The Slider

On the recommendation of Elton John, The Slider was recorded outside of Paris at Château d'Hérouville to avoid British taxing laws.[1] Production started in March 1972 and the basic recordings were completed in Strawberry Studios in five days.[1][2] One of the songs recorded at Chateau was "Metal Guru".[2] Bolan described the song as a "festival of life song", and that he related "Metal Guru" to "all gods around... someone special, a godhead. I thought how god would be, he'd be all alone without a telephone".[3]

Further recording was done at the end of March in Rosenberg Studios in Copenhagen, Denmark.[2] The backing vocals by Flo & Eddie were recorded at Elektra Studios in Los Angeles, in April.[2]

Like all previous T. Rex albums, The Slider was produced by Tony Visconti.

The album notes credit Ringo Starr with the front and back cover photographs. The photographs were taken the same day that Starr was filming the T. Rex documentary Born to Boogie at John Lennon's estate, Tittenhurst Park.[4] Producer Tony Visconti, however, disputes that Starr took the photograph, stating "Marc [Bolan] handed me his motorized Nikon and asked me to fire off two rolls of black and white film while we were on the set of Born to Boogie. Ringo, the director of the film, was busy all day lining up shots. But Marc apparently saw a photo credit opportunity and gave Ringo the credit for the photos."[5]

The iconic grainy image of the cover is in no small part a result of how the film was actually processed. The film from the Born to Boogie shoot was couriered to Robert Horner Photography in Kensington. The task of processing the film fell to a young darkroom technician who, encouraged by his love of T. Rex, stayed on to develop the four rolls of black and white 35mm film. Anxious to see if they really were of T. Rex, the developing chemical,  Kodak D76, was heated to a far higher than recommended temperature, shortening the processing time. However, the stop bath chemical, used to prevent the film from developing further prior to fixation, remained at the lower regular temperature. This action resulted in some reticulation of the film emulsion adding a subtle but rather interesting effect to this cover image.

Two singles were released to promote The Slider. The first was "Telegram Sam" which was released January 1972 and charted in the United Kingdom for twelve weeks and peaked at number 1.[6][7] "Telegram Sam" also charted in the United States and peaked at 67 on the Pop Singles chart.[8] The second single was "Metal Guru" which was released in May 1972 and charted in the United Kingdom for fourteen weeks and peaked at number 1.[6][7] It did not chart in the United States.[8]

The Slider was released on 21 July 1972 by record labels EMI in the UK and Reprise in the US. It entered the United Kingdom charts on 5 August 1972 where it stayed for eighteen weeks, peaking at number 4.[9] In the United States, where the album was promoted upon release with a television commercial featuring the band miming to "Chariot Choogle", it peaked at number 17 on the Billboard 200 chart.[8]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[10]
Consequence of Sound	[11]
PopMatters	[12]
Pitchfork	9.5/10[13]
Q
Rolling Stone

From contemporary reviews, Richard Williams of The Times reviewed the album alongside Rod Stewart's Never A Dull Moment and David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and Roxy Music's Roxy Music.[14] Williams found Bolan to be "the least obviously talented".[14] Williams found that the "narrow range and musical repetitiousness" of the music did not matter as it made "his records immediately recognizable on the radio." and that the album "is full of songs of a slightness which is wondrous to behold. But the hushed intimacy of Bolan's vocal delivery helps to make one word do the work of ten — particularly when combined with his gift of coining oddly appealing images."[14] Williams also praised the work of Tony Visconti, declaring "I'm inclined to think that it's Visconti more than anyone who's responsible for Bolan's success; his arrangements and production give T. Rex's work a quality which the group's leader could never have achieved alone."[14] Ben Edmonds of Creem felt that after "Telegram Sam" and "Metal Guru" that "there isn't another single on the album."[15] Edmonds found the other tracks on the album "kind of bumps along from track to track [...] The rest of the material is nice but kinda lackluster, and Bolan isn't helped much by a terribly ordinary rhythm section and Mickey Finn's non-existent percussion. If you aren't already a T. Rex fanatic, then The Slider isn't going to do very much about making you one."[15] Loraine Alterman of The New York Times commented on the lyrics that would "undoubtedly sound quite profound to 14-year-old ears" and that "it's a long, long way from Bolan's 'Ballrooms of Mars' to Yeats' 'Byzantium'."[16] Alterman concluded that "even to ears successfully past puberty, Mr, Bolan does have a certain fey charm that in the end defies analysis."[16]

In his retrospective review, Steve Huey of AllMusic wrote, "Even if it treads largely the same ground as Electric Warrior, The Slider is flawlessly executed, and every bit the classic that its predecessor is."[10] Andy Beta of Pitchfork gave the album a 9.5/10 grade, and wrote that the album "marked both the zenith and imminent approach of the cliff’s edge for T. Rextasy. Recorded in a dilapidated castle in France, it captured Marc Bolan as the King of Glam at the absolute height of his powers." LA Weekly praised the album as "a hauntingly unique masterpiece"[17]

Johnny Marr of the Smiths cited it as one of his favourite albums, saying: "The Slider came out and it had 'Metal Guru' on it. It was a song that changed my life as I had never heard anything so beautiful and so strange, but yet so catchy. 'Telegram Sam' was also on that album and the whole thing was unusually spooky and had a weird atmosphere, considering it was a number one record and they were essentially a teenybop band".[18] Gary Numan also hailed it among his favourites: "Song after song after song… and the title track; it's a not typical album-title track. You'd normally go for one of the big singles and The Sliders got a very slow, lazy groove thing. It's just great. It's just the sexiest track".[19]

"Ballrooms of Mars" was featured in the 2003 comedy film School of Rock, and was used as the opening theme of the Spanish TV series Punta Escarlata. "Ballrooms of Mars" also appeared in the 2013 film Dallas Buyers Club. The lyrics of the song "Baby Boomerang" became a plot element in a 1973 episode of Cannon, "The Hard Rock Roller Coaster."

• Marc Bolan – vocals, guitar
• Steve Currie – bass guitar
• Mickey Finn – percussion, vocals
• Bill Legend – drums
• Mark Volman ("Flo") – background vocals
• Howard Kaylan ("Eddie") – background vocals
• Tony Visconti – string arrangements, background vocals[20]

Technical

• Tony Visconti – producer
• Ringo Starr – sleeve photography
• Dominique Freddy Hansson – engineering
• David Katz – orchestra master[21]
• Mick O'Halloran – Front of house Technician/ Lead road manager
• Steve Little - Stage Manager/ PA to Marc/Roadie
• Micky Marmalade-Roadie/Driver

Sources

• Paytress, Mark (2002). Bolan: The Rise and Fall of a 20th Century Superstar. Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-634-05560-7. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
• Warwick, Neil; Kutner, Jon; Brown, Tony (2004). The Complete Book of the British Charts: Singles and Albums. Omnibus Press. ISBN 1-84449-058-0. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
• Alterman, Loraine (22 October 1972). "T. Rex: The Slider (Reprise)". New York Times. Retrieved 5 November 2021 – via Rock's Backpages.
• Williams, Richard (2 September 1972). "Albums from David Bowie, T. Rex, Rod Stewart and Roxy Music". The Times. Retrieved 5 November 2021 – via Rock's Backpages.
• Edmonds, Ben (November 1972). "T Rex: The Slider (Reprise)". Creem. Retrieved 5 November 2021 – via Rock's Backpages.

• The Slider at Discogs (list of releases)