Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow

From WikiProjectMed
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow
Studio album by
Marc Bolan & T. Rex
Released1 March 1974 (1974-03-01)[1]
Recorded20 March - 13 October 1973
StudioMusicland (Munich)[2]
Genre
Length46:17
Label
ProducerTony Visconti, Marc Bolan
T. Rex chronology
Tanx
(1973) 		Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow
(1974) 		Bolan's Zip Gun
(1975)
Singles from Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow – A Creamed Cage in August
  1. "Teenage Dream"
    Released: 1974

Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow is an album by English rock band T. Rex, the ninth since Tyrannosaurus Rex's debut LP. It was released in March 1974 on the T.Rex record label, distributed by EMI. It was the first and only album to be released under the moniker "Marc Bolan & T. Rex".

Unlike many of T. Rex's previous albums, it was not released domestically in North America; instead, the record company released the U.S.-only Light of Love in August of the same year, featuring three tracks from Zinc Alloy while the remaining songs would appear on the band's next album, Bolan's Zip Gun.

Zinc Alloy was met with bemusement by the listening public. It reportedly confused listeners and divided the band's fanbase at the time, while critical reception was universally negative.[3] Critical re-evaluation has been slightly more favourable, but it remains an oddity in the T. Rex canon due to its style incorporating funk and R&B influences. The album peaked at number 12 in the UK Albums chart.

Background

In the spring of 1973, Marc Bolan was dissatisfied with what he perceived as an insufficient reception to the single "20th Century Boy" (which reached the UK number 3 position that March) and eager to further explore the musical directions glimpsed on the just-released Tanx LP. His two primary influences at this time were his new relationship with musician and songwriter Gloria Jones, and an affection for the black music he heard on radio while touring the US.[4] In the midst of a European tour that March, the band entered Rosenberg Studios in Copenhagen to record new material with producer Tony Visconti once more at the helm.[5]

Recording

The initial session at Rosenberg Studios on March 20, 1973 saw rough early versions of "Liquid Gang", "Superbad" (a working title for "The Avengers"), "The Groover", its B-side "Midnight" and two outtakes, "All My Love" and "Down Home Lady" committed to tape.[5] On March 22 two more outtakes, "Saturation Syncopation" and "Delanie" were recorded. April 4 at AIR Studios saw overdubs and mixing of a few prior tracks including "Midnight", while April 30 at Wally Heider Studios in Hollywood produced "Carsmile Smith and the Old One", the B-side "Satisfaction Pony", "Blackjack" and the outtake "Saturday Night" with Gloria Jones and Stephanie Spruill on backing vocals.[5] Mixing and overdubbing was held at AIR back in London on May 6-7, then moved to Apple Studios on May 11 for working versions of "Squint Eye Mangle" (released with "Blackjack" later in the year as a single by "Big Carrot") and another outtake, "Mr. Motion".

Bolan became one of the first English artists to record in Germany when the sessions moved to Musicland Studios in Munich between June 17-24. The band's lineup expanded at this time, incorporating second guitarist Jack Green (according to tour manager Mick Grey, his participation was minimal[6]), session player B.J. Cole on pedal steel, and backing vocalists 'The Cosmic Choir', a soul duo composed of Gloria Jones and Sister Pat Hall, sometimes augmented by Gloria's brother "Big" Richard Jones.[6] In contemporary interviews Bolan stated "I'm spending a lot more time on recordings now", adding that he intended to remake many of the Copenhagen recordings.[6] Approximately twenty tracks were put down at Musicland including "Galaxy", "Painless Persuasion V" (working title "Look to Your Soul"), "Change", "Nameless Wildness", "Carsmile Smith" (remake), "Liquid Gang" (remake), "Truck On (Tyke)", "Interstellar Soul", "You Got to Jive to Stay Alive", "Spanish Midnight", "The Avengers" (remake), the B-side "Sitting Here" and outtakes "Dance In The Midnight", "Saturday Night" (remake), "Hope You Enjoy The Show" (which was played at a few concerts during this period) and "Plateau Skull" (working title "Twelve Bar Blues").[5]

The band went on a summer tour of America where "Sound Pit Part 1, "Sound Pit Part 2" and "Explosive Mouth" were taped at Sound Pit Studios in Atlanta on July 30. On August 7-9 at Elektra Sound Recorders in Hollywood a working version of "Teenage Dream" and further work on "Explosive Mouth" were considered, while on August 28-29 "Till Dawn" and "Venus Loon" were taped at Electric Lady Studios in New York.[5]

The album was mixed at AIR Studios after the band's return from their US tour in September, with further overdubbing there on October 13.[5] The mixing process was difficult as Bolan was heavily addicted to cocaine by this time. He wanted total control of the sessions, often isolating himself in the mixing booth for hours and spurning Visconti's advice; as a result, this would be the last time Visconti worked with the band.[6] By November, at the conclusion of an extensive Far East tour, drummer Bill Legend also quit, noting "I always gave him my best but it wouldn't have taken much for him to give us the occasional word of encouragement...he tended to take everyone for granted".[6]

