Marc Bolan & T. Rex part 2

While proof-reading yesterday's entry, I realized (once again) what a hard path to success Marc Bolan had to follow and how long it took him to get there. He was not the only one. From Bowie to The Beatles, and from Dylan to Springsteen, the musicians who achieved a long a productive career really paid their dues. Not to mention the even harder path that black musicians had to follow in the old days. That, in the time of artists who follow the short path of mama's bedroom > TV talent show winner (or YouTube viral sensation) > Pop Star. I wonder where they'll be 40 years from now...

Part 1 closed with Ride a White Swan, T. Rex's first Top 20 hit, which stormed all the way to #2 in the UK. Bolanmania was just beginning.

Meanwhile, the first album under the name of T. Rex came out in December 1970. The album received good reviews and made #7 chartwise. Jewel is from this album:

... As well as Beltane Walk:

The backing vocals on Seagull Woman are by Flo & Eddie, former Turtles and also collaborators of Frank Zappa. They would go on to sing on most of the group's subsequent string of hits.

Beginning on 27 March 1971, T. Rex’s next single, Hot Love (UK #1, Ireland #1, Australia # 5), topped the UK singles chart for six weeks. The song has a clip-clopping rhythm. Marc Bolan’s familiar lyrical fairy dust is still being sprinkled about: “Well, she ain’t no witch and I love the way she twitch, a ha ha.” However there is a growing devotion to pure Pop music in evidence as well. “I’m her two-penny prince and I give her hot love, a ha ha,” he claims before the song dissolves into a mantra of “La-la-la-la-la-la-la,” inspired somewhat by The Beatles' Hey Jude.

On a Thursday night in March 1971 T-Rex appeared on the British television program ‘Top of the Pops.’ ‘To alleviate pre-show jitters, Marc Bolan painted some glitter around his eyes.’ This may be considered the moment in which Glam Rock was born. Bolan claimed he just forgot to wash off the eye make-up before taking to the stage, but this is questionable. In any case, Bolan’s fans – and peers – were soon imitating him.

Get It On (Bang A Gong) (UK #1, US #10) is T-Rex’s most popular single internationally. It topped the British charts for two weeks beginning on 31 July 1971. Where Ride A White Swan and Hot Love were politely poppy, this was full on grinding Rock, but lost none of the catchy, popular appeal of those earlier efforts. This made it more emblematic of T. Rex – and Glam Rock in general. Bolan still trots out the mythological, fantasy references (“You’ve got the teeth of the hydra upon you” and “With your cloak full of eagles”), but they are now buttressed with a welcome grittiness (“You’re dirty sweet and you’re my girl”). ‘Get It On’ also shows Bolan branching into more personal lyrics, words that are virtually nonsensical unless you are willing to enter into his spirit of whimsy: “Well, you’re built like a car / You’ve got a hub-cap diamond star halo.” This sort of thing would become increasingly commonplace in T. Rex tunes. Combining magic, raunch and Bolan’s own ineffable style, the song became T. Rex's only Top 10 hit in the US. In Europe it was called Get It On, but in the US they changed the title to Bang A Gong, to avoid confusion with another song of the same name by the American band Chase.

By this time T. Rex were a quartet: bassist Steve Currie and drummer Bill Legend joined Bolan and Mickey Finn.

On September 24 1971, the monumental Electric Warrior was released. It reached #32 in the US and #1 in the UK, staying there for several weeks and becoming the best-selling album in the UK in 1971. The album is often credited as the first Glam Rock album.

In 1987, Electric Warrior was ranked number 100 in Rolling Stone magazine's "100 Greatest Albums of the Last 20 Years" list. In 2003, the album was ranked number 160 by the same magazine in its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2004, Pitchfork ranked Electric Warrior as the 20th best album of the 1970s.

The album opened with Mambo Sun:

Also present on this record is the softer and more expansive acoustic track Cosmic Dancer. Here's a live version:

... And here's the song put to great use in Billy Elliot, a film full of T. Rex songs:

This is Lean Woman Blues:

The Motivator had great guitar work:

Life's a Gas is a cool, hypnotizing track:

In addition to Get It On, this disc includes T. Rex’s next single, the kinetic Jeepster (UK #2, Australia #16). “’Cause you’re my baby, ‘cause you’re my love / Oh girl, I’m just a jeepster for your love,” sings Marc Bolan. What is a jeepster? A jeep driver? Who knows? It’s another indecipherable Bolan-ism. By the last verse, it changes to “Oh girl, I’m just a vampire for your love,” to which he adds, “I’m gonna suck ya!” There are still traces of Bolan’s hippie phase (“You’ve got the universe reclining in your hair”) as well as his more whimsical turn of phrase (“I’ll call you jaguar / If I may be so bold”). Fly Records released the song without singer Marc Bolan's prior permission, Bolan having just left Fly for EMI, which had given him control of his own label T. Rex Wax Co. Records.

