Tall Dwarfs: Ride a White Swan (1998)

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Tall Dwarfs: Ride a White Swan (1998)

In the course of researching the folksy-hippie sound of Tyrannosaurus Rex of the late Sixties, before they morphed into the brilliant pixiefied glam rock of T. Rex, I was turning up some interesting oddities in their catalogue.

But when I got to their pivotal song Ride a White Swan with which Marc Bolan announced a whole new Rex -- electric, poppy, teen-directed -- I stumbled on this version of it by New Zealand's Tall Dwarfs, which I admit I'd never heard before.

It came from a tribute album Great Jewish Music; Marc Bolan and others on it were Art Lindsay and Marc Ribot (Children of the Revolution), Kramer (Get It On), Sean Lennon and Yuka Honda (Would I Be the One) and Buckethead (20th Century Boy).

Quite the oddity in a cover (pictured) which makes absolutely no sense at all.

Here are Tall Dwarfs, for your listening pleasure.

For more oddities, one-offs or songs with an interesting backstory check the massive back-catalogue at From the Vaults.

 

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