T. Rex Album: “Tanx”

This album to me represents the last great T. Rex album. This was Marc Bolan's attempt at breaking big in America after having conquered the UK charts. It ranks as my favorite T. Rex album, (actually, my favorite album of all time) with some of Marc's most melodic songs.

After the phenomenal success of "Electric Warrior" and "The Slider," Marc's record company expected big things. What Marc gave them was "Tanx;" an album very different from its predecessors. Unfortunately, the critics and many of the fans didn't like the direction Marc took and the album was deemed a disappointment.

Why is this my favorite album of all time? When I first came upon this album several years ago, after all the bad critical press it got, I was expecting the worst. My thought was, Heck, I loved Electric Warrior and The Slider, how bad could this be? I put the needle down on the turntable and was captivated for the next 40 minutes or so.

"Oh, my darling there are many ways..." The album opens with the guitar boogie and spacey lyrics of "Tenement Lady," a combination of two songs. You'll note on disc 2, it's listed as "Tenement Lady/Darling". Two songs fused together into one great one. Lots of great production work on this one.

"Your mama said, clean out your head, boy..." Next is "Rapids," with lots of guitar slide overdubs. Again, lots of spacey lyrics in a Bolan boogie mind poem.

"I'm just lookin' for a change in my luck.." "Mister Mister" is great light acoustic song with a great sing-a-long at the end. Excellent orchestration by Tony Visconti.

"This is a song that I wrote when I was young..." "Broken Hearted Blues" is, to me, one of the most beautiful songs Marc Bolan ever wrote. Beautiful lyrics, beautiful orchestration, Marc in perfect voice... poetry set to music. Possibly the best song Marc ever put on an album. The only complaint I have it that it was too short.

The rest of the album just flows beautifully. From start to finish, I never skip a song. Plus you get the added bonus of the Marc's singles from '73: "Children of the Revolution," "Jitterbug Love," "Sunken Rags," "Solid Gold Easy Action," "20th Century Boy," and the beautiful "Free Angel".

Disc 2 is made up of alternate takes. It gives you some insight into the workings of the songs a they developed from the rough mix stage to T. Rex classics. These outtakes were once sold separately as "Left Hand Luke: The Alternate Tanx". Here you get the whole package in one.

If you've fallen under the spell of Bolan's words and music, but don't have this album yet, get it now. This album to me is one of the best by the band, and as stated before, one of my favorites of all time.

Tanx is a great album. It's not as great as Electric Warrior, but it's up there with The Slider as Marc Bolan's next best. This album sounds like a mix of The Stones' Exile on Main Street with Elton John albums from '71 to '74, with the important ingredient of Bolan's own electric boogie.. It's amazing that Bolan created so much great music in so many different styles. Buy this one after Electric Warrior and The Slider. It's not really represented on any of the Bolan compilations out there. It's mind boggling and sad that '73 was considered the beginning of a downturn in Bolan's career at the time when he created Tanx and "20th Century Boy" (included here)! The bonus disc of alternate takes is fascinating and a good listen in its own right. This release from Rhino Records marks the first reissue of Tanx in the U.S. since the original 1973 vinyl.

Tanx is a great album. It's not as great as Electric Warrior, but it's up there with The Slider as Bolan's next best. This album sounds like a mix of The Stones' Exile on Main Street with Elton John albums from '71 to '74. It's amazing that Bolan created so much great music in so many different styles. Buy this one after EW and The Slider. It's not really represented on any of the Bolan compilations out there. It's mind boggling and sad that '73 was considered the beginning of a downturn in Bolan's career at the time when he created Tanx and "20th Century Boy"!

The original "Tanx" album is one of the most hotly debated among Bolan fans. While some (including producer Tony Visconti) contend that it is his very best effort, many others see it as an extremely mixed work with a combination of good songs, filler, overproduction and clashing musical styles. What happened was that midway through the making of "Tanx" Bolan had decided to change his musical direction from the sound of his previous classics, to reflect his newfound love of US soul music. Thus, half of the album (recorded early in the sessions) bears similarity to the glory days of "Electric Warrior" and "The Slider", with the still-successful T.Rex formula rock/pop sound reprised on "Tenement Lady", "Life's A Gas", "Mad Donna", "Country Honey" and "Born To Boogie". Mixed in with these are slower, R&B-influenced compositions with prominent saxaphone (rumoured to have been played by David Bowie) and black female backing choruses. The lyrics, too, seemed to switch between his old verbiose poetry and a much starker, simpler style with one word or phrase repeated over and over.

The album was also loaded with production effects such as mellotron, phasing, backwards tape loops, heavy reverb and the aforementioned saxaphone and backing vocalists. Again, this had a mixed effect--on some tracks like "Tenement Lady" the sound is successfully integrated into the T.Rex style, while on others it seems overbaked and clashes with the sound, making for a somewhat confusing effort.

"Tanx" could have been much, much stronger had the original,

It is hard for any T.Rex/Bowie fan to ignore the fact that the two inspired each other...for they were both stemmed from the magical hands of the producer Tony Visconti. "Tanx" not only combined the elements of the previous T.Rex albums ("T.Rex", "Electric Warrior", & "Slider") but it went a step beyond! It combined the mystical and electronical together, making for the T.Rex climax for all fans.

"Tanx" is perhaps the most seductive of the T.Rex collection. Not since the self-titled album had the band produced such dreamy and breath taking surrealism. "Broken Hearted Blues" is like everyone's teenage lust preserved in a jar. Though many Tyrannosaurus Rex fans felt that the abbreviation to T.Rex was the ending to the Marc Bolan legacy, "Tanx" plays like a fish coming to the surface of the water for a breath of fresh air and remains the same during each play! Had Marc Bolan contained the energy displayed during this album -- Led Zeppelin would have appeared in the cut-out bins!