The T. Rex sound and choice of lyrics, besides being the basis of Glam Rock, also influenced some Rock royalty. Listen to Ringo Starr's Back Off Boogaloo:

... And listen to Paul McCartney's Jet:

Back to T. Rex: The band wasn't just hot; it was boiling. Two huge #1 singles followed. First came Telegram Sam, a funky metal outing. Dylan is referenced in the verse “Bobby’s all right / He’s a natural born poet / He’s clean out of sight.”

Metal Guru was the band's fourth (and final) number one in the UK, when it topped the chart for four weeks from May–June 1972. It also almost made the American Top 40 (#45):

Bolan told Gloria Jones (the Soul singer who was his backup singer, his companion, and the mother of his only child) the track Metal Guru would be "the smoothest song in history".

In 1964 Gloria Jones had sung the original version of this 80's smash:

The Slider was released on 21 July 1972. It contained both Telegram Sam and Metal Guru and peaked at #4 in the UK. Also in the album was Rock On:

... The Slider:

... And Chariot Choogle:

Then came two #2 hits and a #3 hit for T. Rex: these three, along with Ride A White Swan, are my favorite T. Rex songs.

Children Of The Revolution is a musically ambitious work, pairing a grandiose string section with Marc Bolan’s distorted guitar work. “Well you can bump and grind, if it’s good for your mind / You can twist and shout, let it all hang out / But you won’t fool the children of the revolution,” Bolan asserts, referencing The Isley Brothers’ 1962 song Twist And Shout, popularised by The Beatles in 1963. In similar fashion, “You can terraplane in the falling rain / I drive a Rolls-Royce ‘cos it’s good for my voice,” contains a nod to blues artist Robert Johnson’s Terraplane Blues from 1936 (as well as further proof of Marc’s automobile fixation – a trait also to be found in Johnson’s song). The phrase “I drive a Rolls-Royce ‘cos it’s good for my voice,” is also a biting comment on Rock musicians' material excesses "for the sake of Art."

Solid Gold Easy Action also features violins and cellos but, in this case, pits them against a stuttering beat. It contains the lyrics that would be the center of discussion a few years later: "Life is the same / And it always will be / Easy as picking foxes from a tree".

20th Century Boy is the third song I was talking about. Originally peaking at #3 in early 1973, it later returned to the UK Top 20 in 1991, peaking at #13, fourteen years after Bolan's death, when it was used in a commercial for Levi's starring Brad Pitt.

Placebo's cover was used in the film Velvet Goldmine (1998):

Tanx was released on 28 January 1973, and once more peaked at #4 in the UK. It is a more soulful record, and new instruments such as saxophone and mellotron were used, allowing the T. Rex sound to evolve. The album kicked off with Tenement Lady:

Bolan decided to release no singles from the album, perhaps inspired by what The Beatles did with Sgt. Pepper's. Also in Tanx is Country Honey:

... Mad Donna:

... And Born to Boogie:

Two more singles were released in 1973: The chugging locomotive force of The Groover (UK #4) begins with the group’s name spelled out letter by letter in a chant.

Truck on (Tyke), a less inspired work, was his first single to not peak inside the Top 10 (#12). He would never have a Top 10 hit in the UK again.

His next album, Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow (subtitled A Creamed Cage in August) - back to the long titles! - was released on 1 February 1974. It peaked at #12 and was the last studio album to peak inside the Top 20. It contained this good single, which peaked at #13:

Except for Teenage Dream, the album also contained Venus Loon:

... And The Leopards Featuring Gardenia and the Mighty Slug:

Bolan's commercial strength was in a downward spiral. Light of Love missed out on the Top 20 (#22):

Zip Gun Boogie even failed to make the Top 40 (#41):

Eventually, the vintage T. Rex line-up disintegrated. Legend left in 1973 and Finn in 1975 and Bolan's marriage came to an end because of his affair with backing singer Gloria Jones who gave birth to his son Rolan on 26 September 1975. He spent a good deal of his time in the US during this period, continuing to release singles and albums which, while not reaching major commercial success, were full of unusual lyrics and sometimes eccentric musical experiments. Bolan was not living healthily and began to gain weight, though he subsequently improved and continued working, producing at least one album every year.

In 1975, New York City was a brief return to form, peaking at #15:

Dreamy Lady peaked at #30:

Glam Rock was already out of fashion by now, soon to be replaced by Disco and Punk. Marc was, however, still having a go at it. In 1976, I Love to Boogie was the last single to make the Top 20, peaking at #13:

The song was also included in Dandy in the Underworld, released on 11 March 1977. It reached #26 in the UK charts, the band's highest-charting album since 1974. It was regarded by many T. Rex fans as a comeback for the band. However, it would prove to be the band's final album. Here are a couple more songs from this album. The Soul of My Suit:

... And Teen Riot Structure:

On 16 September 1977 Marc Bolan died in a car accident. He was two weeks shy of his 30th birthday. He and Gloria Jones, had been out to dinner. ‘After much merriment’, Gloria drove them home. Marc loved cars but had never learned to drive. Around four a.m. on 16 September 1977, the couple got into Gloria’s purple Mini 1275 GT (license plate no. FOX661L) and began to travel into the night. While crossing a hump-backed bridge, Gloria Jones lost control of the vehicle. It smashed through a fence and hit a sycamore tree. Neither occupant of the vehicle was wearing a seat belt. Gloria Jones suffered a broken arm and jaw. The passenger side of the Mini took the brunt of the impact. Marc Bolan was killed instantly. The cause of death was shock and haemorrhage due to multiple injuries. Bolan's home, which was less than a mile away, was looted shortly thereafter.

