Customer Reviews

You Scare Me to Death

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Sometime in the mid-sixties a pixie with black curls and a guitar slung around his neck showed up at record business player Simon Napier Bell's London residence and asked him to manage his career. Bell took on the job and recorded these 12 songs with Marc on guitar. The tapes sat in his basement til the late nineties when Bell dusted them off and added backing tracks in the manner he thought Bolan would have done. This is the definitive curio. Shows Bolan never strayed far from his original vision. All the elements are here in primitive form. Explores varied musical styles while always staying true to the Bolan vibe. Surprisingly good, really.

In a sense, Marc Bolan's music really never changed much. After late 1960s albums, working as Taranasourus Rex and putting out quirky folk albums like Beard of Stars, Bolan made his name with T-Rex, and a very glam version of very basic rock. 1971s Electric Warrior is prime example.

You Scare Me To Death is compiled of recordings Bolin made in the late 1970s shortly before he was killed in a car crash. In general these follow the same shiny platform shoe boggie that the curly master made his name on.

The production style of these is slightly different: the album does not have the thick and masterful arrangements Bolan's producer, the amazing Tony Visconti, used to make Bolan a top star in the early 1970s. Instead, the guitars are more up front, and overall the rock is even more pure and straight.

But Bolan sounds great here--his vibrato chirping is in full effect-- and these songs do sound finished, not like a lot of comploitations released after so many rock stars die.

Each track here is great, but the weirdo swamprock of "Hippy Gumbo," is what sold me.