T. Rex - The Slider
(Edsel)
Americans are poorly educated on the subject of glam rock. If you're lucky, when you mention glam, they'll think of Bowie and not bad 80's hair bands. If they think of Bowie, they might also think of Slade and Sweet or Gary Glitter, the trashy bands that rode on the coattails of the real glam bands. I don't know why it is, but most Americans don't know about Roxy Music or T. Rex, two of the most important bands in the glam movement.
"T. Rex...T. Rex...aren't they the guys who did that 'Bang A Gong' song?" You don't want to know how often I've heard this. Yes, T. Rex did do the song "Get It On (Bang A Gong)," and in many ways it is representative of their music. But it is in no way the complete picture. Edsel realized this when they bought the rights to T. Rex's catalogue post-Electric Warrior (the album that started the U.K. glam craze and contains that aforementioned hit). Edsel went to exhaustive lengths to make sure that people did get the full extent of T. Rex's achievements. They released the original albums with remastered sound and bonus tracks. They released a whole series of CDs containing nothing but unreleased songs and sketches. And they also released a series of "alternate" albums, which mirrored the original albums, but were comprised of demos, outtakes, and band rehearsals. The problem was, the sheer amount of CDs released by Edsel, combined with the relative lack of knowledge about T. Rex in America meant that you were lucky to find the original album you wanted, let alone an alternate version.
Edsel has begun the road to correcting this by releasing two-disc editions of T. Rex's albums. The first disc is identical to their first release of the original album, with remastered sound and bonus tracks. The second disc is identical to the alternate album. This is good news for T. Rex fans, because now they can get the albums they want and the alternate album for about $5 more than a single CD might cost. It's also good news for people who don't know much about T. Rex, because it's never been cheaper and easier to buy some great music that shows the true range of Marc Bolan's depth.
While most people regard Electric Warrior as T. Rex's best album, the truth is that its follow-up, The Slider, is the superior musical document. And on the thirtieth anniversary of the eternal glam rock figure, Ziggy Stardust, it's high time to take a look at the other glam rock album of that year. The Slider is full of first-rate compositions from beginning to end, and while Bolan often employs a boogie rhythm, he never lets it dominate a song, as he sometimes did on Electric Warrior. Tracks like "Metal Guru," "Baby Boomerang," and "Telegram Sam" are as representative of glam as you're going to get, while other tracks like "Mystic Lady," "The Slider," and "Main Man" show that Bolan could write more than just pop hooks. There isn't a weak track on the set, and the bonus tracks "Cadilac," "Thunderwing," and "Lady" are as good as anything on the album and pack even more great music into an already amazing set. Every bit as essential as Ziggy Stardust, The Slider proves that thirty years on, it too holds up just as well as it once did.
Rabbit Fighter, the alternate album, is as good as the alternate albums get (not surprising, since The Slider is T. Rex's best album). Listening to the two discs back to back, it's hard not to be impressed by the high quality of Bolan's output in this period. No matter how these songs are performed, they sound great. Want to turn "Metal Guru" from a heavy hitting glam anthem to a fun acoustic romp? Sure, go ahead, it sounds just as good. Even trading "Baby Boomerang" for "Thunderwing" and "Chariot Choogle" for "Cadilac" shows that the integrity of these songs hold up in an altered context. You must be doing something right if your demos and outtakes are as interesting as your studio output, and in this period, T. Rex was doing everything right.
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