Electric Warrior

Performer: Marc Bolan/Marc Bolan & T. Rex/T. Rex
Artist: Flo & Eddie
Distributor: City Hall

Notes: Includes liner notes by Nikki Sudden, Cliff McLenehen & Bill Legend. Includes liner notes by Nikki Sudden, Cliff McLenehan and Bill Legend. Prior to ELECTRIC WARRIOR's release, T. Rex (or, as it had mostly been known, Tyrannosaurus Rex) was a folk-rock duo that played acoustic guitar and bongos augmented by the occasional electric and full drum kit. While some of the hippie-prophet philosophy that dominated Tyrannosaurus Rex's music can still be heard here (especially on the dreamy geneology of "Cosmic Dancer"), ELECTRIC WARRIOR, for the most part, represents a revolution in attitude and approach. Singer/songwriter/guitarist Marc Bolan expanded the band here for a full rock sound, and focused on lean, hook-heavy pop songs that relied on slinky grooves and the riveting energy of early rock & roll. Married to Bolan's cheeky sexuality and theatrical flair, the results were undeniable. From the mid-tempo thump of "Mambo Sun" to the crashing yowl of "Rip Off," ELECTRIC WARRIOR is fuzzy, nasty, and immediately appealing. Songs like "Jeepster" and "Bang A Gong" pump straight from the elemental heart of rock & roll, yet the songs are fleshed out beautifully with strings, handclaps, backup vocals, and Tony Visconti's expansive production. Bolan's glitzy, sexy aesthetic directly sparked the glam movement (he was a huge influence on David Bowie and the creation of his Ziggy Stardust persona), while his punchy, back-to-basics approach also presaged the stripped-down, three-minute song attack of the Ramones and the punk movement in the later '70s. As a result, ELECTRIC WARRIOR can be seen as one of the most enduring and quietly influential records in the rock canon. It's pretty easy to argue that T. Rex hit its peak with 1972's ELECTRIC WARRIOR. Song for song, WARRIOR sported the group's most consistent set of tunes. Marc Bolan found his voice here, both the metallic purr of songs like "Planet Queen" and the salacious crooning of "Life's a Gas." Tony Visconti's superb production gave the tunes much-needed heft, and the groovy, gritty guitar never sounded better. It also included the group's signature song, "Get it On (Bang a Gong)." The ELECTRIC WARRIOR SESSIONS consists of earlier takes of some (but not all) of the album's tracks--sometimes in multiple versions--along with early rock & roll covers including "Summertime Blues" and Carl Perkins's "Honey Don't." Among the minutiae revealed by these rough versions is that Bolan's seemingly offhand, half-spoken "Meanwhile, I'm still thinkin'," in the fadeout of "Get it On" was actually in the song in a much earlier take. Most fascinating is the 12-minute 1971 Bolan interview. His words "I don't feel there's that much time to jive about anymore...I realize the urgency to do whatever you're gonna do...now" are eerily prophetic in the light of his fatal car crash five years later.

Rolling Stone (1/6/72, pp.64-66) - "...he plays to the post-J.F.K. set, yet with enough decadence and sarcasm for any war baby to hum along....Marc is one of the eternally precocious, fated to live outside the world of adults forever..." Q (9/01, pp.137-8) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Glistening, seemingly extra-terrestrial prettiness....bewitching stuff..." Mojo (Publisher) (10/01, p.133) - "...This music may even sound better than it did at the time: stripped of baggage, it's the kind of pop-rock deluxe which is, these days, in short supply..."

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