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Monday, July 25, 2005
Buick MacKane (acoustic demo)
Metal Guru (acoustic demo)
Is It True (home demo)
Saturation Syncopation (All Alone) (outtake)
Rock On (rough mix)
Pepsi Jingle
Over The Flats (home demo)
Marc Bolan Interview
Marc Bolan & T. Rex
A Wizard, A True Star
Edsel Records : 1996
Out of Print
[Buy it]
I've always loved everything I've heard by Marc Bolan, but never really got around to buying his records. Giving myself a proper Marc Bolan education was one of things I always thought I should do, like starting a website called moistworks or learning to use tools. So I just got this ridiculously great box set, A Wizard, A True Star. It came out about 10 years ago. It's not really a greatest hits type package, which is good, since I had greatest-hits smarts already. Instead it's filled with a broad mixture of everything Marc Bolan from 1972-1977, the period Bolan operated his own label, Hot Wax. Interviews, poetry, radio jingles, outtakes. I listened to it all. I read the extensive liner notes. I googled stuff. I know things now.
I know that they called him the "Bopping Elf".
I know that he loved Hobbits.
He first met Tony Visconti in 1967 . "I offered to produce him and he was on my doorstep the next day," recalls Visconti. "We got on great. We had identical taste in music. One thing I didn't know about was The Lord Of The Rings, which Marc was very much into. He bought it for me and said: 'You have to read these books if you want to know what I'm about.'
I know that he named his son 'Rolan' Bolan.
"You can make fun, you can do this and that but it's my f***ing name and I love it."
I know that his friends liked Hobbits, perhaps tragically so. (And is there any other way?)
Steve Peregrine Took was one half of the duo Tyrranosaurus Rex before a shortened name and a change of musical styles brought its founder Marc Bolan incredible fame. At 18 Took answered an ad in a London underground paper... placed by a young hippie named Marc Bolan. Bolan was fascinated by mythology, particularly J.R.R Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the duo they formed, Tyrranosaurus Rex, payed heavily to the hippie mysticism of the day. While Bolan sang about elves, magic and the days of old, Took added exemplary percussion, bass, piano and harmony vocals. Took and Bolan released three albums together and built a small cult following... Yet, drug addiction and bizarre acts of violence onstage, such as whipping himself with a belt until he bled, led Took to fall out of favor with Bolan and... Took was asked to leave the band. He went on to play with the Pink Fairies for a time before leading a somewhat more subterranean lifestyle in London. He died in 1980 after choking on a cocktail cherry.
The best thing about this compilation are the acoustic demos. Stripped of the Visconti glam sound, they reveal a talented songwriter trying on his influences with the ease of a narrow-waisted hipster in a Williamsburg thrift shop. Especially evident is Bolan's affection for '50s rock melody and rockabilly. And how about that unplugged funk of "Buick MacKane"? Somebody please tell Prince that this is exactly the sound he needs to pursue as he moves into middle age.
But the real reason I posted these songs is so I could talk about the movie Billy Elliot. This movie came out a few years ago. Everyone loved it. The best thing about this film was that it had loads of great TRex music in the soundtrack. The worst thing about this film - in fact the worst thing perhaps in any movie ever - is the piano bnurning scene. If you haven't seen it, here's the set up. A young boy in County Durham loves to dance. He REALLY likes to dance. Not in a gay way, but not in a particularly straight way either. Billy's mom is dead. When she was alive she used to play this beautiful old piano for him. The family was happy then. Now they are sad and poor. His Dad and older brother were poor when they were coal miners, but now they are even poorer because they are on strike. They drink and get agro and don't support Billy's dancing ways. Then winter comes, and they are so poor and cold, that the Dad smashes his dead wife's piano, the family heirloom, with an axe, and uses it for firewood. It's a big teary moment, as they sit around enjoying the bitter warmth.
Now I know the gritty charms of Britain's working class have been a hot sell in Hollywood recently, but this is waaay over the line. Not only is it nakedly contrived, but its just stupid. It's insulting to the British. These people defeated the Spanish Armada for christsake. Though they did cut down every single tree in England to build the ships to do it, which, one could argue, in turn set the scene for willynilly piano burnings... But even so, there are 100 things a real Billy Elliot could have done to raise money for a wood allowance. He could have gathered crayfish or ginseng root. He could have sold sex to local polticians in a lorry, or dealt inhalants to kids in his dance class. He could design websites.
In fact, he could have gone on craigslist, and swapped the piano for 5 cords of wood AND an iPod.
posted by James
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