Unchained 1
The first of an eight-volume series of rare demo tracks, home recordings, and studio-work tapes, this collection is made up of bare-bones acoustic sketches recorded at home on a two-track tape deck in 1972 at what Bolan charmingly called Toadstool Studios. An intimate peek into the prolific Bolan's workshop, it boasts the Lennon-esque "Did You Ever," the electric-guitar wah-wah freakout "Jam," the gritty "Shadow Babe," and the bubbling '50s rock of "Alligator Man," a cousin to the popular "Jeepster" fromElectric Warrior. While the recordings are raw and unadorned, they're thrilling for Bolan fans; most of these tracks have previously been available only on bootlegs. Here, and elsewhere in the series, they're smartly mastered and sequenced, historically annotated, and creatively packaged.--James Rotondi