My People Were Fair and Had Sky in Their Hair... But Now They're Content to Wear Stars on Their Brows [Expanded Edition] [Extra tracks]

My first reaction upon listening to the album was, "well, I can see why this didn't make it to the pop charts..." but after listening to it several times, I have to say I am definitely falling in love with it. I have it on a loop on my laptop right now, in fact. It is beautiful! "Scenescof," "Strange Orchestas," "Dwarfish Trumpet Blues," "Knight," "Wielder of Words" and "Frowning Atahuallpa (My Inca Love)" are my particular favorites, and "Mustang Ford," "Chateau in Virginia Waters," "Child Star" and "Afghan Woman" are not too far behind. Which really only leaves "Hot Rod Mama" and "Graceful Fat Sheba" of the track listing, and these are both very good songs as well. The only reason I didn't list "Fat Sheba" as one of my favorites is that I can't recall it too well, and sandwiched between "Knight" and "Wielder of Words" it pales for me, and seems to be more of segue than anything. As for "Hot Rod Mama," originally I thought it a bit too jarring as an opener for the album, and something that would have been better done with electric guitar, but listening to it just now, I find I like it more than I thought I did. It just requires a bit of getting used to.

Much like the whole record. As I said, my first impression of it was, well, confused. I was prepared for anything (knowing this album wasn't anything like the T. Rex ones I already owned), and so swallowed it easier than others might have, but the album definitely isn't an easy first listen. Until the second or third listen, or perhaps until you are better acquainted with its sound, half of it sounds like layers of chirruped noise. Marc's voice is at its most twittery and shrill, constantly wavering up and down. I can now see where the "singing chippollata" description came from. He seems to sing into his nose, not taking the time to fully pronounce the syllables, making the lyrics hard to make out, which is not helped by the cacophony of bells, gongs, bird calls, claps and barnyard noises in the background. His backing singers provide more high-pitched wails and absent-seeming warbling. In short, it sounds like an album recorded on a trip, and best listened to on one as well.

And yet from he start, it has a certain compelling ambiance about it, if only because it *is* so different. At times, you are startled by how well the assorted instruments work: out of the hoof-beats of the bongos the sudden lilting melody of (sounds like) wind chimes comes like a spray of spring water, surprisingly beautiful and refreshing. Or you suddenly realize that in between all that incomprehensible singing and jumble of chords, the melody is pure pop (and I use the word in the sense it used to have, before all the c**p manufactured bands cropped up).

Eventually though, as you adjust to it, Marc's voice comes through stronger and you can sense the structure of the song in full, and you perceive that the so-called noise fits in perfectly, and that it's absolutely gorgeous. Everything falls into place, everything "clicks," and suddenly it's magic. It really is a "magical" album, it works like a spell: it transports you, it whirls your head around and fills you with its swirling inflections, and it all seems like one mystical, marvelous, lyrical poem.

The first of three magnificent albums by the original Tyrannosaurus Rex line up.
This 2004 release has the entire album original mono mixes followed then by the original stereo mixes as well as some extra takes.
Beautifully packaged with loads of pics, lyrics and outer sleeve.
Wow!

Where on Earth (or anywhere in the known multiverse for that matter) did this strangely mellifluous cacophony come from? It seemed unlike anything heard before and arrived fully formed onto the Peelian airwaves in the summer of 1968, hot on the heels of the astonishing single Debora (backed by Child Star, which was included on the album). And it was everywhere. You'd go to an outdoor free concert, or to a concert headlined by Fairport Convention, or Roy Harper, or the Edgar Broughton Band, or just about anyone, and there would be these pixies in support, sitting cross-legged on a colourful rug and declaiming a world of doors in oak trees, strange orchestras, Beethoven hair, wizards and weilders of words. Marc would be throwing back his mane and uttering throaty cries and bleats into the air, whilst confidently marshalling an army of sonic colours from his guitar, as Steve Peregrine-Took battled merrily on an array of Eastern-looking percussion instruments and added deft harmonies to Marc's lyrics as appropriate.

It is almost as mysterious now as it was then, although their influence can be heard in contemporary performers such as Devendra Banhart, and there were few clues to be had from Marc Bolan's previous work. This consisted of the two Decca singles The Wizard and The Third Degree and a single for Parlophone called Hippy Gumbo, all of which were relatively conventional moddish beat group ventures; followed by a four month stint in early 1967 with proto punk extremist mod-art band John's Children, for whom he provided lyrics and regularly beat up his highly amplified Gibson guitar with a heavy metal chain onstage, in a stage act which featured mock fights with fake blood - a far cry from Kingsley Mole.

When speaking of Tyrannosaurus Rex, Marc claimed to have been inspired by Ravi Shankar, which explains a little of the eastern influence though Ravi Shankar recordings seldom had the histrionic vocalise which featured on My People Were Fair...

As booklet note writer Mark Paytress observes, rock and roll was nearer the surface, especially on side openers Hot Rod Mama and Mustang Ford, both borrowing from the American surf and hot rod crazes of the early sixties, and The Wizard of course became re-invented as a live Tyrannosaurus Rex staple before being recorded in a third incarnation for the album T Rex.

This edition presents the album in both mono and stereo full versions. Marc Bolan was said to prefer the mono version because of mixing problems which had resulted in a thinness in the stereo version, but these problems seem to have largely overcome on this remaster so I find myself preferring the stereo half, presented as bonus tracks. These seem to be mixes of the same takes, although Dwarfish Trumpet Blues has an extra section, but the notes mention that four of the bonus tracks date from demo sessions recorded for Joe Boyd at Sound Techniques in late 1967.

The other bonus tracks consist of the single Debora (mono), which unlike the album was recorded at Advision, along with an alternate mono take; and early versions of Child Star (mono) and Chateau In Virginia Waters (stereo).

Marc Bolan went on to refine and improve the style he had introduced on this album, but no future albums could have the freshness and impact of this fearsome debut