T. Rex (John's Children and Tyrannosaurus Rex) - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1967-1968

I've been reluctant to post BBC material from the British glam band T. Rex, because it's a rare case of the record companies actually doing things correct. In 2013, a six CD box set called "Marc Bolan at the BBC" was released, and it has everything one needs, including all the BBC performances of T. Rex band leader Marc Bolan from the start of his music career until his death. However, I decided to post this because I made a couple of important changes. For one, I removed all of the talking between songs (including many lengthy interviews). And two, I fixed all the instances when BBC DJs talked over the music. If you want all that talking between and over the music, the box sex is there for you. But this is version for the people who just want the music.

Like the box set, I've divided Bolan's BBC recordings into six albums. Here's the first one. This actually predates the existence of "T. Rex" per se. The first three songs are from his first band, John's Children. Then he formed a duo with Steve Porter, who changed his name to Steve Peregrin Took, called "Tyrannosaurus Rex." In early 1970, that name was shortened to just "T. Rex." But for consistency I'm just calling everything "T. Rex."

For pretty much Bolan's entire career, his song were instantly recognizable, due to his unique style. The one partial exception to that was the first band he was in, John's Children. That band had already been in existence for about a year when Bolan joined in 1967, and it already had a lead vocalist, Andy Ellison. Bolan joined only as lead guitarist after the band's guitarist left. So on the first three songs here, Ellison sings more than Bolan does. However, if you listen carefully, Bolan does sing some.

Bolan wrote and sang an excellent song for John's Children, "Desdemona." It was that band's first and only hit. Unfortunately, Bolan was only in the band for four months, and only took part in one BBC session, and they didn't do that song, so it's not here. I have three songs by John's Children at the start, but note they actually played four in their one BBC sessions. But for whatever reason, one of the songs, the cover "Daddy Rolling Stone," sounds significantly worse than the rest. So I've only included that one as a bonus track.

Everything else on this album is by Tyrannosaurus Rex, a.k.a. T. Rex, with Bolan on lead vocals. That's much more distinctive. BBC DJ John Peel was a big fan from early on, and many of these sessions were from Peel's show. In the middle of the song "Frowning Atahuallpa," there's a section where Peel recited some poetry written by Bolan. I kept that in, since it was part of the performance.

Bolan's early stuff is pretty unique, and it's not for everyone. Personally, I'm not that big of fan of this, although I do like a lot of his later stuff, after his style changed some. But I'm posting this for the sake of completeness. And if you are a Bolan fan, all his BBC material is essential, especially since virtually no live recordings exist from this early in his career.

01 Jagged Time Lapse [Edit] (John's Children [T. Rex])
02 The Perfumed Garden of Gulliver Smith (John's Children [T. Rex])
04 Hot Rod Mama [Edit] (John's Children [T. Rex])
05 Highways (T. Rex)
06 Dwarfish Trumpet Blues (T. Rex)
07 Scenescof (T. Rex)
08 Child Star (T. Rex)
09 Pictures of Purple People (T. Rex)
10 Hot Rod Mama (T. Rex)
11 Knight (T. Rex)
12 Frowning Atahuallpa (T. Rex)
13 Strange Orchestras (T. Rex)
14 Afghan Woman (T. Rex)
15 Deborah (T. Rex)
16 Mustang Ford (T. Rex)
17 Stacey Grove (T. Rex)
18 One Inch Rock (T. Rex)

Daddy Rolling Stone [Edit] (John's Children [T. Rex])

https://www.upload.ee/files/16064360/TRexx_1967-1968_BBSessonsVolum1_atse.zip.html

The cover is a photo of John's Children. I thought it would be more interesting to show that than just a picture of Bolan from slightly later on.