Customer Reviews

20th Century Boy: The Ultimate Collection

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an excellently priced set if you want to get a good sampling of the Glam Icon from the '70's. A huge act in Europe, he had only moderate success here..until a revival of sorts from the car commercial.

Having lived in England during that time, I was naturally a great fan and this collection shows many hightlights of his career, with the of course hit "Get It On", (done by Power Station later) and the TV add hit 20th Century Boy.

The early "Bolan" is here, with such gread songs as one of my favorites "Ride A White Swan". Here you can listen to "Flourescent Leech and Eddie" sing backup, (The Turtles Fame) a trademark of later songs as well.

"Hot Love" I could not believe was not a hit here. A huge song, and everybit as good as "Get It On". Its hypnotic, and shows a rarely seen side of this band.

"Children of The Revolution", (later done by BONO), is epic Bolan and is an anthem for that generation and time.

"Jeepster" received much airplay on the FM band, and did "Telegram Sam", and are, like "Bang a Gong", from his rocker period.

It was also nice to see the inclusion of "The Slider" from my favorite Bolan album of the same name.

Overall, this album is an A+, especially for those new to his music. At this price, its much better than the more expensie imports, plus its digitally remastered.

Other recommended CD's include "Great Hits 1972-77-A-Sides" for further sampling, and the classic and first collection "Bolan Boogie [IMPORT] ".

A great CD, and well worth your time, at a good price too.

Oher great cuts:
One Inch Rock - early minimalist bolan very catchy
3. King Of The Rumbling Spires - If your into Tolkien
4. By The Light of A Magical Moon as above
5. Elemental Child - His earlier mystical period, which you will see in his later works.
7. Summertime Blues- actually a surprisingly good rework.
8. Jewel-His earlier mystical period
9. Beltane Walk-His earlier acoustic period
12. There Was A Time / Raw Ramp-flip of "Bang A Gong" and contains intro.
13. Cosmic Dancer-Electric Warrior
16. Metal Guru From "The Slider"
17. Mystic Lady "The Slider"
20. Solid Gold Easy Action -Moves closer to rock and roll
22. Born To Boogie -later hit and flip for "Children"
23. I Love To Boogie -continues glam rock

This is hands-down the best single disc T. Rex collection in print. You get a 16-page booklet with excellent liner notes, lots of terrific pictures, track-by-track info on release dates and album sources of all the songs (the only thing missing is peak chart positions), along with artwork and release dates of all of Marc Bolan's studio albums from 1968's "My People Were Fair..." through 1977's "Dandy in the Underworld."

And then there's the music...WOW! It's never sounded better. The first three tracks are from the late Sixties when Tyrannosaurus Rex consisted of Bolan and percussionist Steve Peregrine Took beginning with their first UK hits "Debora" (No. 34) and "One Inch Rock" (No. 28). Tracks 4-9 were all released in 1970 and feature Took's replacement Micky Finn. The new duo had their first Top Ten hit in the UK when "Ride a White Swan" reached No. 2. By 1971 T. Rex was a full guitar-bass-drums band and their first single was the UK No. 1 "Hot Love," (the first of many songs to feature backing vocalists Flo and Eddie). For the next two years T. Rextasy was in full swing and Bolan and company would hit the British Top Ten eight more times. [T. Rex would crack the U.S. Top 40 only once, when "Bang a Gong (Get It On)" hit No. 10 in 1972.]

While Bolan is closely linked with the glam rock movement, his bag full of Chuck Berry riffs and electric boogie made him one of the most influential artists of the Seventies. Kudos to the folks at Hip-O for including songs like "Ride a White Swan," "Hot Love" and "Raw Ramp" (which I previously only had on an out-of-print WB anthology on cassette). However, it would have been better if they had expanded this to a 2-CD set like some of their other releases (John Hiatt, Robert Palmer, etc.). As it is, there's a 3-year gap between 1973's "Twentieth Century Boy" and 1976's "I Love to Boogie." T. Rex hit England's Top 40 seven times during that period. This is a generous 75-minute anthology, but it wouldn't have been difficult to fill a second disc when you realize that more than a dozen UK singles from throughout Bolan's career were excluded. Don't Get me wrong, this is an excellent collection. But as a longtime fan, I can never get enough. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

As the title indicates, this set seems to have been released to cash in on the renewed interest in T-Rex after "20th Century Boy" was "rediscovered" for that Mitsubishi ad a couple of years back.

