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- [00:01]
Josh Adam Myers
Next Chapter Podcasts.
- [00:07]
Luke Spiller
When you think about businesses that are selling through the roof, like aloe or allbirds, sure you think about a great product, a cool brand and great marketing. But an often overlooked secret is actually the businesses behind the business making, selling and for shoppers buying. Simple. For millions of businesses, that business is Shopify. Nobody does online business better than Shopify. It's home of Shop Pay, the number one checkout in the world. You can use it to boost conversions up to 50%, meaning way less carts going abandoned and way more sales going through. To checkout, sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com income all lowercase go to shopify.com income to upgrade your selling today. That's shopify.com income.
- [01:06]
Josh Adam Myers
The wrongs we must right, the fights we must win, the future we must secure together for our nation. This is what's in front of us. This determines what's next for all of us. We are Marines. We were made for this.
- [01:26]
DJ Morty Coyle
This show is brought to you by Distrokid Bring youg Music to the masses.
- [01:38]
Evan
The 500. The 500. JM been walking us down through that 2012 edition, so it ain't nothing to you.
- [01:54]
DJ Morty Coyle
Hundreds more to go and in need of a friend.
- [01:58]
Evan
The king of peaceful Angelo. Talking the floor 500 until the end. Talking the 500 until the end with my man JL on the 500 talking.
- [02:16]
Josh Adam Myers
The 500 until the end.
- [02:20]
Evan
Get it on, get it on.
- [02:27]
DJ Morty Coyle
Get it on.
- [02:31]
Luke Spiller
Get it on.
- [02:36]
DJ Morty Coyle
That is bang a gong. It's by T. Rex from the 1971 record Electric Warrior.
- [02:42]
Josh Adam Myers
Warrior.
- [02:43]
DJ Morty Coyle
It's also number 161 out of 500 on the 500 with Josh Adam Myers. What's up everybody? Welcome to the podcast where comedians going through Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums from 500 down to 1 Mike cops. You're the man. You're a general in the fleece army. And he was right. He wants us to redo the Radiohead episode and maybe we will. You know, Swardy had to get out of there because of his diabetes. His he got the sugar. So it was shorter than I would have liked. But the fact that you're listening, dude, like I said, if you're listening to the show and you love the show, comment, you know, on my posts on the 500 post, let us know that you're a part of it because we have no idea. Sometimes, at least I don't. But we love you guys. So thank you for tuning in this Sunday and Monday I'm at the Comedy Store doing the jam and Shimmy. And at the end of the month, I will be at the port in Baltimore, Maryland. May 30th. And the 31st, I think is the dates. Let me just take a look real quick. Yeah, May 30th. It's May 31st. I will be in Baltimore, Maryland. Come one, come all, Josh Adam.com Josh Adam Myers for tickets. Yeah. And listen to Master Fleece Theater. Me, DJ Morty Coyle, who's on this episode, and Wayne Federman. We're going through stuff. We're just having fun. Subscribe to the Patreon. Support the show patreon.com the500podcast. All right, t Rex. And if you have seen the movie Long Legs, then you are now a fan of T. Rex, just like me. Yeah, dude. Really excited for this one to come up. And we got to record it at the beautiful Melrose Podcast Studio. My buddy Ari Manis owns it. So big shout out. DJ Morty Coyle helped out with this. And we have our guest today from the Struts, the one and only Luke Spiller. Incredible rock star. I've seen this guy at the Love Rocks at the Beacon Theater the last two years. He has an incredible voice. He is a true rock star and a fan of T Rex. So this was fun. Rate, review, and most Importantly, subscribe to the 500 listen free on all platforms or anywhere you get your pods. Follow me at Josh Adam Myers on all social media. Follow the podcast at the 500 podcast. Email the podcast@500podcastgmail.com Follow the Facebook group run by Crazy Evan. And for all things 500- go to the website the500podcast.com. All right, y' all, here we go with 160. 160 out of 500 with T Rex Electric Warrior. I actually saw you. I go to that John Barbado show at the Beacon, the Love Rocks.
- [05:30]
Mark Bolan
Oh, Love Rocks. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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DJ Morty Coyle
And you come out every year, the last two years and have just murdered it.
- [05:36]
Mark Bolan
Thank you.
- [05:37]
DJ Morty Coyle
It's really rad, dude. And so when Emily told me that you were going to be the guest for this, I was like, oh, this is perfect. And so we're doing a special one now. We're at the Melrose Podcast Studios. But I have. Because of the short amount of time, I just was like, Morty was going to come watch. He writes the show for me. And I was like, let's just do a whole little powwow, because here's my deal. Like with T Rex, I've only recently gotten into him because of the movie Long Legs. Have you watched that?
