1972 was a big year for
T. Rex. Having blown up in 1971 with
Electric Warrior and its chart-topping singles,
Marc Bolan and his band were on top of the pop world. With hit records, sold-out stadium shows, movies with
Ringo, and trotting across the globe in a blur of glammy looks and sounds, the group seemed unstoppable.
Demon Records' box set
1972 takes a look at the studio recordings
T. Rex made over the course of the year, including the peerless
Slider album, non-LP singles and B-sides, radio sessions that were taped by the BBC and various American radio stations, the soundtrack to the film
Born to Boogie, and a concert recorded at Wembley. Though there are a truckload of other recordings in the vault -- including an entire alternate version of
The Slider --
Demon sticks to the basics while presenting a snapshot of a band at their peak.
The Slider is a perfect distillation of the
Bolan style, made up of huge stomping rockers, melancholy ballads, and playful romps all delivered with a twinkling eye and a knowing pout. Non-LP singles "Solid Gold Easy Action" and "Children of the Revolution" showed off where
T. Rex had been and a heavier possible future, respectively, and their included B-sides would have been career highlights for other bands. Is there a better glam rock toss-off than "Sunken Rags"? The American radio sessions are joyously loose and ragged,
Marc having a blast as he traipses through songs from
Electric Warrior and
The Slider, strumming up a storm and pushing the vocal meter into the red. It's hard to imagine someone accidentally tuning in to this in 1972 and not wondering exactly what planet
Bolan had beamed down from. The BBC sessions are a more studied affair, with a full band mostly sticking to the recorded versions but a little raucous around the edges. Anyone looking for something even looser and wilder need look no further than the live recording.
Bolan mugs for the crowd, conjures up gnarly guitar riffs and roof-scraping solos, while the band gamely rambles along trying to keep up. The three-song acoustic interlude is a brave bit of showmanship that the audience eats up despite the variable tuning. It has a pleasant you-are-there recording quality that makes for a fine archival document, if not the first thing one might reach for when needing a
T. Rex fix. The
Born to Boogie soundtrack also culls songs from the Wembley shows and intersperses them with poems, bits of audio verite, and songs recorded with
Elton John and
Ringo Starr, most notably a version of "Children of the Revolution" that gives a glimpse what
T. Rex might have sounded like if
Bolan hadn't had such a singular vision. It's another fascinating piece of the puzzle, so that when you fit them together as
Demon has, it makes for a thrilling set that truly does capture
Bolan at his magical best, rarities be damned. ~ Tim Sendra