Music

Marc's ambitions at the time were to fuse glam, pop, soul, funk, psychedelia, and heavy metal into what he called on work-in-progress session sheets "spaceage funk" and "interstellar supersoul".[6] The results were a radical change from the classic T. Rex sound. Journalist Alexis Petridis wrote that the album features a variety of styles including "the funky clavinet, the Jerry Lee Lewis piano, the backing vocals of his new partner Gloria Jones, the strings, the horns and the trebly, distorted guitar on which Bolan would fire off extravagant, Hendrixesque solos."[7] AllMusic described "The Avengers (Superbad)"", "Interstellar Soul" and "Liquid Gang" as "solid James Brown drive".[8]

Release

The sleeve only had to show the subtitle A Creamed Cage in August but EMI decided to add a banner with the name of the band before printing.[3] The album was released five weeks after the end of a January 1974 UK Tour. The band had asked that the initial pressings were a multi-layered triple gatefold sleeve, a latticework image of the current cover featuring singer Marc Bolan's face in a pale gold surround, meant to fold-out into the 'Creamed Cage' of the subtitle.[6] It peaked at number twelve in the UK Albums chart and the lead single, "Teenage Dream", reached No. 13 in the singles chart.[9]

At the time of the UK release, Bolan's U.S. label Reprise had dropped him and he was struggling to find another U.S. label to sign him. When he finally got a deal with Casablanca Records he had recorded much new material, which the new record company decided to release along with a couple of tracks from Zinc Alloy as the Light of Love album in September 1974; thus, neither Zinc Alloy nor Bolan's Zip Gun were issued in the U.S. in the 1970s.

A companion release to the later Demon Records reissue, entitled Change (The Alternate Zinc Alloy), was released in 1995 and contained alternative versions, studio rough mixes, and demos of the main album and bonus tracks. The two were combined for a 2CD edition, which was released by Edsel and Rhino Records in 2002. Another reissue with rarities was issued in 2014.[10]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[8]
Pitchfork5.8/10[11]
Uncut7/10[12]

Zinc Alloy was poorly received upon release, with "universally hostile" reviews.[3] The British press slammed T. Rex for copying the title of the album on Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, even though Bolan had spoken of releasing work under the pseudonym "Zinc Alloy" during the mid-1960s.

Retrospective reviews have been more favourable. AllMusic praised the song "You've Got to Jive to Stay Alive" as "implausibly slight, but impressively groove-ridden".[8] In a review rated 7 out of 10, Uncut wrote: "Bolan, newly enchanted with singer Gloria Jones, gives fuller vent to funk and R&B influences, predating by several months Bowie’s and Elton John’s interest in disco and Philly soul." "Bolan was still clearly capable of inspired creativity – the dark, twisted “Explosive Mouth” and “Change” are particularly great". "The enjoyably sub-Dylan melodrama of “Teenage Dream”".[12] The Quietus praised most of the songs, saying: "'Venus Loon' and 'Sound Pit' are startling, fantastic openers, bustling with heavy-hitting proto-disco grooves and the kind of dramatic string-stabs more akin to the Chi-Lites or O'Jays than the purely rock & roll influences of yore. Even when he does step back to the boogie of 'Explosive Mouth' there's an almost Beefheartian oddity to the grooves and shapes, a committed surrealism to the lyrics, an honesty about his own self-delusion and the destructiveness of his fantasism that imply far more self-awareness than the official story of Bolan's demise allows." Reviewer Neil Kulkarni further said that tracks like "'Galaxy' and 'Teenage Dream' swim in exquisitely dreamy breaks and bridges", featuring "the sweetly soulful harmonies and ultra-phased fades". Musically, it is said that Bolan "blends soul with funk, acid-rock, rockabilly, adds it to his palette to create a uniquely twisted stew still all his own". "'Liquid Gang', 'Carsmile Smith' and 'Painless Persuasion' are some of the most gloriously over-the-edge anthems he ever wrote, and when the band gets funky ('You've Got To Jive', 'Interstellar Soul' and 'The Avengers') they manage to be more lethally in the pocket than any of the other white rockers then trying to tap a little of James Brown's ancient-futurist magic (e.g. Led Zep, the Stones). 'The Leopards' fades you out with Marc not even singing – rapping like a Dadaist Last-Poet/Watts-Prophet, tentatively but tantalisingly hitting on an almost entirely new-type of music, somewhere 'tween Kevin Ayers and Iceberg Slim." He concluded saying that Zinc Alloy was a "fantastic mess".[3]

The Guardian wrote that it is "better than its reputation suggests". Reviewer Alexis Petridis qualified "Teenage Dream" as "floridly elegiac" "and sufficiently ahead of the curve to start experimenting with soul music 18 months before Bowie released Young Americans". Petridis concluded that Bolan "was aiming for a sort of Spectoresque wall-of-sound effect and slightly missing the mark".[7] Record Collector dubbed it a "reMarcable musical fusion".[13]

