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T. Rex (originally known as Tyrannosaurus Rex, also occasionally spelt T Rex or T-Rex), was a English rock band fronted by Marc Bolan. It was founded in 1960s London and found success as a 1970s glam rock group.
Formation
The band was founded by Marc Bolan in 1967 and performed just once as a five-piece rock band, at The Roundhouse, before immediately breaking up in disarray. Bolan retained the services of percussionist Steve "Peregrin" Took and the duo began producing eccentric, pastoral, and folk-tinged ditties steeped in Tolkienian mythology, with spiritual homages to Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran thrown into the mix for good measure.
The combination of Bolan's acoustic guitar and cat-like wail with Steve Took's bongos and assorted percussion, which often included children's instruments such as the Pixiephone, gained them a devoted following on a thriving underground scene that included the Incredible String Band. Disc jockey John Peel befriended the band and ferried them to and from gigs in his Mini. Peel later appeared on record with them, reading stories written by Bolan. Another key collaborator was producer Tony Visconti, who went on to produce the band's albums well into their second phase.
Tyrannosaurus Rex
By 1969 there was a clear rift between the two halves of Tyrannosaurus Rex. Bolan and his girlfriend June Child (ex-girlfriend of Syd Barrett) were living a quiet life, while Took had fully embraced the anti-commercial/community spirited/drug-taking ethos of the UK Underground scene centered around Ladbroke Grove. Took was also attracted to the most anarchistic elements, such as Mick Farren/Deviants and members of the Pink Fairies Rock 'n' Roll and Drinking Club.
By now Took was writing his own songs and wanted the duo to perform them, but Bolan firmly refused. Took contributed his talents and two songs, including "The Sparrow Is A Sign," to Twink's Think Pink album, which Bolan probably also did not approve of.
Bolan's relationship with Took ended after Unicorn, although they were contractually obliged to go through with a US tour which was doomed before it began. Poorly promoted and planned, the tour saw the acoustic duo senselessly billed alongside loud electric acts. Took commented that the audience often did not even notice they had started their set, and he would sometimes strip to the waist and whip himself in Iggy Pop manner.
As soon as he returned to the United Kingdom, Bolan replaced Took with bongo player Mickey Finn, who would remain with Bolan until 1975. They made A Beard of Stars, the final album under the name Tyrannosaurus Rex. Unlike Took, Finn had no song writing aspirations. Finn was also more eccentric and fun than Took, and famously owned a large powerful motorcycle that impressed Bolan so much that he chose him as Took's replacement.
As well as progressively shorter titles, the albums began to show higher production values, more accessible song writing from Bolan, and experimentation with electric guitars and a rock sound. The breakthrough was in "King of the Rumbling Spires," (recorded with Steve Took) which used a full rock band. This era also saw the publication of The Warlock of Love, a book of Bolan's poetry; derided by critics, it nevertheless became the best-selling poetry book of its time.
T. Rex
The next album, titled simply T. Rex, continued the process of simplification by shortening the name, and completed the move to electric guitars. (Legend has it that Tony Visconti got fed up with writing the name out in full on studio chitties and tapes and began to abbreviate it. When Bolan first noticed he was supposedly furious, but later claimed the idea was his.) The sound was altogether "peppier," and the first single, "Ride a White Swan," reached number two in the UK chart in late 1970.
"Ride a White Swan" was quickly followed by a second single, "Hot Love", which reached number one on the UK charts, and stayed there for six weeks (the longest stay of any number one single in 1971). A full band was hastily formed and began to tour to increasing audiences, with teenage girls (teeny boppers) replacing the hippies of old. Chelita Secunda (wife of Tony Secunda, manager of The Move, and for a brief period, T. Rex) added two spots of glitter under Bolan's eyes before an appearance on Top of the Pops, controversially viewed as the official birth of glam rock. (Some attribute its beginnings to Alice Cooper, who would dress in torn women's clothing as part of his stage act.) After Bolan's glittery display, however, glam rock would sweep the United Kingdom and many parts of Europe during 1971/1972, producing acts of varying worth.
The move to electric guitars also gave Bolan a new, more sexual lyrical style and image, which outraged some of his older hippie fans, who called him a "sell-out". Some of the lyrical virtues of Tyrannosaurus Rex remained, but the rambles about wizards and magic were interspliced with moans and innuendo. The new image was to influence more sexually explicit performers of the 1980s, such as Prince. (Ironically, at the time, some people were concerned over the lyrical content of some T. Rex songs, notably "Baby Strange" on The Slider album (containing the lines "I wanna ball ya", "I wanna get you in bed", and "don't lay me Baby Strange"), saying they promoted lewd sexuality to pre-teen girls.)
