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My People Were Fair and Had Sky in Their Hair... But Now They're Content to Wear Stars on Their Brows is the debut album from Tyrannosaurus Rex (later known as T. Rex), released in 1968. The record features Marc Bolan on vocals and guitars, and Steve Peregrine Took on backing vocals, drums, pixiephone, and percussion. It also features disc jockey John Peel, who reads a Bolan-penned fairytale for the album's closing track, "Frowning Atahuallpa (My Inca Love)," which includes what must be one of the earliest "Hare Krishna" chants on a British pop record (two years before George Harrison's My Sweet Lord).

The album's music is much influenced by Tyrannosaurus Rex' psychedelic contemporaries, and marks, for Bolan, a rejection of the electric guitar–led freakbeat music he'd been playing with his previous band, John's Children.

Released July 5, 1968
Recorded Advision Studios, London
Label Regal Zonophone
Producer Tony Visconti

Prophets, Seers & Sages – The Angels of the Ages

Prophets, Seers & Sages – The Angels of the Ages is the second album by Tyrannosaurus Rex, comprising Marc Bolan (vocals, guitar) and Steve Peregrine Took (bongos, African drums, kazoo, pixiephone, Chinese gong).

Released 14 October 1968
Recorded Trident Studios, Lond
Label Regal Zonophone
Producer Tony Visconti

Unicorn is a 1969 album release by Tyrannosaurus Rex, comprising Marc Bolan (vocals, guitar) and Steve "Peregrine" Took (bongos, African drums, kazoo, pixiephone, Chinese gong). It reached number 12 in the UK charts.

Released May 16, 1969
Recorded Trident Studios, Londo
Label Regal Zonophone
Producer Tony Visconti

A Beard of Stars

A Beard of Stars is the fourth album by Tyrannosaurus Rex, comprising Marc Bolan (vocals, guitar,organ,bass) and the first with new partner Mickey Finn (percussion). It was released in March 1970. It is notable for the beginning of Bolan using electric instruments on the T.Rex albums.

Released March 13, 1970
Recorded Trident Studios, London
Label Regal Zonophone
Producer Tony Visconti

T.Rex (brown album)

released in 1970. It was the first record under their abbreviated band name, following four albums as 'Tyrannosaurus Rex'.

The album contains electric reworkings of old Tyrannosaurus Rex material, and some material originally recorded prior even to John's Children "The Wizard". A significant portion of the songs, however, were new material. It was the album that broke the band and set them in the direction of consistent success over the next three years.

Released December 18, 1970
Recorded July-August 1970 Trident Studios, London
Label Fly
Producer Tony Visconti

Electric Warrior

Electric Warrior is widely considered to be one of the quintessential glam rock releases. Electric Warrior reached number thirty-two in the US; while it went to number one for several weeks in the UK, becoming the biggest album of 1971.

One of the best-known songs on the record is "Get It On", whose title was changed in the United States to "Bang a Gong (Get It On)" (as there was another hit song at the time called "Get It On" by the group Chase). This was T.Rex's biggest single and their only U.S. hit (#10). The track is followed by "Girl", which is separated from the rest of the album by an unusual flugelhorn arrangement. "Cosmic Dancer" is an acoustic-based song propelled by producer Tony Visconti's string arrangements.

Bolan, in a 1971 interview contained on the Rhino Records reissue, said of the album "I think "Electric Warrior", for me, is the first album which is a statement of 1971 for us in England. I mean that's... If anyone ever wanted to know why we were big in the other part of the world, that album says it, for me."

The sleeve was designed by British art design group Hipgnosis. In the November 2001 issue of Vanity Fair American musician Beck chose it as one of his 50 favourite album sleeves

Released September 24, 1971
Recorded March-June 1971
Trident Studios, London; Advision Studios, London; Wally Heider Studios, Los Angeles; Media Sound Studios, New York
Label Fly (UK); Reprise (US)
Producer Tony Visconti

Bolan Boogie is a compilation album released by T.Rex in 1972. After Marc Bolan had left Fly Records to form his own label distributed through EMI/T.Rex Wax Co, his former label Fly released this "best of..." compilation with recent A an B sides many of which hadn't appeared on previous albums. Also included are songs from the early Tyrannosaurus Rex albums. Bolan Boogie went straight to the top of the album charts

Released April 1972
Label Fly (UK)

The Slider is the seventh studio album by T.Rex, released on July 21, 1972. Produced by Tony Visconti, it was the band's second record released with their new glam rock style opposed to the bands previous folk oriented music.

Singles for "Telegram Sam" and "Metal Guru" were released to promote the album. The Slider peaked at number four on United Kingdom charts and number seventeen on the Billboard Top LPs & Tapes chart. The album received very high praise from modern critics, with Steve Huey of Allmusic describing the album as "flawlessly executed, and every bit the classic that its predecessor is."

