Other Great Metal Influences, Part 6, T-Rex

Last August, I drove to Bloodstock Open Air Festival for a great weekend of metal. For the two hour drive on the way, the in flight entertainment was provided first by a CD comprising of two bands fronted by former Yngwie Malmesteen vocalist Jeff Scott Soto, Kuni and Panther. That CD did a great job helping me through a traffic delay. The second CD was one I’ll be commenting on much further down the line, an album called “Rise” by a band called Hair of the Dog. It is one of my favourite metal CDs of the 2000+ era. Already riding on a high as I pulled up to the entrance to the car park, I was expecting the next CD to be Thunder’s first album “Backstreet Symphony.” Instead, I had inserted another CD into that slot on my 6 disc player. It was a compilation album whose first song was “Children of the Revolution” by Marc Bolan and T-Rex. I figured that it was the will of the gods of metal and drove into the car park with the song blasting through the speakers. It fit the mood perfectly.

T- Rex was one of those great bands from the 70s that influenced the metal of the 80s. Their hard rock style wowed a generation of rockers and the flamboyant style of Marc Bolan gave many acts since ideas about glam and make up.

The best thing about T-Rex was that any one of their songs could have been on my car stereo that evening and it would have had the same effect. From 1970 to 1976 when his life was tragically cut short in 1977, he  and T- Rex had a string of top twenty hits such as “20th Century Boy.”  One thing that no one can say about their music is that it’s dated. Many metal bands since T-Rex and a few non metal ones, (I remember the version of “Bang A Gong, Get It On” by Powerstation back in 1985) have recorded cover versions of many T-Rex songs.

Even though Marc Bolan has not been with us for over thirty years, T-Rex still continues to be a great memory to the music of today. In fact, after three days of rocking at Bloodstock, I hit the back button on the car CD player and listened to “Children of the Revolution” on the way out of the concert. I thought it was only fitting.

Next post: Thin Lizzy

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