Tanx (Dlx) [Extra tracks, Original recording remastered]

Marc Bolan & T Rex | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 24, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 1973
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Extra tracks, Original recording remastered
• Label: Rhino / Wea
• ASIN: B000C3H4Q8
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #203,387 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Tenement Lady

2. Rapids

3. Mister Mister

4. Broken-Hearted Blues

5. Shock Rock

6. Country Honey

7. Electric Slim and the Factory Hen

8. Mad Donna

9. Born to Boogie

10. Life Is Strange

See all 20 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Tenement Lady/Darling [Alternative][*]

2. Rapids [Incomplete Take][Alternate Take][*]

3. Mister Mister [Alternative][*]

4. Broken-Hearted Blues [Alternative][*]

5. Country Honey [Alternative][*]

6. Mad Donna [Alternative][*]

7. Born to Boogie [Alternative][*]

8. Life Is Strange [Alternative][*]

9. The Street and Babe Shadow [Alternative][*]

10. Highway Knees [Alternative][*]

See all 23 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

The phenomenally popular and influential T.Rex spearheaded the glam-rock movement, a genre owing everything to its quintessential superstar, Marc Bolan. Rivaled only by Bowie, whose own glam period followed in their flamboyant footsteps, Bolan and T.Rex created an incredible vibe and sound whose legacy lives. Driven by primal grooves, effortless hooks, trippy vocals, and deliciously fat guitar riffs, their music was both infused with hippie spirituality and raw sexuality-a rich, ripe, sonic delight both primitive and evolved. While their music defined an era, their irresistible grooves are timeless, and Bolan's later, more experimental tracks, marrying pop genius with creative expansion and proto-punk power, underscore his groundbreaking artistry.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Boogie Mind Poem, January 18, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Tanx (Audio CD)

Firstly, I feel obligated to clear up the "Marc Bolan is not Glam" argument (yes, this will tie in with the review). Such is true... but Glam is Marc Bolan. Glam rock, the often over-simplified genre, yet decidedly the pop music equivalent to the Symboliste movement (Bolan is pop music's answer to Mallarme, similar in motive and uniqueness) was created to describe T-Rex, as T-Rex was the first band the term was applied to. Therefore, other "Glam" acts (Bowie, Reed, Cockney Rebel, Jobriath, Mott the Hoople, The Sparks, etc...) are derivative, willingly or not, while T-Rex is the essence and definition of Glam (though I should point that though Reed was a Glam rock derivative, he was also one of its prime forefathers, and likewise Glam didn't just pop out of nowhere).

However, Tanx is, for better or worse, a parody of Glam rock... Dizzam, its evident at the first sight of the cover... a bloated Bolan wrapped in an unusually large feather boa with enough black eye-liner to pass as Theda Bara if you squint your eyes. Huge hair too. It was also his last Glam album (Zinc Alloy may have been dubbed Glam, but he had officially removed himself from the scene by its release, if only to better infiltrate the anti-fluff blue-jean clad American market). Excess may have gotten too him... whatever... fresh off the chain of commercial masterpieces (T-Rex, Electric Warrior, Slider) the album oozes with seemingly tongue-in-cheek indulgence and over-the-top production... but done so beautifully that... *swoon*

Tanx is probably the most debated album among Bolan fans, simply because it was a "departure" from his earlier work, prely due to the excessive production, soul influences, and, at times, less than literate lyrics (critics have always accused Bolan's lyrics of being nonsensical, shallow, or, at best, "pure sex", but Tanx was his first output that may have, in a couple cases, proved them right... concerning everything before, critics were just stupid and closed-minded...ie: if you're expecting confessional singer-songwriter crap or some political mantra, Bolan isn't the place to look). Bolan's lyrics always been an exquisit collage of influences and ideas, muddled inside of his imagination and then "taught", as Rimbaud would say, to his consciousness, thus being created and existing as an emotion/thought rather than evoking an emotion/thought... the artist as the art, the art as the artist. However, Tanx quite cheekily simplifies a couple (and only a couple) songs to such trivialities as "pure sex". But it's done so masterfully!

Likewise, Tanx is a strangely unsettling album... but in the good way. However intentionally shallow-some parts are, and how cheeky the rest of it is, its strangely forlorn. In fact, almost every song seems like a cryptic message... Tenement Lady, a groover that falls into half-time midway thru in an almost faux-earnest testament to stardom ("Oh my darling there are many ways to view you/ To me you're almost like a hammer and a screw...") starts with astonishing intensity, only to drop to a flanged lull, ending the song mid-thought in a chorus of "Oh yeah... ohhhhhh yeah". Likewise, Broken Hearted Blues is a disturbingly unemotional song, despite the subject matter being the decay of the carnival of youth, but treated almost indifferently (as opposed to Bolan's previous youth-topics being passionately youth-worshipping) until the very end, "get good now and face your face to the wind", which seems almost a resignation, followed by the last line being a repeat of the first, but with his voice cracking into almost a sob as it trails off. The theme continues in songs like Electric Slim and Highway Knees, but acheives crowning glory in the gut-wrenching Left Hand Luke... nasal tones in his voice are cranked up to ungodly levels and he almost bellows the lyrics, twisted with bizarre characters, all of whom seem desperate and about to crash... a far cry from the charming fondness of previous characters such as Debora, the Child Star, or Buick MacKane. The just starts... no intro, no warning, and ends with what sounds somewhere between a bomb dropping and a senile old man on his death bed. Quite brilliant, really.