You have to give the Hip-O label credit for including five tracks from Bolan's earlier acoustic incarnation known by the full moniker of Tyrannosaurus Rex. There is a reason most compilations of this kind leave that work out, though. For the neophytes picking this collection up expecting to hear Marc Bolan strap on the stratocaster and proceed to Bang a Gong, the acoustic stuff is going to sound downright quirky.

There are some nice early electric B-sides like "Summertime Blues" and "Raw Ramp" that don't usually show up on single-dics T-Rex compilations. But once you roll past "Telegram Sam" there's no time left on the disc for any surprises or rare gems. As a result the first half of the cd feels a little like an odds & sods collection and the latter feels like a rehash of other best-of sets. Some of that trashy rush of T-Rextasy gets lost.

For those coming to Bolan's work for the first time, I would recommend starting instead with the budget-priced (but well-programmed) Very Best of Marc Bolan and T-Rex. It's the one with "T-Rex" in hot pink letters over a b&w photo of Bolan wagging his finger. Starting with "Hot Love" and ending with "I Love to Boogie", it 's as solid a single-disc, twenty-song overview as you're going to find of Bolan's glam idol phase. Moreover, it seems to follow the arc of his (electric) career quite nicely, even including the somewhat overlooked late-career gem "Laser Love".

For most fans, a T-Rex best-of is just the starting point. His three classic albums (Electric Warrior, The Slider & Tanx) are a must-have for any serious fan of 70's era. And they're all available in newly remasterd and expanded formats.

Hip-O's "Ultimate Collection" will be of interst mostly to those who don't already have a couple of the rare early b-sides or just want to sample what Bolan was doing before he evolved into Britain's breifly reigning king of glam.

From Tyrannosaurus Rex first releases in 1968 to T.Rex's last recordings in 1976 this is a great compilation of Marc Bolan and gang's glam/punk offerings. Up-to-date liner notes. Great sound. A Discography of the band's albums. Musician credits on all songs. And release date and album info for each song make this a must not only for T.Rex newcomers but a handy sampler for T. Rex fans the world alike.

I picked this up on a whim, because I was a big Bowie fan, especially of his early 70s period, and I heard he owed a lot to Marc Bolan. And ever since then, I've been a huge Bolan fan. What can I say, the remastering job is excellent, and it does a great job following the development of the T. Rex sound- with the tracks in chronological order, it almost tells a story. So, why not five stars? I just couldn't give it five stars after I heard some of the songs it left out. As another reviewer said, this album would have you believe that T. Rex sucked between '73 and '75- and they did turn out mediocre albums- but those albums had a few great and forgotten songs. (the liner notes doesn't even mention his "funk" phase)It would have been nice for Hip-O to put these songs on here, especially since the albums they came from aren't that good. Instead, what we have are too many songs from Electric Warrior and Slider- not that those songs aren't great, it's that every song on those albums is great, so it's a little unnecessary to collect their "highlights" on to a best of disc. They could have eliminated a few of those, and maybe included "Truck On," "Dreamy Lady," "New York City" and "Celebrate Summer"- not because "Celebrate" comes from an especially bad album, but because being his last ever single, and one of his best, (though not very popular)deserves to be on the "ultimate" collection. Aside from that, it definitely does deserve props for the non-album songs on there, especially "Ride A White Swan." Despite my complaining, it was a good introduction to T. Rex, and it's still nice to have all those songs on one disc.

