Customer Reviews

The Slider

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Make no mistake about it, Electric Warrior is the best place to start if you're new to T Rex but if you're feeling inspired this isn't a bad place either. When I bought Electric Warrior I was instantly drawn into the heavy rocking sound and the incredible voice of Marc Bolan. He instantly became my favorite glam rocker ever. It really wasn't until I picked up this set that I was blown over entirely. When you hear these two discs you begin to wonder how this guy was so over looked in the US. In my opinion he was the best thing going in the early 70's. Anyway, with this set you get two discs, one the remastered studio album with two very worthwhile outtakes at the end and on the second you get alternate versions and early demos along with a few more outtakes. All of this along with good liner notes which detail the time and era in T Rex history. The second disc may not grab you initially, but it's really worth owning. The outtakes are really good accoustic renditions of the original and they really give the songs a whole new set of characteristics that I find myself turning to as much as the original album. On songs like Ballroom of Mars I actually find myself preferring the acoustic version. Anyway, I highly recommend this set for anyone that is looking for a great rock and roll record.

I think this is the best album from T.Rex. This is the first album I bought from them and I collected the other ones afterwords but I think that this album defines their style the best. For anyone interested in listening to T.Rex, I'd say start with this one first and if you don't like it, chances are T.Rex aren't for you. I don't know how anyone could not like it though. Good music, great lyrics and an amazing voice is totally what they delivered here. Marc Bolan's genious is totally clear on this album.

Quoth Marc Bolan from "Spaceball Ricochet" from this album.
Indeed, one of the reasons I gladly purchased a rare lefty
Les Paul guitar recently is that I knew Marc favored his cherry
sunburst Les Paul for the years he recorded unbelievable classics
like The Slider and Electric Warrior, which is more than reason
enough to get one. As for this new deluxe reissue of The Slider,
I purchased it in nyc recently after considering getting a more
streamlined UK pressing, but this "boxed" edition is the one to get--if you're a Bolan/Rex fan there is no other edition now,
because this one contains an entire bonus disc of the "alternate" Slider, containing alternate takes of the songs and
also an abundance of b-sides and demos such as "Sunken Rags"
and "Thunderwing," which could have been on the original album
given the strengths of those tracks. The sound on this reissue
of TREX's classic 1972 follow-up to the equally massive Electric
Warrior is wondrous in its remastered state, I'm sure the drums
and crunchy bass and guitars on "Telegram Sam" never sounded better. I can't recommend this album more highly--if you're a true rock and roll fan you need this album and now you definitely
need this glorious edition of it--it also comes with great artwork and a nice booklet with Marc's intriguing period comments on the album tracks. When Marc Bolan died, rock and roll tragically lost a true wizard, a true star. He continues
to teach us how to boogie and he teaches me how to play guitar
better everytime I play his albums. What more can one ask?
Go Slide....

If you ever wanted to know T. Rex's significance in the music world, look no further than this album. "The Slider" became Marc Bolan and his band T.Rex's calling card. This album when released in '72, sold amazingly well. The term T.Rexstacy was often used to describe the hysteria caused at a T. Rex concert back in the early 70's.

From the bombastic opening track, "Metal Guru," to the final track, "Lady," you get as close to a perfect album as you can get. Marc's lyrical poetry combined with the production talents of Tony Visconti equate pure musical brilliance.

You get quite a variety of tracks on this album, but all in all, this can only be described as sounding like T. Rex; I really find it hard to equate to anyhting else. This truly defines what became known as the T. Rex Sound. My personal favorites are the added singles, "Thunderwing," "Lady," and album tracks "The Slider" and "Rock On."

Marc was never as big in the United States as he was in the United Kingdom (much to his chagrin), but this album came as close to breaking him big here in the US than anything else he put out.

Disc Two contains alternate versions as well as demo takes. It's not bad listening, but serves the purpose of a musical blueprint, detailing the thought process behind each song. Much of this material was released on "Rabbit Fighter: The Alternate Slider".

Marc Bolan was much more than a pretty face. He wrote, played, and later in life, produced his own music. T. rex has earned it's rightful place as one of the of great rock and roll bands of all time. This album is one of many Bolan compositions that justifies that honor.

People love to distinguish "classical" music from "popular" music. This distinction is meaningless. Music is music, and good music is simply good music, and THE SLIDER is one of the finest musical works, "classical" or "popular," I've ever heard. I would not rank it as the best T. Rex, however. In my opinion, the best of T. Rex is: T. REX (the self-titled LP), ELECTRIC WARRIOR, THE UNICORN, BEARD OF STARS, and the songs, "Hot Love," "Children of the Revolution," and "Raw Ramp." Nonetheless, you cannot go wrong with this now-overlooked gem.

This is, in my opinion, T. Rex's saddest work. It is subtly heartbreaking, covertly saddening. Happy, jumpy songs are interspersed with melancholy "ballads" (if that word applies) such as "Spaceball Richochet," "The Slider," "The Ballrooms of Mars," and "Main Man."

Incidentally, "The Ballrooms of Mars" is simply one of the greatest rock songs ever written. That song alone would legitimate the magisterial status of this album.

No more commentary is needed: just buy it and listen to it over and over again!

Let others listen to The Beatles and think that it is great music: this is music in the highest sense of the word, the music of thought.