- [06:04]
Mark Bolan
Yes, I did. Specifically for the soundtrack.
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DJ Morty Coyle
Exactly. So he's all over Long Legs and.
- [06:10]
Josh Adam Myers
They don't give Billy Elliot credit.
- [06:12]
DJ Morty Coyle
But I am, I am such a huge, huge fan of that movie and which then got me digging into more of T Rex's music. And of course I knew like, get it on. Sure, but. But it's like to really finally dig into this record. So what brings you here though? Because I mean I can kind of see it like you, you're a rock star when I seen you perform, but also just getting your vibe as well. So it almost feels like it's so like you guys gel perfectly. But so how did you get into T Rex?
- [06:40]
Mark Bolan
Well, I think when I was sort of like on a self discovery mission of all things that were considered like UK base, like glam, so to speak, I. I grew up in like a Christian household. My dad's like a gospel singer, songwriter and whatnot. And the truth be told, there just wasn't a lot of popular music like laying around the house as a kid, you know. And one thing that I've sort of learn after speaking with loads of different people over the years is that you either self discover this stuff or it's your parents that introduce you to these kind of things. I discovered like Queen and Zeppelin, AC dc, all of those kind of like acts which are still old by the.
- [07:32]
Josh Adam Myers
Time you got into them, of course, all out and had. Most of the guys were dead. I mean, that had died. I mean that was like, you know, because you're what you're. You gotta be late 30s, early 30s, mid-30s, mid-30s. I don't want to age you. What I'm saying is like I look back and I'm like, oh my. Then I go, oh my God, that's. And I look at the date. Yeah, I'm like, Duran Duran had already broken up. That's how I look. Sorry, go on.
- [07:56]
Mark Bolan
No, no, it's fine. And then, you know, I sort of. I was one of the sort of like kids that sort of discovered those bands and it became like my own kind of thing because it wasn't around, you know, it wasn't. They weren't groups that typically you could go and see. And I was just fascinated with all of that rock and roll kind of bygone era stuff and found a huge amount of inspiration within it. And the, the glam thing I really started getting into a couple of years after that. And of course like when you're Sort of really digging into, like the glam category in the United Kingdom and all its history. You're gonna come across T. Rex and of course, like Bowie and, and whatnot and, and all the other groups that capitalized on and fetishized on what, Mark and. Well, mainly Mark. And we'll probably get onto it. Mainly Mark and David Bowie sort of really were the archetypes for, you know, so that's kind of why I'm here.
- [09:05]
Josh Adam Myers
I love that. You want me to catch you up real quick?
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DJ Morty Coyle
Yeah, because I, I, I thought. Because I see you're saying that we talked about this earlier. You're saying that Bowie was influent. Bowie was one way and then he heard T. Rex and then Bowie was another way.
- [09:18]
Josh Adam Myers
So let's put this into perspective. 1947, England. Mark Feld is born. Nice Jewish kid from, from England. He, he becomes a musician. He's in a band called John's Children. They have middling hit mod. A mod sort of band. But he's got his eye on it. He is very much a go getter. I think his frailties in that department sort of becomes arrogance. And he starts saying, I'm gonna be this, you know, character. So he puts together, now we're getting to the 60s, late 60s. He puts together a duo, him and a percussion player named Steve Peregrine Took. And it's exactly what you imagine it to be. He's sitting, he's sitting, you know, with his legs crossed on a carpet, on a rug. And there's a guy next to him banging on bongos and he's playing an acoustic guitar. And the songs are. If Lenny Kravitz read Tolkien like that, they're the, the imagery.
- [10:15]
DJ Morty Coyle
The demons fly very much and the meadows and people.
- [10:20]
Josh Adam Myers
Yeah, because, you know, remember, it's late 60s, so there's, there's the psychedelia that's spilling over and then it becomes this sort of thing. And then, you know, he, he gets. So there's a guy named Tony Visconti.
- [10:31]
DJ Morty Coyle
A producer, because we know about him.
