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Tanx

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This article is about the musical album. For the mathematical function tan x, see Tangent function.

Tanx
Studio album by
T. Rex
Released16 March 1973 (1973-03-16)
Recorded1 August - 3 December 1972
StudioChâteau d'Hérouville, France
Genre
Length35:03
LabelEMI (UK), Reprise (US)
ProducerTony Visconti
T. Rex chronology
The Slider
(1972) 		Tanx
(1973) 		Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow
(1974)

Tanx is a 1973 album by rock band T. Rex, the eighth since their debut as Tyrannosaurus Rex in 1968, and the fourth under the moniker T. Rex. It was released on 16 March by record label EMI. Tanx was a musical departure from previous works: still containing tracks in the vein of The Slider, singer and songwriter Marc Bolan showed his interest for soul music, funk and gospel. Female backing singers appeared on a few tracks. New instruments such as mellotron were used, played by producer Tony Visconti, allowing the T. Rex sound to evolve.

Upon its release, Tanx was a commercial success. It peaked at number 4 in the UK Albums chart,[1] number 3 in the German Albums chart and number 5 in Norway.[2] No singles were released to promote the album.

Background

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Although T. Rex remained massively popular, the failure of July 1972's The Slider to hit the UK summit position, repeated when the two follow up singles "Children of the Revolution" and "Solid Gold Easy Action" could only climb to number 2 (although "Children of the Revolution" did hit number 1 on the Melody Maker and NME charts), caused some music journalists to ponder whether Bolan's glam crown was slipping.[3] A fall 1972 tour of the United States could not capitalize on the success of "Bang A Gong", and neither "Metal Guru" or "The Slider" had charted there when released as singles. In addition, there was criticism that the group had slipped into a formula sound, albeit one still highly successful. These concerns prompted the group to try a different approach on their fourth album.

Songs and recording

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While much of the resulting album Tanx contained reliable returns to the classic T. Rex sound on tracks like "Mad Donna", "Born To Boogie" and "Country Honey", there was considerable exploration of new musical territory as well. Most of the songs for the album were penned during the sessions, with only "Darling" (the second half of "Tenement Lady") and "Mad Donna" arising from older 60s song fragments given new lyrics.[3] The lyrical content did not depart too much from that of Electric Warrior or The Slider, with surreal Dadaist imagery like "molly mouse dream talk", "golden risks and folly's rainbows" and "slight thigh be-bop and old gumbo Jill" rubbing shoulders with familiar rock'n'roll concerns, particularly that of sex. Meanwhile, "Broken-Hearted Blues" and "Life Is Strange" returned to the confessional fragility of the ballads on The Slider.[3] On the other hand, songs like "Mister Mister", "Country Honey" and "Shock Rock" contained only a few short, simple repeated lines, the most minimal Bolan had ever written in his career.

Musically, the album was more lushly produced, with unusual new additions such as mellotron, saxophone, phasing, and prominent piano (played by the French Elton John-soundalike Bernard Arcadio).[4] The mellotron which opens "Tenement Lady" was played by Visconti,[5] with more of it appearing on "Mister Mister", "The Street And Babe Shadow" and "Highway Knees". The biggest evolution in the band's sound was its embrace of gospel, soul and funk idioms, which appear on tracks like "Electric Slim" and "Left Hand Luke".[3] While on an American tour that October, the band had appeared on stage accompanied by female soul backing singers on a few dates. Bolan recorded the closing gospel-inflected song "Left Hand Luke and the Beggar Boys", influenced by an early '60s single by R&B DJ Montague the Magnificent,[5] with backup female vocals[6] by Madeline Bell, Lesley Duncan, Vicki Brown, Barry St John and Sue and Sunny. They doubled Bolan on the choruses but were not credited on the sleeve. Bob Stanley of The Times described "Left Hand Luke and the Beggar Boys" as a "New Orleans bar piano song with interstellar soul".[7] "The Street and Babe Shadow" showed Bolan adding funk to his music along with sax, while the mellotron provides a contrasting cosmic touch. In an interview a few months prior to the album's release, Bolan told a reporter "I used a lot of black chicks on it, also Lesley Duncan. I feature a pianist very heavily and play slide guitar on every track...I'm also using a couple of saxes during solos."[3] Marc's slide guitar work can be heard on the rockers "Country Honey" and "Born to Boogie", the latter of which was also the title of the T. Rex concert film released at the end of 1972.

