Yet another of those Sainsbury’s exclusive coloured vinyl releases, this one, unsurprisingly, on Gold vinyl. It’s a comprehensive collection too, covering Tyrannosaurus Rex, the classic T.Rex Glam Rock singles as well as one or two key album tracks.

I’ve never been the biggest Bolan fan. I love the big, stomping early 70’s Glam singles (“Get It On”, “Children Of The Revolution”, “Metal Guru”, “The Groover” et al) and “Electric Warrior” is a decent album but I find a lot of his stuff very patchy in the quality department. It felt to me like a lot of what he did embraced style over substance (and yes, I realise that is going to land me in hot water with the more rabid wing of the Bopping Elf’s fanbase). So a comp like this is just right for me. You get a couple of early Tyrannosaurus Rex “hippy folk” singles including my wife’s obvious favourite “Debora” (“Oh Deb-Or-ah you look like a Zeb-or-ah” !), all those classic Glam singles from “Ride A White Swan” through to “Truck On (Tyke)” interspersed with the odd album track like “Electric Warrior”s pairing of “Cosmic Dancer” and “Life’s A Gas”. If you really want them it also includes some of those less wonderful later 70’s singles (“Soul Of My Suit”, “Celebrate Summer”) that I could happily live without.

Bolan for a while was a great pop songwriter who burned intensely brightly for a short time. He was the consummate self publicist and was also a very pretty boy which didn’t hurt his pop credentials. I don’t hold him in quite the high esteem many of his fans do but how can you not like a guy who writes a line like “I drive a Rolls Royce, Cos it’s good for my voice”…

Cosmic Dancer - https://youtu.be/524swxaTJ1c?si=MXSFURZgQgtLu3Dk