Here's another trippy moment featuring a young Marc Bolan on guitar and backing-vocals: Desdemona by John's Children. Released in 1967, it was banned by BBC radio, I believe.

Great guy. Great music.
Look at the girls dancing in TOTP!

Quote
Big Al
Terrific post, Edward. Personally, it's his pop sensibilities that appeal to me the most. I particularly enjoy the instant satisfaction felt with tracks like Get It On and 20th Century Boy. They're boisterous, clap-a-long, feel-good smashes. It's radio-friendly pop at it's very best. Formulaic some of it may be, but it's dam god fun. Some of his music is rather clever, too, though. Listen to his first single, The Wizard, issued originally in 1965. Yes, like Bowie, he too was a 60's leftover!

Yes, right Al, i agree. The singles were consistently great - the pop sensibilities and all, but on the albums, many of those album tracks are a little too formulaic, and lack distinction.

I never tire of listening to 'Teenage Dream', though.







Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-09-21 00:07 by Edward Twining.

Teenage Dream is great. It's a shame that his top-10 run on the U.K. Singles chart ended with The Grover. I guess the interest was beginning to wane a little.

Quote
Big Al
Teenage Dream is great. It's a shame that his top-10 run on the U.K. Singles chart ended with The Grover. I guess the interest was beginning to wane a little.

Yes, i think also he began to lose his teenybop appeal, as he began to seem a little less clean cut, musically, possibly, as well as personally (maybe even becoming a touch too arrogant - the fame went to his head), and he subsequently piled on the weight, through a diet of overating, alcohol and drugs. He began to become much less fanciable. There are few of his singles i dislike, but 'Truck On Tyke' was perhaps the first time the mediocrity of some of his album tracks, starting leaking onto singles. What i love about his live appearances is he really could rock. I love his studio recordings for their more sophisticated sound, including the strings and backing vocalists, he was a master of making great sounding radio singles (alongside his producer in those early years, Tony Visconti), yet stripped of the studio productions, another aspect of Marc's immense talent emerged, once he hit the stage. He was a fabulous guitar player, as well as a unique singer, within his wonderfully magnetic persona.

Quote
Big Al
Here's another trippy moment featuring a young Marc Bolan on guitar and backing-vocals: Desdemona by John's Children. Released in 1967, it was banned by BBC radio, I believe.

I was going to say I remembered John Peel playing it constantly (and it was shameful the way Bolan treated him in the end), but of course that was later, when he re-recorded it with Tyrannosaurus Rex. I believe the Beeb did have a problem with the "lift up your skirt and fly" line, which they presumably got over!

Quote
Big Al
Yes, like Bowie, he too was a 60's leftover!

Bowie was great, without a doubt, but sometimes i feel the greatness and longevity of Bowie's career, is rather more calculated and contrived. He's almost approaches the art of music, in a rather detached and clinical way, almost like a college professor would dissect a thesis, in an attempt to gather together all the relative components. That, in a sense, is Bowie's genius, as he has always been open to what's happening around him, and rightfully, in the seventies especially, he became the chameleon of rock. But i think also it did make him appear rather pretentious, and distant at times, too, as if there was an enormous distance between his inner self and what he was projecting. Bolan's problem, once he had made it big, is he had little foresight into where next to take his art, and especially after THE SLIDER, he got stuck in a rut, and kept repeating himself. He arguably had as much natural talent as Bowie, but Bowie had an inward intelligence, and a shrewd brain when it came to planning his next move.

Bolan, really, unlike Bowie, was always primarily a true rock 'n' roller, and in his heart, i think he felt the essence of music was very much in the simplicity of those late 50s/early 60s rock 'n roll recordings. Bolan went through his hippy mystical period it's true, but i get the feeling he was never more happy than when he was plugging in his electric guitar. I think you can really feel the love he had for what he was playing when you listen to him in his prime. That, added to his unique lyrics, and poetry, was what Bolan was all about. Bolan was never really one for hiding behind masks, etc. He was pretty raw.






Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 2013-09-21 11:43 by Edward Twining.

I like this episode.

One day Tony Visconti, David Bowie and Marc Bolan talked each other and decided to bestow their son a rhyming name.

The result is the following:
Monti Visconti
Zowie Bowie
Rolan Bolan

Grew up rockin' to Bolan & T-Rex. Loved Bang a Gong.

It was called Get It On in the UK, apparently this was considered too racy for American audiences. I loved it too.

Mick Jagger ... Roy Carr ...... NME 27 May 12972



ROCKMAN

Thanks for this Rockee...And I now apologize for thinking that you're were just sitting around doing nothing!

....heck no I prefer sitting around not doing anything.....hehehaa



ROCKMAN

Quote
Aquamarine
It was called Get It On in the UK, apparently this was considered too racy for American audiences. I loved it too.

It was re-titled for the US market because there had already been a record called "Get It On" by a band called Chase.
[www.45cat.com]


"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"

I like him very talented tho have nothing by him.

Quote
Deltics

Quote
Aquamarine
It was called Get It On in the UK, apparently this was considered too racy for American audiences. I loved it too.

It was re-titled for the US market because there had already been a record called "Get It On" by a band called Chase.
[www.45cat.com]

I believe you, but as that's not what was being said at the time, there must have been a desire for a little "controversial" publicity there.

I find his music to be fun, some of it sounds ace, but ultimately it's all quite shallow.