Sessions for the new album began at Strawberry Studios in the Château d'Hérouville, where most of The Slider had been recorded. Tony Visconti remembers the sessions as being more relaxed than that of The Slider,[5] although tour manager Mick Grey lamented that Marc's behavior on drink and drugs had become uncontrollable by this time, the sessions marred by "his tantrums and ego."[3] A four day block of sessions from August 1-4, 1972 yielded working versions of "Fast Blues Easy Action" (renamed 'Solid Gold Easy Action" for the single), "Children of the Revolution", "Life Is Strange", "Highway Knees", "Born to Boogie" and the B-sides "Jitterbug Love" and "Free Angel" with overdubs of "Children of the Revolution" and "Jitterbug Love" at AIR Studios on August 11 and 15.[4] These songs all largely still fit the classic T. Rex sound. After the fall American tour the band regrouped at Strawberry Studios from October 21-25, inspired by what they had heard on American radio. These sessions yielded "Tenement Lady", "Rapids", "Mister Mister", "Broken Hearted Blues", "Country Honey", "Mad Donna", "The Street and Babe Shadow", "Left Hand Luke" and the final master of "Solid Gold Easy Action".[4] The French girl's voice at the beginning of "Mad Donna" was the daughter of the head of the record label.[5] Further overdubs and mixing occurred at AIR on October 27 and November 23. Finally, on December 3 the group entered Toshiba Studios in Tokyo without Visconti during a Far East tour to record "20th Century Boy", "Electric Slim and the Factory Hen" and "Shock Rock" (with working title "Street Back"). A master tape of the album compiled on December 31 featuring "20th Century Boy" as its closer was changed on January 8 to remove it from the album, meaning that no singles appeared on Tanx.[4]

Album cover

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The overall design and packaging of the album was credited to noted graphic designer John Kosh, with a tank theme inspired by the pun of the album's title. The black-and-white front cover taken by Peter Howe featured Bolan, dressed in a feather boa, angrily straddling a toy tank whose gun-barrel is suggestively pointed at the viewer; some critics noted that the photo made the star look bloated.[3] A free black-and-white poster which came with the album featured a similar pose, only with Bolan in a different outfit and more demure expression. The back cover featured pictures of the band, live and backstage, taken by Mike Putland alternating with neon red and blue tank illustrations while the inner sleeve had a turquoise background consisting of black-and-white tank graphics;[8] it was the first Bolan album to contain no lyric sheet.

Release

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Tanx was released on 16 March 1973 by record label EMI in the UK and Reprise in the US. Tanx was a top 4 hit in the UK Albums Chart (actually reaching number 1 on the Melody Maker chart) and a hit all over Europe, peaking at number 3 in Germany,[2] number 5 in Norway,[2] number 15 in Sweden,[9] and number 20 in Finland,[10] but it failed to match the success of The Slider in the US, reaching only No. 102 in the Billboard 200.[11] Curiously, the popular single "20th Century Boy" recorded during a stay in Japan,[12] and released two weeks before, on 2 March 1973,[13] was not included on the album, which may have affected sales, as the album (unlike its two predecessors) did not include any single.

Tanx was remastered for CD over and over again, beginning in 1985 on the Marc On Wax and label. This first reissue came with all of T. Rex's non-album singles and B-Sides released in 1973 as well as the tracks released under the Big Carrot moniker. Edsel Records re-released the album in 1994 as part of their extensive T. Rex reissue campaign with a different set of bonus tracks. A companion release, entitled Left Hand Luke (The Alternative Tanx), was released in 1995 and contained alternative versions, studio rough mixes and demos of the main album and bonus tracks. A combined album digipak was released in 2002. In 2003, further recordings from the Tanx sessions were released by Thunderwing Productions Limited (TPL), the owners of several original ¼", 1" and 2" Master Tape recordings of Marc Bolan & T. Rex. These tracks were released as The Tanx Recordings.

Reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[14]
Creemfavourable[15]
New Musical Express[16]
Pitchfork8.3/10[17]
PopMatters7/10[18]
Rolling Stoneunfavourable[19]
The Quietusfavourable[20]

At the time, Tanx received favourable reviews in both the NME and Record Mirror.[12] James Johnson of NME wrote "it's the calmer, more relaxed" tracks like "Electric Slim and the Factory Hen" that were most palatable. Val Mabbs at Record Mirror found the lyrics simplistic but noted that the album was "musically the most interesting from T. Rex to date and features mellotron very strongly, as well as some beautifully arranged saxophone sounds and piano work".[4] Penny Valentine at Sounds thought the tracks "probably stand up better than most of the stuff he's done over the past couple of years" and claimed Bolan was "obviously back to strong lyrics", once again singling out "Electric Slim".[4] Creem hailed it saying, "song for song, this might be Marc Bolan's strongest album. Certainly, it's the most varied, and the most musical".[15] However, it was derided by Rolling Stone: reviewer Paul Gambaccini wrote "This one album might have made a good EP [...] I can't see many people being truly pleased with it. But I've been wrong before." He nevertheless praised tracks like "Mister Mister," "Electric Slim and the Factory Hen," and "Broken Hearted Blues."[19]