- [10:33]
Josh Adam Myers
And Tony worked for Danny Cordell. And he was like, he was like an assistant. And he's like, hey, why don't you produce? And he goes, okay. And I went out and he was in England at the time. He's a New York guy, and he sees this band which is two guys, and he's like, wow, this is fantastic. But he's not really a producer, but he goes in the studio and over the course of like four albums, they go from being, you know, the first one is like, the title is ridiculously long. It's. It's. We're going to do what we want to do. We're going to record this way and we're going to do. And we'll get 15 songs. We're going. Doesn't really do anything. Another one comes out. Doesn't really do anything. Third record. Now his. Now his management team, he goes, he. He becomes involved with a woman who works at his management team. And then the management goes, well, why don't you, like. Why don't you pick up an electric guitar? Like you're doing this acoustic thing. It's kind of run its course, you know, and he's. And he starts going out with. With this woman. And then he basically axes and goes like, I can't believe you asked me to pick up an electric guitar. I'm out of here. Bounces from there. Brings his. Becomes his wife, June. They move on. Tony Visconti's still producing. They end up doing a record prior to this one. Now he's putting together. Now his idea is I'm gonna be electric. But he still hasn't gotten rid of the percussionist, so there's no drums. It's this weird sound of this, you know, boogie, which you would call. English people would say boogie here would be boogie. Yeah, but it's a little bit different. But it's very much rooted in Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Chuck Berry. Kind of like what ACDC does in that way. But very sparse, very open. So by the time we get to this record, he does the first. He does the first. I'm trying to make this as tight as possible. Basically, Tony Visconti is tired of writing Tyrannosaurus Rex. In the Think Calendar today, I have Tyrannosaurus and he just goes, T Rex. And he writes it in his calendar. And Mark sees it. And because it's not Mark's idea, I.
- [12:31]
DJ Morty Coyle
Think Tyrannosaurus and the word restaurant are the two hardest words to write.
- [12:35]
Josh Adam Myers
Yeah. One comes up a lot more.
- [12:37]
DJ Morty Coyle
I don't think any one of us could write restaurant perfectly the first time. There's no way.
- [12:42]
Josh Adam Myers
Yeah, the AU is a you there or there. And then he does. He writes T Rex. Mark says it and goes, I don't like that. And then short while later, when it's Mark's idea, he goes, okay, I like that. And he's like, I want a band. I'm tired of doing this thing. He does the first record. There's a lot of lectures they put out. They put out a single.
- [13:01]
DJ Morty Coyle
Yeah.
- [13:02]
Josh Adam Myers
Ride A White Swan comes out and if you know the single, it's groovy. And then he does like Hot Love. But there's still not a rock band. There's no drums. It's all the percussive elements. So imagine at this time he goes from being. That goes Sid Barrett, very Sid Barrett influenced to being like Cat Stevens influence. Oh wow. Now the. Where Cat Stevens stays in the folk thing into the 70s. He decides I want some of that. I want. I want the Les Paul, I want the stack. So by the time we get to the record before this and then into this, he puts together a band. He gets a drummer which is now he's gotten rid of Peregrine, took the percussionist and now he gets Mickey Finn. Because Mickey Finn's more of a laugh. Okay. More fun. Better hang bad looking as well. Yeah. And he's cute and good looking. And Mark knows how to pitch. Mark's people have said disparagingly, but with some awe. He was incredibly arrogant, incredibly egotistical bowling. But it was. Yeah, but it was covering up. And by the way, he went from Feld to Boland because he took the first half of Bob Dylan and the second half of Bob Dylan. Bo Lin.
- [14:11]
DJ Morty Coyle
Yeah, yeah.
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Josh Adam Myers
And that became his stage name. It became this thing. They become T Rex. They do the record which sort of brings us up. They come to America while they're touring this first album in England. They become hugely popular.
- [14:25]
DJ Morty Coyle
Yeah, it's. It's like I was gonna wonder is like all the contemporaries of the guys that you play with is everybody like were the Oasis guys.
- [14:32]
Josh Adam Myers
Oh God, they're rocking like cigarettes and alcohol. Is.
- [14:36]
Mark Bolan
Is.
- [14:36]
Josh Adam Myers
Is blatant.
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Mark Bolan
Is Get it on essentially. I mean, going back to Rider White Swan though, like, I mean let's not forget that was such a huge hit in the UK at the time. And. And what was really interesting about it is it was a fusion between all of the stuff that he'd been doing before when he was on his little cushion and he. He had these whimsical, poetic kind of lyrics. And that was the first of like song which was a small preview of like this sound which was going to be well, which would lead to T Rex to see in the United Kingdom. And that was distorted boogie woogie guitars and Tony adding the string element which had never really been done before, which gave it sort of like a. An awe of like more English Sergeant Pepper esque sophistication. And then that marrying with Mark's use of language, which I really think gets really overlooked when you think about. When you hear one of his lyrics or you simply read it, he's one of those very few artists that you read the first couple of stanzas and you're like, that's a Mark Boland song.
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Josh Adam Myers
Oh, yeah.
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Mark Bolan
You just know it.
