The gateway single for the success of T Rex and their most acclaimed album Electric Warrior was “Hot Love”. It topped the UK charts and gave Marc Bolan the formula he’d been seeking. Simple boogie rhythms, some cheeky teenage poetry and an infectious chorus you could sing along to. In fact, you were compelled to sing along to Bolan’s songs; they were that catchy. Electric Warrior delivered two such monster singles, “Get it on” and “Jeepster”. Both feature on an album that remains as bright and thoroughly entertaining now as it did in 1971. And it all happened amazingly quickly.
Marc Bolan (Mark Feld to his mum) was a hippy singer-songwriter in late Sixties London who enjoyed modest success with his psychedelic folk-rock band Tyrannosaurus Rex. Bolan observed that acoustic guitars were on a descending flight path, especially if you craved screaming teen fans who would plaster their bedroom walls with your image. He was cute and ambitious, having a hunger for stardom and a keen nose for trends. Those sensibilities led Bolan to become a pioneer of glam rock with its stomping beats, glitter and satin. This in turn brought the fame he desired. Yet the diminutive singer did not enjoy the trappings of celebrity for long. He died in a car crash at 29.
What makes Electric Warrior such a beguiling album, even half a century later? Let’s start with the iconic cover. Surrounded by an aura of radiant gold light, Marc Bolan strikes a classic guitar-slinger pose in front of a heavy duty amplifier. The image is simple yet extraordinarily potent. It’s also rather misleading. If you didn’t know the artist or the music, you’d expect some cross between Jimi Hendrix and Black Sabbath. But that is not what is on offer here.
When you place the record on the turntable, the first song is “Mambo Sun”, a surprisingly low key opening. Over a mid-paced four-on-the-floor beat, Bolan croons,
With my hat in my hand / I’m a hungry man for you
I got stars in my beard / And I feel real weird for you
“Cosmic Dancer” is even more laid back; a gentle paisley-print song with strings underpinning the incense swathed self-mythologising of Bolan’s lyrics. It’s a pretty piece with a fine psychedelic guitar solo, but you really are ready to boogie by the time the jaunty, infectious “Jeepster” kicks in.
Side two opens with the album’s biggest single, the mighty “Get It On”. Swaggering to #1 in the UK and #10 in the US (their highest chart placing there) it cemented T Rex in the vanguard of glam rock. It’s totally irresistible and super fun, despite the potty lyrics. Bolan was a published poet, but his song lyrics are generally not, I suspect, considered timeless literature by anyone over the age of fourteen.
You’re built like a car
You got a hubcap / diamond star halo
You’re dirty sweet and you’re my girl
Get it on / Bang a gong / Get it on
The rest of the album is filled with quality T Rex boogie-based groove, though not without variation. “Girl” is an acoustic balled, a classic blues template is applied cleanly on “Lean Woman Blues” and “Rip off” is a speedy pre-punk rant to close out the LP.
As I wrote in the 1971 COUNTDOWN,
Slight yet catchy tunes, unselfconscious silliness, good-time rock and roll and ushering in glam while Bowie was still warming up to the idea… Marc Bolan’s T Rex nailed the emerging scene with gleeful irreverence.
All that remains is to mention the great sound and excellent overall quality of the 2022 Abbey Road Studios Half Speed Master. The reproduction of the original inner sleeve with the pencil portraits of Bolan and Mickey Finn is welcome, though including the poster as well would have been nice. I mean, what are we going to pin to our bedroom walls?
Luckily the CD came with a pre-shrunk version of the poster. Where’s the blutack?
First published at Discrepancy Records. Reposted with kind permission, including additional material.
*
vinylconnection.com.au 
I’ve always had a soft spot for T-Rex. The first vinyl I ever bought (with scrimped and saved pocket money) was a compilation called Bolan Boogie, which contained the ever-memorable The King of the Mountain Cometh. A local DJ on our incredibly conservative country-town radio station must have had a little too much of the wacky tobaccy one evening and spun it out into the night, and it stuck in my head so strongly that it prompted my first-ever music purchase. It was just so unlike the awful mainstream dross that I was accustomed to hearing. I went on to acquire every single T-Rex vinyl release over the next few years, and had them until the great vinyl heist of ’82 in which I and my brother lost our entire record collection.
