365 Albums 166-180

1. Tarkus Emerson Lake & Palmer 1971
2. Gach Sgeul Julie Fowlis 2014
3. Cyclone Tangerine Dream 1978
4. Dancehall Sweethearts Horslips 1974
5. Not too late Norah Jones 2007
6. Eli Jan Akkerman & Kaz Lux 1976
7. Unicorn Tyrannosaurus Rex 1969
8. Guitar for Sale Jan Akkerman 1969
9. Hymns IV Page CXVI 2011*
10. Nice to have met you Thijs van Leer 1978
11. Two sides of Peter Banks Peter Banks 1973
12. In and Out of Focus Focus 1970
13. Always Gabrielle 2007
14. Aqua Edgar Froese 1974
15. Voyager Mike Oldfield 1997

Stacey Grove

Mad Marc at his best

Deboraarobed

In case you are wondering what I am talking about. In the second recording the song is played backwards from the halfway point

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A new film and a musical memory

As soon as I heard there was a new film Baby Driver I spotted the reference to the Simon and Garfunkel song. We then learn that the film is full of  songs from the past and they form an integral part of the plot and characterisation. This website lists over 70 songs in the film.

Of most interest to me is another use of Hocus Pocus by Focus, always a good move. Not sure how long that plays for. Hocus Pocus came out in 1971 but we were not aware of it in the UK until 1973. (Given that they also have Radar Love by Golden Earring in there too (also 1973), Dutch rock is not really under represented.)

The other track that caught my eye (I have only read about the film, not seen it) is Debora by T Rex. I think the song goes back to 1968. There is an alternative version on the album Prophets seers, and sages called Deboraarobed, which is a fascinating exercise in palindromy. I bought my copy back in 1972 when it was re-released as a single on the back of Marc Bolan's electric pop success. I bought it from Woolworths in Cwmbran if I remember correctly. It was one of those rare occasions in those days when a single had an interesting cover. Being an acoustic effort from four years before it immediately sounded dated but with the help of the three tracks on the B side from the same era (One inch rock, Woodland Bop and Seal of Seasons) I was convinced it had been worth my pennies. From then I was on the look out for the four Tyrannosaurus Rex albums that came before the T Rex album that launched the pop career.

It must have been that same year that I came across a copy of Best of T Rex in David Evans department store, a collection of old singles, etc, that included Debora.

Recent Purchase

As a sort of pre-Christmas present to myself I recently bought an album I only discovered a few years ago. Tales from the Book of Time, like its predecessor Beltane, is a reworking of some of the music of Marc Bolan by the French Canadien singer Catherine Lambert. The treatment is a baroque one with lots of harpsichord, recorders and strings. The main CD contains 15 songs from the period from Unicorn to the T Rex album, a golden era for Bolan and beautifully presented on this excellently produced album. I was familiar with most of the tracks through Youtube (see above for example). (I've not explored the second CD yet, an audiobook).
I had almost despaired of getting hold of the 2004 album. I saw one advertised somewhere for over a thousand pounds. I got this one from discogs and it was very reasonably priced although I had to pay the same price again more or less to get it from Switzerland. It really is worth having, however.

Retro album "of the week" 38 A Beard of Stars

A Beard of Stars by Tyrannosaurus Rex came out in 1970 but I didn't discover it until three or four years later after Marc Bolan had found commercial success with T Rex (beginning with Ride a white Swan that same year). I really discovered all four Tyrannosaurus albums at more or less the same time. Beard of Stars the fourth of them is different to the other three in that it was the first to feature Bolan with Mickey Finn as percussionist rather than Steve Peregrine Took and is the transition album in that electric guitars and drum kit feature for the first time. (On the this front, there was an electric guitar first featured on the 1969 single King of the Rumbling Spires/Do You Remember)

One writer (Mark Deming of AllMusic) says that A Beard of Stars "was the turning point where Marc Bolan began evolving from an unrepentant hippie into the full-on swaggering rock star he would be within a couple of years, though for those not familiar with his previous work, it still sounds like the work of a man with his mind plugged into the age of lysergic enchantment." The truth about Marc Bolan I think is that he was willing to do whatever it took to get musical fame. It was the times that were achangin' (and Bob Dylan especially) rather than Bolan himself. 

Four tracks from this album, including "Great Horse", were apparently salvaged from Spring 1969 sessions for a fourth album with Took in the wake of "King of the Rumbling Spires". These four tracks were overdubbed for release by Finn, Bolan and Visconti. A further four tracks from the Took sessions were rejected for the final album and only surfaced later on compilations, three ("Once Upon the Seas of Abyssinia", "Blessed Wild Apple Girl", "Demon Queen") in Bolan's lifetime, the fourth ("Ill Starred Man") posthumously.

I have always found the two instrumental openers (Prelude and Beard of Stars) particularly pleasing. Elemental Child is pretty much an instrumental and goes on far too long. Bolan is sometimes classed with the progressive music makers and these tracks give part of the reason why. Meanwhile A Daye Laye, By the light of the magical moon, Lofty Skies, Dove, etc, are all great numbers. The simple Organ blues was long a favourite.