Marc Bolan is best known as the frontman of T Rex. In the early 70s, he and the band led a musical
movement known as glam rock, which combined heavy hooks with extravagant displays of fashion. T Rex
would experience critical and commercial success in their native UK during this time and would
also prove extremely influential in America. By 1977, following a brief commercial decline,
the band were in the midst of a strong comeback, but Bolan would die in a serious car wreck at 29
years old. While the crash itself was undisputed, it turns out that the circumstances around the
crash contrasted with what was first reported. That’s what we’ll discuss in today’s video.
Bolan was born Mark Feld on September 30th, 1947, in the east London borough of Hackney,
to an English mother\ Ashkenazi Jewish father. Both parents came from a working-class background,
with his mother operating a food stall on Berwick Street Market at the time, while his father was
a truck driver. Although that meant that the family sometimes struggled to make ends meet,
Bolan nonetheless had a happy childhood with his older brother Harry. Harry would comment on the
time his brother’s larger-than-life presence took shape when he was five years old, recalling in
the documentary Marc Bolan, The Final Word, “He would adopt a frontman [persona] like
Clark Kent and Superman, and his first one was Mighty Joe Young. He was the big gorilla and
nobody could beat him. He [always had] a front, and ‘Marc Bolan’ was [one of them],” he’d say.
The family would relocate to Wimbledon, and it was at this point that Bolan was drawn to
music. By age 9, his mother bought him his first guitar, and after a few years of simple strumming,
he’d gradually become proficient by teaching himself how to play. According to Bolan,
the 1956 film The Girl Can’t Help It, would fuel his ambitions for becoming a rockstar. Realizing
that his instrument could supplement as a fashion accessory while he moved around, he’d take a cue
from some of his rock n’ roll heroes, saying, “I remember seeing Eddie Cochran. The way
he held his guitar, unmoved, looked good. Little Richard put his foot on the piano,
and I thought that was outrageous. I thought Elvis was the man, because he really used to
wiggle his bum…and that influenced me incredibly. I was impressed with the fact that he always
had a guitar [on him]. That, to me, was the ultimate showman thing, just sort of pushing
it behind his back and throwing it around.” By August 1965, the 18-year-old musician made
inroads in the music industry, signing a contract with Decca Records under the moniker Marc Bowland.
He’d then adopt a popular folk-rock sound similar to artists like Donovan and Bob Dylan,
and materialize it with the help of session musicians, but his first two singles, “The
Wizard'' and its follow-up in 1966, “The Third Degree,” failed to make any impact, which resulted
in him being dropped from the label. He had also been changing the stylization of his name several
times up to this point. In the book Marc Bolan: The Rise and Fall of a 20th Century Superstar,
it’s said that the earliest instance involved changing the ‘k’ in his birthname, Mark Feld,
to a ‘c’. As for how he’d eventually get to ‘Bolan’, the most common theory
is stated by his brother Harry, who’d recall, “Around this time, Mark was very friendly with
the actor James Bolam. They fell out shortly afterwards, and I had a feeling it’s because
Mark used his name as an inspiration.” Actor Riggs O’Hara agreed, adding,
“Mark just changed the ‘m’ to an ‘n’… [and] liked the sound of it. He couldn’t understand
why Jimmy was upset. He thought it was absolutely ridiculous that Jimmy thought he was going to be
as big as Mark was. Mark always knew that he was going to be famous,” O’Hara would say.
By late 1966, things would start to look up for Bolan, as he’d successfully convinced legendary
producer and manager Simon Napier-Bell to record him by himself with just his acoustic guitar.
Napier-Bell soon became Bolan’s manager, and using his contacts with the label EMI, allowed Bolan to
release another single, “Hippy Gumbo”. In March of 1967, following a successful performance of the
song on music show Ready, Steady, Go, Bolan proceeded to join the band John’s Children,
replacing lead guitarist Geoff Mclelland. John’s Children would release several more
singles with Bolan, and gain notoriety for their live performances, at one point getting kicked
off a German tour opening for the Who. By July of ’67, a final chaotic performance at the Electric
Garden in London would lead to their breakup. But Bolan was undeterred. Alongside John’s
Children drummer Steve Porter, who now went by Steve Peregrin Took, Bolan formed a new
psychedelic folk act, Tyrannosaurus Rex. The band would hire American Tony Visconti
to oversee production, who would go on to prove essential to the band’s initial wave of success.
