MARC BOLAN / T.REX - 'SLIGHT THIGH BE-BOP' LP - (HOME DEMOS VOLUME 3) SEALED

	£		15
	$		20

MARC BOLAN / T.REX -  'SLIGHT THIGH BE-BOP' LP - HOME DEMOS VOLUME 3 (Easy Action Recordings EARS143LP)

MARC BOLAN - TRAMP KING OF THE CITY

SIDE 1 

1 : Sunken Rags (2.30)

2 : Cadilac (3.28)

3 : Telegram Sam (2.32)

4 : Metal Guru (1.36)

5 : Truck On (Tyke) (1.36)

6 : Thunderwing (3.00)

7 : The Slider (acetate) (3.32)

8 : Rock On (2.17)

9 : Buick MacKane (1.43)

SIDE 2 

1 : Buick MacKane & The Babe Shadow (1.03)

2 : Baby Strange (2.39)

3 : Sugar Baby (Rabbit Fighter) (1.42)

4: Slider Blues (3.28)

5 : This is My Life (4.56)

6 : Is It True What They Say (1.49)

7 : Guitar Piece #2 (1.23)

8 : Just Like Me (2.12)

9 : Baron Of Winpole Street (1.22)

10 : Take me Down To Birmingham (4.38)

The material represented on this unique series of albums, come in the main from four reels of home demo tape recorded by Marc at his London homes between the spring of 1971 and the autumn of 1973. What has been uncovered within these reels are the genuine embryonic beginnings of many Bolan classics. Along with well over a dozen songs discarded as the recording process moved from Marc’s four track TEAC A3340 home tape machine all the way to finished studio masters.

It is evident throughout these recordings that even in their early incarnations, a great many of the tracks are already fully realised, complete with lyrics (often completely different from the released versions) and rudimentary guitar overdubs.

It’s no coincidence that the album sleeve designs in this series depict the look and feel of the original Blues artists. Bolan’s Creole style vocal warbling and blues influenced chord structures, sit so well within that guitar, vocal framework that the songs themselves could easily have come from any one of a dozen 'Howling Wolf', ‘Big Bill Broonzy’, 'Skip James' or ‘Robert Johnson’ classics.

Tramp King Of The City picks up where the previous album left off. The music contained on this 2nd volume was once again recorded on Marc's trusty 4 track recording set up at home in London's Maida Vale. Most of the material included here was recorded in the fall of 1971, though it would be the following year before any of it found it's way into the public domain. This was an incredibly prolific period for Marc, demoing upwards of fifty songs in the later part of 1971 (with the great majority never seeing the light of day). In fact this album is split into two very distinct categories, songs that ended up released as singles, b-sides or Slider album tracks. With the remainder never getting past their original home demo format. However in their stripped down state, the songs that remained incomplete, seemed every bit as good as the ones we all know and love from official releases back in the 1970's. Bolan was working at lightning speed throughout the course of 1971 and 1972. Not only recording the nineteen tracks featured here, but also managing to lay down at least two dozen more in a similar styled demo format. He also completed several Slider tracks as well as Telegram Sam and assorted b-sides, at the first of several frenzied recording sessions at Rosenberg Studios in Denmark in November 1971.

As fortune would have it, in the fall of '71 Marc's contract with Fly records expired. The perfect time it would seem to re-negotiate a new and substantially improved deal with David Platz (head of Fly Records). Bolan forever the shrewd East-end hustler realised this was 'his time' and seized the opportunity with open arms, quickly realising the best way forward was to abandon the 'established' rules of contract negotiation. He brought the infamous Tony Secunda (husband of his close confidant Chelita) on board to help broker a new deal. However instead of re-signing with Platz as expected, he became determined to take full control of his own affairs, thereby setting up the T.Rex Hot Wax label (distributed in the UK through EMI). Leaving himself with the option to negotiate individual deals with separate labels around the world. In one fail swoop he turned himself into a very wealthy man. By creating his own record label he hoped to give himself the artistic and creative freedom to do things his own way. “A man that doesn’t look after his own affairs is basically a fool” quipped Bolan in early 1972. “You owe it to yourself to have some idea of what’s going on. I like to know what’s going on but it doesn’t mean I can’t have people working for me; but I can’t get behind the conventional management bit because it was built for puppets and Pinnochio didn’t do to well, did he?”.

