Oh my god.
whatevas | tijuana | 12/27/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"wow. i can't believe my ears. marc, i know most people don't care for this one, but my dear lord. "i really love you, babe", those morricone harmonicas, the lead guitar, the backing vocals! at the very end, that single backing vocal, that distorted vocal of love. heart shattering stuff. i hope you still exist in some form and are still making music wherever you may be."
Just buy it!
metal riffer | IL | 07/23/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Disc 1 is essentially the original release of Bolan's Zip Gun with a couple of extra single tracks added on. Disc 2, aslo sold separately as Precious Star: The Alternate Bolan's Zip Gun, is drum'n'bass T. Rex.
If Zinc Alloy, as produced by Tony Visconti, is a syrupy stack of fluffy pancakes, then Bolan's Zip Gun/Precious Star is a raw fistful of granola. The 80% we've heard sonically of Bolan's Zip Gun it its original form (presumably mastered for your average 1975 model stereo system) is now unzipped (pun intended) wide open to decant the extra 20% around the top and bottom, namely in the form of the thumpy, room-reverbed kick drum, the low solidity of the funk bass, and the extra layers of the ladies' choir and wah-wah guitar shimmerings sprinkled over the mixes on offer here. How can you NOT call this the "classic" T. Rex sound?? It's like a peek through the studio window, sitting in on our star-hero's coke-fuelled (allegedly) attempts to get ideas down in rapid succession, chasing the muse and indeed his own relevance while he still had a band and a producer (well, not for long).
Noteworthy songs include more than one nearly- 5-minute jam of Till Dawn; a space age version of Space Boss complete with string machine embellishments that give it a spooky, ethereal quality; and a version of Golden Belt (on which I always hit 'skip' on the original CD) where the drummer just takes the lid off and UNLEASHES, really driving the track along with fury.
This is a GREAT addition to any T. Rex completist's collection.
Or you could just long for the days of "Ride a White Swan," and there you go..."