Marc Bolan could do no wrong when he released "The Slider" back in '72. At the peak of his game, he loaded each track with his sense of personal style and the results were magic. The sheer feel of ecstatic charisma which shines through the uplifting anthems on display is enough to boost the album to classic status, but it's far more than that: it's also one of the most coherent and complex attempts at self-mythologization in rock history. Bolan's character, both in real life and on record, was that of an ex-mod, ex-hippie turned electric glam wizard, with a seductively androgenous sense of sexuality and invested with the core spirit of rock'n'roll. Although the music on "The Slider" was unashamedly commercial pop-rock--filled to the brim with meaty guitar riffs, catchy, circular choruses and an intoxicating production utilizing swirling strings and falsetto backing vocals--there is also a sense of artistic achievement both in the surrealist lyrics and the overall sequencing and construction of the album. The results were a work which effortlessly blurred the line between camp and quality, trash and artistic ambition, pretense and soul-baring, spontaneous hippie sentiment and calculated glam moves which no other act at the time came close to emulating (though many tried). By examining himself through so many different angles, Bolan was able to sketch a portrait of himself that was ironically so detailed that it left him an enigma. For many listeners, Bolan *was* the "metal guru" who joined the spiritual wisdom of the past with the metallic rock energy of the present, and time has not dimished that lustre in the least.

Slider

I used to think "Electric Warrior" was the best T-Rex album of them all,... until I really repeatedly listened to "The Slider".

What Marc Bolan & Company started to do musically on the Warrior disc, reached it's apex on The Slider album. That whole combination of great, choppy Chuck Berry-like guitar hook riffs, funny, loopy lyrics & just all around heavy metal thunder wall of sound bombastics shows the band at it's peak. Even the quieter tunes rock!

My personal favorites, "Metal Guru", "Chariot Choogle", "Mystic Lady", "Ballrooms of Mars", & "Rabbit Fighter", sound like a great mini space-travel rock opera soundtrack.

Ideally, to me, both this disc AND the Electric Warrior disc should both be enjoyed together. They make a potent case for T-Rex & Marc Bolan's place in rock & roll history that greatly deserves to be remembered and appreciated more than it presently seems to be.

Definatly both worth checking out if you have'nt done so already!

I wont go in to the virtues of this T.Rex record, there are plenty of other reviews here for that. Suffice to say it is a great record. Instead I will discuss the remastering, and the tracks on the bonus disc, " Rabbit Fighter, The Alternate Slider".

First the sound quality of the remaster by Edsel. I must agree with one of the previous reviewers in that this remaster is certainly LOUD.However for this recording i dont think this is a bad thing entirely,this is a cd which sounds good at higher volumes. I have good equipment, and although the volume is high, distortion is at a minimum.Just remember to lower the volume before you start playing this disc as it is very loud. Separation is good, and the percussion in particular sounds much more open than on other Slider releases I have heard. Well worth a repurchase for the remaster alone if you own an older version of this on cd. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would give the Edsel remaster a 7.

The bonus disc is quite good, much better than the bulk of the bottom of the barrel stuff that is popping up left and right from T Rex these days. The first four songs sound pretty much like the original issue Slider versions, minus overdubs.There are then some above average ( for this type of thing) acoustic versions of some songs, the best of which by far is " Main Man" with mostly different lyrics, including a nod to Elton John. The best two tracks IMO are " Buick Mackane" which is a totally different song than the one on the official issue. This song is somewhat difficult to obtain elsewhere, and is excellent. Finally, closing the second disc is a very rocking version of " Sunken Rags", another gem.

This reissue is well worth purchasing for both newcomers to the Bolan sound, and Bolan fanatics alike.

I enjoy the music on this CD. It is a lot of fun. The lyrics sound cool without making sense. From TELEGRAM SAM, "Automatic shoes / Automatic shoes / Give me three D vision / And the California Blues." Marc Bolan displays a broader variety of styles than on the previous album. The glam rock anthems METAL GURU, THE SLIDER, BUICK MACKANE, and especially TELEGRAM SAM mine that same vein of the shuffle beat which Bolan achieved legendary status with on BANG A GONG. I like these because of their silliness. I always smile when I hear the opening scream of METAL GURU, and the absurd lyrics just complete the looniness: "Metal Guru has it been / Just like a silver-studded sabre-tooth dream / I'll be clean you know / Pollution machine / Metal Guru is it you." I feel a sultry sensation from the slower numbers: MYSTIC LADY, THE SLIDER and most of all, from BALLROOMS OF MARS. In the early seventies, Paul McCartney acknowledged that he would not desire the popularity of Marc Bolan. Indeed, T. REX was the nazz. More impressive is the influence felt from his songs decades after they were penned, particularly from the post punk era. BLONDIE used BANG A GONG as an encore, and the legendary goth-rock band BAUHAUS released a single covering TELEGRAM SAM, as two prominent examples. The professionals involved with this effort are no slouches, either. Ringo Starr did the cover photographs and needs no introduction. Tony Visconti had already completed a series of albums for some of the biggest names in British Rock including, David Bowie, Strawbs, Badfinger, Gentle Giant, and would go on to the Wings' project, BAND ON THE RUN. What an exciting and fun piece of rock 'n roll history. If you are interested in glam rock of the early seventies or in music that is a looney romp, this CD will interest you.

This is a great example of crunchy glam, with understated horns & production. A good place to start for novices. Snappy guitars and sing-along choruses. It bears mentioning that the superb background vocals are by none other than Flo & Eddie (Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman - the singers from the sixties band The Turtles, and early '70's Mothers of Invention). Backing vocals are worth the price of admission.