Tyrannosaurus Rex “A Beard of Stars” 1970. Blue Thumb Records. Gorgeously raw lo-fi psych rock, Marc Bolan’s – joined by Micky Finn – fourth LP as Tyrannosaurus Rex and the last before becoming T. Rex; “the turning point where Marc Bolan began evolving from an unrepentant hippie into the full-on swaggering rock star he would be within a couple of years.” You can hear this especially in the raggedly intense strumming and glammy vocals of “Fist Heart Might Dawn Dart” (expertly covered recently by Ty Segall on his 2011 Ty-Rex), the slinky sex appeal of Bolan’s vocal delivery on “By the Light of a Magical Moon” and the ferocious “Elemental Child.” There is still plenty of 60′s hippie/psych fascination with Anglican folklore (faeries, princesses, damsels, druids, etc.) both lyrically – “Great Horse,” “Dragon’s Ear” – and musically (“Wild Cheetah,” its organ instrumentation would be perfectly comfortable in a lord’s cavernous castle). Finn’s percussion leans both heavy hippie (i.e. Moroccan clay drums, bongos) and rock star grooving bass; Finn took over from the Tolkien-inspiried (obvs!) Steve Peregrine-Took just prior to A Beard of Stars in 1969.