“Rip Off” by T. Rex

"Rip Off" comes off Electric Warrior, the T. Rex album that Fly released in Britain on 24 September 1971, with Reprise handling it in America, and it's the sound of a band that has shed its folky skin. Marc Bolan wrote it, sings it and plays the electric guitar, with Steve Currie on electric bass, Bill Legend on drums and Mickey Finn on percussion, while Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman chip in backing vocals. Tony Visconti produced, and the engineering crew stretched from Roy Thomas Baker and Martin Rushent to Malcolm Cecil and Rik Pekkonen.

Electric Warrior is where the old folk-leaning sound of the earlier records gave way to flamboyant, pop-minded glam rock, and it went all the way to number one on the UK albums chart.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.