I hadn't heard of the DVD until I read your post Edward. I'll check it out. It does make me bloody furious that the Stones don't pay the same courtesy to their vaults. Like the example you mention in Ladies & Gentlemen. Also I understand the Madison Square Garden shows in '69 were filmed for 'Gimme Shelter'. How about investigating the possibility of collecting that footage & releasing a 'Stones at the Garden 69' DVD, that would be amazing.

Personally, I really don't care for a DVD of the upcoming tour, to me their live sound all sounds the same since '89. Yes, it's great the Stones are still a working band. But it's disgraceful the lack of material available from the Stones golden period from the 60's to early 70's.

Hell yes, ET I love T Rex. I have tones of their stuff on old video. It's great to see it now on DVD. That footage from the TV show is great with Bolan on the floor with accoustic guitar. Very rare. But he wrote so much excellent stuff early on under the name Tyrannosaurus Rex. When he shifted to electric and added Bass and Drums it was a conscious effort for popularity. There are all those early radio shows by John Peel who was a huge fan and who supported him all the way, even through the late disco, short hair period. Bolan was a really underrated guitarrist. He could rock with the best of them.

They (he) recorded the ultimate glam rock album: Electric Warrior. And being a huge Bowie fan, that's not easy for me to say.

Electric Warrior also has one of the coolest album covers of all time.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2005-06-11 14:46 by BowieStone.

A screening of Born to Boogie was held in Los Angeles on Thursday night. Rolan Bolan, Marc Bolan's son, was on hand and spoke briefly to the audience. Rolan is also a musician; he told me that he had a gig coming up in Long Beach.

Born to Boogie is a terrific film, especially for people like me who never saw T Rex perform live or on film before. Both Elton John and Ringo perform a few numbers with the band. The footage of audience members screaming and rushing the stage is a lot of fun. A few surreal sequences and some horseplay between Ringo and Marc round out the film.

A two-CD soundtrack was also released last week, in addition to the DVD. Here's a link to more information: [www.borntoboogie.net]

Cant wait to see it - have most of the T Rex albums, & remember being intrigued by a T Rex film directed by Ringo back in the day...Rhino's Electric Warrior, w/ extras like "There Was a Time" & the (cant think of the name!) rocker attached to it, Hot Love & its 2 b-sides, etc, a beautiful package - even comes w/ the original poster (reduced to CD scale, natch)...Expanded Slider, Tanx, & Zinc Alloy very cool too, just to name 3.

I was a huge T Rex Fan, loved Marc Bolan's concept for rock 'n' roll. Great cover shot on Slider.

I ain't stupid, I'm just guitarded.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2005-06-11 20:27 by RankOutsider.

The extras on the DVD's are killer.

I've always liked some of their singles, but never seen any live footage until this DVD. It is amazing, they were a fantastic live band and sad to think that drummer Bill Legend is the only survivor out of the whole band.

Hi,

I've often looked at T-Rex CD's in CD shops. There is one with a cool cover of
a Tyrannosaurus rex. Is it any good? What would be in order of importance
the CDs by T-Rex to buy?

TRex (self titled)
Electric Warrior
Slider
Unicorn

In that order, also the first two Tyrannosaurus Rex albums are interesting although acoustic and take a bit of getting used to.

To see where the great man might have gone onto "Dandy in the Underworld" his last album is also worth hearing.
All the albums after Slider are very mixed bags,with a few good tunes and a lot of filler.

I am lucky enough to have SEEN TRex in concert, August '73 at the Paramount Theater in Seattle. They were touring behind the highly underrated "Tanx". It was general admission and I was up against the amps stage left. I was wearing a Stones tongue logo t-shirt and Marc looked right at it and rolled his eyes back into his head. I didn't know the Hollywood Palladium story or the story when Marc forced a kiss on Mick's lips. But I digress...

The band was space-funk-soul, just a lot of jamming at slightly faster than medium tempo, but it was still great. Marc mentioned that he liked Seattle because it was the first American city to call him back for an encore when he first toured...

It was sad to see him already f8cked up and going downhill. At one point he leaned forward and nearly fell into the orchestra pit. Mickey Finn jumped away from his bongos to help Marc, but Marc put his right arm out to indicate he was OK. He wasn't OK, far from it. Marc's wife left him for good that night right before the show, when she found out about Gloria Jones (who sang backup that night).

The audience screamed for an encore, but there was none. Patrick McDonald, the reviewer for The Seattle Times said there "wasn't much call for an encore." I rang The Times and spoke to him and told him he was full of crap.

"The wonder of Jimi Hendrix was that he could stand up at all he was so pumped full of drugs." Patsy, Patsy Stone

That's interesting Menace Of Mayfair.
By mid 1973 Marc's career was on the slide in the UK and he started drug taking and drinking heavily to ease his worry. This resulted in him gaining a lot of weight.
He never did break America.
I would be interested to know how he's regarded in the US. Although he maybe isn't perhaps considered amongst the most important artists in the UK he has maintained a remarkably devoted cult following.
A Beard Of Stars is another really great album - this one being credited to Tyrannosaurus Rex

Edward I agree its pretty clear in '73 he was on the skids (just look at the cover of Tanx), yet he continued to cut some superb singles, & better, use this sense of desperation, of being lost in his lyrics & musical conception. So much of the naive charm/inflated idea of himself circa '71 (eptiomised by the comment "I'm a better guitarist than Hendrix", or the name dropping on Slider) was gone, and there's a pathos and emotional depth, as well as some darker imagery. It's a different & more desperate Bolan but the work (Zinc Alloy, Dandy, etc)retains more interest than one might have expected

Bolans 70's catalogue holds up a whole lot better than one might imagine,
especially on the remastered castle rereleases, outtakes, singles + B sides
collections, box set etc. IMHO all of these are indispensible. T Rex rules.

There is an excellent Don Kirshner concert kicking around on bootleg dvd,
also a greatest hit dvd from Brit tv, both of wich I'd love to see
offcially rereleased. His estate seems expecially generous and
thorough in restoring his legacy, so hopefully we will see
these soon!

John r, Teenage Dream is a perfect example of what you are talking about with some autobiographical references.
It is true vunerability can very often bring out the best in an artist. Marc was never really an autobiographical writer until he started to lose his popularity and then he came up with one of his very best (although maybe not one of his most popular) songs. Reminds me of Dylan and Blood On The Tracks (following his separation).