📰 T. Rex - Album US Review: Mar. 1971

Writer: Jim Knippenberg / The Cincinnati Enquirer

Date: March 18, 1971

Length: 4–5 min read

A regional American review capturing early U.S. reactions to T. Rex, the album that marked Marc Bolan’s transition from cult mystic to electric pop visionary. The critic offers a mixed assessment, noting charm and melody but questioning originality.

A Midwestern critic meets Bolan’s new electric incarnation.

In his Soundings column, Jim Knippenberg reviews T. Rex with cautious interest, describing the album as soft‑rock with flashes of personality. While he acknowledges the duo’s melodic strengths, he argues that much of the record feels overly familiar, as though echoing other artists without fully breaking new ground.

📰 Key Highlights

• Early U.S. review of the T. Rex album (Reprise)

• Notes the shift from Tyrannosaurus Rex to a more electric sound

• Mentions Steve Took’s departure and the Bolan–Finn duo format

• Compares elements of the album to Simon & Garfunkel and Ray Davies

• Critiques the album’s originality while acknowledging its appeal to fans

📰 Overview

By early 1971, Marc Bolan had begun reshaping Tyrannosaurus Rex into a more streamlined, electric, radio‑friendly project. The T. Rex album — their first under the shortened name — was a crucial transitional work, blending acoustic mysticism with emerging glam textures. In the United States, where Bolan was still largely a cult figure, reactions varied widely.

Jim Knippenberg’s review in The Cincinnati Enquirer reflects this transitional moment. Writing for a general readership, he approaches the album without the context of Bolan’s British mythology, instead hearing it as a soft‑rock record with folk‑pop inflections. His comparisons to Simon & Garfunkel and Ray Davies reveal how American critics were trying to situate Bolan within familiar frameworks.

The review is neither dismissive nor enthusiastic — instead, it captures the uncertainty of an American audience encountering Bolan’s evolving sound just months before the glam explosion.

📰 Source Details

Publication / Venue: The Cincinnati Enquirer (Ohio)

Date: 18 March 1971

Format: Album Review (Soundings Column)

Provenance Notes:

• Based on a surviving newspaper clipping

• Only the T. Rex portion of the column used

• Summary only — no copyrighted text reproduced

📰 The Story

Knippenberg begins by noting the flood of new records arriving each week, positioning T. Rex as one of many releases competing for attention. He identifies the group as a duo — Marc Bolan on guitar and Micky Finn on drums — and briefly acknowledges the departure of Steve Took.

The critic describes the album as soft‑rock with occasional bursts of energy, suggesting that its arrangements are simple and its lyrics pleasant but sometimes mishandled. He argues that parts of the record feel overly derivative, as though echoing other artists without fully establishing a unique identity. His comparisons to Simon & Garfunkel and Ray Davies reflect an attempt to map Bolan’s sound onto familiar American reference points.

Despite these reservations, Knippenberg concedes that the album is “harmless” and likely to please existing fans. His tone suggests that Bolan’s emerging electric persona had not yet made its full impact in the U.S. — a reminder that the glam‑rock revolution was still months away from crossing the Atlantic.

This makes the review historically valuable: a snapshot of how Bolan’s transitional work was received in a market that had not yet embraced his flamboyant future.

📰 Visual Archive

• Soundings column layout from The Cincinnati Enquirer

• Review of the T. Rex album (Reprise)

• Mentions of Bolan, Finn, and Steve Took

• Early‑1970s American newspaper typography

• Adjacent content unrelated to the album (not included in this entry)

A Midwestern critic encounters Bolan’s new electric direction in early 1971.

📰 Related Material

• T. Rex (1970/71) — Reprise U.S. edition

• Early American press reactions to Marc Bolan

• Transition from Tyrannosaurus Rex to T. Rex

📰 Closing Notes

This review captures a moment before the glam‑rock breakthrough, when Marc Bolan’s electric reinvention was still unfamiliar to American ears. Knippenberg’s cautious, middle‑ground assessment reflects the uncertainty of a U.S. audience not yet prepared for the glittering revolution that Electric Warrior would soon unleash.

#TRex #MarcBolan #MickeyFinn #1971Press

📰 Sources

• The Cincinnati Enquirer (18 March 1971)

• Contemporary U.S. release history of T. Rex

• Secondary context on Bolan’s American reception

📝 Copyright Notice

All newspaper scans, photographs, and original text excerpts referenced in this entry remain the property of their respective copyright holders. This Chronicle entry is a transformative, non‑commercial archival summary created for historical documentation and educational reference. No ownership of the original material is claimed or implied.