T- Rex was originally a folk band known as Tyrannosaurs Rex the group was hugely successful in the UK but only had one chart topping smash in the US. After listening to this monstrosity of a C. D. I can see why we " Yanks" never caught on to the T- Rex sensation that was sweeping the United Nations. To put it bluntly T- Rex is possibily the worst rock n' roll band of all time even outranking the Grateful Dead. I purchased this C. D. with high hopes of finding an exhilirating , mindblowing rock n' roll band but instead I recieved a singer who sounds like a british version of Bob Dylan. Although it is sad that Marc Bolan ( The lead singer and founder of the band) died in a fatal car accident that does not excuse this crappy music! I would not suggest buying this C. D. unless you like good guitar playing and weird surreal stupid songs.
The two songs you should definetly listen to are: Bang a gong ( Get it on) ( T- Rex's only US hit) and 20th century Boy. These two tracks on this album show great promise in Bolan's bohemian songwriting. Bang a gong is about getting some action and getting it as quick and easy as possible. 20th century boy is about Bolan wanting to be this girl's " 20th century toy, I wanna be your boy."
I'm going to keep this portion of the review short and sweet . There are five songs on this album which I think are atrocious. Examples of these songs are: "Debora"- A song which makes no sense since the listener is never informed who Debora is or what she looks like. " Ride a white Swan" is a nonsensical pscydelic crap fest which makes the listener feel as if Bolan went to the song writing school of Dr. Suess. " One Inch Rock" I always thought this song was just plain filler. The chorus reads as follows " Da, do dah talkin' about the once inch everybody do the one inch rock." This song should be a reminder to every sane person on the planet earth that just because your buddies tell you you're talented that doesn't mean the entire world thinks you're talented. " Summer Time Blues" - Oh man if every single rock act on planet earth hadn't covered this song by now ( The Who, Motely Crue, etc.) then Bolan's version would have been a great cover verision. " I'm a gonna raise a fuss I'm gonna raise a holler." " About workin' all summer just to try and earn a dollar." Bolan stumbles and stammers his words in what comes about as a half decent cover song with some nice guitar work. " King of the Rumbling Spires" " Light up the fires, it's the king of the rumbling spires." " Light up the fires its the king and he's coming home." Ironically this is a pretty decent song that makes about as much since as Gomer Pyle becoming bi - lingual.
On this album It just seems that the vocals never match the guitar work. On Debra, the lead singer mumbles half the vocals and it gives the song no good sound at all. Even though the guitar work is well done, the songs lack structure. By structure I mean the switching of choruses, prechoruses, and breakdowns. It seems like T-rex didn't take there time to make these songs.
Don't get me wrong the artist has potiental, Just look at the two hits that I described above. I just feel that they need to take there time to make good hits and good songs, and make sure the simple lyrics can somehow allign with the complex guitar parts. I think this album and all T-rex material could improve if they took there time to make sure everything was right.
The overall sound was a mixture of accoustic folk and hard electric guitar rock n' roll with a singer who sounds as if he's in a contest to see if he can be the next Bob Dylan. He isn't successful but by God he sounds just like Dylan if Dylan was a curly haired British Hebrew boy with surreal lyrics that Jethro Tull would not even touch. The guitar work of Marc Bolan was exisquiste but every thing else folded faster than a fat man at a Weight Watchers meeting.
This C. D. was not what I wanted in a rock n' roll c.d. Everything was just wrong, wrong voice wrong style , absolutely crapdidlyatic good night Irene this C.D. S- u- c- k- s sucks.
-Justin Chopin
