Everything about T Rex Band totally explained
T.Rex (occasionally spelt
T Rex or
T-Rex) were an
English rock band fronted by guitarist and singer
Marc Bolan. The band were established as a
folk rock group in 1960s
London, as
Tyrannosaurus Rex and released their debut album in 1968
My People Were Fair and Had Sky in Their Hair... But Now They're Content to Wear Stars on Their Brows which reached number 15 on the UK chart. They achieved mainstream success in the 1970s as a
glam rock group with hits such as "
Hot Love", "
Get It On", "
Telegram Sam" and "
Metal Guru".
History
Formation
T.Rex were founded by
Marc Bolan in August 1967. The group performed just once as a four-piece outfit, at the Electric Garden in
Covent Garden,
London, before immediately breaking up in disarray. Bolan retained the services of percussionist
Steve Peregrin Took and the duo began producing eccentric, pastoral,
folk-tinged ditties steeped in
Tolkienian mythology, with spiritual homages to the music of
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. British
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, "glam rock", phase.
Acoustic duo era
By 1968, the act had become a modest success on radio and on record, and had released three albums. Whilst Bolan's early material was
rock and roll influenced
folk, he was now writing dramatic and
Baroque songs with lush melodies and surreal lyrics filled with
Greek and
Persian mythology as well as creations of his own. The band became regulars on
Peel Sessions on
BBC radio, and toured Britain's student union halls alongside Guero Caballero of
The Lothringers. The group, however, received bad press from journalists and critics, who were annoyed at the overexposure they were getting on Peel's radio shows.
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 didn't 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 billed alongside loud electric acts, so the gentle acoustic duo was often overshadowed, and to counter this, Took introduced his own solution, drawn from the shock-rocker style of Iggy Pop as Took explained: "I took my shirt off in the Sunset Strip where we were playing and whipped myself til everybody shut up. With a belt, y'know, a bit of blood and the whole of Los Angeles shuts up. 'What's going on, man, there's some nutter attacking himself on stage' I mean, Iggy Stooge had the same basic approach.".
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 and Tony Visconti commented he wasn't so talented as Took, "Mickey wasn't as inventive as Steve. Mickey's backing vocals weren't strong, so Marc would double-track them with his own voice for reinforcement".
Early glam
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 true 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.
The next album, titled simply
T.Rex, continued the process of simplification by shortening the name, and completed the move to electric guitars.
Tony Visconti supposedly 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 angry but later claimed the idea was his. The sound was more pop-oriented, and the first single, "
Ride a White Swan", reached #2 in the UK chart in late 1970. In early 1971,
T. Rex reached the Top 20 of the UK album charts, though the single wasn't actually included on the album.
"Ride a White Swan" was quickly followed by a second single, "
Hot Love", which reached #1 in the UK charts, and remained there for six weeks (the longest stay of any #1 single in 1971). A full band, containing
bass (
Steve Currie) and
drums (
Bill Legend) was formed to tour to growing audiences, with
teenagers mostly 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, however Tyrannosaurus Rex's first album appeared before Cooper's and Bolan was known to wear women's clothing before "glam" officially arrived). After Bolan's display, however, glam rock would sweep the United Kingdom and many parts of
Europe during 1971/1972.
The move to electric guitars coincided with Bolan's more overtly sexual lyrical style and image, which outraged some of his older hippie fans, who called him a "
sell-out". Some of the lyrical content of Tyrannosaurus Rex remained, but the fairytales about wizards and magic were now interspersed with sensuous grooves, replete with orgiastic moans and innuendo. The new image and lyrical content was to influence more sexually explicit performers of the 1980s, such as
Prince. "Baby Strange" on
The Slider album contained lines like "I wanna
ball ya", "In winds of passion my whip is lashin'", and "don't lay me, Baby Strange".
Commercial success
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.
Electric Warrior included T. Rex's best-known song, titled (in the UK) "
Get It On," which hit #1 on the British charts, like the album from which it came. 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. Along with
Bowie's early hits, "Get It On" and
Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll" were among the few British glam rock songs that had success in the US. However, the album still recalled Bolan's roots as an acoustic troubadour with ballads like "Cosmic Dancer" and the stark "Girl".
