Angelheaded Hipster: The Songs of Marc Bolan & T. Rex

It's the guy you don't see listed on the main "cast" page, and is down at bottom, uncredited with anything in particular, of the extended cast page: Hal Willner.

This recording was a Hal Willner joint. You need to go outside of IMDB. Start with his wikipedia page. His specialty over 40 years (apart from driving SNL's music) was "tributes" - a name that doesn't do the albums of contemporary musicians covering important composers justice. Monk. Mingus. Weill. Rota. Every one of them is absolutely amazing, and a product of Willner's choice of musicians to bring into each. So when you look down this list and see Bill Frisell and Wayne Kramer listed as "session musicians" (which they really aren't), it conveys nothing of the unique musical character each one bring.

This was particularly touching given that Willner was killed by COVID early in the pandemic (he got one of those RIP closing credits on that week's SNL), and it took a few more years for this documentary - as much of the making of the album as about Bolan himself - to come out.

You really don't want to miss this one.

As a long-term T. Rex fan, there's not many archive clips in here that I hadn't seen before - but there are some, which is good. Also, the interviews with various old associates (such as Bowie, Elton and Ringo) and cover artists from the accompanying AHH album (such as Nick Cave) are quite interestingly fresh. Nice to see non-interviewed players such as Wayne Kramer also.

The interpretations of the songs from the album vary from the straight-on copy to almost unrecognisable, but the whole is imbued with a pervasive sense of affection for the man and his music, which is quite touching, as is their descriptions of his influence on their lives and careers.

Quite nicely done.

Never an easy task to make a documentary about a person who has long passed away, buy it has been researched well. There are some nice interviews with people such as Bowie, Ringo, Elton, and many of the artists who sang on the collection. I actually enjoyed the Dvd more, though there are some good covers such as Cave, Bjorns, Banhart and Orton. It was very pleasurable to see many young musicians enjoying his music and getting involved. I thought the angle for Gloria Jones was a bit odd. There were few things I did not know which is always nice. Yes, yes its not perfect but its a decent homage and at least someone made it and I am very grateful for that. It is a shame it did not get a wider release and living in Madrid it took me ages to actually get my hands on a copy. The live footage and talk show footage is great. Bolan is allowed to breathe in the documentary which is nice.