Viva la Revolucion (of the 45 per minute variety anyway...)
236. T-Rex "Children Of The Revolution"
In early-70's England, a young vocalist/guitarist named Marc Bolan seemed to have convinced himself that he was the second coming of every rock hero since Elvis Presley. Since he and his band T-Rex worked in the genre of glam rock which trafficked heavily in gleeful pomposity and arrogance, this worked out pretty well for him and he cranked out a bunch of fine singles.
This number is the only one of his where he convinces me that he's as cool as he thinks he is, and Bolan for all his his rockstar trips, did always have an uncanny sense of good song structure and a reverence for good source material (witness the quote of Chuck Berry's 'Little Queenie' in 'Get It On (Bang A Gong)' and the namecheck of Robert Johnson's 'Terraplane Blues' here) .
There is something unmistably regal in this song's strutting swagger (to say nothing of the power chords doubled on string quartet) and Bolan gives it a perfect breathy Little Prince vocal (the Rolls-Royce of the lyric must've actually helped). The backup singers on the chorus seem like nothing so much as a royal court singing praises, making this glam rocks finest ode to egomania ever.
In the skateboarding documentary Dogtown & Z-Boys there's a sequence where the Z-Boys skate around a parking lot doing wild moves as this number blares in the background, which tells me that the Reolution of the title isn't about Marxism or any other kind of -ism except T-Rexism, which seems to be all about discovering and embracing your inner fabulousness. Seems as good a philosophy as any.
(Marc Bolan died in a 1977 car wreck. The driver was his backup singer and girlfriend Gloria Jones who had a hit in 1964 with the soul classic 'Tainted Love' which was later ruined by synth-pop peddlers Soft Cell.)
In early-70's England, a young vocalist/guitarist named Marc Bolan seemed to have convinced himself that he was the second coming of every rock hero since Elvis Presley. Since he and his band T-Rex worked in the genre of glam rock which trafficked heavily in gleeful pomposity and arrogance, this worked out pretty well for him and he cranked out a bunch of fine singles.
This number is the only one of his where he convinces me that he's as cool as he thinks he is, and Bolan for all his his rockstar trips, did always have an uncanny sense of good song structure and a reverence for good source material (witness the quote of Chuck Berry's 'Little Queenie' in 'Get It On (Bang A Gong)' and the namecheck of Robert Johnson's 'Terraplane Blues' here) .
There is something unmistably regal in this song's strutting swagger (to say nothing of the power chords doubled on string quartet) and Bolan gives it a perfect breathy Little Prince vocal (the Rolls-Royce of the lyric must've actually helped). The backup singers on the chorus seem like nothing so much as a royal court singing praises, making this glam rocks finest ode to egomania ever.
In the skateboarding documentary Dogtown & Z-Boys there's a sequence where the Z-Boys skate around a parking lot doing wild moves as this number blares in the background, which tells me that the Reolution of the title isn't about Marxism or any other kind of -ism except T-Rexism, which seems to be all about discovering and embracing your inner fabulousness. Seems as good a philosophy as any.
(Marc Bolan died in a 1977 car wreck. The driver was his backup singer and girlfriend Gloria Jones who had a hit in 1964 with the soul classic 'Tainted Love' which was later ruined by synth-pop peddlers Soft Cell.)
Comments
And most of my friends have a big music knowledge base. Weird.
Is it just me, or is T-Rex way underappreciated here?
I am a HUGE T-rex fan. And yes, they are underappreciated. Jeepster is awesome.