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Alan Cross
Hey, it's Alan and I just wanted to let you know that you can now listen to the ongoing history of new music. Early and ad free on Amazon. Music included with prime. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same Premium Wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to 50 DOL $15 per month required Intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full terms@mintmobile.com this episode is brought to you by the Nissan Armada Pro 4X. With a twin turbo V6 engine, ready to propel your adventures. Up to 8500 pounds of towing capacity to haul all your favorite toys and space for eight passengers. Nissan's most powerful car yet will chew up and spit out anything you throw at it. Learn more about the all new 2025 Nissan Armada at nissanusa.com Tow capacity varies by configuration. See Nissan Towing Guide and Owner's Manual for additional information. Always secure cargo at its very best, rock is a transcendent experience. Something that takes us away from the ordinary and the normal and the safe. There's a huge fantasy element to it. Done right, rock removes us from this universe and transports us someplace completely different where anything is could happen, at least for a little while. Sometimes the music alone is enough to take us there, but there's so much more that can be done to enhance this experience. Costuming for one. Makeup and wild hair. Nice addition. How about going hard in the visuals and theatrics? Sure, why not? Can't hurt. How about dropping in some sci fi? Ooh, that's fine. And what about sex and horror and shock in the occult and then really, really exaggerate everything? Yeah, bring it on. And you know what else might be fun? A big dollop of sexual ambiguity just to freak some people out. What I've described is a lot of today's music. The rock era has been around long enough and has gone through so many bouts of extremism that it seems like there's no way that we can be shocked by anything a rock star does anymore. But there was a time in the late 1960s and early 1970s when a specific group of artists were very shocking. They did and said Things that were so outrageous and so wild that they kind of knocked the planet around on its axis for a little bit. They also set in motion some knock on effects that changed everything about rock. And then they became extinct dinosaurs. But the influence and fallout from that four or five year period is still being seen and felt today. You just have to know where to look. This is the surprising history of glam rock. It still lives and can still make things very interesting. This is the ongoing history of New Music podcast with Alan Cross. What a pleasure. T. Rex. Led by guitar stars Mark Bolan and one of David Bowie's good friends. That's 20th century boy, a major glam rock hit from the spring of 1973. Hello again, I'm Alan Cross and break out the glitter, because this is the topic of this program. The glittery, glamorous and often bonkers world of glam rock. Glam was rock at its most theatrical. Not only was it a sound, a proper musical subgenre, but it was also a movement in fashion. The clothes, the hair, the makeup. It had its own culture. And it was also, for a time being a very shocking lesson in non binary sexuality and also a groundbreaking one. Glam had a specific sensibility that formed a bridge from what was going on in rock in the 1960s to what it became in the 70s and beyond. Yes, this was a thing in the early 70s and yes, it was mostly a British thing, but its influence can be felt in rock all over the world today. Kind of like confetti or glitter thrown at a wedding that always ends up somewhere in your clothes or maybe sand in your bathing suit. That's another good example. It just keeps showing up everywhere in other forms of music in little tiny bits and in some cases important, influential and long lasting genres that we enjoy today would not exist for the glam period between about 1971 and 1975. And this is why it's worth looking at. First though, some history. How is this flamboyant style of rock born? Well, believe it or not, its roots go back to probably the 1930s. Students of Glam will point to Noel Coward, the English singer, actor, composer, director and playwright. In 1931 he wrote this song. It's called Mad Dogs and Englishmen. It's a witty and ironic thing that became a signature part of Coward's cabaret schtick. In tropical climes, there are certain times of day when all the citizens retire to take their clothes off and perspire. It's one of those rules the greatest fools obey because the sun is Far too sultry and one must. Coward wrote other popular songs like this Mad about the Boy, the Stately Homes of England and an operetta called Bittersweet. This was all before the rock era, of course, but it was cheeky and stylish, but also