My People Were Fair and Had Sky in Their Hair... But Now They're Content to Wear Stars on Their Brows

My People Were Fair and Had Sky in Their Hair... But Now They're Content to Wear Stars on Their Brows is the 1968 debut album by Tyrannosaurus Rex (later known as "T. Rex"). The album reached number 15 in the UK Album Chart upon initial release, but later reached number 1 when it was paired with the second Tyrannosaurus Rex album Prophets, Seers & Sages: The Angels of the Ages as the compilation album Tyrannosaurus Rex: A Beginning in 1972. This double LP set was released in the United States on A&M Records, and was the first time the album was available there. The record features Marc Bolan on vocals and guitars, and Steve Peregrin Took on backing vocals, drums, pixiphone, and percussion. It also features disc jockey John Peel, who reads a Bolan-penned fairytale for the album's closing track, "Frowning Atahuallpa (My Inca Love)," which includes what must be one of the earliest "Hare Krishna" chants on a British pop record (two years before George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord"). The album's music is much influenced by Tyrannosaurus Rex' psychedelic contemporaries, and marks for Bolan a rejection of the electric guitar-led freakbeat music he'd been playing with his previous band, John's Children. The album was recorded at Advision Studios in London in early 1968. Advision was the first studio in the U.K. with eight-channel recording equipment. This Advision eight-channel machine was a model 280 made by Scully Recording Instruments. It allowed for far greater recording flexibility than the standard 4-track recorders of the era. Recordings of the songs "Mustang Ford" (single release, titled "Go Go Girl") and "Hot Rod Mama" (live) by John's Children exist. This album was paired with Prophets, Seers & Sages: The Angels of the Ages (1968) and released in 1972 as the double album Tyrannosaurus Rex: A Beginning, following the success of T-Rex's Electric Warrior (1971) and The Slider (1972). In 1985 it was re-released on Sierra Records (Replay series) FEDB 5013.