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-- ;$JDK@K.;L;) (;$JDK@K.;L;) @;$JDK@K.;L;)), October 20, 2002.
td width="19"/font
-- (deebee@asdic.org), February 12, 2003.
00AT1a^2. Titular Verbosity - it is too easily assumed that it was an
economy of words which marked T.Rex as different from Tyrannosaurus
Rex. But short titles literary concise were there from the start
('Star Child', 'The Wizard', 'Deborah' 'Unicorn'...), and such
lyrical conciseness of 1968 - can be contrasted with the word salad
of the 1970s ('Zinc Alloy...Painless Persuasion v. The Meathawk
Immaculate', 'The Leopards featuring Gardenia And the Mighty Slug'...
3. The Reissues of 1972 - it seems that a lot of T Rex's young
audience could not or did not wish to discern any distinction between
the early and later work. For the re-release of 'Debora (did far
better than first time round) and the repackaging of the first 4 LPs
as 2 doubles sold not insignificantly to his new screaming audience.
4. Hippie-ish recordings - As late as 'Electric Warrior' Bolan and
moreover Visconti were still utilising techniques most usually
associated with psych-pop - phasing, reverb, backwards guitar,
Mellotron, overloaded pre-amps, tape loops ... - achieve their vision
albeit refined and overdubbed into a veneer rather than one of the 2
smooth tracks on the flip of 'Hot Love' (itself a little more than a
sophisticated re-run of 'Hot rod Mama') a rolling aural melee. Or
perhaps even these 1974 lyrics which bear a faint hippie palimpsest-
"Bent spent, psychedelic mailman's head, Gorging up my spokes like
the ghostly dead. Ally pally angel chewing up my blues"
(from 'Venus Loon')
Another more readily "psych" influence is discernable in the 'King Of
The Mountain Cometh' a self-referential (and self-reverential!) nod
to 'The King of the Rumbling Spires'. Described as "an obvious sop to
the old loyalists", it is more to the point proof that although Bolan
was unlearning but he wasn't doing it overnight.^2003-01-26^Response
to marc the hippy^secret world of the sydenham lowriders^^--
(dóø®åg@~¬|_.*.+)^00AT1W
00AT1X^THE HIPPIE HANGOVER: Traces of Hippie in Bolan's later work -
1. "The Children of Rarn" was to have been Bolan's hippie concept
opus magnus: "our Tommy, our Sgt. Pepper, our big rock opera", said
Tony Visconti. An absurd, conceited tale, part Tolkienesque pastiche,
part science fantasy epic. Set in prehistory, it concerns the
struggle of two tribes, the Dworns and the Peacelings; symphonic in
scale and fragmentarily debuted on the LP 'T Rex' - it is also
interesting to note that 'The Children of Rarn' was one of the
provisional titles of the 'T Rex' album giving the lie to the belief
that by this date everything was simplified. It developed out of
Bolan's 1968 scribblings, 15 minutes were recorded in 1971. But Bolan
was cute enough to realise that his pubescent female audience wanted
formulaic boogie pop 45s not double albums of mystical clap trap. And
yet as late as May '74 he was still toying with the idea although by
this stage it had changed beyond recognition.^2003-01-26^Response to
marc the hippy^secret world of the sydenham lowriders^^døø®åg@-
¬|._~ó~^00AT1W
00AT1W^THE BREAK WITH HIPPIE: "Once he was fair and had stars up his
nose. Now he just wiggles his bottom"
The change from Hippie to teenybopper was a gradual one for Bolan.
The first T Rex album (1970) is a transitional work a mix of the new
style and Tyrannosaurus Rex type material. If there is one definitive
moment which signifies the break with the underground it is T Rex's
appearance at the Weeley Festival of Progressive Music 29th August
1971. Booed and insulted by the rowdy audience Bolan reacted angrily.
To the outside world the gentle band playing to a subdued
appreciative gathering on hippies was gone. Bolan himself publically
retained for a time some of his old ideals. For a while at least. But
in private his vegetarianism gradually ebbed away. By mid-1973 he had
exchanged macrobiotics and fruit juices for greasy chicken, junk food
and booze.^2003-01-26^marc the hippy^secret world of the sydenham
lowriders^^dóø®åg@~¬|_.*.+^no referal
00AT1R^(...) As it is, though, Took is more into acoustic things at
present. He's playing about four or five gigs a week and trying to
get by without a management contract or a record company, in spite of
several offers. So what's he writing about now? "Sex, drugs and
violence, I suppose. No, I don't know. Things that people get into
around this part of the world, things that happen to kids on the
streets.
"Basically, all I want do is sit under an orange tree, play my guitar
in the sun, get stoned and dig the smells and colours. Unfortunately
there aren't many orange groves around here and you can't go picking
oranges off lamp-posts.
"I don't particularly envy Bolan. It's all down to what you think is
success. He's a very ambitious person, and perhaps the only thing
that's changed is his values. Possessions can get hold of you once
you're earning a certain amount of money. I hope he's happy with what
he's got. Personally I just think he could do a lot more. "I mean,
he's got the media now. He's on television every other day.
-- (#@#$*./#$), November 16, 2003.
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