Electric Warrior was the band's last album with
Fly Records, whom Bolan left when his contract lapsed and 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 Records, the "T. Rex Wax Co.".
On
March 18,
1972, T. Rex played two shows at the
Empire Pool, Wembley, which were filmed by
Ringo Starr and his crew for
Apple Films. A large part of the second show was included 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.
The third album under the name T. Rex,
The Slider was released in July 1972. It became the band's most successful album in the US, but wasn't as successful as Electric Warrior in the UK, only reaching #4. During spring/summer 1972 Bolan's old label Fly had released the #1 compilation album Bolan Boogie, a collection of A- and B-sides and LP tracks, which affected The Slider's sales. The two singles released from
The Slider, "Telegram Sam" and "Metal Guru" both flopped in the US, but became #1 hits in the UK.
Born to Boogie was premièred 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. The film was rereleased as an expanded two-DVD set, released by
Sanctuary Records in 2005. This included both concerts from Wembley (
18 March 1972) newly mixed into 5.1 surround-sound by Tony Visconti, and edited from the original remastered film negative.
Decline
The valedictory album
Tanx marked the end of the classic T.Rex line up. Original members of the band began to leave, the first being Bill Legend in November 1973, alienated by Bolan's increasingly egotistical behaviour, which was fed by success, money,
cocaine, and
brandy. Bolan and his wife/manager June split and he began a relationship with
Gloria Jones, a session singer and writer, 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 success with their cover of this song.
Bolan split with producer Tony Visconti in early 1974, after the album
Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow failed to become a major hit. The album harked back to Tyrannosaurus Rex with its long titles and lyrical complexity, but wasn't a critical success. From the 1975
Bolan's Zip Gun album onwards, Bolan produced his own material in addition to writing the songs, giving his music a harder, more futuristic sheen. The final song recorded with Visconti had been "Till Dawn", which was re-recorded for
Bolan's Zip Gun with the composer at the controls. Bolan's own productions were not well received in the music press,
Rolling Stone magazine giving
Zinc Alloy and all further studio albums one star out of five.
Jones became Bolan's backing singer, keyboard player, lover, and the mother of his only child, Rolan, who was born in September 1975. Mickey Finn left the band in December 1974. Always a fantasist with an alleged
Napoleon complex, Bolan became increasingly isolated, while 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.
In 1976 Bolan and T.Rex released their penultimate album,
Futuristic Dragon, which was better received, with a schizophrenic production style veering from
Wall of Sound style songs to nostalgic nods to the old T.Rex boogie machine, but still only managed to reach #50. The album featured the singles "New York City" (#15 in the summer of 1975) and "Dreamy Lady" (#30). To promote the album, Bolan performed on such programmes as
Top of the Pops,
Supersonic and
Get It Together, and also toured the UK.
Resurgence
In the summer of 1976, T.Rex released two more singles, "I Love to Boogie" (which charted At #13 and would appear his final album,
Dandy in the Underworld) and "Laser Love", which made #42. In early 1977
Dandy in the Underworld was released to critical acclaim. Bolan had now slimmed down and regained his elfin looks, and the songs too had a stripped-down, streamlined sound. "I Love to Boogie" would later feature in the 2000 film
Billy Elliot, along with several other T-Rex songs included on the soundtrack.
A spring UK tour with
The Damned as support act garnered positive reviews. In the late summer of 1977 Bolan hosted his own ITV show,
Marc. Bolan was a crusader for
punk rock, and invited many punk artists onto the show. Interested in bridging the gap between the
rock and roll of the early seventies with the younger generation's scene, the format was for Bolan to play his own music, both old and new, as well as to introduce upcoming bands, which included
The Jam,
Generation X,
Eddie & the Hot Rods, and
The Boomtown Rats.
As Bolan was enjoying a new surge in popularity, he talked about performing again with
Finn and
Took, as well as rejoining producer
Tony Visconti.
On the final episode of
Marc, recorded on
7 September 1977, a long-awaited performance with his old friend
David Bowie was scheduled. As they begin their duet at the show's finale, Bolan tripped and fell off the stage. Bowie smiled and the credits abruptly rolled. This was Bolan's final public appearance, for he'd die a week later.
