The title of this thread is the name of an album by glam rock band T.Rex. I was just wondering if there happens to be any meaning to it or is it just some phrase picked by the band as it sounded right.
This is the same band that gave us, “You’re built like a car, you’ve got a hub cap diamond star halo. You’re built like a car, oh yeah,” and, “Girl, I’m just a Jeepster for your love.” The only thing missing is an automobile reference, but I’m sure there are several on the album.
It could be a reference to The Sneetches on the Beaches. Were T.Rex influenced by Doctor Seuss in any other ways? Do glam rockers ever wear pale green pants?
Given that the album came out in 1968 and that one of the members of T. Rex went by the name Steve Peregrin Took, it’s very likely that the name was partly inspired by Tolkien (as was a whole lot of other music of the time).
Yeah, while the personnel stayed the same up to a certain point when they entered their prototype glam rock phase, the guys that recorded the album in question went by Tyrannosaurus Rex at the time, and were a duo (acoustic guitar and percussion) as opposed to a band.
While Marc Bolan always had a very mystical slant to him as far as his lyrics, it’s a lot more pronounced on these early albums. The electrification and move to more basic rock ‘n’ roll was gradual over the space of a few albums before exploded in full force.
Fascinating character, really. I read a short bio on Bolan awhile back. Most Yanks who only know T. Rex for “Bang a Gong (Get It On)” have no idea how absolutely HUGE they became in the UK. T. Rex-mania was only a little shy of Elvis and Beatlemania, really.
To answer the original question, the title is just something that fell out of Bolan’s head I’m sure, rather than being taken from any specific source. Stuff like this whirled around in there for several years and came out in his lyrics as well as his song and album titles.
Is anybody else being driven slowly crazy by the fact that the lyricist fucked up the rhyme scheme by not writing “…But They’re Content Now to Wear Stars on Their Brows” instead?
Oh, just me? Okay then, carry on.
grrrrr…
The title is the final couplet of the song “Frowning Atahuallpa (My Inca Love).” The song is in three parts that don’t seem to have anything to do with one another. The first part is a love song to an Inca princess/huntress (Atahuallpa himself was the last Inca emperor before the Spanish conquest). The middle part is a spoken word story about one Kingsley Mole. The third part consists of the lines:
I come from a time where the burning of trees was a crime
I lived by a sea where to be was a thing of true joy
My people were fair and had sky in their hair, but now
They’re content to wear stars on their brow
And yes, the now/brow rhyme does scan the way he sings it. (The album title has “Brows” plural, but Bolan and Took sing “brow” singular.)
Whew. Thanks Biffy.
Or they were high. Or both.
That’s true, GrumpyBunny. People have asked on the SDMB if the song “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin was about something particular in Tolkien. There’s no doubt that the members of Led Zeppelin had read Tolkien, since they reference his books in other songs. Apparently Robert Plant improvised much of the song to Jimmy Page’s music. Undoubtedly Plant got some of the ideas for the song from Tolkien (and other parts from a variety of sources). He was also probably high at the time he composed the song.
In particular, the rather obscure Tolkien story “Smith of Wootton Major”. The titular character wore a star on his brow.
As an aside, Marc Bolan (T. Rex frontman) never learned to drive because he was afraid to. Sadly, he died at age 29 as a passenger in a car crash anyway.
I was a teenager living in the UK and was a big fan at the time.