The second T. Rex album, Electric Warrior, released in September 1971, added bassist Steve Currie and drummer Bill Legend. Considered by many to be their best album, it brought great success to the group. Publicist BP Fallon coined the term "T. Rextasy" as a parallel to Beatlemania: it accurately described the atmosphere that quickly surrounded the band. A couple of years of regular chart success followed, with hit singles such as "Metal Guru" and "Telegram Sam" pouring off what came to resemble a production line.
Electric Warrior produced T. Rex's best-known song, titled (in the UK) "Get It On," which hit number one on the British charts. In January 1972 it became a Top Ten hit in the US, where the song was retitled "Bang a Gong (Get it On)" to distinguish it from a song with the same name by the group Chase, also released in 1971. "Get it On" and Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll" were two of the few British glam rock songs that had success in the US.
Electric Warrior was the band's last album with Fly Records, whom Bolan left after they released the album track "Jeepster" without his permission. Bolan went to EMI, who gave him his own record label in the UK, T. Rex, colliqually known to fans as the "T. Rex Wax Co.", after a compilation album of all his EMI singles of the same name.
On March 18, 1972, T. Rex played two shows at the Empire Pool, Wembley, which were filmed by Ringo Starr and his film crew for Apple Films. A large part of the second show was used on Marc Bolan's own rock film Born to Boogie, while bits and pieces of the first show can be seen throughout the credits at the end of the film. Along with Marc Bolan & T. Rex and Ringo Starr, Born to Boogie also featured Elton John, who jammed with the friends to create rockin' studio versions of "Children of the Revolution" and "Tutti Frutti"; Elton John had appeared on TV with Bolan before, playing (miming, actually) the piano part to "Get it On" on the 1971 Christmas edition of "Top of The Pops".
Born to Boogie was premiered at the Oscar One cinema in London, in December 1972, with Bolan, Ringo Starr, and Elton John in attendance. The film received negative reviews from critics, while it was loved by fans. Recently, the song "The Slider," from the album of the same name, was featured in a Coca-Cola commercial.
Disintegration, recovery and death
Original members of the band began to leave in 1974, the first being Bill Legend, alienated by Bolan's increasingly egotistical behaviour, which was fed by success, money, cocaine, and brandy. Bolan and his wife/manager June divorced and he began a relationship with Gloria Jones, a session singer, on the band's second major US tour. Jones had achieved fame in the US for the 1964 recording "Tainted Love," written by Ed Cobb of the Four Preps. In the early 1980s, the UK group Soft Cell gained notoriety with their cover of this song.
Bolan left producer Tony Visconti in early 1974, after the album Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow failed to become a major hit. From the 1975 Bolan's Zip Gun album onwards, Bolan produced his own material in addition to writing his own songs. Needless to say, the Bolan productions were not very well recieved in the music press (Rolling Stone magazine gave Zinc Alloy and all further studio albums one star out of five).
Jones became Bolan's backing singer, lover, and the mother of his only child, Rolan, who was born in 1975. Finn left in the band in early 1975. Always a fantasist with a Napoleon complex, Bolan grew increasingly isolated from the "real world," and high UK tax rates drove him into exile in Monte Carlo and the US. No longer a vegetarian, he grew heavy on a diet of hamburgers and alcohol, and was ridiculed in the music press.
By 1977, much of Bolan's wealth had gone, but he had managed to lose some weight and get his career back on track. His last album, Dandy in the Underworld, made the UK top 30, with final singles "New York City" and "I Love to Boogie" restoring him to the UK singles top twenty. A spring UK tour with The Damned as supporters garnered positive reviews. In Autumn 1977 Bolan hosted his own ITV show, Marc. Bolan was a crusader for punk rock, which led him to invite many punk artists to appear on his TV show. Interested in bridging the gap between the rock and roll of the early seventies with the current younger generation's punk scene, the format was to allow Bolan to play his own music, both old and new, as well as to introduce and interview upcoming bands, who included The Jam, Generation X, The Rods, and Boomtown Rats.
On the final episode of Marc, a long-awaited performance with his old friend David Bowie was scheduled. At the end of the show, Marc proceeded to trip and fall off of the stage, receiving a smirk from Bowie, and the credits abruptly rolled. This would be Marc's final public appearance and his symbolic "fall from grace," for he would pass away less than a week later.
As Bolan was enjoying a newfound surge in popularity, he talked about performing again with original partners Finn and Took. Unfortunately, after dining at a restaurant, a few minutes before 5 a.m. on September 16, 1977, he was killed when his car, driven by his girlfriend Gloria Jones, hit a tree in Barnes, South West London, less than a mile from his home in Richmond. He died two weeks before his 30th birthday. Ironically, Marc never learned to drive a car, and was known to fear them for he had visions all his life of dying in an automobile. Gloria Jones survived the crash, and shortly afterward she returned to her native America with Rolan.
Many of the band's greatest hits songs are recorded on the soundtrack for the movie Billy Elliot, about a boy dancer.