- [16:03]
Josh Adam Myers
And you know how to write. Once you learn that, it's so easy to do this sort of. Yeah. You know, and it's. And it's. And you're, as you were saying, the Tony Visconti sounds. Tony's learning like he is. He becomes their George Martin, but he's learning as he goes. And that's the idea. It's like, oh, if we had strings and this hard guitar and this other thing, but we still keep it relatively sparse. There's a lot of air on these records. And so what happens is they. They blow up the T. Rex to see which Luke was speaking of. They blow up in England and now they're selling out everywhere. But they can't break America. You know, there is no media. And by the way, so these singles which prior he had. He had a single called Deborah which didn't, you know, too much to his chagrin, didn't break. But it became, you know, sort of underground popular and he became an underground hippie sort of hero. So as he goes to this, there was like the Bob Dylan parallel going electric, which he loved, by the way, which. Which.
- [17:00]
Mark Bolan
Which he absolutely adored. The fact, like, when he, like, as you said, when he was starting off with those first couple of albums where it was this acoustic thing and there was like a radio DJ called John Peel, who absolutely adored him. And even. Even more so I. I was even watching an interview with. With Mick Jagger just yesterday, where even he said that he preferred, like, Mark and T Rex when it was Tyrannosaurus Rex and it was all this kind of acoustic thing. And maybe it's a bit of jealousy and maybe it's that kind of thing that happens when something that you hold dear to yourself and you feel like you have a bit of ownership and it gets commercialized. But I mean, going back to the Bob Dylan comparison, Mark absolutely loved the fact that they hated when he went election, when he went electric, because it was exactly what Dylan had gone through, you know, and he. I think he really just sort of, like, held on to that.
- [17:58]
Josh Adam Myers
Yeah, it was. And it was his idea, because it was management's idea. He hated it. And then when it was his idea, fucking loved it. Yeah, he became, you know what I'm going to do, man? I'm going to get in the. I'm going to get a Les Paul guitar. But the band doesn't change. So you got to imagine now he's making racket. And by the way, also Paul's. I mean, Mark's this tall.
- [18:18]
DJ Morty Coyle
He's a tiny, tiny boy. He's a little boy.
- [18:20]
Josh Adam Myers
He grows his hair out in these corkscrew. I mean, it's always used corkscrew, but in, you know, the Jufro, but like grown out big.
- [18:27]
DJ Morty Coyle
And two Jewfro artists in a row. Yeah, yeah, we had Paul Stanley and Kiss.
- [18:33]
Josh Adam Myers
Two Jews. Like, it's not like we're being bushy.
- [18:37]
DJ Morty Coyle
Yeah, dude.
- [18:37]
Josh Adam Myers
I always. I always admire. I have it on the chest. But I always admired like you could do that and it would just do this. And he became like this, you know, he became this totem and he goes, so remember when he's doing these with these acoustic kind of things, his management company is like, well, how do we get you? You're doing Isle of White and you're doing this. And also he's sitting on the floor on a rug with a dude next to him. Nobody can see past the first two rows. You're just sort of hearing a guy and he's, you know, he's out of sight line. So they're like, you know, can you maybe.
- [19:09]
DJ Morty Coyle
Was he playing like clubs or is he playing like.
- [19:11]
Josh Adam Myers
He's doing festivals?
- [19:13]
DJ Morty Coyle
Oh, yeah, he's doing like Isle of White.
- [19:14]
Josh Adam Myers
But the other people on the bill would be like the Jimi Hendrixes.
- [19:17]
DJ Morty Coyle
Sure.
- [19:18]
Josh Adam Myers
And like the Doors, whatever. So you got to imagine also there's a movie called Velvet Gold Mine, which I adore. I've never saw it. I actually saw it right on the street. And it's. It's a very. It's a story of Bowie, but he mixes a lot of like Mark's story and everything. And it's just a fun movie. Great soundtrack. Michael Stipe co produced it. But in this they sort of have that where nobody's really getting it. You know, his like Angie Bowie June is like sitting there adoringly looking at him. But the audience is sort of like, what do we do with this? And as the 60s start going into the 70s, so he comes after this huge thing. They sort of come through America, but they can't really play huge places. There's no relevance to this band, but they're kind of coming through. So they. In London. This record starts in London, New York and a lot at Wally Hyder in Los Angeles. So this is a very Los Angeles record. Bowie sort of does the same thing by the time he gets to Aladdin Scene, where he basically names each. Each, like city on each title track of it. So where we end up here, this record comes out, it has his only. And it's all in the. In the actual songs as we go through it. But he has his really only hits in America based on this. If you don't. If you're not British or you're not aware of it. He was a footnote because Bowie went from Anthony Newley and sort of this British, you know, to Sid Barrett, you know, the Laughing Gnome and all that. And then he starts seeing. And he goes from Hunky Dory, which is very Velvet Underground, very acoustic, which, by the way, like the best David Bowie album. I mean, it's. It's gorgeous and does everything. But while before America gets Hunky Dory, he becomes Ziggy Stardust in no small.
