Search - Marc Bolan, T Rex :: Millennium Collection

Entertaining,but a bit sick too....

Barry P. Saranchuk | Moosic, PA United States | 08/30/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This two Cd set of alternate takes of T.Rex classics is a mystery!

Where did this company get such weird versions of these songs? There are crazy versions of familiar songs throughout this set.Disco versions of songs,fake live takes,and orchestrated sleazy versions too.None seem to be on any other compilation I have heard,some with good reason.

But I have to say that I never got so many perverse laughs from a CD set before.It may be because I have heard the "good" versions of the songs and these crazy weird versions shocked and amazed me!?

This is no place to start listening to T.Rex,but if gotten cheaply,this sure is a weird one for the fanatic!"

MARC BOLAN / T REX RADIO and TV SHOWS from 73-74

W. T. Hoffman | Pennsylvania, United States | 01/27/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Millenium Collections are 2CD collections coming out of Germany, with a best of collection of TV shows, and radio shows. (These could well be grey area boots.) There's no audience noise. And the remakes ALL have synth and moog on them....often with a two guitar attack, and 2 female backup singers. Some of the arrangements are a definately minus compared to the sparse, strong album versions. An example might be 20TH CENTURY BOY, which has a lot of unnessacary keyboard drones on it, and synth pad chords RIGHT ON TOP of the Guitar chords. (Often, the 2 guitars are MUCH more harsh and abrasive than the original sound as well.) MYSTIC LADY's tempo runs much faster, and loses thru this process the soft, dreamy vibe of the original. JEWEL is a disaster as a band number, while other songs from that first T REX album are treated as jam numbers. ONE INCH ROCK is almost all scat singing, with Bolan doing an amazing YOKO imitation at one point. And the less said about BELTANE ROCK the better. I just cant listen to it as a big thumpin' overblown rock band number. The charm of the first T REX album is its concise, stripped down approach. But then again, you get a double acoustic guitar rendition of LIFES AN ELEVATOR, which I found beautiful. Most of the songs are extended versions, like the 5 and a half minute COSMIC DANCER. The sound IS good, and never less than a solid B+, some are A-, if you judge them on a bootleg scale. But the question remains, where did these songs come from?



The CD insert is a fold out piece of paper, with a complete biography of Marc Bolan starting with his birth date and place, plus his real name (MARK FELD). Marc's complete career is condensed, with every early hit and band change noted. The notes say that keyboard player DINO DINES (who played for the Beach Boys) joined his band around the end of 1973, along with two female back up singers. Since that's the sound on this CD, I have to place this compilation from that period...late 1973? (maybe around the time he moved to LA.) There are no late period singles here, like DREAMING LADY or LIGHT OF LOVE. The fact that a booklet could tell you Bolan's entire biography birth to death, but NOT tell you where the CD's music originated from, points to semi official release. But are the songs really THAT bad? Well, its still Bolan's fairy elf on acid voice, and its STILL those fantastic songs. So, for a very small sum of money, you get 126 minutes of fairly good renditions of great music, in the style BOLAN adopted when his career was crashing, and his addiction was beginning to rise. This was the first MARC BOLAN-T REX CD I owned. For new fans, this album gives you a chance to become familiar with his complete repetoire. However, since the original album versions are almost all superior to these radio-TV studio versions, I'd recommend this set mostly to devoted fans. Personally, if I had known about the studio versions of these songs before I heard the songs here, I'd have gotten into T REX a lot sooner than I did. Maybe this set only deserves 3 stars, but since it contains almost ALL T REX's major hits, and the sound is good, I cant give it less than 4 stars, with that provisional warning, "NOT the OFFICIAL versions". For a new fan, the 1 CD collection "20th CENTURY BOY" is the place to start your T REX journey. (and your Tyranesaurus Rex journey as well.) I'm not sure these versions are available anywhere else, and the 2CD set is a bargain, so T REX HEADs take note of that."