Retrospective reviews have been more favourable. Whitney Strub of PopMatters wrote "One reason for Tanx's commercial failure was its lack of the immediacy for which glam was known. [...] But what doomed the album on the charts is precisely what earns it reinspection today: the songs, for the most part, flow cohesively from one fractured mini-narrative to the next".[18] Stephen M. Deusner of Pitchfork, whilst praising the record, called it "a difficult album".[17] The Quietus wrote "It's an excessive record in the best possible sense", qualifying "Tenement Lady" as a stunning opener. Neil Kulkarni considered that "Electric Slim & The Factory Hen" was a nod to black soul music, a style that Bolan had always wanted to explore: Kulkarni wrote that this was two years before David Bowie "tried the same move on Young Americans".[20]

Legacy

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AllMusic wrote that it presaged David Bowie's soul music phase: "It was admirable that Bolan was attempting to broaden the T. Rex sound -- soulful backup singers and horns are heard throughout, a full two years before David Bowie used the same formula for his mega-seller Young Americans".[14]

Tanx inspired Suede for their Coming Up album as producer Ed Buller related: "The blueprint was Tanx by T.Rex – I actually thought The Slider was a better choice, but Brett (Anderson) always had a different take on things. I always looked at The Slider as being the ultimate T.Rex album, but he’s right, Tanx is actually a better record, because it’s more interesting. Basically, what we did, is that every track started with acoustic guitar, bongos, tambourine and Brett, so it all started life pretty much the same way that Marc Bolan recorded all of his stuff originally. He started with an acoustic guitar song and then he’d build it up with guitar and drums and electronics. So the foundation of the songs on Coming Up, is a groove made-up out of congas, tambourine and acoustic guitar."[21] In 2003, Martin Gore from Depeche Mode recorded in solo two covers from Tanx as extra-tracks of his single "Stardust": "Left Hand Luke and the Beggar Boys",[22] and "Life Is Strange".[23]

The song "Life Is Strange" was the soundtrack of several scenes of the film Dallas Buyers Club in 2013 in which one of the main characters, Rayon, a Marc Bolan fan played by Jared Leto,[24] lived surrounded with pictures of her idol.[25]

Track listing

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All tracks are written by Marc Bolan

Side A
No.TitleLength
1."Tenement Lady"2:55
2."Rapids"2:48
3."Mister Mister"3:29
4."Broken Hearted Blues"2:02
5."Shock Rock"1:43
6."Country Honey"1:47
7."Electric Slim and the Factory Hen"3:03
Side B
No.TitleLength
1."Mad Donna"2:16
2."Born to Boogie"2:04
3."Life Is Strange"2:30
4."The Street and Babe Shadow"2:18
5."Highway Knees"2:34
6."Left Hand Luke and the Beggar Boys"5:18
1994 CD reissue bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
14."Children of the Revolution"2:30
15."Jitterbug Love"2:59
16."Sunken Rags"2:54
17."Solid Gold Easy Action"2:20
18."Xmas Riff"0:11
19."20th Century Boy"3:41
20."Free Angel"2:12
Left Hand Luke (The Alternative Tanx)
No.TitleLength
1."Tenement Lady / Darling"2:49
2."Rapids"1:59
3."Mister Mister"2:49
4."Broken Hearted Blues"2:08
5."Country Honey"1:50
6."Mad Donna"2:19
7."Born to Boogie"2:09
8."Life Is Strange"1:47
9."The Street and Babe Shadow"2:20
10."Highway Knees"2:32
11."Left Hand Luke"5:17
12."Children of the Revolution"1:04
13."Solid Gold Easy Action"2:13
14."Free Angel"2:14
15."Mister Mister" (Acoustic and Bass Demo)3:32
16."Broken Hearted Blues" (Acoustic and Bass Demo)2:08
17."The Street and the Babe Shadow"2:14
18."Tenement Lady" (Acoustic and Bass Demo)1:35
19."Tenement Lady" (Acoustic Demo)1:53
20."Broken Hearted Blues" (Acoustic Demo)1:50
21."Mad Donna" (Different Lyrics / Acoustic Demo)1:45
22."The Street and the Babe Shadow" (Acoustic Demo)2:36
23."Left Hand Luke" (Acoustic Demo)1:58
The Tanx Recordings
No.TitleLength
1."Tenement Lady"3:18
2."Darling"1:46
3."Rapids"4:39
4."Mister Mister"3:31
5."Broken Hearted Blues"2:16
6."Shock Rock"2:36
7."Country Honey"2:06
8."Electric Slim & the Factory Hen"3:16
9."Mad Donna"4:10
10."Born to Boogie"2:10
11."Life Is Strange"2:39
12."The Street & Babe Shadow"2:17
13."Highway Knees"2:35
14."Left Hand Luke"5:26
15."Children of the Revolution"3:32
16."Jitterbug Love"3:59
17."Solid Gold Easy Action"3:31
18."20th Century Boy"3:57
19."Free Angel"2:21