By their third album, 1969’s Unicorn, they’d continue earning critical acclaim,
as it reached number 12 on the UK Albums Chart, while also marking their US debut.
At this point, Took became even more focused on subversive performance
antics, while Bolan continued his pursuit of fame, which led to the pair being at odds
creatively and ultimately, parting ways. Rather than disband the act altogether, Bolan recruited
a successor, Mickey Finn, who would step in to complete the fourth Tyrannosaurus Rex album,
1970’s A Beard of Stars. The album was once again reviewed favorably, peaking at number 21 on the
UK Albums Chart, and it also marked a change in the band’s approach. Its songs went from being
lengthily titled experimental jams, to tighter pop songs that were much more radio friendly.
Recognizing the merit in a simpler approach, the band shortened their name to T Rex. The
move would pay off, as their first two singles under the new name, “Ride A White Swan” and
“Hot Love,” placed respectively at number one and number two on the UK charts. Bolan
would also round out the lineup with the addition of bassist Steve Currie and drummer Bill Legend,
and the resulting self-titled album, released in December of 1970, would chart as high as number 7
on the UK albums Chart. While it continued their predominantly folk direction, it also emphasized
more material with electric guitar, including reworked versions of two songs: Bolan’s debut
solo single, “The Wizard,” and Tyrannosaurus Rex’s sophomore single, “One Inch Rock”.
By the release of T Rex’s 1971 follow-up, Electric Warrior, the band would break
ground with its all-electric sound, and earn their second UK number one single,
“Get It On,” as well as their first gold album, selling half a million copies in America. This
album would be widely regarded as the first glam rock album, and kickstarted a period dubbed by
Irish DJ and musician BP Fallon as “T Rextasy,” which bore a strong resemblance to The Beatles’
Beatlemania. It was at this time that Marc Bolan began adopting a more physical and flamboyant
stage persona, namely in his influential appearances on music show Top of The Pops.
BP Fallon would reflect on the public’s reaction to Boland’s transformation, telling Loudersound,
“What actually gets forgotten is how uptight a lot of straight-laced
people got with Marc’s behavior.” “Here was a guy with glitter on his cheeks,
wearing gold shoes. And tights. Is it a boy? Is it a girl? People got as weirded-out with
Marc as they did with Bowie. I remember one Top Of The Pops where Marc was wearing a toy
plastic Roman breastplate that he’d bought in Woolworth’s – and one of his nipples
was showing! It caused outrage,” he’d say. Two more T Rex albums, The Slider and Tanx,
would further sustain the band’s commercial success which was punctuated by a non-album
single, “20th Century Boy,” their first international hit.
“20th Century Boy '' would reach number 3 in the UK, but Bolan, who was dissatisfied with
its performance, sought to experiment with other musical styles. At this time, he’d begun dating
American soul singer Gloria Jones, whom he met on their US tour, and began work on T Rex’s
1974 album, Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Leaders of Tomorrow. The album would see them experiment with
R&B and funk influences, incorporating American soul duo The Cosmic Choir, which included Jones
and Sister Pat Hall, alongside various session musicians. But the contention in the recording
process, particularly Bolan’s exacerbated drug use, resulted in the departure of drummer Bill
Legend and producer Tony Visconti. Upon the album’s UK release, the band would struggle
to find representation stateside, as their US label, Reprise, withdrew their support. Even
though the album would peak at number 12 in the UK, it was critically panned, with the British
press especially accusing the band of ripping off David Bowie’s album The Rise and Fall of
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. Their next album, 1975’s Boland’s Zip Gun, continued in
an experimental direction, but by the same token, it was also poorly received, and it wouldn’t chart
in the UK at all. At this point, Bolan was no longer a vegetarian, and began binging on burgers
and alcohol, which made him gain significant weight and become subject to constant ridicule.
