Black Ink and David Best Reviews from M&M Enterprises

Ahem...Greetings all. Here is my submission to the Record of the Month Club.

Obligatory intro story: I inherited an acoustic guitar from a friend who died in 1984. - I'd never played, but somehow, it seemed like the 'perfect gift'. Anyway, that summer, I was going through a pretty heavy Ty-Rex phase and one day while I was sitting strumming this guitar, I realized that I'd accidentally strummed out the chords of the rhythm guitar part in 'A Daye Laye'. (!!)

I love -everything- about this LP. From the very first note of Prelude which always makes my heart soar - to the 'Grand Cacophony' of Elemental Child, where I have often find myself pogo-ing around the room, bopping madly to that guitar thing at the end. (The cats, at this point, are both hiding under the bed.)

Here's my quick synopsis of the whole record - which I just recently found on CD! No lyric sheet with the CD though <for shame!>

A Daye Laye. <for me> is forever dedicated to absent friends.

Woodland Bop. A totally accessible pop tune.

Fist Heart Mighty D-D-D-Dawn Dart. A personal favourite. I love the melody.

Pavillions of Sun. Awesome melody. 'Know the earth and you'll understand'

Organ Blues. 'Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah you know that I love you...' - Sheer Brilliance. Listen to the bongo drum, it's alive!

By The Light....Another totally accessible pop tune and I just love the lead guitar...the way it weaves itself around and through the melody...it sounds backwards!!! Awesome.

Doesn't Wind Cheetah sound like something totally foreign and exotic?

Great Horse. I have no words for this beautiful song. I think it might be my favourite off this album. It's sad -and- happy -and- gorgeous.

Dragons Ear is my least favourite!

Lofty Skies is the second song I learnt the chords to. :) Another personal favourite

Dove. Another one of those totally accessible little beauties.

Elemental Child. I think I covered this one in the intro!

So that's me. (This was a great idea Rick) I had fun listening to this record with 'fresh ears' again.

blackink

Hi Tillers,

Got done the painting and now have time for the review.

Like some others, I got to this album backwards. My first T.Rex album was EW and then I got the T.Rex album (here in Canada with Ride A White Swan instead of The Children of Rarn reprise...always thought Swan belonged there..a goodbye to Ty.Rex and on with the Electric Warrior) At the time I looked for anything by Marc. I don't quite remember, but I think that BOS was my first Ty.Rex album. I love the cover photos of Marc and Micky. I've just realised I have two vinyl copies of this (where did this second copy come from?.. age it does things to the mind), both on Blue Thumb Records, but each with a different foldout, also a cd copy.

The first thing that strikes me about this album is how short it is, only 35 minutes, but a very entertaining 35 minutes;-)

Prelude - appropriately titled - a prelude of things to come, simple and relaxing, listen to it on the headphones and the bells go back and forth - Micky's debut?

A Day Laye - great lyrics, "don't ever worry cos I'm your friend"

Woodland Bop - once you start it you'll find it hard to stop, do da da daa;-)

Fist Heart Mighty Dawn Dart - great title, I used to have Bard's Tale characters named Fistheart and Dawndart. I loved that game...funny how the day comes slo ow.

Pavilions of Sun - Swans will fly.....love the bongos, good job Micky!

Organ Blues - what a mood..oh yeah..simple yet entertaining..again good on the headphones. did he say feasties of the Bestys;-)..oh right beasties (phew!)

By the Light of the Magical Moon - nice guitar intro and bongos again, there's that 'lectric guitar..again moving around on the headphones.

Wind Cheetah - you can see Marc, standing on a hill, wind in his hair, playing the electric guitar, Micky at his feet, as they overlook the village below.....spinning their tale..

A Beard of Stars - backing vocals remind me of what was to come, nice work

Great Horse - love the words

Dragon's Ear - my favorite, love the simplicity of the start...I used to have a character named Dworn in BT as well...he kick ***. this would make a good rocker.. but let's not mess with a good thing.

Lofty Skies - we kissed and cried..good advice;-)

Dove - haven't we all felt this way?

Elemental Child - like the way Marc sings the title..the rest..well Hendrix he wasn't..also good to listen to on the headphones..nice backing vocal in the left ear..would have liked Marc to try this later when his guitar skills were better developed..did he ever perform it live as T.Rex?

Throughout this album we are treated to some GREAT poetry put to music..not all of it makes sense in reality, but in the fantasy realms of our minds it conjurs up visions of..........

Marc Hendrix is still playing in my ears, man they could have used a better bass line...<g>

My second review, is that a newbie record;-), again, go easy on me, I'm new at this.

Besty

Mark McL and Rick Reviews from M&M Enterprises

IT'S IN STEREO

Of course it is you say, but remember that in the late 60's stereo was still a novelty. I bought stereo LPs even though neither I nor anyone I knew had one. "This can be played on mono equipment fitted with a suitable stylus. If in doubt consult your dealer" was printed on the back of most stereo albums.

With my freshly bought copy of BOS I went round to my friend John Sayer's; he had a new stereo (well his dad did really) AND stereo headphones. I had never tried headphones before and as I listened to Prelude the cymbals went "from ear to ear" right across the middle of my head - WOW!!

