My People Were Fair and Had Sky in Their Hair... But Now They're Content to Wear Stars on Their Brows

Recording

My People Were Fair was recorded at Advision Studios in London, England in early 1968 and produced by Tony Visconti. Preparatory demo sessions for the album took place at Visconti's London flat as well as studio sessions with producer Joe Boyd. Advision was the first studio in the UK with eight-channel recording equipment. This Advision eight-channel machine was a model 280 made by Scully Recording Instruments, which allowed for far greater recording flexibility than the standard 4-track recorders of the era.

Two of the songs, "Mustang Ford" (retitled from "Go Go Girl") and "Hot Rod Mama" (a live BBC radio session) had been recorded earlier by Marc Bolan's pre-Tyrannosaurus Rex band John's Children. Early versions of some of the tracks also appeared on The Beginning of Doves, a collection of demos and early tracks released in 1974.

Music

The record featured Bolan on vocals and guitars, and Steve Peregrin Took on backing vocals, drums, pixiphone and percussion. It also featured disc jockey John Peel, who read a children's story written by Bolan for the album's closing track, "Frowning Atahuallpa (My Inca Love)", which also included a lengthy Hare Krishna chant.

For Bolan, the album's music represented a rejection of the electric guitar-driven music he'd been playing with his previous band, John's Children. The cover art and subject matter of many of the songs dealt with the fantasy themes that would pervade much of the subsequent Tyrannosaurus Rex catalogue.

Release

My People Were Fair was released on 5 July 1968 by Regal Zonophone. It reached No. 15 in the UK Album Chart upon initial release.

The album was paired with Tyrannosaurus Rex's follow-up album Prophets, Seers & Sages: The Angels of the Ages (1968) and released in 1972 as the double album Tyrannosaurus Rex: A Beginning, following the success of T. Rex's Electric Warrior (1971) and The Slider (1972) albums. It reached No. 1 in the UK. The double release remains the longest album title of any UK No. 1 album.

In 1985 it was re-released on Sierra Records. An expanded edition CD was released in 2004, which included many alternate studio takes. A deluxe edition, released in January 2015, included home demos for the album recorded by Visconti and exploratory studio sessions with Boyd.

Reception

The album reportedly received negative reviews upon its release.

In his retrospective review, Dave Thompson, writing for AllMusic, called it "an irresistible affair, if absolutely a child of its psychedelically-inclined time".

Track listing

All tracks written by Marc Bolan.