Released 21 July 1972
Recorded March-April, 1972 at Rosenberg Studios, Copenhagen; Château d'Hérouville, Paris; and Elektra Studios, Los Angeles
Label EMI
Producer Tony Visconti

released in 1973. Tanx was a hit in UK and Europe but it failed to emulate the success of The Slider in the U.S.
It predates punk in some ways, with largely darker and more aggressive songs, and shorter songs than the previous two T. Rex albums ("Electric Warrior" and "The Slider") with 9 of the songs less than three minutes long (by comparison, "Get It On" was 4:24), akin to Bolan's previous albums under the name Tyrannosaurus Rex and the debut album under the abbreviated "T. Rex" name (all of which had no more than 2 songs over three minutes per album). "Tanx" is also the first album to notably incorporate elements of soul music, further explored in the following album, "Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow", and other subsequent T. Rex albums. Likewise, it's the beginning of Bolan's marked departure from the glam rock style which he originated and helped popularize, preceding contemporary David Bowie's departure from glam and move towards soul music with his album, "Young Americans", by nearly 2 years.
The song "Born to Boogie" was actually not featured in the 1972 Ringo Starr produced film, also called Born to Boogie. Curiously, the popular single "20th Century Boy" was not included on the album.

Released March 16, 1973
Recorded October-December, 1972
Strawberry Studios, Paris; EMI Toshiba Studios, Tokyo; AIR Studios, London
Label EMI / T.Rex Wax Co (UK) Reprise (US)
Producer Tony Visconti

Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow

Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow - A Creamed Cage in August is a studio album released by Marc Bolan & T.Rex in February 1974.
At the time, Marc Bolan's success in the UK was beginning to slip, as a result of two factors: his constant desire to "crack" the US market (which resulted in a lessened effort on the UK charts), and his desire to expand T.Rex's sound. This can be seen on 1973's Tanx, which included new guitar effects, chord changes, string arrangements and other studio "tricks" Bolan had not employed before.

He had been listening to a sizable amount of US soul and R&B, no doubt influenced by his new affair with a backup singer and clavinet player he had hired for his 1973 US tour - Gloria Jones. These new sounds, in retrospect, were a year and a half before David Bowie's pioneering "Young Americans" album, often credited with making the most successful transition from UK glam rock (which was losing popularity) to radio-friendly, soul-influenced pop/rock. However, as successful as Bolan was in combining his new influences with his old, the boogie/rockabilly sound at the core of the classic T.Rex sound can still be heard in the guitar work and the harmonies,in particular on the track "Nameless Wildness".
The songs reflect a darker mood than on Bolan's earlier releases, with lead track "Venus Loon" having quite grotesque subject matter. This was surely refective of Bolan's inner uncertainty about his status in the rock world now that he was no longer a teen idol. Other songs such as "Galaxy" and "Change" contain similar forebodings and dark imagery. The music, too, is ambitious and complex, containing some of Marc's most inventive extended guitar solos.
The album divided fans and critics into the two camps that would remain with him until his death - those that derided him as a washed-up teen idol, and those who believed he would eventually make a resurgence in popularity. At that moment, however, Zinc Alloy marked a downturn in his fortunes - the contemporaneous album single, "Whatever Happened To The Teenage Dream?", made it only to #13 in the UK charts. While that would be a success for most groups, Bolan had spent all of 1971-1973 enjoying constant Top Ten and Top Five UK hits, including four #1's.
T.Rex would not enjoy another Top 20 UK hit until "New York City", in the summer of 1975.

Released February 1, 1974
Label EMI / T.Rex Wax Co (UK)
Producer Tony Visconti

Light of Love is a US compilation album released by T.Rex in 1974. It is composed of tracks from the UK releases Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow and Bolan's Zip Gun. It did not chart in the US. The reasons are disputed, but it did permanently end his attempts to regain a foothold in the United States' pop market, and after its failure, he concentrated on the UK again, where his career experienced a resurgence.

Released 1974
Label Casablanca Records

Bolan's Zip Gun is a 1975 album by T. Rex. It did not chart in the United Kingdom, and Marc Bolan would not chart again successfully until 1976's Futuristic Dragon. It was the first album which Marc Bolan fully produced alone, having dispensed with the services of previous producer Tony Visconti.

The album containts two contemporary single releases: "Light Of Love" (UK Chart position #22) and "Zip Gun Boogie", T.Rex's least successful release. Although the sound of the album was very stark and the lyrics very simple and direct, Bolan had tried to go beyond the rock format of the previous T.Rex sound and reflect his recent immersion in the US soul scene. His new partner Gloria Jones and other recent American friends, such as Gloria's brother Richard and backing singer Pat Hall, had helped influence Bolan's music, and he was experimenting with soul inflections all through this period at MRI Studios in Hollywood where the album was recorded.