However, by their penultimate album, Futuristic Dragon, the following year, T Rex regained their
pop prowess, incorporating newly emerging disco sounds. In an interesting twist, the album would
only reach number 50, but it gradually changed the course of critical opinion on the strength
of singles “New York City” and “Dreamy Lady”. By early 1977, the band was back in good standing,
with Bolan slimming down, and their new album, Dandy in the Underworld, would be hailed as
return to form. Their subsequent tour with punk band The Damned was positively received,
all the while Bolan was set on getting the original lineup back together with
producer Tony Visconti, but unfortunately, his plans wouldn’t see the light of day.
On September 15th, 1977, Bolan and his girlfriend went out drinking in a pub called the Speakeasy,
and proceeded to eat at Morton’s Club, in the affluent London neighborhood of Mayfair. The two
were headed home early the next morning at 4 AM, with Jones at the wheel. At the turn of the hour,
and with not even a mile until they’d reach their house, their purple Mini 1275 GT would veer off
the road and crash into a tree. Jones would sustain serious injuries, but she would survive,
while Bolan was killed, passing away just two weeks shy of his 30th birthday.
It was previously believed that the impact of the tree crushing the car was what killed Bolan, but
according to former nightclub singer Vicky Aram, who’d speak to the publication The Independent,
it was actually due to the car hitting a steel fence post between the tree and the road,
where Bolan would suffer profound head trauma from an eyebolt in the fence. As it turns out,
the sycamore tree that many fans had long acknowledged as responsible for his death, instead
was what actually prevented a much more horrific accident from happening, where the car would have
slid down an embankment, effectively killing both Bolan and Jones. Since Jones was driving, and the
two had come from a pub, it was assumed that she was intoxicated, but a close friend of the couple
would dismiss this claim, telling Loudersound, “Gloria had a lot of self-control. She had a
very clear-minded Am erican outlook in that respect. She was the type to have one drink,
then call it quits and not have any more, because she wanted to stay in control of her faculties.”
Aram would reveal that she was with Gloria’s brother Richard, and the two were right behind the
couple’s car the night of the crash, recalling, “I said 'we've got to get them out, this car might
blow up'. I took my mother's rug from the back of my car and put it on the ground. Some of the fans
are comforted by the fact he was laid on a nice lady's rug. I don't think Richard thought Marc
was dead, but I knew he was,” she’d say. In the book Mark Bolan: The Rise and Fall
of A 20th Century Superstar, author Mark Paytress also states that the car itself
contributed to the impact of the crash, saying, ‘When the Mini was examined after the accident,
the pressure on the offside front tyre was only 16lbs, 12lbs less than it should have been;
one of the rear tyres was marginally down; and two nuts on one of the
front wheels were not even finger-tight.” On September 20th, 1977, Bolan’s funeral was
held at the Golder’s Green crematorium in North London. Several musicians close to Bolan were
in attendance, including his friend from his formative years, David Bowie, as well as Tony
Visconti, Rod Stewart, and Cockney Rebel frontman Steve Harley. Two plaques in the crematorium were
made in Bolan’s honor, with the first being installed in 1995 by the Tyrannosaurus Rex
Appreciation Society, and the other in 2002 by the official Marc Bolan fan club. In November of 2020,
Bolan, along with T Rex members Steve Currie, Mickey Finn, and Bill Legend,
were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Ringo Starr. The site of the car crash has
since been preserved as a shrine for Bolan called Marc Bolan’s Rock Shrine, which is
currently maintained by the T-Rex Action Group. Tributes had been left by the sycamore tree,
which came to be known as the Bolan Tree, until May 13th 2015, when the tree was felled.
That does it for today’s episode of Rock N’ Roll True Stories guys, thanks for watching.
Be sure to hit the like button and subscribe, and I’ll see you in the next video. Take care.