poised and confident. The practitioners didn't care what anybody else thought. And Coward was also all about personal style and showmanship. Fast forward about 35 years and coward was still making music for the West End, in London and for Broadway. And this is how a new generation learned about him. And that included a young David Bowie and the young men who would later form Roxy Music and Alice Cooper. Meanwhile, in the interim, we also got Little Richard, the most flamboyant member of rock's first generation. He had the hair, the costumes, the makeup, the wild performances and the, well, let's just call it unclear sexuality. Others follow Vince Taylor and the Playboys, Anthony Newley, Billy Fury, Jacques Brell. They all sounded different, but they all had a specific sort of fabulous style about them. By the end of the 1960s, rock was getting more sophisticated and much more complicated because it had all these new tools, instru amps, effects pedals. Studio technology had made big leaps. And musicianship among rock players had improved too, and maybe a little too much. We began talking about something called progressive or prog rock. It was hard to play and sometimes challenging listeners who just wanted to rock out. At the same time, though, we had the rise of psychedelic rock and its trippy attitudes. Then there was art rock, which was all about experimentation and making serious artistic statements, which was all fine. But wasn't rock supposed to be about fun and escapism? Wasn't it a chance to be silly and to do dumb stuff? And wasn't it supposed to be a lot simpler to play and dance to? A solution emerged around 1970 and the catalyst was Mark Bolan. Now let's fill in some blanks about him. Bolan was a London based singer, songwriter and poet. He started with a psychedelic folk band called Tyrannosaurus Rex, who released four largely acoustic albums in the 1960s without managing to have a proper hit. Either frustrated at his lack of success or sensing something was in the air, Bohlin shortened the name to T Rex and picked up an electric guitar. His fortunes began to change in October 1970 when T Rex released a song called Ride a White Swan. Not only was it a hit, but it accidentally found the sound for glam rock. Wear a tall hat Jack a druid in the old days Wear a tall hat and a tattoo Gown Ride a White Swan like the people of a belting we're headlong baby Conqueror. Ride A White Swan was a big British hit for Mark Bowman and T. Rex in late 1970 and early 1971. They got to perform it twice on Top of the Pops, the highly influential TV chart show. @ first it was just the sound, but in March 1971, Bolen appeared on the show wearing satin clothes and glitter. All right, big deal, right? But in 1971, in gray, recession ridden, still in the post war doldrums, England, Marc Bolan shone like the sun. Those who saw Bohen saw something fresh and new. And it also helped that he was petite and cute and non threatening. He was a boy, sure, but there was something a little fluid about that. Or so it seemed. Again, no big deal today. But in Britain in the early 1970s, wow. You have to remember that just three or so years earlier, homosexuality was finally decriminalized in the UK with the passing of the Sexual Offenses Act. Gay people were no longer breaking the law by being gay, just so long as they kept things private. But then there were still laws against doing anything gay in public. Scotland didn't decriminalize homosexuality until, believe it or not, 1980. The laws were in place in Northern Ireland until 1982. And in all cases you could not be gay legally unless you were 21. Now for some, a pretty glittery, satiny five foot four Mark Bowman on TV was really close to that line about doing something gay in public. For others though, it was not just a breath of fresh air. It was also like, hey, that's me. I feel like that and it's okay to be that way. Oh, thank God. In September 1971, T Rex released their second album, Electric Warrior. It took the sound and attitude of Ride a White Swan to a new level. It was fun, funny, cartoony, full of fantasy and just naughty enough to capture the attention of a lot of people. Oh, and it also rocked with a distinct style and sound. Get it on. Bang Bang. A gong. A major hit single for Mark Bolan and T Rex in the UK and a radio hit for FM rock stations in North America. Electric Warrior, I think we can say was the first glam rock album. The record was also heard by the right people. A young Robert Smith, who would later form the Cure, was completely besotted by Electric Warrior and Mark Bolan. So was his future bandmate, LOL Tolhurst. Paul Weller, soon to form the Jam, loved it. In America, a kid who would be later known as Prince was taken by it. But Boland's biggest fan was an emerging artist named David Bowie. Now he too had been a folk singer in the 1960s. In 