In 1977 Marc Bolan began recording his follow up to Dandy In The Underworld. With a working title of Jack Daniels Marc wrote and recorded many songs while also appearing on his own music chat show, a show (appropriately titled Marc) that showcased many up and coming groups from the growing Punk scene including The Damed and Generation X. Unfortunately he was unable to finish the album before his death in a car accident on Sept. 12.
What we have here is the best attempt I can make at assembling what could have been Marc's final album. Marc did not leave behind any documentation by way of notes or tracklists of what he hoped the album would would be and there is clearly room for more songs that were most likely as yet unrecorded or unwritten. In spite of this I only had to make one or two compromises and we end up with a 13 song LP that clocks in at just under 35 minutes. While a bit short it still feels full.
Side One
01 21st Century Stance
02 Shy Boy
03 Billy Super Duper
04 Foxy Boy
05 Write Me A Song
06 Endless Sleep
Side Two
01 Mellow Love
02 Hot George
03 20th Century Baby
04 Love Drunk
05 Brain Police
06 Sing Me A Song
07 Messing With The Mystic
Reality Notes
In 1982 Marc On Wax, a record label created by John and Shan Bramley who at the time not only ran the Marc Bolan Fan Club but also controlled and owned all of Marc's tapes from 1972 onward, released an album titled Billy Super Duper. The intentions behind that LP was to gather as much of Marc's finished or nearly finished songs from 1977 and polish them off taking advantage of the current technology of the day.
The album was met with mixed reactions from fans. One one hand we got new Marc songs, on the other hand the Bramleys recorded additional overdubs to complete many songs, in some cases (allegedly) recording over tracks that Marc had laid down thus erasing history in the process. While in my opinion they did a good job of recreating Marc's style of embellishments, the purist in me would have rather have had the tracks as Marc left them.
The Bramleys also included songs not intended for Marc's final album. To fill out this album I was forced to use a couple of those. The song Billy Super Duper comes from a concept album that Marc was working on then abandoned in 1975. Write Me A Song comes from 1976. All other songs here are from 1977. 21st Century Stance and Messing With The Mystic are demos so I used them to bookend the album, the rest are studio recordings.
Marc's tapes changed hands and the Edsel label began releasing compilations of outtakes and demos culminating in the eight disc Unchained series. It is from these discs and one or two more bootlegs that I was able to find the untouched versions of most of these songs. The raw unfinished version of Billy Super Duper remains unavailable to this day.
So how does this album compare to the rest of Marc's work? Well, as it stands, it wouldn't be his worst album but I do hopefully assume that as the album developed Marc would have written more songs and some of these would have been dropped. I believe Marc suffered from an ego driven laziness. When he was on top he assumed that he could do anything and the fans would eat it up. That said Marc always seemed to strive for the best he could do at anytime.
Marc's last album that he released during his lifetime, Dandy In The Underworld, Was a fantastic return to form. I would put that album next to any of his classic early 70s LPs. While this album might seem like a step backwards compared to Dandy we must remember that this is an unfinished work.
For the cover I modified a simplified Jack Daniel's Whisky label.
Sources
Billy Super Duper
Unchained Vol. 7
Unchained Vol. 8
Messing With The Mystic (bootleg?)
Looney As August On A Drunken Baboon (bootleg)
You beat me to it! Was planning on doing something regarding those final Rex recordings too, hahahahah. Great work!
ReplyDeleteTanx, there's a lot of outtakes left from'72 to '76. And there are all those non-LP singles and B-sides from '72 to '73.
DeleteIf Bolan's estate had put together some kind of "Odds and Sods" comp with all those 72/76 outtakes, that would have been one of his greatest albums. And another comp for all the singles-only material would be even better. Shame they didn't do it. Nice pun, also!
DeleteI'm not sure if the estate ever had control of the tapes. They've changed hands a few times. There is at least one collection of all the A and B sides with at least 12 songs from '72 - '73 that only appeared on single.
DeleteIt is a shame his estate didn't assert more control over his catalog. While it seems his parents and brother showed little interest I do feel Gloria, and later Roland, could have done a better job of curating the tapes and compiling new LPs.