It was in the early hours of September 16, 1977, when Marc Bolan died. He was a passenger in the car driven by his girlfriend, American singer/songwriter Gloria Jones, when she lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a tree on Queen’s Ride, Barnes, London.
Flowers, written messages and mementos left by grieving fans quickly transformed the accident site into a shrine. It remains a place of pilgrimage to this day and is now adorned with a superb sculpture of Marc created by the Canadian artist Jean Robillard.
Marc has been credited as the founding father of British glam-rock. It came about quite conservatively with just two spots of glitter beneath his eyes during a March, 1971, appearance on BBC Television’s Top of the Pops.
The singer, guitarist, songwriter and founder member of T. Rex, Marc and his band were performing Hot Love, their second smash hit single and first UK chart-topper.
Their debut single, Ride a White Swan, is often wrongly thought to have marked the birth of glam-rock. After being released in October, 1970, the song eventually reached number two on the UK chart in January, 1971.
These were the first two of eight successive T. Rex singles, which peaked at number one or number two in Britain. Their next two singles reached numbers three and four respectively.
All ten songs are included among the 24 tracks on Gold, the newly released T. Rex compilation album which has entered the UK chart at number eight.
The album also includes a pair of tracks from Marc’s earlier incarnation as Tyrannosaurus Rex. A duo with percussionist Steve Peregrine Took, their songs were basically acoustic folk with an eastern influence.
Debora and One Inch Rock, their two singles from 1968 which feature on Gold, reached numbers 34 and 28 on the UK chart. They were re-released as a double A-side single in 1972 to cash in on the popularity of T. Rex and peaked at number seven.
Fans of Tyrannosaurus Rex accused Marc of selling out when his acoustic folk output developed into electric glam-rock. But while 1971’s Electric Warrior is acknowledged as the first glam-rock album, there had already been a change of musical emphasis on 1970’s T. Rex, the album which marked their new name.
By this time, Mickey Finn had replaced Steve Peregrine Took on percussion. Freed from Peregrine Took’s reluctance to move away from acoustic folk, Marc created an album of songs which were far more rock influenced.
The T. Rex album even included two electronic re-workings of old Tyrannosaurus Rex songs. It was effectively a transitional bridge between the acoustic folk of the four Tyrannosaurus Rex albums and the glam-rock sounds of Electric Warrior.
Marc was unapologetic about his change of style. He fully appreciated that some Tyrannosaurus Rex fans would feel disappointed or even let down. But he regarded the creation of glam-rock as nothing more than a musical progression.
While T. Rex remained popular until Marc’s death, they never recaptured the remarkable run of smash hit singles and albums which the band had enjoyed during their first two and a half years. The classic Electric Warrior line-up of Marc, Mickey Finn, Steve Currie and Bill Legend gradually fell apart. The band’s final concert tour saw Marc backed by a group of session musicians.
Marc was also branching out into other areas of the entertainment business. He was writing a weekly column for the British music magazine, Record Mirror, and hosted a series of late-afternoon television shows called Marc.
These programmes featured new and established bands with Marc also performing some of his own songs. Perhaps the most memorable guest was David Bowie. He performed Heroes, which had not been released at that time. It was issued one week after Marc died.
Had Gloria Jones retained control of the car, September 30 would have seen Marc celebrate his 71st birthday. We can only speculate as to what might have become of him. He could have disappeared from the world of entertainment as so many other hugely popular artistes have done. But perhaps he would have kept reinventing himself as a performer in the manner of someone such as Sir Rod Stewart.
Whatever may have happened, the chart success of Gold clearly shows that Marc has not been forgotten. His musical legacy remains intact with the songs ready and waiting to be enjoyed by a new generation of T. Rex fans.
LEGEND: Marc Bolan, who died in 1977, has been credited as the founding father of British glam-rock.