T. Rex was an enormous commercial force for only 3 years (1971 through 1973), but its legacy is huge. Interest in the band has gone up and down over the years, but after 30 (!) years, they are still to be dealt with, and with reason.

In a short span, Mark Bolan (the creative force behind the band), gave us an unforgettable collection of songs, including "Hot Love", "Jeepster", "Telegram Sam", "Children of the Revolution", "Metal Guru", "20th Century Boy", and of course the best known of them all "Get It On (Bang A Gong)", remade many times since then. But when you go beyond those hits, you'll find many other jems, such as "Mambo Sun", "Planet Queen", "The Motivator", and "Monolith".

T. Rex was already on the way down before Mark Bolan's death in a car accident in 1977. Nevermind. This collection shows why the band remains relevant, after all these years.

Hip-O has put together an excellent collection of Marc Bolan and T-Rex material. Any serious collector will probably come up with a missing favorite cut of their own (Broken Hearted Blues, Lean Woman Blues, ETC) but for overall chronological progression you can't beat this offering. I was especially happy to see the studio version of Summertime Blues included here along with Ride a White Swan and Jewel. Cuts like Get it On, Hot Love, Jeepster and 20th Century Boy are expected. The Cuts that complete this collection for me is the full length versions of Raw Ramp and Elemental Child. The Re-mastering is excellent-extremely good quality. The inner booklet is full of insights on Marc Bolan and company, including Flo and Eddie. Bottom line on this CD is you need to get it. Whether your just wanting a Best CD or an opportunity to get some of those hard to find tunes. You should own Electric Warrior already along with Slider. This offering will do justice to a great glam rocker.

As with all greatest hits discs- you can only please some of the people some of the time, there will always be one or two songs left out that should have been included.

The main reason I bought the album was to update an old greatest hits disc- definitely worth it (even considering shipping and the exchange rate). The remastered disc sounds fantastic given the age of the material and the limitations of the cd format.

Marc Bolan was a brilliant, but limited, artist. Problem is, like most genius artists, he had to mature into his greatness. To that extent, "20th Century Boy: The Ultimate Collection" functions better as a history lesson than as a listening collection. It took Bolan and T. Rex three years and four really silly hippy-dippy albums to get to his ultimate "sound." Drowning in annoying bohemian bongo slapping and twee lyrics, "Debora" and "By the Light of a Magical Moon" are extremely dated.

It took an abbreviated name and electric guitars to push Bolan onto his target, and you can hear it in "Ride A White Swan." This may be the first song that clearly defined glitter, along with Bowie and Ziggy Stardust. Then "Electric Warrior," produced by soon to be Bowie production honcho Tony Visconti, codified it. "Bang A Gong" and "Hot Love" have been templates for 1,000's of bands since, but Bolan had it down pat. The juiciest and most listenable songs on "The Ultimate Collection" come from a hot streak of three albums, "Electric Warrior," "Tanx" and "The Slider." (Tracks 10 through 18.)

The remaining albums were VERY hit or miss, but the best songs from them maintain their luster as singles. (Even making "20th Century Boy" a candidate for a car commercial!) Unfortunately for "The Ultimate Collection," the skipable moments run neck and neck with the essential stuff. If you are looking for an album because T.Rex piques your interest, I'd actually recommend Rhino's remastered and expanded "Electric Warrior" above this set. And maybe someday, "The Slider" will get a deluxe treatment for us non-UK folks.

I already own most of the songs on this collection but there are a few on this particular CD that i do not have. I'm definitely going to order this one after seeing the list of songs and the price is more than fair. You know it's a funny thing,i read 2 reviewer comments and found them quite amusing. I usually do not take sides on personal taste issues but i have to agree with( A.Parvar's) comment. As for the comment made by (JohnnysMarchingBand), well.....grow up. Fans of a particular musical artist are always going to defend thier heroes and like it or not, the WORLD does not BOW DOWN to TOP 10 Music. This sort of music caters to a different class of listeners, so in a word..stick with your own KIND.