Born to Boogie

If you're a T-Rex/Marc Bolan fan, I recommend you check this out. It shows a whimsical side of Marc Bolan as well as Ringo Starr, apparently having a pretty good time shooting some of the scenes that aren't part of the concert, but fun to watch, leaving you with a sense of getting to know them as just people, and when the concert is shown a talented musician, both playful and professional that rocks and seems to impress the screaming girls. Watching him in concert, you would never know that being a rock star is a job, but just having a great time playing some great songs with some good friends, like Elton John and Ringo Starr appearing in some of the live performances. True, there are a few songs missing that I would like to have seen on there, but like any album it can't have everything. I just bought this in 2006, but if I would have know it came out in 1972, I would have definitely bought it years ago. Sad and strange that a man with so many songs about his love for cars, would never learn to drive and would die in a car crash!

So I'm steaming through Tony Visconti's autobiography "Bolan, Bowie and the Boy from Brooklyn" and felt I had to go back and put a little Marc in my heart by watching this mostly in-concert movie, directed by Ringo Starr, at the height of T. Rextasy in 1972.

Bolan looks great in it, before he filled out a little not long afterwards (I'm one to talk!). He preens, bops and boogies his way through all of his hits up to that point, bar "Ride a White Swan", most of which he elongates with extended guitar soloing which in truth doesn't add much to the recorded versions. You also really come to appreciate the Visconti studio-production touch, the strings and vocal arrangements he brought to the records, not that the rest of the band are any slouches. It's just that I think Visconti's mini "Wall of Sound" especially on that great run of T Rex singles from 1971 to 1973 , at which time he finally walked away from Bolan's ever-increasing excesses, is so much more noticeable than on his Bowie productions.

First (and last!) time director Ringo films the London Empire shows in time-honoured fashion, the camera pretty much staying on Marc throughout, with only occasional shots of the rest of the band and cutaways to the adoring audience, which comprise a surprising number of young guys as well as the expected horde of screaming young girls.

There are a few silly interludes with Bolan in an open-topped car with Ringo in a walrus suit and a magically appearing wizard and a hungry dwarf, then hosting a mad-hatter's tea party, whose number include Geoffrey "Catweazle" Bayldon, where he plays a medley of his hits on acoustic guitar backed by a live string section and a few indulgent takes of him and Ringo fluffing the intro to Elvis's "Let's Have a Party".

I did like the studio jam featuring Ringo and Elton John playing along to "Children of The Revolution" as well as the in-concert sit-down acoustic interlude recalling his pre-electric hippy phase, which may just have influenced Paul McCartney to do something similar on his massive Wings over America tour some years later.

I never took the chance as a lad to see Bolan in concert but on the strength of this and my love for the records, I now rather wish I had.

I love me a bit of Bolan boogie and I'm glad this movie, brief and rudimentary as it undoubtedly is, exists, capturing him at the high water mark of his success.

It's a pity that this couldn't have been just a live concert but no, Ringo just had to show what a jolly fanciful eccentric chap he was so half the film will make you squirm and wince. Him and Marc mugging at the camera and dissolving into peals of laughter at their own japery will have you reaching for the sick bucket.

That said, the live footage is great apart from the last tune which sadly degenerates into a total racket and confirms that Marc was no Ronno, while the acoustic versions of Spaceball Ricochet and Cosmic Dancer will make your toes curl with embarrassment.

The rest is the most pretentious self-indulgent "whimsical" claptrap you'll ever see apart from Magical Mystery Tour. Shoulda just shown the whole gig and left out the Mad Hatter's Tea Party crap and the rest.

Marc Bolan was a true glam star, a great singer, excellent guitarist an a very outstanding song writer. He created so many genre-defining albums that to see him n film and on stage would've been a wild dream. Was it? Nope, sadly. Incredible fact is that no matter how cool Bolan was alive, on a silver screen he is plain boring whiff, his antics are laughable and his band is sturdy but nowhere beyond being just plain.

The worst aspect of this film is the non-concert parts with Bolan being just a buffoon. Ringo Starr helps a bit as well as tremendous Elton John but they fail to save this movie from a more of mediocre haze...sadly so/ So, watch this once and then discard easily.

After struggling for a few years to get a hold of this on video, I was left a little bit confused and disappointed. I love Marc Bolan, but this was a little much. Very disjointed and very much a piece of its time, I couldn't even bring myself to watch the whole thing again before selling it. If you are a big Bolan fan and get a chance to see this, be warned that you may be left scratching your head.