Though you may disappear, you're not forgotten here!

Just the other day at work, I was listening to New Blood by Peter Gabriel, and the song Wallflower came on - and I couldn't believe how blown away and moved I was.  Even though I bought the album a couple of years ago, after I had seen Peter perform on The Late Show with David Letterman, I guess I never got as far as this track or just wasn't listening at the time - even though I love the album.

 

It's really odd how something you have undoubtedly heard many times before and never paid too much attention to, can suddenly hit the mark, and become a significantly meaningful event.

 

Wallflower was originally recorded for Peter's fourth solo album, released in 1982.  The New Blood version is recorded using a full orchestra, and is a beautiful rendition, soul-achingly painful and totally cathartic. It reaches into your heart and exposes all of those moments, days, years, lifetimes of loneliness, doubt and solitude - those times when the only person who knew what you were going through was you - and no one else gave a shit!

Enjoy the video from Youtube below - I've given the lyrics underneath so you can follow along and get lost in the beauty!

 

 

 

6x6 - from wall to wall

Shutters on the windows, no light at all

Damp on the floor, you got damp in the bed

They're trying to get you crazy - get you out of your head

They feed you scraps and they feed you lies

To lower your defences, no compromise

There's nothing you can do, the day can be long

You mind is working overtime, you body's not too strong

Hold on, hold on!
Hold on, hold on!
Hold on, hold on!

They put you in a box so you can't get hurt

Let your spirit stay unbroken, may you not be deterred

Hold on!

You have gambled with your own life

And you face the night alone

While the builders of the cages

Sleep with bullets, bars and stone

They do not see the road to freedom

That you build with flesh and bone

They take you out - the light burns your eyes

To the talking room - it's no surprise

Loaded questions from clean white coats

Their eyes are all as hidden as their Hippocratic Oath

They tell you how to behave, behave as their guest

You want to resist them, you do your best

They take you to your limits, they take you beyond

For all that they are doing there's no way to respond

Hold on, hold on!

They put you in a box so you can't get hurt

Let your spirit stay unbroken, may you not be deterred

Hold on!

You have gambled with your own life

And you face the night alone

While the builders of the cages

Sleep with bullets, bars and stone

They do not see the road to freedom

That you build with flesh and bone

Though you may disappear, you're not forgotten here

And I will say to you, I will do what I can do

You may disappear, you're not forgotten here

And I will say to you, I will do what I can do

And I will do what I can do

And I will do what I can do

1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die

I was reading an article the other day, about another album I am going to write a review of on this blog another day (it was Close to the Edge, if you're curious!), and the article mentioned that the album had been included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. So I looked up the book, and, in the blurb about the list, there was the link to a website that actually not only lists each of the albums, but has a link that allows you to play each album! How excellent, I thought!

 

So, I thought I'd quickly share the link with you all, so here it is: 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die

 

The list starts in 1955 with In the Wee Small Hours by Frank Sinatra, and goes almost right up to  present day (2005) with Get Behind Me Satan from The White Stripes, and covers an amazing assortment of music.  Sure - there's a lot of stuff you would expect to see - The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, etc, etc - but there's also a huge number of albums I am sure you'll be surprised about, and, like me, there'll be a few you will never have heard of!

 

Just click on an album to play it - and enjoy!

 

Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow

OK - so I have to start my musical odyssey with a Bolan post, don't I? After all, I AM the Bolanoid!!

So there I was, shopping out in the mall, when I was dragged by strange forces into a modern arts store, filled with swords and knives and film memorabilia. And there, under glass, I saw an artefact that stirred memories and made linkages I would not have thought possible.

 

The piece of jewellery in question was a Zinc Alloy Dragon - which immediately connected in my mind to one of the most underated Bolan albums - Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow.  At first I thought there was some strange resurgence - a new version of the album, or some other event, that I was unaware of, but it turns out that there was actually no connection between the two items - until now! :)

Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow is, perhaps, my most played of all the T.Rex/Marc Bolan albums I have - and there is over 50 of those!  For most Bolan fans from the late 60's to the mid-70's, it may seem odd that I find this album so interesting, as the Electric Warrior and The Slider albums were much more commercially successful than Zinc Alloy was. But, for me, Zinc Alloy is perhaps the most complete album conceptually that Marc ever produced, and it's change in musical direction, for me, is the most redeeming factor of the album.  Sure - the majority of fans and critics didn't get the change - the move away from the commercially super-successful glam rock formula that Marc and Tony Visconti had developed between 1968 and 1973 - and the seemingly overblown dramatics of Whatever Happened to the Teenage Dream didn't gel with the sexy stuff from the Electric Warrior period, but what they all missed was the overall concept of the iconic leader Zinc Alloy leading his underground army through the trials of their pseudo-sci-fi reality, to achieve something greater.

