Ballrooms of Mars - T-Rex Cover

Hi All,

Lbro threw down the gauntlet so you can blame him for my singing on a track. :slight_smile:

Marc Bolan/T-rex were a large part of the soundtrack of my childhood and beyond. Such a great songwriter - with a massive range of tracks.

Had a few hours spare yesterday so knocked this together.
Whilst it may not be the most well known, or indeed popular, I think it has a great vibe.
Not super polished, but here it is.

Be gentle.
And remember - you have only one pair of ears - protect them well.

7 Likes

Hi Stephen, very nice recording. The singing is extremely good. I could sense you channeling Marc Bolan. What guitar part(s) did you play?

Hey Stephen, liked it! I was a fan well before TRex, I also followed the Bolan / Finn band Tyrannosaurus Rex, perhaps a bit more obscure but still fun!

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Your vocals are very good, nothing to be ashamed of.

Hi Stephen,
…Be gentle,…,…
is totally unnecessary use of letters from the keyboard :grin:…
What a wonderful first song of the day, really enjoyed it immensely, :sunglasses: :clap: :bouquet:
Nice song I’ve never heard of it, thanks for that,
Greetings ,Rogier

Smashing stuff Digger. Going solo and doing it in style. :sunglasses:

I am unfamiliar with this song (and group for the most part), but I loved it. You did a great job!

Super stuff Digger. You really caught the T-Rex vibe there. A hint of the Beatles too with some John Lennon in your vocal.
Great guitar work and production. Well done.

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Very nice, Digger. Good vox, good play. You should do more solo work. And, wow, put together in a few hours. Impressive.

Sounded great! 70s were my formative years too, but I didn’t know this song - only their hits.

Yes, you get a Bolan vibe from your recording Stephen. That was great.

Hi All,

Thanks for checking out and the kind words.
I don’t like singing much as my voice sounds whiny to me.

Willsie - I recorded/sang all the parts.
To be honest it came together pretty quickly as it is essentially the same seqence played over and over.
So I recorded a simple midi drum beat with a couple of fills.
2 clean-ish open chord guitar parts - which are panned left and right.
The slightly over driven guitar is barre chords - which I think give sit that early 70s vibe. I kept this central in the mix.
The bass, again is the same part repeated over. Again a really simple pattern.
Then I just did a couple of noodles for the lead part - trying to get some of the original’s flavour .

Vocals I added double tracking - again trying to catch that 70s vibe.

Darrell - I like his pre-Electric Warrior stuff too. Reminds me of summer holidays during my 6th form days (in the late 80s). Had some good parties where we were playing a lot of 60s acoustic stuff. Good times. :slight_smile:

John Lennon - another hero. I may have to tackle one of his solo songs at some point.

Thanks again.

Digger

Hey Diggs,
I will take all the blame… if money is to be thrown, I will take a bit of that too… LOL :exploding_head:

Wow a T-Rex cover, how cool is that? Great guitars and the vox was no slouch! I guess now the cat is out of the bag and you will have to do more of these, I mean with you on vox. My next “request” is a duet with you and Katja… Yep, that would be boss! You must bring it up with her!

IMHO, I think this is one of the best things you have done, certainly with you on vox as that simply is a rare find indeed!

All the best to you folks and be well!
Thanks for the cover!
LB

I was gonna say…sounds like John Lennon

Hey Digger !!

Thought I was losing the plot, as I was sure I glossed over a solo post from you good self, while the family were here but then couldn’t find it :slightly_frowning_face: But all sorted now.

That was an absolute cracker and I remember it well. You certainly done it justice with the instrumentation, playing and production. And enough of the negative self critique on the vocals, they match perfectly and the singing was great. I hope Katja signed off on the moonlighting ? Very comfortable and nothing strange here. Will there be more ?

:sunglasses:

Lots and lots to love here, Digger, and that includes your vocal. Whiny certainly not the adjective I would choose. Guitar parts all sounded great. I hope there’ll be many more of these quick and rocking recordings further on down the road.

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