1969, he had a minor hit about an astronaut named Major Tom. He also sensed that there was change in the air. Bowie and Boland became close friends. He developed a new appreciation for short, sharp pop songs. And Bowie was also developing a very interesting and daring fashion sense. He'd already been messing around with some ideas. In 1970, around the time Marc Boland was gaining fame with Ride A White Swan, Bowie had a band called Hype. They began appearing in interesting costumes. They all had superhero outfits made from shiny material and augmented by thigh high boots. Bowie's came complete with a cape and the word Rainbow man sewn on his chest. It was all very different from the other bands of the era, with their long hair and jeans and hippie attitudes. Bowie took his friend's glam ideas even further. For him, being just David Bowie wasn't enough. He invented an entire character completely rooted in glam rock. Concepts that borrowed from the outrageous behavior of another new friend, Iggy Pop, who was doing all kinds of extreme things in America with his band, the Stooges. Bowie had also met Lou Reed. He was a fan of both Reed's band, the Velvet Underground and Reed's New York, artsy, scummy solo Persona. He'd also discovered Vince Taylor, an English American singer who had some kind of mental crisis and now believed that he existed somewhere between a God and an alien. He also got inspiration from Norman Odom, a wacky space travel obsessed Texas singer who went by the name the legendary Stardust Cowboy. So Bowie, taking all this information, changed Iggy to Ziggy and adopted Stardust as a surname. And thus Ziggy Stardust was born. Alright, how do we begin to summarize the impact of Ziggy? Well, first, this was the move that brought Bowie out of obscurity after almost a decade of dead ends. Second, Bowie, Ziggy, took rock to new heights of theatricality. We were asked to believe that Bowie was this doomed spaceman with a messiah concept who might have had something to do with populating the earth with Japanese style kabuki actors. Bowie also saw Ziggy as a way he could explore fashion. His background as a mime. Yeah, Bowie did in fact train with a professional mime in the 60s. He was also concerned about experimenting with art and sexuality. And here's a quote. I think glam rock is a lovely way to categorize me. And it's even Nicer to be one of the leaders of it. Ziggy was also a sharp move away from the hippie culture of the 1960s. At the time, there were concerns about war, the environment, the pernicious effects of advertising and big business and television and all the artificiality in the world. Ziggy's clothes were inspired in equal parts by what we saw with the main characters in the film A Clockwork Orange. Very contentious at the time because the film was actually banned in the UK for all its depictions of violence and sex, and a Japanese designer named Yasuko Hayashi. Then there was the hair. Bowie had this striking mullet that he'd seen in a fashion magazine called Honey. He also spied a couple of interesting photos in the French issue of Vogue. He met with a hairdresser named Susie Fussey, his mother's hairstylist at a salon called Evelyn Page. If you can believe it, Mum actually recommended Susie to her son. And using those photos, the Honey shots for the front and the Vogue shots for the back and sides, they created the famous Ziggy Stardust puffball. And for added effect, Susie dyed it red, specifically a shade known as Schwarzkopf Red, augmented by an anti dandruff treatment called Guard, to make it stiff and upright. It would eventually become the haircut of the era, much like we saw with Princess Diana's Dew in the early 1980s and whatever Jennifer Aniston did with her head in the 1990s. The difference was that the Ziggy Doo worked for both men and women. In early 1972, Bowie began laying the groundwork for what was to come. He gave an interview to Melody Maker, one of the big British music weeklies. The title of the article was oh, you pretty thing. It was front page stuff. Let me read you from the January 22, 1972 issue. David's present image is to come on like a swishy queen. A gorgeously effeminate boy, he's as camp as a row of tents with his limp hand and trolling vocabulary. I'm gay, he says, and always have been, even when I was David Jones. But there's a sly jollity about how he says it, a secret smile at the corners of his mouth. He knows that in these times it's permissible to act like a male tart, and that to shock and outrage, which pop is always striven to do throughout its history, is a ball breaking process. And if he's not an outrage, he is, at the least, an amusement. Why aren't you wearing your girl's dress today? I said to him, yes, no monopoly on tongue in cheek humor. Oh dear, he replied. You must understand, it's not a woman's. It's a man's dress. Okay