To me, Zinc Alloy is an (almost) complete story - a rock opera waiting to be exposed in all its glory, telling the tale of a futuristic leader guiding his team of misunderstood minions through to a possibly bright future. It has its own resurrection myth built right into the storyline, and is populated with numerous characters and tales, typical of some of Marc's earlier albums from the Tyrannosaurus Rex period.  As always with Marc, there are songs of love in the track list, but, even more so, there are songs of transformation and philosophical reflection that help us follow the metamorphical tale.

For me, highlights are Galaxy, Changes, Nameless Wildness and Liquid Gang, although there are many solid tracks - examples of Bolan's new Interstellar funk-rock sound.  Much has been said of the different direction Marc had taken musically, even blaming Gloria Jones for being the influence behind the new sound.  But Marc had spent some time studying the different funk and soul styles that were prevalent in America at the time, and had tried to assimilate many of these into his new, expanded group format.  The result was a much grander, broader sound than previous T.Rex offerings, offset with deeper, darker visions and a more complete storyline, echoing the glories of what Marc's other grand rock musical, The Children of Rarn, could have been.

As with the majority of T.Rex albums, all of the songs were written by Bolan.

Track List:
Side one:
     1) Venus Loon
     2) Sound Pit
     3) Explosive Mouth
     4) Galaxy
     5) Change
     6) Nameless Wildness
     7) Whatever Happened to the Teenage Dream

Side Two:
     1) Liquid Gang
     2) Carsmile Smith and the Old One
     3) You Gotta Jive to Stay Alive - Spanish Midnight
     4) Interstellar Soul
     5) Painless Persuasion v. the Meathawk Immaculate
     6) The Avengers (Superbad)
     7) The Leopards featuring Gardenia and the Mighty Slug

Trivia:

- Marc intended to ditch the T. Rex name, and wanted the group to be called Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow, and the album to be called A Creamed Cage In August, but changed his mind when friends said the new name sounded too similar to David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.
- The group eventually became Marc Bolan and T.Rex because Marc wasn't sure how the current fluctuations in the then T.Rex line-up would impact the players on the album.
 

Welcome to Bolanoid's Blog!

I can hear most of you saying, "What the f's a Bolanoid?"

Short answer - me!

I picked the monicker up while still at school, way back in the early 1970's, when one of the biggest pop/rock stars in Britain and around the world was Marc Bolan and his group T.Rex.  As usual, it was peer pressure that formed the initial interest, but this grew the more I investigated the Bopping Elf, and I have remained an avid fan to this day, 36 years after Marc's untimely demise on September 16, 1977, just two weeks short of his 30th birthday.

 

So that's where the handle gets its root, but don't tune out suddenly in panic, thinking I am going to build a site dedicated to the adoration of the Bolan! LOL

 

Yes - there will be the occasional Bolan or T.Rex tune gracing the blog entries, but the real indulgence of this blog is to leave my impressions over a LOT of music from a LOT of artists that I have enjoyed over the years.  And believe me, there will be an incredible breadth of music and artists to listen to - From Bolan to Black Sabbath, Deep Purple to Devo, King Crimson to Kraftwerk, Jethro Tull to Tangerine Dream, with lots of progressive rock, glam rock, heavy metal, punk rock, bubble-gum pop, etc, etc, etc.

 

I intend to blab about them all - the thousands of songs and albums and artists I have been lucky enough to enjoy over the years.  And I want to hear what you think, too.  Please leave comments after each and any blog post to let me know what you thought of the music or artist I've showcased, and we'll have a jolly good chinwag about them all!

 

Those about to Rock - I salute you!

 

The Bolanoid