Marc Bolan and T. Rex entered my life when I was about 14 with their album “Electric Warrior”.
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I didn’t really know who they were at the time, when they were being feted by some as the “new Beatles” (not the first and not the last to be called this…).
And I had never seen live footage of them until finding these videos for you – I hadn’t realised what a powerful, charismatic live performer I had missed out on!
(As far as I know T-Rex never came to New Zealand, and Marc Bolan was tragically killed in a road accident in late 1977, just three months before my first visit to the UK.)
The music itself (from “Electric Warrior”) has remained in my head for close to 40 years now, especially the “Planet Queen” who “used my head like a revolver”.
Perhaps the most well known song from the album was “Get It On”, renamed “Bang A Gong (Get It On)” when released in the US to avoid confusion with another song.
I’ve gone to town a bit here and given you four different versions to take your pick from…
First, the studio version:
Here’s a live version for German television station 3Sat (for whom I helped film some documentaries in the South Pacific about 20-25 years later):
Now this version I really like. It was filmed live in 1972 at the Wembley Empire Pool for a film by Ringo Starr, and features some powerful, Hendrix-like guitar action:
Finally, finishing up our little Get It On excess, an extended version on the midnight special:
Let’s continue now with a different song (what, I hear you say, haven’t you got any more of that one…?)
It’s “Jeepster”, another piece filmed live at the Wembley Empire Pool on 18 March 1972:
“Life’s a Gas” is typical Marc Bolan:
And “Children of the Revolution”, here in a promo film (see if you can spot any cables) is another T. Rex favourite:
Finally, perhaps my favourite from the “Electric Warrior” album, the “Planet Queen”.
As it turned out, the only original version I could find was the actual creation of the song, an acoustic version of the “work in progress”…
Well it’s all right, love is what you want
Flying saucer take me away
Gimme your daughter…
It’s OK, you can keep your daughter, I’ve got my own. Funnily enough, only yesterday she said to me “You should put T. Rex on your blog”.
And I told her I had already planned to, the first entry I have actually decided on a day in advance!
Get it on…
Paul