- [21:08]
DJ Morty Coyle
Part, like you said. So Ziggy Stardust is because of this guy.
- [21:11]
Josh Adam Myers
I mean, you could.
- [21:12]
Mark Bolan
Yeah, there's. There's no doubt that you. You would have never had Ziggy without Mark.
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Josh Adam Myers
Yeah. And Mark's first one on stage, first one on television is wearing glitter and he's wearing eyeliner and he's wearing a feather boa. And he's. And he's a dandy.
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DJ Morty Coyle
Yeah.
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Josh Adam Myers
Which is, you know, a dandy boy. Similar to Dandy. He is openly quasi sexual.
- [21:35]
DJ Morty Coyle
And Bowie, are they all kind of in back in the day?
- [21:38]
Josh Adam Myers
I don't know, but he said it. There's one thing just to be it, you know, like when Elton John finally came out some years later. But this class of 71 is exactly what you think of. It's like Elton John and then David Bowie crossing over into Ziggy and then T. Rex and then Slade. And then there's all of this. This glam rock thing happens, which is the precursor to punk rock.
- [22:01]
DJ Morty Coyle
Yeah.
- [22:01]
Josh Adam Myers
And so now we leave the 60s behind, but we bring a lot of the 50s, which is that boogie and that Chuck Berry riffs and the Eddie Cock chinga chinka chinka chink, the Bo Diddley, Everything that we've talked about for years on this podcast, it all builds on it. And Mark has a moment in time. I mean, he has a moment in time with Electric Warrior, and it is as influential for British people. Steve Jones will talk about it from Sex Pistols. Everybody was like, wow. And then Roxy Music.
- [22:34]
DJ Morty Coyle
Sure.
- [22:35]
Mark Bolan
Well, and like, you mentioned, like, Oasis as well. I mean, one of the. On Morning Glory, I remember reading an interview with Noel Gallagher and he's a huge T Rex fan and praises those records. And one technique that Mark and Tony and the band used to do, which was really unique, is they wouldn't start the recording of a song, like, with the drums and bass guitar, and then build on that. They would literally have marked with his acoustic guitar in his own time and tempo. And then they would build on top of this guide track, which would then create this sort of, like, moving song which fluctuates a little bit, but just clicks, no clicks. It's all based on Mark's original feel, which I find really interesting, because there is a difference between when you're writing a song and you're playing it acoustically without a click, and when it gets to a certain section, you might sort of fluctuate ever so slightly or, like, put emphasis.
- [23:45]
Josh Adam Myers
Exciting. Yeah. Throw your shoulder in it.
- [23:47]
Mark Bolan
And I know that when Oasis were recording Morning Glory, that second album, they tried it, but they only did it for one song. Roll with it.
- [23:58]
Josh Adam Myers
Oh, right. On.
- [23:58]
Mark Bolan
Which, once I heard and read, I listened to the whole record. I'm like, actually, that. That particular song does have a very unique feel compared to the rest of the songs on that album. And it's because they obviously adopted that recording technique, which.
- [24:15]
Josh Adam Myers
And that's why they lost the Brit pop wars to. To Blur.
- [24:19]
DJ Morty Coyle
To Blur. Well.
- [24:20]
Josh Adam Myers
No, no, I'm kidding. I'm joking.
- [24:21]
Mark Bolan
I just definitely won that wall.
- [24:23]
Josh Adam Myers
Yeah. Oh. Ultimately. But, I mean, I would say, well, you're going here.
- [24:27]
DJ Morty Coyle
He's going to see the Oasis with a bunch of, like, British comics. I'm going with Jim Jeffries, Jimmy Carr. Yeah, we're going to see him at Wembley. Because I saw. I saw Liam with the guy from the Stone Roses at the Brooklyn Paramount.
- [24:40]
Josh Adam Myers
Yeah, yeah, Squire.
- [24:42]
DJ Morty Coyle
And just the vibes in that room was so. There's so many, like, fun British people doing the chants. And I was like, dude, if. If. If this is what it's like here in Brooklyn, I can only imagine what it's going to be like.
- [24:53]
Mark Bolan
It's going to be nuts.
- [24:54]
Josh Adam Myers
You see it. Wembley. Or they're playing Manchester.
- [24:55]
DJ Morty Coyle
Wembley. They are playing Manchester.
- [24:57]
Josh Adam Myers
I would. I would kill to see them in a Manchester. I. I can't even. I can't even imagine the pandemic.
- [25:02]
DJ Morty Coyle
So. So. So it says, mortu, you wrote the show. But, but. Because we got. We got here. You help. Help me lead this. Like, you tell me where.
