THE SOUND OF MUSIC HAPPENING THING: MARC BOLAN.
It was forty years ago today. Marc Bolan was one of the greatest pop stars the world ever produced and although his light only shone briefly, his legacy and influence will live on forever. Marc ascended to the very apex of what pop was all about, almost overnight. In the first half of the seventies, he reigned supreme, invented glam, tore up the rule book and started again.
He acted like a child catcher for all the wayward boys and girls who seemed to have nowhere to go and nobody to look up to. If David Bowie offered you a trip into his plastic version of space, Marc kept his feet formly in a cryptic terra firma, using psychedelic psychobabble and astonishing wordplay to send his music via a less direct current. Marc’s music had somewhere to go and people to see, it came to define the very early part of the seventies. A colour afflicted free for all, rooted in fifties rock ‘n’ roll but comtemporised and given a whole new look via his genius producer Tony Visconti. The rabble couldn’t keep up, Marc exploded into the public consciousness, his version of the way it is was in every teen mag on the stand, he was everywhere. All this new pop star malarkey would have been nothing at all had there not been the music to back it up. When T.Rex finally hit with rRde A White Swan in early 1971, it was as though the world had been waiting for it to happen. Bolan had arrived and the UK friggin’ knew it.
When his contract with Fly expired, EMI gave him his own label, the T.Rex Wax Co, such was his importance as an artist. And once he’s rolled his sleeves up and got down to the messy business of being creative, there was no stopping him. In 1972 – their peak year- they had four top five singles, including two Number Ones, a top five lp and the concert movie Born To Boogie, directed by Ringo Starr, under their ever expanding belt. But clearly there are limits and restrictions to being a teen idol. Marc wanted his music played to a larger, more mature audience, Tanx , the fourth T.Rex LP released in 1973, saw him spread out, test the water and try and take his band somewhere else into alien country. And from here on in, that decision would bring about ever dwindling commercial success album wise. Whilst Marc made the best music of his life, the music was utterly incredible and a major diversion from earlier works. Unlike David Bowie, whose audience seemed to go wherever he felt fit, Marc’s teen fans, whilst not exclusively, stayed in the glam canon, turning their attention to other acts like The Sweet and Gary Glitter. Even today the Lp’s he made after The Slider are fairly unknown quantities, they are not as well known and lauded as Bowie’s or Roxy Music’s records. They are treated like afterthoughts to an incendiary, overnight success.
Dandy In The Underworld was his last LP. It describes Marc perfectly, for that is exactly what he was at that moment. It’s one of his best records and an absolute shame that it is so uinknown. Marc was on the cusp of a ‘comeback’ in the summer of 1977, following his championing of punk on his TV show and in the press. He was one of the very few older musicians who seemed to understand and appreciate exactly what the spiky youngsters were trying to say and do. But of course, there really was no future for Marc. He would been 30 years old at the end of September 77, but on the night of the 16th he was killed in a car crash on Barnes Common, just as his second wind was being whipped up.
Marc Bolan was one of the most creative, influential, fucking incredible musicians we have ever witnessed and i doubt we’ll see his likes again any time soon. Our lives would be radically different without his intervention. Thanks, Marc. Top geezer. Love from the future. Born To Boogie.
Originally Written To Mark The 40th Anniversary Of Marc’s Passing.
VIVA MARC BOLAN! 30.09.47-16.09.77. X
bernie@happening-things.com 