then. On February 10, 1972, David Bowie debuted the Ziggy character at the Tory Jug Pub in London. He was a very minor pop star at this time, so there was almost no one there, but soon everyone would be paying attention. So we bitched about his fans and should we crush his sweet hands? David Bowie and Ziggy Stardust Our history of glam. We'll continue with more about him in just a second. This episode is brought to you by the Disney Hulu Max Bundle. With plans starting at just $16.99 a month. Stream the latest seasons of the Last of Us on Max and or on Disney and the final season of the Handmaid's Tale on Hulu. All of these and more streaming soon. Terms apply. Visit disneyplush hulumaxbundle.com for more detail. This episode is brought to you by Chevrolet when you have four new tires, every drive feels fresh. Right now, buy three select tires and get one for just a dollar during the Chevrolet Certified Service Fresh Start tire event. Visit chevrolet.comserviceoffers or see dealer for full details at participating USGM dealers only. Highest or equal value tire will be $1. Offer ends 531 22. Not available with other offers David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust character was the thing that really launched glam rock into the stratosphere. The album the Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars was the hit he'd been looking for. And the tour, which ran from January 29, 1972 to July 3, 1973, was the most theatrical thing that rock had ever seen to that point. So big anthemic songs, costume changes, choreography, makeup, tall boots and ridiculously high platform shoes. And more than a little daring sexual ambiguity. Okay, so some of it wasn't so unambiguous. One especially interesting performance was on Top of the pops on the BBC July 6, 1972. Top of the Pops at that time was required viewing for all music fans. After Dr. Hook and the Medicine show played their ultra depressing hit Sylvia's Mother, it was the turn for Bowie and the Spiders from Mars. Bowie was dressed in a quilted jumpsuit with red boxing boots and green laces. His hair was that bright red orange. When the camera zoomed in for a close up, there was obviously something different about his eyes. Were they different colors? No. Bowie had Something called anisocoria. One pupil was permanently dilated because he'd been punched in the eye by a childhood friend in a fight over a girl. It gave him this otherworldly look, even before the hair and the makeup and the clothes and the boots. On stage with him was his guitarist, Mick Ronson, dressed in a gold one piece. They're both so relaxed and cool. And on two occasions, Bowie lovingly draped his arm around Ronson's shoulders. Again, big deal, right? But in the context of that era, this was super duper gay. And it was on television for 3 minutes and 55 seconds. Viewers of Top of the Pops were treated to something that they'd never seen before. And the next day, Ziggy Clones started appearing on the streets. And not only that, people, most of them young people, understood that they weren't alone when it came to their sexuality. Once again, they watched Top of the Pops and they saw someone just like them. There's a starman waiting in the sky he'd like to come and meet us but he thinks he'd blow our minds There's a starman waiting in the. There we go. July 6, 1972 on the BBC and both Bowie and glam rock were off and running. A little side note here. When Bowie and the Spiders from Mars loaded into the Hammersmith Odeon in London in July 1973 for a multi night stand, a young thief named Steve Jones broke into the theater and made off with a bunch of microphones and amplifiers. That's the same Steve Jones that would later be the guitarist in the Sex Pistols. And when the Pistols started rehearsing and playing gigs in 1975, it is very reasonable to assume that some of the gear that they were using to kick off their contributions to the punk rock era was all stolen from Bowie in 1972. The next three years were pretty glam in the UK. Many acts took Bolin and Bowie's act and modified it to their own needs. We had artists like Slade, Montauhoople, Mud Elvin, Stardust, wizard the Sweet and Gary Glitter. And then there was Roxy Music. They were formed as an experimental art rock outfit in 1970 and out front was Brian Ferry, who had just been fired from his job teaching ceramics at a girls school. After a very slow start, Roxy landed a record deal in 1971. Their self titled debut album was released on June 16, 1972. Like Bowie and Bowen, they were very fashionable, very glamorous, very artsy, with references to film and other cultural touch points, and not afraid to venture into the avant garde. It was futuristic and retro, sexy and standoffish, silly and serious. I mean, this is a band that released a single about a brand of cigarettes, Roxy Music and Virginia Plain, part of