Prophets, Seers & Sages was recorded from May to August 1968 at
Trident Studios in
London, England and produced by
Tony Visconti. The album featured Marc Bolan on vocals and guitar and
Steve Peregrin Took on
bongos,
African drums,
kazoo,
pixiephone and Chinese gong. The album opened with a revisiting of Tyrannosaurus Rex's first single, the minor top 40 hit "Debora", altered midway by a reversed-tape effect, as indicated by its new title "Deboraarobed". "Eastern Spell" had first been demoed in 1966 yet was passed over for the debut. The brief "Juniper Suction" also featured backwards psychedelic effects and contained oblique references to sex with new girlfriend June Child; in a 1973 interview Marc identified it as the moment he felt he was getting somewhere as a songwriter. The term "Salamanda Palaganda" came to Bolan one day while taking a long car drive, and he couldn't get it out of his head so he wrote a song around it. "Trewlany Lawn" depicts "good" animals vs. "evil" man; the "good vs. evil" theme reappears on the closing "Scenescof Dynasty", a spoken word poem accompanied only by handclaps. Marc explained that it tells the story of two men who get sucked into the evil Scenescof's body, where they must find a way to kill him. Other tracks attempted during the sessions but not on the final album include the outtake "Nickelodeon" and the single "One Inch Rock" (also first demoed in 1966), which became a minor UK hit when it peaked at number 28 in the UK Singles Chart that August. Marc had been dissatisfied with the production of the debut Tyrannosaurus Rex album, feeling the resulting sound was reedy and thin, so he made sure this time that for every two hours spent on recording, three would be spent on production. This resulted in a more palatable sound mix, although the instrumentation remained relatively spare. Recording sessions began on 22 April with "One Inch Rock" and "Conesuala" at
Olympic Studios in London, although neither of these early versions would see release. Regrouping at Trident Studios on 16 May, the duo recorded "Stacey Grove", "One Inch Rock" (remake), "Wind Quartets", "Eastern Spell" and "Scenescof Dynasty", with most taking only a few takes with the exception of "One Inch Rock" which took 6 takes and "Eastern Spell" which took 12. On 10 June, they recorded "Salamanda Palaganda", "Conesuala" (remake), "Nickelodeon" and "Wind Quartets" (remake), although a satisfactory take of "Wind Quartets" continued to elude them. On 13 June, a master of "Wind Quartets" was completed along with overdubs to other songs. On 4 July, "Our Wonderful Brownskin Man", "Juniper Suction", "Nickelodeon" (remake) and "O Harley" were committed to tape, while another session sometime in mid-July produced the remake of "Debora" retitled "Deboraarobed" as well as "The Travelling Tragition". The final recording session took place on 8 August, resulting in masters of "Trewlany Lawn", "Aznageel the Mage" and "The Friends", all recorded in 3-5 takes each. == Release ==