FIRST PERSON

Compared to the first three albums Marc has moved from narrative and descriptive songs to songs written from a personal viewpoint. This means mainly love songs which were not really present before. Also the tone is much sadder, a catch in the throat. What was happening in his personal life at the time that could have brought about this change?

ELEMENTAL CHILD

Most of the album is Tyrannosaurus Rex "Plugged" and then this track bursts upon you. Who? What?? Where??? What is going on here, this is so-o-o different! A harbinger of things to come. Each album has an oddball track that sticks out from the others, this is BOS's. For those unready to move on this is the writing on the wall. Exciting or self indulgent? Don't care really - I liked it.

Anyway (June 1st) ----- "Beard of stars"

1- "A day Laye"

This song could have fit on almost any prior T-Rex or Tyrann. LP. I could even see it fit onto many of the later LP's (well maybe not Zip Gun Boogie, or Futuristic Dragon) ....

It always reminded me of the opening of "Children of Rarn" from the T-REX Lp As with the UK release of that Lp it would have fit in nicely as a reprise at the end of "B.O.S"

On my site (small P.R. work) I've used two of my favorite lyrics to introduce certain sections & both of them came from this track.

To greet those at my collections I have ::

"Every dawn of our lives a heart is forged and

Linked with lore to one so similar"

To thank those on my homepage I included :

"Even though the wind might blow it all away

Don't ever worry 'cos I'm your friend"

I still get a warm feeling every time I hear this song. It represents a human quality .. man connecting to fellow man/woman I think Marc saw this as Lp as he did the T-Rex Lp ..A Book . and "A Day Laye" is the prologue .. In the past 25 years I think i've used the latter lyric in countless letters to friends (there was a time when we only had snail mail) if they were feeling down about something.

Well that is how the song touches me .. As I probably will review all the tracks , on a personal level. Each song that Marc gave us ,in turn gave me, a better insight to myself. Even if it was only "You can bump & grind if it's good for you mind" That Bump & grind was still imbedded in my mind!

______________

Rickster

----NEXT---?

Jukebox Rebel Review

With Steve Peregrin Took having been ousted as a result of artistic frictions, Marc appointed a new sideman and marched forward, unfazed. The new duo were: Marc Bolan (22, acoustic and electric guitars, lead vocals, chord organ, bass) and Mickey Finn (22, Moroccan clay drums, backing vocals, tabla, finger cymbals, bass). The introduction of the electric guitar was a first on Tyrannosaurus Rex albums, but it's played in a fairly unobtrusive way, beefing up the sound a tad without losing sight of the trademark slappy-happy-folkie-mystics which have served the group so well thus far. I'm first enraptured by “Organ Blues”, a simple love song where “there's gold in the mountains and a people living in the sea”, framed by a droning organ and lightly slapped hand drums. This is followed by the equally brilliant “By The Light Of A Magical Moon” which fuses the alt-folk with traces of - shock-horror - rock guitar, and comes out unscathed, pointing towards an evolving new sound in Marc's head. This is underlined on the album's closer, “Elemental Child”, which - again, shock-horror - introduces a lilting rock-boogie into the proceedings. The pot's bubbling…

The Jukebox Rebel

22-Dec-2007

Steve Kilbey Review

Things in transition always excite me. Here we find Marc Bolan morphing before our eyes from hippy-minstrel changeling to the bopping elf, as he would later come to be known. But two very interesting records separated these two extremely different Bolans as he moved from one thing to another, and the first transition album is A Beard Of Stars. It features the result of a few guitar lessons from Eric Clapton himself. Bolan must have learned something because he suddenly knew how to make his Fender Strat talk and sing. The wah-wah solo in “Lofty Skies” is achingly and unbearably poignant. It is the very voice of love. “Oh this time of love moves me,” sings Bolan softly at the end of it.

Elsewhere there is some true weirdness that has been fueling my imagination for a long time. We don’t know really what Phoenician or Babylonian music sounded like, but I reckon it might have sounded like “Wind Cheetah,” a bizarre song that is like nothing you’ve ever heard … even I can’t handle listening to it every time! There’s “Great Horse,” a strange song as if from Old European tradition or something. Although these songs are played on guitar, bass and percussion instruments, almost all of them are strikingly medieval or Biblical or Eastern Orthodox or a strange mixture of all of that. But at the same time Bolan has finally figured out how he may rock, and on “Elemental Child” he delivers a big noisy and dumbly wonderful guitar solo, one that even Neil Young might have been proud of. (I guess?!)

His words are part Middle Earth, part hipster-romantic-poet jive. All sung in that strange accent, which was becoming more understandable. You see, on the first three Tyrannosaurus Rex albums, Bolan had warbled and bleated almost unintelligently, but now for the first time you could understand large chunks of the lyrics. (No lyric sheet with my copy, good!)

On the next record he would abbreviate the name to T.Rex. (The first time anyone anywhere used that term by the way, now everyone calls the dinosaur T. Rex, but they didn’t before Bolan.) A friend of mine upon hearing this record in 1970 for the first time exclaimed, “He’s singing in old English!”

A Beard Of Stars: I think you might grow to adore this record after a few plays; it’s quite special!

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