the North American release of their debut album and a standalone single in the uk. This was all very appealing to a growing number of music fans, especially in Britain, who did not like the current state of rock. Like Bowie, Roxy Music attracted the attention of kids who would soon become Britain's punks. They especially liked that the critics weren't crazy about Roxy Music. Let me give you a quote from a review in Cream magazine out of Detroit in 1973. From the drag queen on the corner to the fop finery in the centerfold to the polished deformity of the music on the record, this celebrates the kind of artifice that could come to seem as unhealthy as the sheen on a piece of rotten meat. Wow. Right now, though, it's decorated with enough weird hooks to earn an A for side one. Side two leans a little too heavily on the synthesizer, played by a balding, long haired eunuch lookalike named Eno, without the saving grace of drums and bassline. Okay, so that's pretty rough. But it's also delicious stuff for music fans who gravitated to albums that other regular music fans hated. And yes, that Eno in the review is Brian Eno, who would later invent ambient music and become one of the world's most successful record producers for, you know, a couple of little acts like U2. Given Roxy's influence on British punks and later British goth kids and new romantics and avant garde types of all sorts. Sex Pistols, Susie and the Banshees, Duran Duran, the Smiths, Talking Heads, Radiohead, Human League and dozens more. It's not an exaggeration to say that Roxy is one of the most influential British bands of all time. And let's not forget Roxy was a glam band. Glam peaks. Sometime around 1974, Bowie dumped Ziggy for his Aladdin sane character, which continued down more or less the same path we had groups like Sparks. Glam seeped into other areas of rock beyond just punk and all the other post punk genres. Elton John's wild costumes, that's glam rock. Freddie Mercury's flamboyance with Queen, glam rock, Kiss and their makeup schtick, Definitely glam rock. Richard O'Brien is said to have listened to nothing but glam rock when he wrote the musical the Rocky Horror Picture Show. You know, who also adopted the trappings of glam Check out any live photos of the Rolling Stones in the middle 1970s. Look at how Rod Stewart was dressing. Meanwhile, there was a second wave of glam known as glitter rock. Although it had its British adherents, convicted pedophile Gary Glitter being one of them, it also seemed to find a home in America with the evolution of the careers of Lou Reed and Iggy Pop, the spandex and makeup wearing New York Dolls, and the Bowie clone Joe Briath, who didn't gain any traction whatsoever despite outglamming even Ziggy. And while glam and glitter were pretty much extinct by 1977, its influence continued into the 80s, 90s, and even today. We'll explore all that in a moment. This episode is brought to you by Lifelock. Not everyone is careful with your personal information, which might explain why there's a victim of identity theft every five seconds in the U.S. fortunately, there's LifeLock. LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats to your identity. If your identity is stolen, a US based restoration specialist will fix it, guaranteed or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year by visiting lifelock.com podcast terms apply. Click fast and save big shop blinds.com Spring Cyber Monday sale and elevate your space with new custom window treatments today. DIY or let our pros handle everything from Measure to install. Blinds.com makes upgrading your home easy with free virtual consultations, honest pricing and free samples delivered to your door. Shop confidently with our 100% satisfaction guarantee. Hurry to Blinds.com's Spring Cyber Monday sale now. Save up to 45% with minimum purchase plus a free measure. Blinds.com rules and restrictions may apply. Hi, I'm Donna Friesen from Global National. Life moves fast these days and we want to make it even easier for you to get the news you need. That's why you can now get Global National Every Day as a podcast. The biggest stories of the day with analysis from award winning global news journalists. New episodes drop every day, so take this as your personal invitation to join us on the Global National Podcast. You can find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Glam was all but gone from the charts by the time punk rock and disco came along in 1976 and 1977. Bowie had moved on from Aladdin Sane to a stint as a decidedly non glam blue eyed soul singer. Exaggerated bubblegum melodies fell from favor and Mark Bolan died on September 16, 1977 when his girlfriend Gloria Jones drove their Mini Cooper into A tree in southwest London. But now that theatricality and exaggerated costuming had entered the rock canon, there was no turning it