- [25:10]
Josh Adam Myers
No, I say we only have as much as we can. We can.
- [25:13]
DJ Morty Coyle
Well, I mean, but we got to hit the main things, though.
- [25:15]
Mark Bolan
Yeah.
- [25:15]
DJ Morty Coyle
So let's do the opening track, Mambo Son. This really showcases the musical interplay between the bluesy boogie guitar percussion elements that defines so much of this record and T Rex in general. Do you have thoughts on this? Or, you know, what do you. What do you think when you. When you hear the opening track?
- [25:34]
Mark Bolan
I mean. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I think it's one of those. It is. Like many songs on this album, there are sort of signature tunes that you just sort of hear and. And heavily associate with the image and, you know, throughout the years, with a lot of these songs being placed in films and whatnot, they sort of harken back to a very specific time in the United Kingdom, which wasn't going through a very good place at that time. And there were strikes happening everywhere. Things are being closed down. The. The working class were really struggling. And it has now all of this imagery attached to it, which is always a great sign of timeless art. But again, this particular song does have everything that you would expect from, like, a typical T Rex track, and that is the percussion elements. It's the sultry, poetic, like, vocal delivery. It's a really sexy groove as well. Yeah. I've met a lot of girls over the years who love T Rex, but specifically this song, adore this one song. And I, you know, I'm like, yeah, it's cool.
- [26:53]
Josh Adam Myers
Yeah.
- [26:54]
Mark Bolan
There's something about it that, you know, like, they're. They're definitely drawn to.
- [26:59]
Josh Adam Myers
And it pulls you in. I mean, it doesn't open the record where most people conventionally would think Electric Warrior. It's a really open with like, get it on.
- [27:06]
Mark Bolan
Yeah.
- [27:07]
Josh Adam Myers
And it goes. And by the way, DJing it is difficult because it's not an even fork. The Freddy just. And he just pops right in and you're like, fuck, just give me. Just give me another four count. So I can set up coming out of something or going into it. But it does. Like, I think if you were a T Rex or a Tyrannosaurus Rex fan, there's already a record and singles in between. This immediately goes. It makes you do this when you're listening to it, which is impressive on a record that is. He's on the COVID holding a guitar in front of a stack. The first thing you would think he was, he would come out of the, like, ac.
- [27:43]
DJ Morty Coyle
Why do you think he would open with this song if, you know, we're expecting so much, like you said, if it's called Electric Warrior, like, what I. Yeah, good question.
- [27:53]
Mark Bolan
I personally think it was a conscious attempt to take his hardcore fans that loved the acoustic whimsical stuff and just gently introduce them into this sort of like new transition that he was going into. Because there are some like, quote, well, in today's standards, not heavy, but there are some heavy hitter hitting songs on this album. And I, I don't know, may I. I personally think it was a gentle introduction of what's to come. So when they put on the vinyl, they're like, okay, this is, this is a bit different, but it's still the mark and band that I know and I love and I've invested in emotionally.
- [28:35]
DJ Morty Coyle
How do you guys figure out on your records, like what would you're going to open with? Because I always thought, you know, we've talked about it like I think doing a mixtape for a girl, because I've never made a record, but it's like you come up, boom with the banger, then you bring it down and then you build it back up. You know how like when you're thinking of opening, you know, a record, like, how do you guys decide?
- [28:54]
Mark Bolan
It really depends. I mean with, with the, the band, I'll try and go with something that really grabs you straight away. But like for instance, with my solo album that just came out a few days ago, I went the complete opposite. And there were a couple of songs like this album that do have massive crescendos and hard hitting drums and whatnot. But I decided to open the whole thing with a, essentially a piano ballad kind of thing which has a bit of a crescendo at the end. But I wanted to the listener to be like, whoa. And draw themselves in and be like, what is this? This was not what I was expecting. So it really depends on the project. Yeah. And I guess what your audience is and the message you also want to convey, you know, and because you have.
- [29:49]
Josh Adam Myers
Such power in your voice, it's also nice to sort of begin with a dynamic shift to sort of go. Because, you know, I, I've been a singer for years. You sing. It's that same thing where you're like, I know you, but let me show you. Let me, let me show you what I'm capable of. Now before you go, oh, that screamer sure can croon. Yeah, it's nice to be able to introduce something like that too and be like, remember, at the core I'm still a singer.
- [30:14]
Mark Bolan
Well, and I think, you know, going back to this track, I think that's, I think that's what he was trying to do is like ease everyone into this, like Kind of new and exciting sound. And. And like you said earlier, like the. The other big moments that he had before this record, it didn't have the drums and it didn't have the bass. And by the way, the rhythm section from this album onwards and the one that he toured with, like, yeah, Untouchable.