Several of the songs had a very futuristic tone, especially "Space Boss", "Think Zinc" and "Golden Belt", Bolan being a great fan of science fiction. The band on this album also featured a twin-drum sound on some tracks, notably "Solid Baby", provided by Davy Lutton and Paul Fenton. Experimentation in sound was very much the order of the day on this album.

Released February 16, 1975
Recorded Music Records Inc. Hollywood
Label EMI / T.Rex Wax Co (UK)
Producer Marc Bolan

Futuristic Dragon

Preceded by two UK Top 40 hits, "New York City" (#15) and "Dreamy Lady" (#30), Futuristic Dragon was released in January, reaching #50. It was T. Rex's first album to register charts since Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow in 1974. Live recordings of the successful tour T.Rex undertook that year in the UK (the first since the birth of his son Rolan Bolan, with Gloria Jones) show him to be returning to form from the cocaine addiction, (alleged) Napoleon complex, and weight gain which had plagued him since late 1973, when his star began to fall. In many of these (bootleg) recordings, often done by members of the audience, Bolan thanks the audience for coming, and admits that he did not know if they would. He was heartened by the response received on the two aforementioned hit singles, and set to work on a new album immediately.

One factor which also sparked Bolan's renewed interest in music was the emergence of punk. Photos from early 1977 show Bolan at a pub/restaurant with members of The Ramones. He toured in spring 1977 with The Damned, and on the Granada TV show "Marc", which he hosted, guests of his included the Boomtown Rats, the Jam, and Generation X.

Released January 30, 1976
Recorded MRI Studios, Hollywood; Paragon Studios, Chicago; Scorpio Sound, London
Label EMI / T.Rex Wax Co (UK)
Producer Marc Bolan

Dandy in the Underworld

Dandy in the Underworld is the twelfth album by T.Rex. It was released on March 11, 1977, and reached a chart peak in the UK of #26. It was the band's highest-charting album since 1974's Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow.

At the time of the album's release Marc Bolan and T.Rex were on a UK tour, supported by The Damned. The album and tour were notable for marking a return to form for the band. Dandy in the Underworld gathered the most consistently positive reviews for any T.Rex album in five years. Having fallen from critical and commercial favour the band had endured some fiercely hostile press but NME, who had been amongst the most negative, noted of the album: "very listenable, well arranged immaculately played."

The sessions had started in Los Angeles in August 1976 and carried on until the end of the year, in UK studios.
Recording engineer Jennifer Maidman, writes:"I worked on two tracks on this album, along with a number of other songs including a later single "Laser Love". The track "I Love to Boogie" was recorded and mixed in a single day at Decibel Studios in Stoke Newington, London N16. The studio was very small and funky, Marc liked it because it reminded him of the old Sun Studio in Memphis where a lot of early rock and roll records were made. The single was mastered from what was originally intended to be a rough mix which Marc took home. It was mixed in about fifteen minutes by myself and Marc, I just threw up the faders, there were no computers in those days, and we went "Ok that'll do". Mick O'Halloran, Marc's roadie was going "Hurry up, we've got to leave now", I think Marc had an appointment or something, You can hear that the guitar solo is a bit on the quiet side and the tape echo on the voice varies, it's about right by the end. We got Dino's Fender Rhodes piano to distort a bit by cranking up the input on the desk, crude but quick and effective.Try doing that on a modern digital desk! Anyway, Marc liked the mix so much that it was released just as it was, much to my surprise, but it still sounds good thirty years later. The master mix was also done at 7.5 inches per second as I recall, rather than the usual 15 ips. This was so that Marc could play it on his reel to reel at home that night. This, along with the fact that the multitrack was an Ampex two inch 16 track machine rather than the 24 track which was more common by then, helps to give the track it's beefy sound. The other song on the album we did at Decibel was "Universe", which was subsequently overdubbed and mixed at Air studios by Mike Stavrou I think. These were also the last tracks that Marc did with the old rhythm section of Steve Currie and Davy Lutton before Tony Newman and Herbie Flowers came on board."

The album was praised for the strength of the songwriting and Bolan's vocal performances. The title track was released as a single but failed to chart. "I Love to Boogie" and "The Soul of My Suit" did achieve chart placings in the UK.

After three commercially weak albums, Dandy in the Underworld was regarded by many T.Rex fans as a comeback for the band. However, it would prove to be the band's final album, as Marc Bolan was to sadly die in a car crash on 16th September 1977.

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