Althouse: If you knew me when the year I went to college...

June 15, 2011

If you knew me when the year I went to college...

... I would have tried to get you to listen to this:

Tyrannosaurus Rex - "Warlord Of The Royal Crocodiles." The album is "Unicorn."

36 comments:

DADvocate said...: My favorite T Rex song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19IqwU3itFk; 6/15/11, 7:04 AM
TMink said...: Well, we know you now, and you are still trying to get us to listen to it! I had not heard that one, I enjoyed it. Thanks.

Trey; 6/15/11, 7:10 AM
KCFleming said...: Wow, man; far out.
I can dig it.

Uh, you got any bread, man?; 6/15/11, 7:10 AM
KCFleming said...: This reminds me of all the hippies in Omaha's Memorial Park in the summer of 1971.

One guy was always asleep on the hood of his car, shirtless, one knee up, arms extended. Christ-like, post-crucifixion, but smoking weed.

At the time I thought there was some deep, secret meaning to it all.
Ha!

I'm glad you posted this though.
When was the last time you fell in love with a song so much you wanted other people to hear it?; 6/15/11, 7:17 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "My favorite T Rex song..."

Don't merge T Rex and Tyrannosaurus Rex. I'm trying to spotlight the earlier incarnation -- incarnivoration.; 6/15/11, 7:17 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "When was the last time you fell in love with a song so much you wanted other people to hear it?"

Rufus Wainwright. "Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk."; 6/15/11, 7:18 AM
james conrad said...: uhhhhhhhh, nooooooooooo; 6/15/11, 7:21 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: Heh.

What songs do other people remember loving from specific years of school?

If you knew me the year I went to fifth grade, I would have tried to get you to listen to this. (You could have used my Walkman because I would have had it with me.); 6/15/11, 7:29 AM
KCFleming said...: Fifth grade.
My first girlfriend.
Rollerskating at the rink to Dancin' In the Moonlight.

If I hear it on the radio, I still can feel my hand on her hip and not knowing what to say next.; 6/15/11, 7:39 AM
Joaquin said...: Ok, I listened to it. Happy?; 6/15/11, 7:50 AM
The Drill SGT said...: ugh.

If you wanted Import Hard Rock in 69, I would pick:

Led Zepplin
Cream
Steppenwolf; 6/15/11, 7:51 AM
Patrick said...: My first year of high school was also the first time I ever heard music with a Walkman. the song was "Red Barchetta," by Rush. I loved it, and still do. And spare me all of the Prog Rock is for pseudo-intellectuals" stuff. I loved, Rush, Yes, Genesis etc. So step off, man!!

Maybe a little defensive about this.; 6/15/11, 8:03 AM
Patrick said...: My first year of high school was also the first time I ever heard music with a Walkman. the song was "Red Barchetta," by Rush. I loved it, and still do. And spare me all of the Prog Rock is for pseudo-intellectuals" stuff. I loved, Rush, Yes, Genesis etc. So step off, man!!

Maybe a little defensive about this.; 6/15/11, 8:05 AM
Patrick said...: Effin Blogger. Screwing up a lot lately.; 6/15/11, 8:05 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: I've already been beat to it, but what else can you say?

Far fucking out, man!

Played with a bunch of old farts last night. We really struggled to find a song that ventured into the 80s.

Best we could do was Tom Petty's "Breakdown," which got us up to 1978.; 6/15/11, 8:06 AM
DADvocate said...: Don't merge T Rex and Tyrannosaurus Rex. I'm trying to spotlight the earlier incarnation -- incarnivoration.

Guess that shows how much attention I paid to either one of those groups and I'm the same age as you.

Uriah Heep, Leon Russell, the Stones, Lynard Skynard, Allman Brothers, Steppenwolfe, etc plus soul music made up my listening. I was never an aficionado of any group or genre though. Didn't like the "sweet" stuff that much.

Last hit song I wanted others to hear: Crazy by Gnarles Barkley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB2vMGBzjh4; 6/15/11, 8:08 AM
Fred4Pres said...: How hip were you!; 6/15/11, 8:16 AM
Widmerpool said...: Before T. Rex assaulted the world with their glam rock party in the early '70s, there was the folk duo Tyrannosaurus Rex. Although both bands were fronted by flamboyant singer/guitarist/songwriter Marc Bolan, the earlier outfit was the polar opposite of the style of music that would later become synonymous with Bolan. Tyrannosaurus Rex originally formed in September of 1967 as a duo after Bolan split from his previous band, John's Children. Joining Bolan in the band was percussionist/bongo player Steve Peregrin Took, a gentleman that Bolan named after a character in The Lord of the Rings novel series. Bolan was so infatuated with Rings that most of the subject matter in Tyrannosaurus Rex songs came directly from the books as well.

The same month that the duo began, a fledgling producer by the name of Tony Visconti caught a show of their's at the UFO club in England, signing them right away to a subsidiary of EMI Records (in the U.S., Tyrannosaurus Rex's albums would issued via A&M) and producing their subsequent albums. The band enjoyed success straight away, with their debut single, "Debora," hitting the U.K. Top 40 as their debut full-length, My People Were Fair & Had Sky In Their Hair...But Now They're Content to Wear Stars on their Brows, hit number 15 on the U.K. charts in July of 1968. The next year saw several further releases, such as the albums Prophets Seers & Sages: The Angels of the Ages and Unicorn plus the singles "One Inch Rock" and "King of the Rumbling Spires," but Took would leave the band in October of 1969.

