Glam Rock; Marc Bolan And T. Rex - Twopenny Prince (2010 Easy Action)

I suspect that most people who visit my blog probably don't have that much interest in Marc Bolan's music. Nevertheless or just because of that I would like to advertise his music here.
Twopenny Prince is a collection of demos, live recordings and acoustic versions of his music. The first point I like about ''Two Penny Prince'', (I know there are probably hundreds of similar releases out there), CD 1 starts with one of his greatest hits, Jeepster, but recorded in a demo version in a French studio. This is one of the liveliest versions of the song I've heard. And I can understand that people from 11 to 90 love his music. The musical joie de vivre, or lust for life of this recording is simply great. And that Bolan's music at the height of its success was smiled at by the older audience (mostly male), but 25 years later was and is adulated by this same audience, is not surprising. Marc Bolan's music conveyed everything that attracted me and others to Rock 'n' Roll. Fun, sex, drugs, powerful guitars and great melodies. All packed in good looks and a lot of fantasy. The fact that during his lifetime he was denied the recognition of a large part of the audience for reasons that children also loved his music also shows the narrow-mindedness of music lovers.
To come back to this compilation, all the attributes of his music described above can be heard here in many recordings. Some more interesting, some better than others, but all by a great artist of his time who moved people, also in the literal sense. That's just my two cents and here comes the review by allmusic.com. Enjoy the music.(Frank)

 Can there really be a single note of music left unheard in the Marc Bolan archive? There have been so many "rare and unreleased"-style compilations created over the last few years that even that question now seems over-asked.

But for as long as material of this quality remains to be unearthed, Bolan's audience will continue to be well-served. In truth and viewed objectively, the sound of barrels being scraped can occasionally be discerned as Twopenny Prince runs its two-disc course, but even the best-recorded T. Rex live tapes are ropey by even contemporary standards, and the concert cuts here scarcely fall into that category.

But four songs recorded at a 1971 French studio session have a grinding boogie that is quintessential T. Rex, while epic workouts of "Jewel" (German TV) and "Elemental Child" (live) remind us that even as they inched toward pop superstardom, T. Rex remained a solid underground rock band.

A hyper-extended "Cadillac," a romping "Ride a White Swan" and a charming "Salamanda Palaganda," recorded live in 1968, rank among the other highlights. While the first disc concentrates on a grab-bag of generally hard-rocking numbers from the band's 1971-1972 heyday (with the occasional look back to the golden age of Tyrannosaurus Rex), disc two is dedicated to studio outtakes dating back to 1970's T. Rex album, snippets and false starts included.

It's not the stuff of repeated listens, but -- again -- there can be very little left in the Bolanic basement that is. Be grateful, then, for what we have here. The Twopenny Prince still sounds like a million dollars.(Dave Thompson, allmusic.com)

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