“I’m not a journalist when I write.” enthused Marc on the music that would eventually become 'The Slider'. “I record the events of my life. If you see something on the news you’re seeing it all the time, and I don’t think one really wants the same coverage in rock songs. There was a period when I covered everything in a very poetic style. The images were poetic. They’re no less now, but they relate to people rather than the landscapes of my head. Rimbaud was the first poet that really rocked me. When I first read him I felt like my feet were on fire, and that, in fact, altered my whole hairstyle, ha!.”

All joking aside the pressures of becoming the most recognisable face in Britain quickly took their toll on Bolan. The touring, recording and public appearances were constant. With the consolidation of his bands success in Britain, he quickly turned his attention towards the European market that was proving very lucrative. Followed later in the year by extensive tours of America, Australia and Japan. The quite gentle hippy Marc of the Tyrannosaurus Rex years was replaced by a new and improved version of himself. The very embodiment of the 'Electric Warrior' character who danced himself out of the womb on 'Cosmic Dancer'. A genuine larger than life rock God, and the first post-Beatles artist to genuinely capture the imagination of the British and European media and public.

Bolan was an incredibly astute operator, with more than enough street savvy to realise that he had no option other than to stay ahead of the game. By keeping the hits coming he knew would weather any storm and keep his detractors off his back. This worked throughout 1972 and most of the following year where the hit singles and albums did indeed keep coming, By the summer of 1972 the sales of T.Rex records single handedly accounted for a staggering 3.5% of all records sold in the UK that year (and that’s when records really did sell in their millions). In a three month period Marc Bolan saw no less than three of his albums top the UK charts. Bolan was very philosophical when discussing the merits of superstardom in an interview in the summer of 1972.

"It was the transformation from what people thought was '”The Little Elfin Prince and the Summer Toadstool' to a heavy electric rock star in just over a year that freaked everyone out. It seemed I was the most unlikely person to become that sort of performer to everyone else but me. I've always believed in myself and in my eventual success as an artist, I knew that if I ever really broke through, it would be as an extrovert performer because it was what I always wanted to do but I did not expect things to get this big. I'm unreal – I always have been. I perpetuate that image myself because there is no one behind me to do it for me. Now I feel like I am writing out of a sense of desperation, as though I have the feeling I'm not going to be around much longer. It's not something like a nervous breakdown. I feel like I've gone beyond the point of a nervous breakdown several times in the last few months. What happens is that you end up functioning quite normally.

My writing is like a reflection of whatever I'm feeling at that time. Sometimes I get up in the middle of the night and cut my fingers to bits practising and writing. What pop music did in the good old bad gold days was to capture moods and reflect the feelings of it's generation in a simple banal phrase. But, to me, they were more honest and more typical of their time. Freddy Cannon, U.S. Bonds, Jimmy Jones, Fury, Wilde and Faith who are now musical cameos of their time.”

The creative process was very much alive and well in Bolan's world throughout 1972, and it wasn't long before he set about transforming his next batch of home demo's into classic pop anthems (as can be heard on volume three of this series 'Slight Thigh Be-Bop'). Bolan's ability to accumulate literally dozens of highly melodic and catchy tunes on a seemingly weekly basis was an incredible gift. Though you could forgive him from getting upset at the media's constant attempts to down play his music, saying it all sounded the same. "I don't feel like a sausage machine even though I've heard people say things like 'Here comes another number from the Marc Bolan hit factory'. I don't believe it because I know I'm in a constant state of change and I write from my state of mind at the time. I don't believe there is a formula. I go by a feeling inside me when I play certain chords, and because of the media of three minute radio you are committed to condensing that energy into a compact form. And that produces a framework in which I sometimes write, but then singles are only a small part of my work. I’m told all romantic poets have a death wish and I’m definitely a romantic poet. Let me sum up: I feel like a rock and roll star who’s writing for the people as long as they want to listen. If they don’t want to listen I’ll become a poet.”

Sleeve Note extracts copyright Andrew J. Gardner/Easy Action Recordings 2018

Sleeve Notes copyright Andrew J. Gardner /Easy Action Recordings 2018