Electric Warrior is indeed a fantastic album, but over the decades, I think I’ve settled on Unicorn as my favourite. Here Marc Bolan and Steve Took were at their hippie peak, and you can hear them teetering on the edge of the psychedelic boogie rock that made them famous.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great story PM. What’s amazing about King of the Mountain is now they stretch it out into true psychedelic territory before dropping everything out to leave just acoustic guitar. Easy to see how that caught your attention!
(Every reference to that heinous 1982 crime sends a chill down my spine. Which is something of a Scribbletronics calling card really.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
We lost every single album we owned. Including some that went on to be reasonably rare: a first release of Nico’s Desert Shore, first (possibly only) edition of Donovan’s Fairy Tale, first edition of Brian Protheroe’s Pinball and dozens of others. They also nicked our (very crappy) turntable and amp. And the guitar I’d been given by my parents for my 21st birthday, with the birthday card still in the case. It was very demoralising.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sometimes the hurt doesn’t fade. 😦
LikeLiked by 1 person
I spotlighted this album last night on the Contrarians – “Album Covers You Can Hear”. This one certainly qualifies, if not defines!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah, that is a neat co-incidence Mike. Did any Contrarians suggest that the music was nowhere near heavy enough for the image? Or am I being too contrary? 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not specifically last night, but Martin mentions that in a few of his books, so on the panel that was sort of already an understood opinion. Didn’t need to re-open that can ‘o worms!
LikeLiked by 1 person
While I think it’s fair to say T. Rex’s music wasn’t exactly complex, they had some great and memorable songs. I also like Tyrannosaurus Rex’s trippy “Debora,” but it’s way harder remember than T. Rex songs like “Hot Love”, “Bang a Gong” or “Metal Guru.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
… or indeed my favourite T Rex song, ‘Children of the Revolution’.
Cheers Christian!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like that one as well!
LikeLiked by 1 person
If you wanted to be a serious young man in the early 1970s, you couldn’t like T. Rex, but today I can regret that. It’s always a nice day when I hear “Electric Warrior.”
LikeLiked by 2 people
It’s lightweight but fun, right?
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Get it on”… small, fine mutant boogie in the back of the head, curly hair, kayal eyes.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And flares. Don’t forget the flares. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Bang a gong, get it on” always takes me back to being 12 years old at the neighborhood swim club (along with “Spill the Wine” and “Long Cool Woman”). I smell the chlorine and hot concrete to this day. Music does have that power.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sensory cross-pollination. Love it. Your memory has sparked one in me in return (as it were). Hearing Spill The Wine on a transistor radio. It was so cool, groovy and sensual I had tingles.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for this. I don’t give T-Rex the attention they deserve… in fact I never even heard of them until I went to college. My older brothers were very dismissive of glam as was the radio station I listened to. Just had some fun reacquainting myself with some tracks on this album and will even treat my spin class participants to Jeepster next Thursday.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Excellent, Jeff. Will you ask your participants to sew some sequins onto their lycra (as I’m sure you will do)?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ummmm, we’ll see.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Phenomenal record. I appreciate it when talented artists return to the core ingredients of rock music…fun, sex appeal and rebellion.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nice review Bruce. I really like this LP but I’ve never quite been able to love it unreservedly. I blame my folks for taking me (in utero) to see Tyrannosaurus Rex, thus setting in chain an unreasoning need for Steve Peregrin Took … possibly.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hobbits have a way of getting under your skin, don’t they? (I actually remain ambivalent about T Rex, mainly because I can’t quite forgive Bolan for being such a jerk to John Peel.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
I do love that glam stomp sound. Maybe I’m part orc.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Me too. You probably bought my disco album (1977) “Boogie with the Uruk Hai”.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are Gandalf the Mirrorball.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m here for the Flo & Eddie bits.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bruce — can you send me the name or link to your writing blog? I don’t think i am getting your posts in my mailbox anymore.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sure Geo. Thanks for asking. I’m not there as much as I’d like, but it’s not entirely dormant!
https://lonelykeyboards.wordpress.com/
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have a relatively new-ish pressing of this album after having it for years on CD. Thanks for the review. I’ll have to check if it’s the 2022 Abbey Road Studios Half Speed Master.
LikeLike