- [30:44]
Josh Adam Myers
Bill, Legend and Steve. I blanked on Steve's last name. But Tony Visconti played for a minute because then he ended up being in the hype.
- [30:52]
Mark Bolan
Yeah.
- [30:52]
Josh Adam Myers
With Bowie. But, yeah, no, he. The. The rhythm section on this. And that's the thing too. They got on great and they gave it exactly what.
- [31:01]
Mark Bolan
Oh, it's so.
- [31:02]
Josh Adam Myers
Well, you know, it's just. And they locked. And Bill's drum style. Bill Legend, I believe Bill's drum style was like Ringo.
- [31:09]
Mark Bolan
Yeah.
- [31:09]
Josh Adam Myers
He did these Tom Phil things that wasn't like, you know, even John Bonham was very. It was like. Like, it gave us so much space and was like. It laid back. It never got uptight on those tracks, which gives it. With, you know, Mickey still banging away, it gives it that space.
- [31:30]
Mark Bolan
Oh, I think that's why, like, you talk about Ringo and like in the. In the movie, in Born to Boogie, when you've got Ringo and the drummer both playing with each other, it's like, have you seen that?
- [31:44]
Josh Adam Myers
Yeah, yeah.
- [31:45]
Mark Bolan
They. They're doing, I believe, is Tutti Fruity. The Little Richards.
- [31:49]
Josh Adam Myers
Yeah, love that.
- [31:50]
Mark Bolan
And you've got Ringo and Mark Strummer, both with kind of similar styles, drumming in unison, which was a huge thing. And Perry.
- [31:59]
Josh Adam Myers
Nilsson started doing it with Richard Perry and all those John Lennon Pussycats.
- [32:03]
Mark Bolan
And Gary Guer as well, the Glitter band, like, they would. They. Everyone started doing stuff and recording tracks with two drummers simultaneously playing, which became like the. The bedrock for what would be like.
- [32:16]
Josh Adam Myers
The sound was a wall of sound life, you know, and they could. I mean, when you see Ringo and Keltner or any of those guys and they just, you know, listen to Pussycats too. The record the Harry Nil or the John. The Harry Nielsen record John Lennon produced. It's a cocaine festival.
- [32:35]
Mark Bolan
Oh, I need to hear.
- [32:37]
Josh Adam Myers
Oh, when John was here for the May Paying Lost Weekend, right. He recorded this record and there's covers on it of Subterranean Homesick Blues.
- [32:45]
Mark Bolan
Really?
- [32:45]
Josh Adam Myers
Oh, it's. If you've never heard it. Wow. And here we go. Like, it's just. And the. It's like the same. What'd you expect? Keith Moon? The Hollywood Vampires. Yeah, yeah, Moon and this guy. But with John Lennon and them screaming over. And this is where Like, Harry lost a lot of his high end of his voice. They screamed till they were spitting blood in a bucket of, like, trying to outdo each other, Lennon and him. Cocaine, whiskey or whatever.
- [33:11]
DJ Morty Coyle
Brandy, have you ever gotten into that kind of. When you're. Because I'm seeing you on stage doing the Beacon, and I mean, and singing. You have such a great voice. And I think singers, we kind of have that. We just, you know. I mean, I was. When I was jamming with Jelly Roll the other night, we're doing how youw Remind Me, which is not a fucking. We're doing a Nickelback song. It's not. It's not fucking.
- [33:30]
Josh Adam Myers
This.
- [33:30]
DJ Morty Coyle
This interview's over. It's not. But. But, you know, all due respect, we. It's a great song.
- [33:36]
Mark Bolan
The crazy crowd, great writer, man.
- [33:38]
Josh Adam Myers
It's a generational thing. I don't get it. It's exactly where it needs to be.
- [33:42]
DJ Morty Coyle
Right? But we. But, like, we. You can see that we're. We're vibing. Oh, you're gonna go for that? No, you go for that. Have you had. There are other singers? Like, is there another singer from another band that you have, like, you have, like, a little unspoken competition with that you're friends with? I mean, not like, unless you want to. You want to spill the beans. You're like, dude, I hate the guy.
- [34:02]
Josh Adam Myers
Yeah. Who are the Struts? Stones, Beatles or T. Rex? You know, Bowie or that. You sort of go, you know. Or they go, I'll have that. And you say, I'll have that.
- [34:11]
Mark Bolan
It's tough because we're kind of a bit out there on our own in terms of, like, genre and whatnot. And honestly, I don't. The only person I'm in competition with is mainly myself.
- [34:26]
DJ Morty Coyle
Sure.
