V01-T01b 20th Century Boy

.....These first two selections have been edited together and are treated as one track. Often when I do this it's because I'm using a snippet or sound clip to introduce a full-length song. For brevity's sake I just call these 'interstitials' and their posts are labelled (or 'tagged') as such. The word 'interstitial' is more properly used to describe the brief video material that acts as a buffer between television programming and a block of commercial advertisements, also called a 'bumper'. There are no ads on my compilations, obviously, but the significance of the snippet here is almost always contextual, not intrinsic. In the case of the previous post, it really introduced the whole tape, not just the first song. It also didn't come between two other things, so I guess it would be more like a 'stitial' than an 'interstitial'. Anyway...

Volume 1: THE PITCHFORK APPROACH, track 1b

• 03:55 "20TH CENTURY BOY" (Marc Bolan)
• performed by: The Replacements
• original source: B-side, 12" TwinTone TTR8440 (US) Aug.?/1984
• and my source: VA 2LP "LA VIE EN ROSE" New Rose ROSE 50 (France) 1985

.....Today this track can be found on the most recent domestic pressings of the CD "Let It Be"(2008) as a bonus track, but at the time this tape was made (in 1993) it was probably known to few people outside of trivia junkies like myself or the Replacements' hardcore fans. The original version of the song was, of course, a huge hit for T. Rex in the early seventies (in England at least). Since it would be a few more years until the movie "Velvet Goldmine" was released, it was difficult finding British glitter here in the US. Bowie, Mott and a few T. Rex albums were in print here but everything else was pretty scarce. Even American artists like Rick Derringer and Suzi Quatro had more titles available overseas than here. So the name of the song naturally caught my eye.

.....According to my original liner notes, the various artists' double album I used as my source "was a boxed set (a pair) in a rose-colored box on rose-colored vinyl with rose labels and rose liner notes (including a label discography). New Rose did a compilation almost every year, beginning in 1982, this being one of the best." Today the label seems like an anomaly; in the 1980's it did very well as a by-product of the D.I.Y. movement that started in the late 1970's by providing a means to distribute US and UK artists beyond the limited reach of their own,often smaller independent labels. New Rose would license the material then manufacture their own copies and ship in every direction. When they introduced an act to a new market, they swallowed the cost if it failed and reaped the rewards if it succeeded, if only for the term of the license. For artists kept on the fringe by overly cautious major labels, New Rose was like someone who's willing to pay you to do demographic research for you in Europe. When going on tour means investing most or all of your life savings up front, that's useful. The most recent New Rose compilation isn't an annual sampler but the anniversary retrospective 4CD "NEW ROSE STORY 1980-2000".