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Wednesday, January 23, 2008

T REX


John Van Atta of Strikes Again! donated a bunch of vinyl to Smoke and Mirrors. The haul included a live T Rex LP that I didn't know existed. I was very pleased. I don't think I'll listen to it much. For me T Rex is a studio thing.


The best T Rex records, the 71/72 trilogy of: 'Electric Warrior', 'The Slider', and 'Tanx', are a match set of sublime groove, electric boogie.























Tony Visconti produced those records. They were all recorded at the 'Honky Chateau', Château d'Hérouville, Pontoise, France.




Marc was on a roll.


I like 'The Slider' the best. Probably for sentimental reasons, but I do think it is more consistent, both in songcraft as well as the overall tone of the production. 'Tanx' tries to broaden the scope in style, and loses a bit of cohesion. 'Electric Warrior', the first of the three, but not the first T Rex record, is great, but just not quite as solid as 'The Slider'.

Flo and Eddie appear on the first two, and they are missed on the third.


Buy them.

Comments:
I have both Electric Warrior and The Slider, but not Tanx. I love the two I have. Though all of The Slider is awesome, I think that Spaceball Ricochet makes it worth the price of admission alone.
 
Jackson - Great news that the Smokeshop scored some vinyl from JVA. But inferring T. Rex had more going on the studio side of things (as a result of the great Tony Visconti's aural perfection) means to me you've possibly never seen Born to Boogie DVD, which has two terrific T. Rex live shows from June 1972 to sink into. Marc was in his absolute natural element onstage. Buy it, turn it up.
 
Seen it. Sounds 'orrible. All screaming, dull sounding drums, and muffled guitar.

It may have been His natural element, but unless you were in the room, well, it just sounds bad.

Love the footage, don't get me wrong, I'm obsessed with this stuff, but the SOUND suffers live.

I was listening to 'Monolith' off of Electric Warrior yesterday, man that shit is awesome.

Sound is my thing. Ziggy Stardust (The Movie), Who Live at Leeds, even, gasp, Gimme Shelter - they all suffer from the early state of location recording, clearly the Stones did it the best, but it would be a few years until a live recording could be compared to one done in the studio. Mid 70's I'd say.
 
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