At Bolan's funeral, attended by David Bowie, Rod Stewart, Tony Visconti, and Steve Harley, a swan-shaped floral tribute was displayed outside the service in recognition of his breakthrough hit single Ride a White Swan. His ashes were buried at Golders Green Crematorium. His crash site has subsequently become a shrine to his memory, with fans travelling from all over the world to leave tributes beside the tree.

Did Marc Bolan foresee his own death? Many people seem to think so. The line from Solid God Easy Action that says, “Life is the same as it always will be / Easy as picking foxes from a tree” is mirrored in the circumstances of his demise. Gloria Jones’ purple Mini – number plate FOX 661L- wound up wrapped around a sycamore tree. The title of Bolan’s final album, Dandy In The Underworld, could be interpreted as a depiction of his own afterlife. In one interview he claimed, “I feel there is a curse on Rock stars.” In a 1972 television interview, Bolan is asked to imagine what his life will be like when he is 40 or 60. After a moment or two of silence he quietly responds that he doesn’t think he will live that long.

Time and circumstance witnessed the passing of other former members of T. Rex. Percussionist Steve Peregrine Took died aged 31 on 27 October 1980. His death was due to asphyxiation after inhaling a cocktail cherry, but it is often listed as due to ‘drugs misadventure.’ Bassist Steve Currie died in a car crash on 28 April 1981. He was 33. Percussionist Mickey Finn died on 11 January 2003 from alcohol-related liver problems. He was 65. Keyboardist Dino Dines passed away on 28 January 2004. The cause of death for the 69 year old was a heart attack.

Bolan’s name also lives on through his singer/songwriter son, Rolan, who was a few days short of his second birthday when his father died. ‘I have almost no memory of my father,’ says Rolan, now in his 30s, but whenever I hear his music it’s as if I can feel him holding me.’

‘My parents liked to take me everywhere with them,’ says Rolan. ‘But unusually, on the night of the crash they left me with my grandparents while they went to dinner.’ ‘I’ve seen pictures of the wrecked car,’ says Rolan. ‘If I’d been in my usual place in the back, there was no way I would have survived.’

A little before he died, Marc was setting up a trust in the Bahamas to give his family financial stability. Rolan says: ‘Unfortunately, he hadn’t had time to finalise all the details, so although his income was being protected, he hadn’t yet made provision for my mother to have access to the money.’

The trustees said their hands were tied. An added complication was that Marc was still legally married to his former publicist, June Child. ‘My mother went from a millionaire lifestyle to virtual poverty, and I often went without,’ adds Rolan. ‘But even if we had money, it could never have made up for Dad not being there. Mum tells me I often cried for him.

‘We lived in Los Angeles, and things got very tough,’ says Rolan. ‘Dad’s royalties were still going into the trust fund, but because Mum wasn’t his legal wife, and I wasn’t recognised in law as having any rights to his estate because I was illegitimate, we weren’t allowed to benefit.’

His godfather David Bowie came to the rescue. Without publicity, he paid for Rolan’s education and settled other expenses as he was growing up. ‘This allowed me to go to a good private school and meet children of other celebrities,’ Rolan recalls. ‘The people who knew I didn’t have money of my own said: “Keep your character. Stay who you are.”’

Bowie had been a long-time friend of Marc’s. When Bolan’s career faltered in the mid-Seventies, Bowie encouraged him to make a comeback. Bowie was due to guest star on Bolan’s ITV series — which helped resurrect his career — around the time Marc died.

‘David’s generosity helped my mother and me to survive. It wasn’t just the financial help, but the time and kindness. He never came to see us in California because he lives in New York and hates to travel. But he kept in regular touch by phone and his first and last words every time were: “Don’t hesitate to tell me if there is anything I can do.”

‘He’d shrug off our thanks, saying it was the least he could do for the family of a good friend,’ says Rolan. Extraordinarily, Bowie and the grown-up Rolan have never met. ‘But I’m hoping to visit him soon in New York to tell him how very, very indebted me and my mother are,’ he adds.

Bowie was inspired to create the character of Ziggy Stardust from Bolan's public persona. He also mentions T. Rex in one of his masterpieces, All The Young Dudes. The line goes "Oh man I need TV when I got T. Rex":