T. Rex: The Slider (clear vinyl) [DEMON]

Why you'll love it

Demon's remastered edition puts The Slider on 180g clear vinyl with a printed inner sleeve. It reached No. 4 in the UK and No. 17 in the US, and "Telegram Sam" and "Metal Guru" were both No. 1 singles.

This edition

• Clear vinyl
• 180g vinyl
• Remastered
• Printed inner sleeve
• Lyrics included
• Stereo mix
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

Following up the UK's best-selling album of 1971 is the kind of pressure most bands never have to think about. Marc Bolan was at the height of "T. Rextasy" when he made The Slider, and he called it his Imagine, the record where he was frank and truthful about himself.

Tony Visconti produced and arranged the strings, with sessions in Copenhagen and, on Elton John's recommendation, at the Château d'Hérouville outside Paris. "Metal Guru" opens the album in a blaze of glitter, Bolan's "festival of life song," while "Telegram Sam" struts and "Rock On" grooves. Bolan cheekily dubbed the heavier tracks "Zep Rex," and "Buick MacKane" and "Chariot Choogle" show why, while "Spaceball Ricochet" and "Main Man" are fragile acoustic love notes to his fans. Flo & Eddie add their trademark high backing vocals, and Visconti says the late-night playback parties at the château were the best part of the job.

Guns N' Roses later covered "Buick MacKane," and the sleeve's grainy portrait is pure glam iconography. The photos are credited to Ringo Starr, though Visconti recalls Bolan handing him the camera on the set of Born to Boogie; either way, it's the best-dressed authorship dispute in rock.

Also at Kops: more T. Rex on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Demon (cat# DEMREC636), a reissue of the 1972 album.