Electric Warrior (Remastered) T. Rex

• 1 Mambo Sun 03:40
• 2 Cosmic Dancer 04:28
• 3 Jeepster 04:10
• 4 Monolith 03:48
• 5 Lean Woman Blues 03:01
• 6 Bang A Gong 04:26
• 7 Planet Queen 03:12
• 8 Girl 02:31
• 9 The Motivator 03:59
• 10 Life's A Gas 02:24
• 11 Rip Off 03:39
• Total Runtime 39:18

Info for Electric Warrior (Remastered)

Electric Warrior is the sixth album by British rock group T. Rex, and is widely considered to be one of the quintessential glam rock releases. Electric Warrior reached number thirty-two in the US; it went to number one for several weeks in the UK, becoming the biggest album of 1971. In 2003 it was ranked number 160 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the '500 Greatest Albums of All Time.'

'So elegant, so fey (check the cover of T. Rex, his first on Reprise), Marc Bolan is a stripling, a sylph. Too old to be innocent in today's world, though his years number 23, he plays to the post-J.F.K. set, yet with enough decadence and sarcasm for any war baby to hum along. He's been rewarded with three No. One singles in England, where their sense of youth is less pristine (and besides, how old is the average singles consumer anyway?).

Marc is one of the eternally precocious, fated to live outside the world of adults forever. But he is an outsider in another sense, too. Back when T. Rex was known as Tyrannosaurus Rex, Marc sang of and inhabited a medieval world of wizards and unicorns. Now his subject and medium is rock 'n' roll, and his outsider's stance (chronologically young because historically young) enables him to see things with a special clarity and vision. Marc's lyrics still sound like nursery rhymes, and he sings with a puckish quaver, but he now plays a mean lead guitar.

What Marc seems to be saying on Electric Warrior is that rock is ultimately as quaint as wizards and unicorns, and finally, as defunct. It is a self-contained, completed form, with T. Rex and Black Sabbath, both parodists in their own way, its parentheses. His targets are your common rock & roll cliches, as well as your common pseudo-poetic, pseudo-philosophical rock & roll cliches. E.g. 'Monolith,' or Stanley Kubrick meets the Duke of Earl: 'And dressed as you are girl/In your fashions of fate/Baby it's too late,' or 'And lost like a lion/In the canyons of smoke/Girl it's no joke.'

'Jeepster,' which sounds a lot like Carl Perkins, carries the great tradition of Chuck Berry and Beach Boys car songs one step further: 'Just like a car/You're pleasing to behold/I'll call you Jaguar/If I may be so bold,' while several of Bolan's specific images are Dylan-derived, like 'society's ditch,' 'burning up your feet,' 'Egyptian ruby,' and 'Mountings of the moon/Remind me of my spoon.'

'Lean Woman Blues,' a takeoff on blues-rock, begins as Marc yells to the band, 'One, two, buckle my shoe,' and then goes on to encounter wrong notes, chaotic over-dubbings, distorting guitar, and an extraneous 'And I'm Blue' tagged on at the end of every stanza.

In 'The Motivator,' Marc considers the aesthetics of government ('I love the velvet hat/You know the one that caused a revolution'), but saves his most profound convictions on you-know-what revolution for 'Rip-Off':

In the moonlight
Fighting with the night
It's a rip-off
Kissing all the slain
I'm bleeding in the rain
It's a rip-off
Such a rip-off...

etc., etc., for 16 stanzas.

Marc's voice, appropriately, is Buddy Holly at several removes; Buddy, notwithstanding his genius, being, via Tommy Roe, the patron saint of bubblegum. At the same time, the combination of an effete vocal and an aggressive back-up is reminiscent of the early Ray Davies and the Dylan of Blonde on Blonde.

All of which goes to show that with Electric Warrior, Marc Bolan establishes himself as the heaviest rocker under 5'4' in the world today. (Ben Gerson, Rolling Stone)

Marc Bolan, lead vocals, lead & rhythm guitars, bass Mickey Finn, percussion & backing vocals Will Legend, drums Steve Currie, bass Guests: Howard Kaylan, backing vocals on 'Cosmic Dancer' Mark Volman, backing vocals on 'Cosmic Dancer' Elton John, piano on 'Bang A Gong (Get It On)' Ian McDonald, saxophone Burt Collins, flugelhorn

Produced by Tony Visconti
Mastering (Original & Re-Mix) by Tony Visconti

Digitally remastered.

Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time - Electric Warrior - Rated 160/500

Originally formed as Tyrannosaurus Rex by Marc Bolan in August 1967, T. Rex started out as a British folk-rock combo. By the 1970’s, T. Rex were the primary force in glam rock, and the band reached global success with a series of Top Ten hits, including four number one singles. The band broke up after Marc Bolan tragically died in a car accident in 1977. Over the next two decades, Bolan emerged as a cult figure and timeless hits like "Jeepster", "Get It On", "Ride a White Swan", "20th Century Boy", "Children of the Revolution", "Hot Love", "Telegram Sam", and "Metal Guru" have continued to prove influential on the musical landscape, helping shape sounds in hard rock, punk, new wave, and alternative rock amongst others.

This album contains no booklet.