shadow of the night

The surge of unreleased material continued throughout 1976, where he didn't seem to know which direction to take.

At MRI r'n b songs were committed to tape, some for Richard Jones and some for his sister, Gloria. In January the following were completed. 'Shadow of the Night,' 'Fall For You,' 'Savage Beethoven,' 'Bust My Balls' and 'Love Is Here To Stay.' To hear the full-blown workout for 'Savage Beethoven' was a shock and total surprise, when you think there had only been a trite acoustic home demo surfacing previously. It's an energetic onslaught with nice female backing vocals and would have made a good choice for one of the albums or EPs. Similarly, 'Bust My Balls' with its risque lyrics and nasal delivery is an astonishing cast-off. Its structure, like 'Video Drama' has that 'Sound & Vision' root, but predates it by a year. It's a grand bit of Bolan funk and oozes class. Again it's unbelievable that it doesn't get a release and goes the same way as 'Funky London Childhood.' In the bin.

In late Spring, having returned from spending time on tour with Bowie in Scandinavia, he began work on 'I Believe' with its nod to the New Wave and also King Arthur. It has an interesting riff but then plods rather uncreatively in 71 boogie mode. He also made some curious versions of 'Pain & Love' at this time and was still tempted by 'Funky London Childhood' even after the recording of 'I Love To Boogie.' Perhaps what was needed was someone to pick the right stuff to release. The choice of singles after this was breathtakingly awful, considering the quality of material on tap.

In midsummer much of the time was spent recording 'Vixen' for Gloria Jones and working on more tracks for her brother. 'Freedom Is All I Know' remains a mystery, while 'Straight It Up' and 'Oblivion' remain unreleased. Another track 'Love Was Here' is probably just a title-change.

By now T Rex personnel had altered once again. This version was the session powerhouse of Herbie Flowers on bass and his comrade-in-arms Tony Newman on drums. They had been the original rhythm section for Bowie's 'Diamond Dogs' album and tour. Miller Anderson (Keef Hartley & Dog Soldier, a great live outfit) joined on second guitar. They were to provide the kind of backing he'd never had previously, especially for live dates. While new tracks were produced for the next album, more 'Blues' were recorded and something called 'Punk No.2.' However, focus was on material which was scheduled for release. In January of 77 an unknown track was definitely recorded, but did not make the album.

In March T Rex toured and made a massive impact with the confident and professional set. The Damned supported and also enjoyed critical favour. Things were looking up. After the tour they recorded several versions of 'Young Girl of Love.'

In April Bolan entered Decibel Studios with a bunch of session players to start recording on the follow-up to 'Dandy In The Underworld' which had finally brought some chart-action back to the camp. The musicians were Eric Allen, Stan Berrer, Frank Ricotti and Ray Cooper. The following songs (and others) were done:

'Mellow Love,' 'Foxy Boy,' '20th Century Baby,' 'Shy Boy,' 'Hot George' and 'Love Drunk.

An unreleased Gloria Jones track was also recorded in April, 'Boogie With Ya'll Baby.'

In May came 'Classic Rap' and 'Teenage Angel,' often thought to have been recorded much earlier. The Rap featured some bluesy fretwork with the vocal mirroring that, but it's a sketch of an idea. 'Teenage Angel' is more of a complete ballad with some potential for further development. 'Write Me A Song' ('Sing Me A Song') was given the full string treatment and would probably have made an album, had one been released. The bass part is the most notable element. The strings are quite dramatic on the verse, but the song remains a kind of 'Cadilac'-meets-'Ziggy' thing in structure.

Some collaborations occurred with Alphalpha and Steve Harley and some of this has been released. In August we have the last-known studio date, but what was completed is unknown. Sad.

Most of the late summer was taken up by the recording of the TV show, where numerous revamped versions of songs were made. At least there is some evidence for the punked-up version of 'Debora.' Other interesting tracks are Chris Montez' 'Let's Dance' with a typical histrionic Bolan vocal and a fine rendition of 'Endless Sleep' with some blistering lead guitar at the end.

There's also the classic what-might-have-been duet with Bowie. T Rex backed Bowie for his rendition of 'Heroes' and then they were about to play a new co-written song, 'Standing Next To You.' Would have made an interesting single. It's got bits of Roy Orbison's 'Pretty Woman' hanging over the introductory riff, but the rest of the song has a good verse and chorus structure. Only a short part was shown on TV because Bolan fell off his staging and there wasn't time to redo it. However, copies of the rehearsals show enough of the fully-fledged song to justify its future recording.

In turn, that may have led to the promised (and much-flaunted) album of duets. That was not to be.

But.....Bowie is said to be sitting very tightly on other material which the pair did in the USA a couple of years earlier. This is also unlikely to see the light of day. Bowie is purported to have trunks of multi-tracks of all his concerts after 1974, as well as boxes containing hundreds of cassettes. Tantalising!

Whoever stole Marc's stuff after his demise should also be strung up! Scandalous.