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Devendra vs. Tyrannosaurus Rex

 

  • Devendra vs. Tyrannosaurus Rex

    With all due respect to Devendra Banhardt, whom I like pretty much, I'm wondering how many of you aren't the least bit alarmed by the obvious debt that he owes to the early T. Rex records, before Marc Bolan discovered big riffs and ditched the bongo. Those early albums, before Bolan shortened his band's name to T. Rex from Tyrannosaurus Rex, especially "My People Were Fair and Had Stars in Their Hair ..." and "Prophets, Seers, Sages ..." are, a) amazing records recorded in 68-69 and, b) the nearly *exact* template to Banhardt's entire oeuvre. It's shocking, in fact. Now, every artist steals from others, but it's really starting to bug me when I listen to Devendra. Not to be a spoilsport, because Tyrannosaurus Rex is a great band to steal from, but the similarities are shocking...

    Just a thought. This is my first post to this list, and I don't want to enter the fray as a naysayer, because I'm not ... I love the stuff, especially Joanna Newsom and the Animal Collective -- and Devendra Banhardt. I guess it's my way of saying that if you haven't heard those two albums, you're in for both a shock and a wonderful surprise...

    RR
    Sovereign Glory

    Criticism is to artists what ornithology is to birds -- Barney Newman
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  • Yes the similarity with Marc Bolan is striking. Devendra has claimed that it is accidental and that if he copied anyone it was Karen Dalton. I haven't been able to track down her two albums but I have heard clips of her material on the net and there is certainly a strong connection. It goes to show there's nothing new under the sun really. Dylan started off aping Woody Guthrie and it didn't do him any harm. Whatever the sources,I personally find Devendra Banhart's songs original and magical in their own right.
    By the way Tyrannosaurus Rex have also been compared to Animal Collective (check out the WNYC – Spinning On Air archive show devoted to them).

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  • Well Bolan has been mined before too. His ideas seem pretty underappreciated (unless you're Bowie...)He is not quite an unsung hero of Ameicana but certainly an undersung one...

    But for that matter Lydia Lunch and Tim Buckley (who, apologies to indie scamps who buy-in too much, was 10 times the talent that his son lived to realize) did more than all these NWA folks from whom i have heard much.
    I even think phil ochs is better than some of these guys LOL. I also hear lots of Cohen and Lyle Lovett and Roger Miller in many of these "original" NWA artists. And it should go without saying everybody in this groups connections is a bastard child of Spike Jones (no, not the director).
    But this is how art happens...90 percent of it is stolen even if unwittingly.

    sometimes, things happen just like THAT!
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    • duskeen said...
    • User
    • 24 Dec 2005, 03:03
    the line between inspiration/influence and theft is often very thin, methinks.

    and all these artists are brilliant and original in their own respective ways, or so, again, i think.

    there is nothing arrogant about being right
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  • I clicked on the thread thinking that you meant...Devendra vs. an actual FUCKIN T REX OH MY GOD WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE BECAUSE THE FUCKIN T REX IS LOOSE

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