Influence
The band had an undeniable influence on punk rock and Britpop, while many modern indie bands play music heavily influenced by the glam scene, especially T. Rex. The early acoustic material was influential in helping to bring about progressive rock and 21st century folk music-influenced singers. Cover songs have been recorded by many groups, notably Power Station's hit 1985 take on "Get It On," Iggy Pop's version of "20th Century Boy, and Bauhaus' cover of "Telegram Sam." The Smiths have actually claimed to have borrowed heavily from portions of "Metal Guru" for their 1986 hit "Panic."
Later hard rock groups such as AC/DC were influenced not only by the music of T. Rex, but also by the outrageously sexual lyrics of "Get It On", "Baby Strange," and other songs.
Discography
(Numbers listed after the titles are highest UK chart positions.)
Albums
- As Tyrannosaurus Rex
- 1968 – My People Were Fair and Had Sky in Their Hair... But Now They're Content to Wear Stars on Their Brows #15
- 1968 – Prophets, Seers & Sages – The Angels of the Ages
- 1969 – Unicorn #12
- 1970 – A Beard of Stars #21
- As T. Rex
- 1970 – T. Rex #13
- 1971 – The Best Of T. Rex #21 – compilation of Tyrannosaurus Rex material only
- 1971 – Electric Warrior #1
- 1972 – Bolan Boogie #1 – compilation
- 1972 – The Slider #4
- 1973 – Tanx #4
- 1973 – Great Hits #32
- 1974 – Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow #12
- 1974 – Light of Love – released in North America only
- 1975 – Bolan's Zip Gun
- 1976 – Futuristic Dragon #50
- 1977 – Dandy in the Underworld #26
Singles
- Tyrannosaurus Rex
- 1968 – "Debora" / "Child Star" #34
- 1968 – "One Inch Rock" / "Salamanda Palaganda" #28
- 1969 – "Pewter Suitor" / "Warlord of the Royal Crocodiles"
- 1969 – "King of the Rumbling Spires" / "Do You Remember?" #44
- 1970 – "By the Light of a Magical Moon" / "Find a Little Wood"
- T. Rex
- 1970 – "Ride a White Swan" / "Is It Love" / "Summertime Blues" #2
- 1971 – "Hot Love" / "Woodland Rock" / "King of the Mountain Cometh" #1
- 1971 – "Get It On" / "There Was a Time" / "Raw Ramp" #1
- 1971 – "Jeepster" / "Life's a Gas" #2
- 1972 – "Telegram Sam" / "Cadillac" / "Baby Strange" #1
- 1972 – "Metal Guru" / "Thunderwing" / "Lady" #1
- 1972 – "Children of the Revolution" / "Jitterbug Love" / "Sunken Rags" #2
- 1972 – "Solid Gold Easy Action" / "Born to Boogie" #2
- 1972 – "T. Rex Christmas Record" (flexidisc free to Fan Club members)
- 1973 – "20th Century Boy" / "Free Angel" #3
- 1973 – "The Groover" / "Midnight" #4
- 1973 – "Truck On (Tyke)" / "Sitting Here" #12
- 1974 – "Teenage Dream" / "Satisfaction Pony" #13
- 1974 – "Light of Love" / "Explosive Mouth" #22
- 1974 – "Zip Gun Boogie" / "Space Boss" #41
- 1975 – "New York City" / "Chrome Sitar" #15
- 1975 – "Dreamy Lady" / "Do You Wanna Dance" / "Dock of the Bay" #30
- 1976 – "London Boys" / "Solid Baby" #40
- 1976 – "I Love to Boogie" / "Baby Boomerang" #13
- 1976 – "Laser Love" / "Life's an Elevator" #41
- 1977 – "The Soul of My Suit" / "All Alone" #42
- 1977 – "Dandy in the Underworld" / "Groove a Little" / "Tame My Tiger"
- 1977 – "Celebrate Summer" / "Ride My Wheels"
Notable posthumous releases include the reissue of the expanded The Beginning of Doves (originally released on Track Records in 1974) in 2002, a collection of early songs and demos recorded in between John's Children and Tyrannosaurus Rex, and The Children of Rarn, demos for the sub-Tolkien concept album that Bolan and Visconti had been talking about for years as the project that would re-establish Bolan as a creative force.
Singles from other projects
- Solo
- 1965 – "The Wizard" / "Beyond the Rising Sun"
- 1966 – "The Third Degree" / "San Francisco Poet"
- 1966 – "Hippy Gumbo" / "Misfit"
- 1967 – "Desdemona" / "Remember Thomas A Becket"
- 1967 – "Sara Crazy Child" / "Come Play With Me"
- 1967 – "Midsummer Night's Scene" / "Sara Crazy Child"
- Dib Cochran & The Earwigs
- 1970 – "Oh Baby" / "Universal Love"
- 1973 – "Blackjack" / "Squint Eye Mangle"
Member History
| Tyrannosaurus Rex (1967 - 1969) | |
|---|---|
"T. Rex (band)"