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Dandy in the Underworld

Marc Bolan & T Rex

Dandy In The Underworld Album

'Dandy in the Underworld' was the last officially released UK album of new material by T.Rex. The album contained 11 new songs along with the inclusion of the 1976 hit single 'I Love to Boogie'. The album received favourable reviews from most of the major music papers and was generally seen as a 'return to form'. 'Dandy in the Underworld' was released in 6 countries outside of the UK and the track listing was identical for all versions.

Most tracks on the album feature the last T Rex line-up of Marc Bolan (vocals and guitar); Herbie Flowers (bass); Dino Dines (keyboards) and Tony Newman (drums) with only 'Jason B Sad' featuring Miller Anderson on second guitar. Three of the Dandy tracks feature the previous version of T Rex which included Steve Currie (bass); Dino Dines (keyboards) and Davey Lutton (drums). Perhaps surprisingly drummer Paul Fenton gets a credit, along with Davey Lutton, for playing drums on 'Visions of Domino'. The song 'Visions of Domino' can be traced back to late 1975 when it was first recorded as 'Funky London Childhood' and was intended to form part of a concept album provisionally titled 'The London Opera'. 'Funky London Childhood' was performed on the Futuristic Dragon tour of February/March 1976 and on the Supersonic 'Rollin' Bolan' TV special recorded in July 1976 and later broadcast on the 28th August 1976. The song was then later re-written as 'Visions of Domino'.

Side 1

(1) Dandy In The Underworld, (2) Crimson Moon, (3) Universe,
(4) I'm A Fool For You Girl, (5) I Love To Boogie, (6) Visions Of Domino.

Side 2

(1) Jason B. Sad, (2) Groove A Little, (3) The Soul Of My Suit,
(4) Hang-Ups, (5) Pain And Love, (6) Teen Riot Structure.

Dandy in the Underworld - UK album
Released: 11th March 1977, EMI BLN 5005

The UK version of Dandy in the Underworld was available as a vinyl album and a cassette tape. As with all previous T Rex albums from The Slider (1972) onwards, this album featured the familiar blue and red T Rex labels with Marc Bolan portrait, however the cassette version was branded with only the round EMI logo and the 'Bolan' production diamond logo.

The black and white picture used on the album cover was taken by the successful London photographer Allan Ballard (1943-) and is a simple but stark portrait of Marc. The same image was then used as a graphic image to promote the Dandy album, single and tour. The image was also used on all items of tour merchandise including the t-shirt's that Marc wore throughout the Dandy tour.

UK copies of the album were housed in a die-cut sleeve with a five and a half inch circular cut out. The inner sleeve featured the portrait photo of Marc and on the reverse were the lyrics. As can be seen below, the back cover featured the same photo as used on the front cover.

Although the album was heavily promoted in the music press and on the UK tour, it only managed a run of three weeks in the album charts* and peaked at number 26.

* The chart places referred to in this section relate to the positions that singles reached in the commonly used BBC commissioned chart. 'The BMRB (British Market Research Bureau) were commissioned by the BBC and 'Record Retailer' to produce a record chart using figures from 150 sales outlets chosen at random each week from between 300 and 500 participating record selling establishments' (source: Sixties City, website).

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Dandy in the Underworld - UK album promo pack

In addition to the album itself, the promo pack also featured a double sided card with background information about Marc and T Rex (though much of the information is inaccurate eg. his age is given as 28 years old, he was actually 29 years old at the time of the album release); a large black and silver sticker; a small metal badge and two 10x8 inch EMI promotional black and white photos. EMI in the UK was the only record company to have a promo pack to accompany this release.

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Dandy in the Underworld - Australia
Released: Date unknown, EMI BLN-5005

The Australian version of the Dandy album did not have a die-cut sleeve but was simply the photo of Marc on the front sleeve. There was no inner sleeve with this version of the album. This is the only EMI released version of the album not to feature the 'Bolan' diamond logo.

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Dandy in the Underworld - Denmark
Released: Date unknown, EMI 6C 062 98783

The Danish version of the Dandy album did not have a die-cut sleeve and was left black where a picture of Marc should have been (possibly an oversight by the record company). There was an inner sleeve with this version of the album.

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Dandy in the Underworld - France
Released: Date unknown, EMI 2C 066 - 98.783

The French version of the Dandy album did not have a die-cut sleeve but was simply the photo of Marc on the front sleeve. There was no inner sleeve with this version of the album. This album was housed in a plain white inner sleeve.

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Dandy in the Underworld - Japan
Released: 20th June 1977, EMI EMS-80828

The Japanese version of the Dandy album had a die-cut sleeve and an obi wrap around. This version of the album featured a double sided lyric sheet (with the lyrics in Japanese) and showed an early 1976 photo of Marc which was also used later on the Japanese release of the 'Dandy in the Underworld' single. Unlike all other EMI releases of the album, the Japanese version does not show 'I Love To Boogie' as a 1976 release.

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Dandy in the Underworld - Japan (promo copy)

The Japanese promo version of the Dandy album had a die-cut sleeve and an obi wrap around. This version of the album featured a two-sided lyric sheet (with the lyrics in Japanese) which featured an earlier 1976 EMI promo photo of Marc. Unlike the standard issue of the album, the labels were white with black print and did not feature the Bolan graphic. There is also a minor spelling mistake with Jason B Sad being spelt 'JASOH'. This was corrected for the release of the stock issue of the album.

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Dandy in the Underworld - Portugal
Released: Date unknown, EMI 8E068-98783

The Portugese version of the Dandy album had a die-cut sleeve and a white inner sleeve featuring the lyrics.

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Dandy in the Underworld - West Germany
Released: Date unknown, Ariola 28 876 OT

The West German version of the Dandy album had a die-cut sleeve and an inner sleeve featuring the lyrics (in English). Unlike all the other versions of the Dandy album which had been released on EMI, this version was released on the Ariola label.

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