Personnel

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T. Rex

with:

Technical
  • John Kosh – cover design
  • Peter Howe – front cover photography

Charts

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References

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  1. ^ "T. Rex UK Albums chart". officialcharts.com. Retrieved 2 February 2016.
  2. ^ a b c "T. Rex - Tanx Charts for Germany and Sweden". Swedishcharts.com. Retrieved 2 April 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Paytress, Mark (2009). Bolan: The Rise and Fall of a 20th Century Superstar. London: Omnibus Press.
  4. ^ a b c d e f McLenahan, Cliff (2019). Marc Bolan: 1947-1977 A Chronology. Helter Skelter Books.
  5. ^ a b c d Roberts, Chris. "The Stories Behind The Slider and Tanx". Classic Rock. Retrieved 19 July 2024.
  6. ^ Swanson, Dave (16 March 2016). "When T. Rex Unveiled Their Last Hurrah, 'Tanx'". Ultimateclassicrock.com. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
  7. ^ Stanley, Bob (3 April 2014). "The Big Reissue: Bob Stanley on T Rex's Tanx and Zinc Alloy". The Times. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
  8. ^ "Tanx". Discogs. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
  9. ^ "Swedish Charts 1973-1975" (PDF). hitsallertijden.nl. Retrieved 2 April 2021.
  10. ^ Pennanen, Tim. "TOP 1000". Avain. 2020. ISBN 9789523042780
  11. ^ "T. Rex - Albums – the Billboard 200". AllMusic. Archived from the original on 24 January 2011. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  12. ^ a b Paytress, Mark. "Tanx booklet - liner notes". Edsel Records. 2002
  13. ^ T. Rex - 20th Century Boy, retrieved 2 September 2022
  14. ^ a b Prato, Greg. "Tanx – T. Rex". AllMusic. Retrieved 27 April 2024.
  15. ^ a b Robins, Wayne (July 1973). "Tanx – T. Rex". Creem. Rocks Back Pages. Retrieved 8 February 2018.
  16. ^ Morley, Paul (27 September 1980). "Marc Bolan Discography 1971~77". New Musical Express. p. 27.
  17. ^ a b Deusner, Stephen M. (5 February 2006). "T. Rex: Tanx / Zip Gun / Futuristic Dragon / Work in Progress - Album Reviews". Pitchfork. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
  18. ^ a b Strub, Whitney (22 January 2006). "T. Rex: Tanx / Bolan's Zip Gun / Futuristic Dragon / Work in Progress". PopMatters. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
  19. ^ a b Gambaccini, Paul (24 May 1973). "Tanx review". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
  20. ^ a b Kulkarni, Neil (3 March 2014). "Pop, Fragility and Dissolution [Tanx -review]". The Quietus. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  21. ^ Bateman, Steve (December 2010), "Ed Buller On Producing Suede", 140dB management
  22. ^ Martin Gore "Left Hand Duke and the Beggar Boys". Youtube. It was issued in 2003 as a video on his cd-dvd single "Stardust"
  23. ^ Martin Gore recorded a cover of "Life Is Strange" as the extra b-side of the cd-single "Stardust" (2003)
  24. ^ Roberts, Sheila (4 November 2013). "Director Jean-Marc Vallée Talks Dallas Buyers Club". Collider.com. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  25. ^ Powers, Ann (1 March 2014). "Listening In Reel Life: The Pop Music Inside The Oscar Nominees". NPR.org. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  26. ^ 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.
  27. ^ "Top 100 Album-Jahrescharts" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. 1973. Archived from the original on 23 May 2021. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
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