Yeh im listening to this cd by T.Rex and im really enjoying it,its one of those stories where i bought this yonks ago and have never really sat down and paid much attention to it,but i cant sleep tonight so i thought i would give it a spin after being very impressed by Sweet,totally different from Sweet i know,im asking myself "why the hell did you not play this yonks ago?"because ive missed out on a pretty impressive album,not a bad track on it in my opinion,of course you get the hits "Bang a Gong(get It On")& "Jeepster",2 marvellous songs,but theres more to impress like the rather marvellous"Girl","Mambo Sun" & "Rip Off".the cd i have is from 2003 and has 6 bonus tracks with "Raw Ramp"being the pick.Is this Marc Bolan at his peak??I did and do enjoy some of his Tyrannausoras Rex records,my faves from those early days are "Unicorn" and "Beard of Stars",sorta getting to mid-way between his acoustic and electric gear.I must say the production by Tony Visconti is marvellous,with some under stated strings accompanying the electric music.Ya know i also have "The Slider"(with bonus cd) and"T.Rex" cds in the cupboard that are now coming out to play,i have played 1970s T.Rex in the past and like it,but ive never played 1972s "The Slider",so looking forward to that.All those albums are produced by Tony Visconti.Anyone else enjoy "Electric Warrior".Or any of Marc Bolan stuff?Hate?,like? or indifferent?

Surely that's his stuff with John's Children? Or The Wizard?

I have to say his early stuff is very grating on my ears, probably that shrill voice combined with those silly lyrics. His glam stuff is fun but I think in general he is very overrated and a bit of a one trick pony.

one trick pony my a**s. he made some great records. yes stuart, electric warrior is a classic. hard to beat it.

Well I can't speak for your arse Flax old boy, but in my opinion if you listen to a lot of T Rex in a row it starts very much sounding like you are listening to the same song over and over again. His godlike status is certainly not in proportion to his talent.

(Surely that's his stuff with John's Children? Or The Wizard?)
Hi Skip,to be pretty blunt i think Johns Children are a pretty over rated bunch myself...plus Marc Bolan was only with them a few months and recorded a handful (if that) of songs,i really cant call that his peak,its more like early beginnings for young Marc,as for The Wizard,nice track but again only one single,im talking about whole albums here,he released 5 albums between 67 -70....and i must admit on those first couple of albums his voice does begin to grate a bit and the songs very much belong in that hippie nonsensical lyrics era and with only acoustic guitar and bongos being used on those first 2 albums they do sorta merge into one another and sound samey,but as he records Unicorn and A Beard of Stars,i feel his songwriting was beginning to mature a bit on those albums and electricity was creeping into his recordings,but the album from 1970 T.Rex,to my ears is a big jump in quality musicwise and vocally he had toned down his warble and was coming on leaps and bounds but i agree still with nonsensical lyrics which attracts me even more to his music,i really dont think that was a handicap,but many would disagree.......then comes the biggie "Electric Warrior"all electric and more of a group sound than a duo with more instrumentation and added orchestration to boot,i really think his songs benefited more with added embelishments and more instruments....his songwriting imo comes into its own on this album,3 massive hit singles and a top selling album.....im sorry to disagree with you Skip but this IS his peak as i listened to "The Slider" last night and today and i felt it was not as good as "Electric Warrior"but still had great songwriting that appealed to the teen market which his image was pointed towards,but he certainly wasnt a one trick pony thats for sure,you can say what you like about Marc Bolan but he recorded a mountain of stuff in those first 6-7 years.........7 albums loads of singles and loads of unreleased stuff too which has being seen in the light of day the last few years.The progress in songwriting from the beginning with The Wizard and his songs recorded by Johns Children to his acoustic hippie strumming in tyrranausorus Rex to his electric recordings on T Rex and Electric Warrior is massive in my opinion.Nope i'll say it again ....nope he aint a one trick pony!!!!!!!

Electric Warrior is indeed a great album, and Raw Ramp is one of my favourite B-sides of all time. But The Slider (and then Tanx) aren't really in the same league in my opinion - having found a successful formula, he kept repeating it, but with inferior songs. So yes, I'd say that Electric Warrior without a doubt represents Bolan at his peak - certainly more so than the overrated John's Children (and as Stuart says, Bolan was only with JC for five minutes).

Having said all that, his lyrics were always appalling!

I’m a massive Bolan fan. I can see perfectly well why he might be thought of as a ‘one trick pony’ – the accusation was made all the time in the 70s. I can also see why some would regard his Tyrannosaurus Rex stuff (first two albums anyway) as ‘samey’ or boring just being congas and acoustic. However, I find him to be a unique talent. I find the Tyran. Rex stuff strangely affecting, All the Tolkienesque picturing his lyrics summon up, would be laughable if rendered by a rock band, but through Bolan & Took, they somehow perfectly fit the time of their creation and the medium of their delivery. Songs like ‘Chariots of Silk’ on Unicorn that add a little extra instrumentation (a harmonium in this instance I think) enhance this still further. I find a lot of those songs are as catchy as hell and stick in my mind. I’d warrant if some of these songs had been rendered by a currently hip 70s weird / prog folk group like Comus or Mellow Candle (love ‘em both) they would be revered as hallowed incantations. The very photographs on the Ty Rex album sleeves evoke a long lost underground moment in a way I don’t find so much with more obvious psychedelic cover art, but maybe that’s just me.

As for T Rex, post-Slider (Electric Warrior is a masterpiece), this is when he met Gloria Jones. Some fans feel this is where the ‘true’ T Rex sound ended. Personally, I feel Bolan’s music quadrupled in width and depth with her input. She switched him on to soul and funk which he took on board with relish and help radicalise or at least hybridise his music. Gloria’s vocal contributions also enriched his sound palette considrably. I love Tanx and Futuristic Dragon especially. The T Rex albums have just been reissued as a card sleeved CD box set by Edsel (for the first time in some years). Also worth hearing for a wider context and some great music, is the ‘Bolan At The BBC’ box set of a year or so ago. Altogether now, ‘Stacey Grove he’s a nice guy…..’

PM

I think John's Children sound like they had the bare bones of something good but the songs don't sound fully realised
like demos. I just dig Andy Ellison's camp wailing! I think he and Chris Townson nailed it later though with Jet etc.