Electric Warrior/Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy
This weekend, On The Turntable will feature two albums celebrating 50 years since their release …. The program will begin with one of Rock’s most underrated LPs – Electric Warrior from T Rex – Meaty, Beaty, Big and Boucy from The Who, a very underrated complitation disc.
Electric Warrior
On The Turntable will begin this weekend with, what I believe is, one of the most underrated rock LPs in history. Electric Warrior is the sixth album from T. Rex, a band led by the late Marc Bolan. The album is known as the incubator of Glam Rock …. The album was released this very weekend in 1971 and is being featured On The Turntable for a second run …. The album produced two singles … side one features my favorite of the two …. Jeepster … a fun, rollicking rocker that is pure fun …
“Electric Warrior” was 1971’s best seller in the U.K., however, it peaked at 32 on the Billboard 200 in the U.S. And yet, the album is featured in the book ‘1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die’, and deservingly so … the album also ranked 160 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time …. Best Ever Albums Dot Com considers Electric Warrior to be the 16th best album of 1971, the 88th best of the decade and the 343rd of their 500 best of all time …. Digital Dream Door Dot Com ranked the lp 14th on its year end list …. The single “Get It On” had its name changed to “Bang A Gong (Get It On)” because another single was released with the same title earlier in the year. The song hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and was the band’s only in the States …. Side one opens with “Bang A Gong” and ends with a deep cut favorite … “Rip Off.”
Notable Tracks – “Jeepster” “Bang A Gong (Get It On)” “Rip Off” “Mambo Sun”
Meaty, Beaty, Big And Bouncy
Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy is a compilation album of singles by The Who. It was released this very weekend in 1971 and entered the US Billboard 200 chart on November 20th, peaking at number 11 .. the LP also peaked at #9 in the UK. That is a pretty good performance from a compilation disc in the 70’s, especially when you consider it was released just two months after “Who’s Next” which is one of the greatest rock albums of all time … In 1987, Rolling Stone ranked it number 99 on their list of the 100 best albums of the period 1967–1987. Aside from two songs, “Boris the Spider” and “I’m a Boy”, every track on the album had been released as a single in the UK … and the LP kicks off with “I Can’t Explain” which was the song the band started nearly every concert with.
The album is named after the members of the band: “Meaty” is Daltrey, who was quite fit at the time; “Beaty” is Moon, for his drumming; “Big” is Entwistle, who was a large person, often referred to as “The Ox”; and “Bouncy” was Townshend, who jumped about quite acrobatically during performances. The has the distinction of being the first in a long line of Who compilations. It also has the distinction of being the best. Best Ever Albums Dot Com considers the album the 95th best of 1971 .. pretty good for a Greatest Hits LP.
Notable Tracks – “I Can’t Explain” “I Can See For Miles” “The Seeker” “Magic Bus”
On The Turntable can be heard on KVOL 1130/97.7 The Rewind each and every Saturday at 6PM. Listen over-the-air, on line at www.kvol1330.com, on The Rewind App and on Echo devices. The program is rewound Sunday mornings at 7am.