Hide Article Text (OCR)
Odds favor T. Rex comeback tryAs in sports, there are many comeback tries in the record business. Three of the latest are by T. Rex, the Righteous Brothers and Arthur Brown.The case of T. Rex is unusual in that the group has had a steady string of hits in England, while in America T. Rex's only big hit was “Bank A Gong” in 1971. T. Rex is led by guitarist Marc Bolan, one of the first to introduce glitter to rock.“Light of Love” (Casablanca records) is T. Rex’s first album for its new American record company. Several of theMarcBolansongs hark back to the ‘‘Electric Warrior” album, both the group’s best and that which contained “Bang A Gong.” As usual, the most effective Bolan compositions are very simple, both lyrically and musically. There is much repetition.The new album’s best songs are “Light of Love” and “Solid Baby.” The first one demonstrates that Bolan is playing better guitar now and that he can accomplish a lot more with his voice now. The repetitions in the song are what grab your attention. “Solid Baby” is much the same except that the pace is much quicker and the sound a lot denser.BOLAN LONG HAS been a believer in Phil Spector’s “wall of sound” concept and almost every song in “Light of Love” uses the technique. Bolan also uses a wailing female chorus on every song.Much of Bo Ian’s appeal is his combination of ’50s rock sounds — beat and saxophone for example — with his cosmic philosophy. (In many ways, the same approach as Roxy Music, but somewhat different results.) “Token of My Love” and “Space Boss” are two good examples.Three of the albums songs — “Teenage Dream.” “Venus Loon” and “Explosive Mouth” — are from an album called “Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow.” The songs are the least effective, being very overproduced. The “Zinc” album has never been released in America and probably won’t, except in pieces such as this.Will Bolan and T. Rex make it this time in America? They have their best shot at it since 1971. I make them 3-1.THE RIGHTEOUS Brothers, on the other hand, have already made it with their new album “Give It To The People” (Haven records), already streaking toward the upper reaches of the charts. The album is very welcome, but not uniformly good.From “Little Latin Lupe Lu” in 1962 to a splitting of the team in 1968, the Righteous Brothers were near the top consistently with their innovative mixture of rock, blues and jazz. Their numerous hits included “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Fee-lin\” “Soul and Inspiration,” “Unchained Melody” and “Ebb Tide.” Recently the pair — Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield — sang together again for fun and liked it so much they decided to reform the duo.The album contains their current hit “Rock and Roll Heaven,” which is a good song despite some overly clever lyrics about former singers who have died. Also successful are three of four songs written for the duo by the album’s producers, Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter. “Dream On” is the best of these and should be their next single. The other two are the title song and “Love Is Not a Dirty Word.”FOR THE REST of the album, the solo song by each is a waste and too often on the faster numbers, like “Dr. Rock andRoll,” they are buried in the production. In addition, Hatfield's falsetto often overreaches, making you wince.Arthur Brown, like Bolan from Britain, electrified the music world in 1968 with his “The Crazy World of Arthur Brown” album (Atlantic records) and his stunning single of “Fire.” Brown took a collection of old blues songs and soul songs (several by James Brown) and put the torch to them with his amazing voice, a voice that would shift from gentle softness to raving manic screeching in seconds.He was one of the first proponents of theater rock, being either lowered or carried onto the stage with flames shooting out of the top of his head.SINCE THAT TIME, Brown has had no albums that I know of. His band has evolved into Arthur Brown’s Kingdom Come and former band members have helped form Atomic Rooster and Emerson, Lake and Palmer (Carl Palmer) and the Elton John Band (Dee Murray).\Playbackby Tom Von Malder _The new album “Journev” (Passnort
Newspaper Details
Wheeling Herald
Wheeling, Illinois, US
Fri, Sep 20, 1974
Page 37
Full Page
Clipped by
Clifford M.
CZ 04 Jun 2025
Other Publications Near Wheeling, Illinois
Wheeling Herald