Undeterred since he was the main focal point of Tyrannosaurus Rex all along, Bolan recruited another percussionist, Mickey Finn, to take Took's place, issuing the new lineup's first album together in March of 1970, A Beard of Stars. By this time, Tyrannosaurus Rex's sound had begun to change; Bolan was now penning more succinct songs and had picked up the electric guitar (resulting in the group shortening their name to T. Rex later in the year), became a conventional rock quartet by adding a bassist and drummer, and helped touch off the glam rock movement (along with another former folk artist that had also recently rediscovered his desire to rock, David Bowie). Bolan and T. Rex went on to achieve massive success with a string of Top Ten singles and hit albums. But the hope of a reunion of the original Tyrannosaurus Rex lineup ever taking place became an impossibility on September 16, 1977, when Bolan died tragically in a car accident (Took would also pass away shortly thereafter, due to asphyxiation, on October 27, 1980).

Over the years, all of the Tyrannosaurus Rex albums have been repackaged in a variety of different configurations (the most popular being two-for-one deals in Europe), while 1995 saw the release of a Took collection titled The Missing Link to Tyrannosaurus Rex. A year later, A BBC History was issued -- a collection of live "in the studio" tracks that Bolan and Took had laid down during the late '60s.; 6/15/11, 8:27 AM
Skyler said...: Oh my god. I could only get half way through.

Oh, youth. I guess we all have tastes that mature.; 6/15/11, 8:30 AM
DADvocate said...: Widmer - all that knowledge on two obscure rock bands from the 70s. Seems like a waste to me.; 6/15/11, 8:31 AM
Widmerpool said...: Dad - grabbed it from Allmusic.com - should have posted an attribution. It has great entries for groups like this. Must say that neither incarnation appeals to me. Stones, baby!; 6/15/11, 8:33 AM
Patrick said...: I'm curious, Prof. Althouse: how do you feel about that music now?; 6/15/11, 8:35 AM
DADvocate said...: Wid - Looks like a good source. I check out stuff every once in a while.

I worry about people outside the industry who know too much about music or movies. A guy I used to work with knew quotes way too many movies. My only thought was "Dude, what are you doing with your life?"; 6/15/11, 8:38 AM
Widmerpool said...: Agree Dad - generally best to keep one's somewhat geeky passions to oneself.; 6/15/11, 8:46 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: Agree Dad - generally best to keep one's somewhat geeky passions to oneself.

Sorry to have to tell you this, but that is not a geeky passion.

Geeky passions would be something like a passion for programming iPhones or becoming an expert at some crazy video game.

A passion for T-Rex is in another, far less favorable universe. Totally inexplicable.

But, then, there are people out there who are passionately involved with Black Eyed Peas, which is just another revival of the gay disco thing of the late 70s dressed up in trashy rock theater.; 6/15/11, 8:59 AM
edutcher said...: Part of the reason I parted company with pop music in '65.

PS Did you go running around to all the "cool" kids telling them you liked this stuff?; 6/15/11, 9:56 AM
Phil 314 said...: Don't merge T Rex and Tyrannosaurus Rex. I'm trying to spotlight the earlier incarnation

As a child of the "evolution" I can't help but note that Tyrannosaurus Rex was extinct due to the survivor advantage of T. Rex, as evidenced this.

but of course the song itself has the ultimate survival advantage as evidenced by this; 6/15/11, 10:46 AM
Robert Cook said...: Tyrannosaurus Rex: Feh!

T. Rex: Yeh!; 6/15/11, 11:16 AM
Chip Ahoy said...: OIC, these are the names of bands! I thought they were songs about dinosaurs LDO.; 6/15/11, 12:23 PM
Anonymous said...: When I played this my cat looked annoyed, flicked his ears and left the room.; 6/15/11, 12:38 PM
Luke Lea said...: You were a hippy chick, I knew it. And a contrarian even then I bet.; 6/15/11, 1:19 PM
Strelnikov said...: It'll never stand up to "Twentieth Century Boy".; 6/15/11, 1:50 PM
Kirby Olson said...: Three must have been a moment when he thought: folk rock like this will not cut it, I will instead rock this thing. I would like some footage of that moment. If he had only been a folkie, I don't think people would still remember him at this point. It's the cutting Bo Diddley effect that suddenly catapulted him into about four or five years of stardom before his wife wrecked their car and killed him. Still, it's an edifying moment to look at the early self, and the early sound.; 6/15/11, 4:02 PM
Kirk Parker said...: "When was the last time you fell in love with a song so much you wanted other people to hear it? "

Last week.; 6/15/11, 6:44 PM
Methadras said...: I prefer BOC's Godzilla instead.; 6/15/11, 8:17 PM
A "Shotgun" Gold said...: Bang a bong!.... er... gong!; 6/16/11, 12:23 PM