T. Rex

These past few weeks I've been listening to the greatest hits of T. Rex, which basically means I've been listening to Marc Bolan, who was the single constant member of the group, which formed in 1967 and existed until Bolan's death in 1977.

Today they are associated with the "glam rock" period, along with David Bowie. Their first producer, Tony Visconti, also was Bowie's producer, and the similarities are strong, especially in the presentation, as Bolan favored top hats and feather boas.

T. Rex had a string of hits during the '70s, most notably Get It On, which featured that fuzzy guitar and androgynous vocals, and 20th Century Boy, which was like many of Bowie's songs--a young man trying to find his place in the time he lives.

My favorite of their hits is Jeepster, which has an irresistible bass line and an irresistible pet name for a girl. What girl wouldn't like to hear "Girl I'm just a Jeepster for your love?" It would be the perfect wedding song for a glam couple.

The collection I have is two discs, so there's a lot of stuff on here I'd never heard of, and a lot of stuff I suspect were not really hits. Bolan was a fanciful lyricist, with titles like "Ride a White Swan," "King of the Rumbling Spires," "By the Light of the Magical Moon," "King of the Mountain Cometh," and "Dandy in the Underworld." He also wrote about the young and being young, in such songs as Children of the Revolution:

"Well you can bump and grind
If it's good for your mind
Well you can twist and shout
Let it all hang out
But you won't fool the children of the revolution."

Or the soaring Teenage Dream:

"The Wizard of Oz and the bronzen thief
Ruled my girl with Teutonic teeth
But all was lost when her teeth turned green
Whatever happened to the teenage dream?"

I think their most heartfelt song is Cosmic Dancer, which I first heard as the opening credits song for Billy Elliot, which was most appropriate:

"I danced myself out of the womb
Is it strange to dance so soon?
I danced myself into the tomb"

In the early '70s T. Rex were very big, attracting a post-hippie audience, and working with collaborators such as Elton John and Ringo Starr. But a subsequent album was heavily criticized for ripping off Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, as Bolan sang as an alter-ego of himself. He withdrew from public life, getting fat and drunk, and in 1977 was killed in a car accident just shy of his 30th birthday.

Today T. Rex is mostly remembered by other musicians. They and Bolan have received shout-outs in songs like The Who's "You Better You Bet" ("and I drunk myself blind to sound of old T. Rex") and Bowie's song for Mott the Hoople, "All the Young Dudes." They heavily influenced groups like The Smiths and even as late as the '90s Oasis was paying homage with a lick lifted from "Get It On."

Listening to T. Rex is like going back in time, as no one is making music like that today. It's joyous and silly and at times quite moving. Marc Bolan is another rock and roll tragedy, but at least he lived long enough to make some great songs.