So there you have it... a five star album. Not Bolan's most beautiful work, but maybe his most timeless, and certainly his most haunting. He never sounded like this before and he never sounded like this again. The album is unsettling... it will never escape you and you'll have an insatiable urge to listen to it again and again, but somehow you'll never quite "get it." And I think he intended it that way. It introduced the soul elements that would come to define his music, but with plenty of the boogie riffs that saturated the three albums before it. However, if you're a first time Bolan listener, I suggest checking out "T-Rex" (his best album/the first T-Rex album) or "Bolan Boogie" (a compilation ranging from a few Tyrannosaurus Rex songs up to Electric Warrior) instead... or even "Electric Warrior", the first album written with a deliberate Glam consciousness and defined Bolan's swank and ethereal boogie. I might also recommend "The Beginning of Doves" (pre-Tyrannosaurus songs, some solo, some John's Children, I think one or two as Toby Tyler....amazing songs, best lyrics ever) and "Billy Super Duper" (if you can find it), which supposedly would have been his last album (or the skeleton of it, anyway). Love you, Marc!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars T. Rex's Tanx (1973), March 29, 2007

By 

James Choma - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Tanx (Dlx) (Audio CD)

This album to me represents the last great T. Rex album. This was Marc Bolan's attempt at breaking big in America after having conquered the UK charts. It ranks as my favorite T. Rex album, (actually, my favorite album of all time) with some of Marc's most melodic songs.
After the phenomenal success of "Electric Warrior" and "The Slider," Marc's record company expected big things. What Marc gave them was "Tanx;" an album very different from its predecessors. Unfortunately, the critics and many of the fans didn't like the direction Marc took and the album was deemed a disappointment.

Why is this my favorite album of all time? When I first came upon this album several years ago, after all the bad critical press it got, I was expecting the worst. My thought was, Heck, I loved Electric Warrior and The Slider, how bad could this be? I put the needle down on the turntable and was captivated for the next 40 minutes or so.

"Oh, my darling there are many ways..." The album opens with the guitar boogie and spacey lyrics of "Tenement Lady," a combination of two songs. You'll note on disc 2, it's listed as "Tenement Lady/Darling". Two songs fused together into one great one. Lots of great production work on this one.

"Your mama said, clean out your head, boy..." Next is "Rapids," with lots of guitar slide overdubs. Again, lots of spacey lyrics in a Bolan boogie mind poem.

"I'm just lookin' for a change in my luck.." "Mister Mister" is great light acoustic song with a great sing-a-long at the end. Excellent orchestration by Tony Visconti.

"This is a song that I wrote when I was young..." "Broken Hearted Blues" is, to me, one of the most beautiful songs Marc Bolan ever wrote. Beautiful lyrics, beautiful orchestration, Marc in perfect voice... poetry set to music. Possibly the best song Marc ever put on an album. The only complaint I have it that it was too short.

The rest of the album just flows beautifully. From start to finish, I never skip a song. Plus you get the added bonus of the Marc's singles from '73: "Children of the Revolution," "Jitterbug Love," "Sunken Rags," "Solid Gold Easy Action," "20th Century Boy," and the beautiful "Free Angel".

Disc 2 is made up of alternate takes. It gives you some insight into the workings of the songs a they developed from the rough mix stage to T. Rex classics. These outtakes were once sold separately as "Left Hand Luke: The Alternate Tanx". Here you get the whole package in one.

If you've fallen under the spell of Bolan's words and music, but don't have this album yet, get it now. This album to me is one of the best by the band, and as stated before, one of my favorites of all time.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Third of Three Great T-Rex Albums, March 7, 2001

By 

Robert English (Independence, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tanx (Audio CD)

Before Marc Bolan decended into self-satire, he had one more good album in him. This was it.

The band itself was sounding as good as ever, embellished with some cool-sounding saxophone and keyboards. Marc was the weak link here - he wasn't writing songs nearly as often or as well, due as much to the pressures of constant touring as to the drugs that he was taking.

Chemically altered, and under intense pressure to repeat his earlier success, it's no wonder many of Marc's songs on this album sound unfinished. "Tenement Lady", which begins the program, is two completely different songs stuck together with a short keyboard bridge. "Broken Hearted Blues", "Street and Babe Shadow", "Mad Donna", and the huge production-number "Left Hand Luke and the Beggar Boys", are one-riff tunes. They work, yes - extremely well - but this would be the last time. The albums that Marc recorded after this, with the vital exception of "Dandy in the Underworld" (1977), are not recommended.

Those who are just getting into T-Rex are well advised to check out "Electric Warrior" and "The Slider" first, and if you like those you'll love this one.