MARC BOLAN / T.REX : 'THE ELECTRIC BOOGIE' (RARE EASY ACTION VINYL + INSERT

	£		16
	$		21

MARC BOLAN / T.REX : 'THE ELECTRIC BOOGIE' (EARS033) 

Limited Edition Vinyl LP.    Released in 2010 - Last few copies

• Rare and previously unheard tracks
• Limited to one pressing only
• This was the first in a series of vinyl releases to cover Marc Bolan, T Rex & Tyrannosaurus Rex

freehand/digital design Les Clark

SIDE ONE

1. Children Of Rarn (Instrumental)
2. One Inch Rock (Take 3)
3. Woodland Rock (Outake)
4. Life's A Gas
5. Buick MacKane
6. Jewel

SIDE TWO

1. Truck On (Tyke) Demo
2. Oh Baby (Take One)
3. Hot Love
4. Ride A White Swan
5. Jeepster
6. Telegram Sam
7. Children Of Rarn (Outro)

A Rock star is slightly unearthly.

A guy came up to me and said:

how does it feel to be a God?

He said he’s seen me worshipped’.

“Some think it’s best not to mix markets - best to stay with either singles or albums. Though personally I’d like to capture every market”.  Quipped  Marc Bolan as ‘Ride A White Swan’ began it’s slow climb towards the summit of the UK singles chart in the early months of 1971, giving him his first major hit single around Europe after five long years of trying.   His comment may have been both brash and bold, though one he remained utterly faithful to artistically throughout his all too short recording career. By early 1971 he may only have been a matter of months away from becoming a national phenomena (and predominately on the back of being a genre defining ‘singles’ artiste too boot). Yet as the material on this amazing collection shows, Marc Bolan was anything but a one trick pony. 

‘Two Penny Prince’  was the first Bolan LP release on Easy Action records way back in 2010 and started  a wonderful association of rare and collectable vinyl releases that continue until this very day.

The Children Of Rarn (Instrumental) / One Inch Rock : Recorded at Trident Studios in Soho, London on Monday 6th July 1970. This incredible snapshot of the embryonic T.Rex, features one of themultiple run throughs of early Bolan classic ‘One Inch Rock’ along with a unique instrumental take on ‘The Children Of Rarn’. Both tracks were destined for inclusion on the self titled ‘T.Rex’ album issued on Friday 18th December 1970.  

Woodland Rock : Recorded at Air Studios, Oxford Street, London  Monday 21st December 1970. This was the first ever T.Rex session to feature Bill Legend on drums. ‘Hot Love’ was also committed to tape during this session. Though it would be another few months before he was given the drummers job permanently. The sound captured on this take of ‘Woodland Rock’  is far more 50’s rock and roll, than the finished version that ended up on the flip side to ‘Hot Love’. Although it’s a very straight performance, with non of the fancy string arrangements or swirling backwards guitar one associates with the finished recording. It would be fair to say this version still manages to rock with the best of them, some smart guitar playing by Bolan is matched in equal measure by Steve Currie’s dynamic bass runs.  

Life’s A Gas : Recorded at Breman Studios, Germany, Friday 1st October 1971. Wonderful electric version of this Bolan classic, Given a harder groove with the acoustic guitars being substituted by electric overdubs. Marc’s vocal was also far grittier, giving the track a real rock edge. 

Buick MacKane : Recorded Wednesday 14th February 1973, at Breman Studios, Germany. Originally recorded as part of a two song session, alongside ‘20th Century Boy’. This thundering performance was not broadcast at the time and only sneaked out by mistake, when broadcast in error at the tale end of an ‘Osmonds’ TV special on 17th March 1974. 

Jewel / Ride A White Swan  :  Both tracks recorded live at  Breman Studios, Germany, Monday 8th February 1971. Although the recordings were essentially ‘live’, they did allow for a degree of studio trickery. The band would record their basic backing track, which was then played back allowing for further live musical accompaniment or overdubbing. The tracks were broadcast on 13th February and 20th March respectively. ‘Ride A White Swan’ stays close to the original in terms of it’s performance, though fails to capture the feel and magic of the original studio version. ‘Jewel’ on the other hand gave a striking indication as to the direction Bolan was now travelling musically, with a greatly extended coda and some fine fretwork on his Fender stratocaster, ably accompanied by Mickey Finn and some outstanding freeform bass playing from Steve Currie.

Oh Baby (Take #1) : This mega rare recording feature’s Marc’s original vocal run through of the song issued several months later by the fictitious, ‘Dib Cochran & The Earwigs’ (with Tony Visconti on lead vocals) . . .   Recorded at CTS Studios, Wembley, Middlesex, Monday March 6th 1970. This track more than any other at the time, gave serious indications where Bolan was heading musically. The whimsy and delicate imagery of the Tyrannosaurus Rex years was being replaced, by something far more rudimentary. It would take a full year before it started blossoming into the T.Rex sound we all became familiar with, though this is possibly the starting point.  An interesting footnote regarding this track. The finished version with Visconti on vocals, had the great misfortune of being voted the ‘worst single’ of all time by listeners to Kenny Everett’s radio show in the mid 1970’s. 

Jeepster / Hot Love / Telegram Sam/  Recorded live on Thursday  3rd February 1972 at Strawberry Studios, Chateau D’ Herouville, Pontoise, Paris, France. After six months of negotiations, Bolan had finally  launched his own ‘T.Rex Wax Co.’ record label in January of 1972, and with it came a new sound. The lush textures of ‘Electric Warrior’ had given way to a slightly harder rocking sound. This marvellous session features two of the four tracks recorded that day, the sound of peak period T.Rex, recorded live in the studio during sessions for ‘The Slider’ album (in fact they had recorded backing tracks for both ‘Ballrooms of Mars and ‘Thunderwing’ earlier that day). The sound of these performances is remarkably similar to the one captured at the Wembley Empire Pool gigs the following month and is very representative of  live T.Rex circa early 1972.

Marc Bolan : Guitar / Vocals / Organ / Bass

Mickey Finn : Hand Percussion

Steve Currie : Bass

Bill Legend : Drums

Mary Hopkins : Backing vocals (Truck On)

Rick Wakeman : Keyboards (Oh Baby)

Tony Visconti : Bass  (Oh Baby)

John Cambridge : Drums (Oh Baby)

CREDITS : Marc Bolan quotes from the forthcoming book :  ‘Marc Bolan In His Own Words’