off. Punks on both sides of the Atlantic embraced glam for its fashion sense, tweaking it to serve their own needs. And the first obvious descendants of glam was the New Romantic movement. This soundtracked an era where wild, flamboyant and eccentric fashion was just as important as the music. It wasn't glam, but with the New Romantics you could certainly tell the glam had happened. There was a direct line to both Bowie and Roxy Music of the early and mid-1970s. From what we were getting in the early 1980s, this is where we encounter bands like Duran Duran, Japan, Ultravox, Adamant, Spando Ballet, Visage, Soft Sal, the Human League, 6xPutnik and many others. They could have not existed without the experience and influence and legacy of glam. And we already talked about its effect on Queen and Elton John. Adjacent to this are the gay and non binary clubs of the time, especially people like Boy George in Culture Club and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. As we've seen, much of glam was connected to the LGBT community, something that could be heard throughout songs like David Bowie's Rebel Rebel with the line your mother can't tell if you're a boy or a girl. And Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild side with its true stories of transvestites and transsexuals. Androgynous fashion, first normalized by glam, was spread further by the New Romantic acts of the early 1980s. It was all quite glammy and glittery and fabulous. And the glam influence didn't stop with the sharp dressed synth kids. Goth, which started to gain traction in 1979, was also very theatrical and also very fashion forward or backward. In this case, no glam, no goth. You might even want to say the same thing about industrial music. Now, while most of North America's exposure to glam came through Bowie, it was enough to influence a plethora of new wave bands. I'm looking at you, B52s. There was also second hand exposure via bands who ran with the riffy guitars of glam. This heavier variant was known as glitter rock in the United States. This is where we meet Kiss and Cheap Trick and Quiet Riot. Def Leppard had a piece of this. We can also make a very strong case for Prince being influenced by aspects of clam culture. Then we get into hair metal, the big hair, the dudes looking like ladies, the makeup, the spandex and the Stompin, Good Time, Party all the Time songs. It's all very glam rock, isn't it? Put 1985 Motley Crue next to 1973 Slade and you'll see that they're cut from the same cloth. From there it's just a short hop to glam Rat, Twisted Sister, Poison, Skid Row, Cinderella, Steel Panther, and many more. And then we have acts like Suede. When they showed up in the early 1990s, it took all of two seconds to understand that they were equal parts Bowie, Roxy and glam. And it hasn't stopped. Music with glam trappings has showed up again and again and again. Look at acts like Marilyn Manson and Pulp, Goldfrapp and Placebo. We can even throw in pop acts like Lady Gaga into the mix. Would we have the Darkness if not for glam? I'm guessing no. Good job. Glam was not around for very long. We can charitably put its moment in the Sun. From 1971 to 1975, glam was primarily a UK thing too. Outside of Bowie and perhaps Roxy Music, that's all North America got. Yet glam's influence has spread to all corners of the rock and pop world. Like I said at the beginning, every once in a while it's nice to see a little extremism, flamboyance and theatricality with rock. And every time that comes back into fashion, glam's DNA is present. Not bad for a short lived regional thing, huh? If you want more of this kind of background to our music, there are hundreds and hundreds of ongoing history shows available on demand as podcasts. They're all free and you can download them wherever you get your podcasts. And while you're there, grab a few episodes of Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry. That's my Music Meets True Crime podcast. Let me know what you think. We can connect on most of the social media networks, I'm always updating my website with music news and information@ajournalofmusicalthings.com it comes with a free newsletter and you can always email me about absolutely anything except relationship advice. I'm pretty crap at that. I'm available through AlanAlancross CA technical production is by Rob Johnston. I'm Alan Cross. Want to kick your cooking up a notch? This is the moment you've been waiting for. Flavor network is giving one lucky viewer $15,000 to put towards the grocery bill. Oh, I love that. Tune into Flavor Network every night at 9 Eastern or stream live on STACK TV. Look for the Daily Code word and enter on our website for a chance to win $15,000. Oh, my God. That's so good. We're gonna blow some minds. Let's do it. Visit flavornetwork CA for more details and to enter now. Game on, people.