marc bolan defends bob dylan

Back before he became famous, Marc Bolan defended Bob Dylan's 'Self Portrait' album in the pages of Melody Maker.

Here's the lyrics to the song Belle Isle that Bolan was on about (Bob based it on a traditional song)

As there's no video for that, here's one of my favourite Dylan songs, the live version of 'Hurricane'

To demonstrate how unknown Bolan when the letter was printed (Self Portrait was released June 8th 1970), they even printed his home address. How times were to suddenly change.
Bolan had been about for a few years on the underground scene, but in October 1970 T.Rex released this little beauty and his life was never the same.

Ride a White Swan - from 'Beat Club' German TV



And here's some more Bolan  - at the time, the biggest star since The Beatles.









And lastly, one that made me cry playing it after he died - one of his last songs - 'Soul of my Suit'
I loved him



toodle pip

marc bolan, t.rextacy and boy george - beltane walk

Any excuse for a bit of Marc Bolan and T.Rex around these parts, and as today is Beltane, let's add in some T.Rextasy and Boy George from the 35th Bolan anniversary bash at Shepherds Bush.





And if Bolan had lived....

Can't remember the guys name, but he was at a Bolan convention in Bradford a few years ago.
A fine old time was had by all.

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marc bolan won't kiss you if you smoke

That's you womenfolk told!

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t.rex - electric warrior

My love for Marc Bolan and T.Rex  has not waned over the years, and l was listening to Electric Warrior for the trillionth time earlier on. Still one of my favourite albums (only 39 minutes long!), and the sleeve still looks fantastic and iconic, but a it's a bit disconcerting that it was released over 40 years ago. Where the Hell does the time go?

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ban the bomb with marc bolan

This is the 1965 Ban the Bomb march in London. Who is that dapper young gentleman on the front left, who has managed to get himself alongside the stars of the march? Why, it's only young Mark Feld, later to become the glam rock god that was Marc Bolan. He always had a flair for publicity, and didn't mind attaching himself to movements if it could benefit him. I just wonder what record he had in his bag (probably Bob Dylan).

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elvis and bolan

Elvis died in August 1977 and the same as now with Michael Jackson, people went out and bought Elvis albums and put them back in the charts, even though Elvis had been a joke just before his death.

The above is from a Sept 10th 1977 (my birthday!) copy of Record Mirror. Just look at those charts. Punk was just catching on, but there was a lot of Elvis because he had just died, and elsewhere, a load of crap. Christ, times were hard back in the day.

There is also Marc Bolan's thoughts on his death, from his weekly column in the same paper. Sadly, Bolan would die six days later, hitting that bastard tree in Barnes on 16th Sept (just before his 30th birthday).

Although The Marc Bolan show on TV at the time was embarrassing as far as Bolan's versions of his songs went, he had some great guests and and was looking good again, so at least he left a pretty corpse (if you ignore the damage from the crash).

The last show went out the week after his death, and the very last song was a duet with his old mucker David Bowie. Sadly, Bolan fell off the stage as they started and they could not do another take as the technicians were on a work to rule/strike at the time. The show also highlighted Bolan and Bowies different standings at the time. Bowie had come over and did a version of his new single 'Heroes' which he sang live and was fantastic. Bolan's stuff on the show was nowhere near as good. Plus when Bolan played his old songs, they were crappy versions of them. He had assembled a band that was full of great session players like Herbie Flowers, but they dressed really badly, looked like session players, and it lacked any soul or emotion. About the only decent thing they did was 'Soul of my Suit' which had extra emotional attachment to it once Bolan had died (lyrics include "l'm not such a bad boy").

In a way though, l am glad Bolan went when he was young, as he would probably have ended up like Quentin Crisp (although thinking about it, that's not too bad). Maybe l will end up like dear old Quentin myself, l'm halfway there already.

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