Bolan's death
Bolan and Gloria Jones spent the evening of September 15, 1977, drinking at the Speakeasy and then dining at Morton's club on Berkeley Square, central London. While driving home early the morning of September 16, Jones crashed Bolan's purple Mini 1275GT into a tree (now the site of
Bolan's Rock Shrine), at
Barnes Bridge,
Barnes, South West
London -- less than a mile from his home at 142 Upper Richmond Road West in
Richmond. Bolan was killed in the crash. Gloria Jones was severely injured but survived, and soon left England for her native
America with Rolan.
Bolan died two weeks before his 30th birthday. Bolan had never learned to drive a car, and was known to fear them for he'd visions all his life of dying in a car crash (references to which appear in some of his lyrics, notably 1972's "
Solid Gold Easy Action").
In a radio interview with
Nicky Horne in 1973, Horne asked, "Where does Marc Bolan hope to be in five years time?" Bolan replied, "I hope to be alive still, that's all I can say". Bolan is reported to have told Gloria Jones he didn't expect to see 30 or his son's second birthday. However, it's also widely accepted he was planning to marry Jones in early 1978. A copy of the
NME found in Bolan's wrecked Mini car was open at an interview with
Pete Townshend, the headline on the interview reading, "Hope I Die Before I Get Old".
Mickey Finn's T.Rex
In 1997 Mickey Finn and
Paul Fenton, who had formerly played drums on many T.Rex albums, "reformed" T.Rex after performing together with Rolan on the twentieth anniversary of Marc Bolan's death. They took the name
Mickey Finn's T.Rex because Bolan was the leader of the original T.Rex. They are still around today even after Finn's death. They changed their name to
T. Rex (A Celebration of Marc and Mickey).
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.
Discography
(Numbers listed after the titles are highest UK chart positions.)
Albums
As Tyrannosaurus Rex
As T.Rex
Compilations
Singles
Tyrannosaurus Rex
| Title |
Release
Date |
Label |
UK Chart |
| "Debora" |
1968 |
A&M Records |
34 |
| "One Inch Rock" |
|
28 |
| "Pewter Suitor" |
1969 |
|
- |
| "King of the Rumbling Spires" |
|
44 |
| "By the Light of a Magical Moon" |
1970 |
|
- |
| "Debora" / "One Inch Rock" (re-issues) |
1972 |
|
7 |
T.Rex
| Title |
Release
Date |
Label |
Chart Position |
| UK |
IRE |
US |
CAN |
| "Ride a White Swan" |
1970 |
Fly (UK) / Reprise (US) |
2 |
11 |
76 |
48 |
| "Hot Love" |
1971 |
1 |
1 |
72 |
47 |
| "Get It On" |
1 |
1 |
10 |
12 |
| "Jeepster" |
Fly |
2 |
2 |
- |
73 |
| "Telegram Sam" |
1972 |
Fly / Reprise |
1 |
1 |
67 |
66 |
| "Metal Guru" |
EMI |
1 |
1 |
- |
45 |
| "Children of the Revolution" |
2 |
1 |
- |
- |
| "Solid Gold Easy Action" |
2 |
4 |
- |
- |
| "20th Century Boy" |
1973 |
3 |
1 |
- |
- |
| "The Groover" |
4 |
11 |
- |
- |
| "Truck On (Tyke)" |
12 |
- |
- |
- |
| "Teenage Dream" (as Marc Bolan and T.Rex) |
1974 |
Mercury |
13 |
- |
- |
- |
| "Light of Love" |
22 |
- |
- |
- |
| "Zip Gun Boogie" |
41 |
- |
- |
- |
| "New York City" |
1975 |
15 |
- |
- |
- |
| "Dreamy Lady" (as T.Rex Disco Party) |
30 |
- |
- |
- |
| "London Boys" |
1976 |
40 |
- |
- |
- |
| "I Love to Boogie" |
EDSEL |
13 |
- |
- |
- |
| "Laser Love" |
- |
41 |
- |
- |
- |
| "The Soul of My Suit" |
1977 |
EDSEL |
42 |
|
- |
- |
| "Dandy in the Underworld" |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| "Celebrate Summer" |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Member history
Further Information
Get more info on 'T Rex Band'.
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