Legacy

AllMusic wrote that Zinc Alloy predated the change of style of Bolan's peers, saying: "soul-soaked songs like these aren't simply a new direction. They are the very signposts which would soon be guiding so many other English rock talents down some very unfamiliar alleyways. Zinc Alloy was released in March, 1974. Bowie began rehearsing his Philly Dogs tour in July".[8]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Marc Bolan

Side A
No.TitleLength
1."Venus Loon"3:01
2."Sound Pit"2:50
3."Explosive Mouth"2:26
4."Galaxy"1:48
5."Change"2:47
6."Nameless Wildness"3:06
7."Teenage Dream"5:45
Side B
No.TitleLength
1."Liquid Gang"3:17
2."Carsmile Smith & the Old One"3:16
3."You've Got to Jive to Stay Alive – Spanish Midnight"2:35
4."Interstellar Soul"3:26
5."Painless Persuasion v. the Meathawk Immaculate"3:26
6."The Avengers (Superbad)"4:28
7."The Leopards Featuring Gardenia & the Mighty Slug"3:36
1994 CD reissue bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
15."The Groover"3:24
16."Midnight"2:49
17."Truck On (Tyke)"3:09
18."Sitting Here"2:21
19."Satisfaction Pony"2:49
Change (The Alternate Zinc Alloy)
No.TitleLength
1."Venus Loon"3:05
2."Sound Pit (Parts 1 & 2)"3:01
3."Explosive Mouth"2:33
4."Galaxy"1:03
5."Change (Signs)"1:54
6."Nameless Wildness"5:19
7."Teenage Dream"5:57
8."Liquid Gang"2:56
9."Carsmile Smith & the Old One"2:34
10."Spanish Midnight"0:37
11."Insterstellar Soul"1:55
12."Painless Persuasion v. the Meathawk Immaculate"3:29
13."The Avengers (Superbad)"3:27
14."The Leopards Featuring Gardenia & the Mighty Slug"2:28
15."The Groover"2:50
16."Midnight"2:48
17."Truck On (Tyke)"1:40
18."Sitting There (Sitting Here)"2:01
19."Satisfaction Pony"3:27
20."Nameless Wildness" (Acoustic Demo)1:47
21."Carsmile Smith & the Old One" (Solo / Acoustic Demo)1:45
22."Carsmile Smith & the Old One" (Acoustic Demo with Organ)1:17
23."The Avengers (Superbad)" (Acoustic Demo)2:50
24."The Leopards Featuring Geraldine & the Mighty Slug" (Acoustic Demo)1:08

Personnel

T.Rex

with:

Charts

Chart (1974) Peak
position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[15] 45
UK Albums Chart 12

References

  1. ^ "In brief" (PDF). Record Mirror. 16 February 1974. p. 5. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
  2. ^ Buskin, Richard (September 2013). "Classic Tracks: Electric Light Orchestra 'Don't Bring Me Down'". Sound On Sound. SOS Publications Group. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d Neil Kulkarni (3 March 2014). "Pop, Fragility & Dissolution: A Marc Bolan Reappraisal". The Quietus. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  4. ^ Mark Paytress (1994). Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow or a Creamed Cage in August. Chronicle.
  5. ^ a b c d e f McLenahan, Cliff (2019). Marc Bolan: 1947-1977 A Chronology. Helter Skelter Books.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Paytress, Mark. Bolan: The Rise and Fall of a 20th Century Superstar. Omnibus Press. 2003.
  7. ^ a b Petridis, Alexis (12 December 2014). "T. Rex: The Vinyl Collection Review – Proof That Bolan's Genius Went Beyond the Hits". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  8. ^ a b c d Sendra, Tim. "Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow – Marc Bolan & T. Rex". AllMusic. Retrieved 21 June 2024.
  9. ^ "T Rex - Official Chart History". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  10. ^ Tyler, Kieron. "T. Rex An overwhelming overdose of Marc Bolan". The Arts Desk. 09 March 2014. Retrieved 2 April 2021
  11. ^ Deusner, Stephen M. (5 January 2006). "T. Rex: The Slider / Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow / Dandy in the Underworld / The T. Rex Wax Co. Singles: A's and B's 1972–77". Pitchfork. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
  12. ^ a b "Tyrannosaurus Rex / T.Rex – A Beard of Stars / T.Rex / Tanx / Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow – Deluxe Editions". Uncut. Archived from the original on 7 April 2014. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  13. ^ Rab, George. "20th Century Soul Boy" [Zin Alloy reissue review]. "Record Collector. April 2014. Retrieved 2 April 2021
  14. ^ Visconti, Tony. The Autobiography: Bowie, Bolan and the Brooklyn Boy. pp. 207-209. New York: HarperCollins, 2007. ISBN 978-0-00-722944-4
  15. ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 302. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
Retrieved from "https://mdwiki.org/wiki/Zinc_Alloy_and_the_Hidden_Riders_of_Tomorrow"