- [34:26]
Mark Bolan
If that not sound corny.
- [34:28]
Josh Adam Myers
No, no.
- [34:29]
Mark Bolan
But, yeah, it's true. But to try and answer your question, I think that there's been very few people that I've sort of seen, and not in a super cocky way, but where I'm sort of like, I could do that. Or I could do that, but I could do that even better. But I remember when I met Steven Tyler for the first time and I spent some time with him in Maui, and he was recording some music. And this would have been about nine years ago, and I couldn't believe, like, the control he had and the range that he still had.
- [35:12]
Josh Adam Myers
Still. I mean, now it's harder. Yeah, but.
- [35:14]
Mark Bolan
Yeah, but like, even. I mean, eight years ago, when I was watching him, he would. He would get up and there was a Couple of times I saw him perform and he did dream on and you know, at the very end where he slips into that head slash chest voice, that's hard. Not only is it extremely difficult and you, and I think you genuinely have to be like genetically gifted. You have to be him to do that. Yeah, but the, like I said, the control and like the, the precision and the pitch, I was genuinely like flawed. And I, I definitely think he's, he's one of the, the absolute greats. And, and yeah, I mean I also admire singers that have completely different voices from my own. Like, like Scott Walker and these sort of really beautiful, silky, deep crooners. Because I'll never be able to have that, you know, and that, that control of like the vibrato, which to some people kind of sounds a bit corny, but there's a certain level of technique which I also admire and, and I know is kind of unreachable, but just because of like the way that I'm built, you know, physically so.
- [36:32]
DJ Morty Coyle
Hey everybody. So you guys have probably heard me talk about how I've been in bands my whole life. I love writing songs and performing in front of crowds. Just like with comedy. As a musician it can be kind of hard to cut through the noise and really stand out as an artist. I feel like half the music projects I've been in have ended just because we couldn't figure out the answer to that eternal question of how do we get people to hear us. But then again, that was before there was Distrokid. Distrokid is a digital music distribution service that brings your sound to the masses. It's a one stop shop for getting your songs on itunes, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon, Deezer, Tidal and many more. What's Deezer? I never even heard of Deezer. How many of them are there? I know that's like the holy grail of streaming services though. And getting paid. They want to. We want to get you paid for your music. That's huge because a lot of bands go broke before they get big. But Distrokid collects earnings and payments and sends 100% of these earnings to artists minus banking fees and applicable taxes. And that's just one of the tons of benefits of using Distrokid. You can send big files to anyone with their instant share feature. You can use the Hyper Follow feature to promote your release and get pre saves on your song. You can even create personal landing pages for yourself, your band, your brand, and whatever you like. It has a free Spotify canvas generator too to generate your own Spotify canvas for your songs in the mix feature instantly masters your tracks for higher quality audio. So if you're ready to bring your band to the next level, it's time to check out Distrokid. The Distrokid app is now available on iOS and Android. Go to the app or Play Store to download it. Listeners of this show can get 30% off their first year by going to distrokid.com VIP the 500. That's distrokid.com VIP the500 for 30% off your first year. Dig it.
- [38:42]
Josh Adam Myers
Imagine Scott Walker. Well, you have the sort of the look with the sunglasses today too. But Scott Walker, they were American guys who went to England and blew up there. And the song the Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore is probably the most known song by them. But he was like a crooner, but he almost was like a proto goth in his entire. And then he became incredibly out there. But those records are like. Like these almost like not power ballads. Emptiness. It has a certain. And Brian Ferry too. You can hear a lot that came.
- [39:14]
Mark Bolan
After the Jacques Braille covers.
- [39:16]
DJ Morty Coyle
Yeah.
- [39:17]
Mark Bolan
Of like that were translated into English that he sort of. I'm pretty sure for his first four albums, he. He put maybe one or two of them in every record.
- [39:28]
Josh Adam Myers
Michelle Le grand sort of stuff that he. That is just.
- [39:31]
Mark Bolan
I mean, it was a lot of French. Old French music or Belgium, whatever you want to call it. And then it was really unique because he's obviously American, but to look at him, to listen to him, you're like, oh, this is definitely a British.
- [39:47]
Josh Adam Myers
I thought he was British.
- [39:48]
Mark Bolan
Yeah.
- [39:49]
Josh Adam Myers
It was like when the Strokes got fed back to us or Terrence Trent Darby, all of a sudden we were like, oh, there's this. Even Jimi Hendrix, when he came back, people just assumed he was British. Yeah, yeah.
- [39:58]
Mark Bolan
It's like Killers were probably the most.
- [40:00]
Josh Adam Myers
Yeah, they all broke there. Came here and I'm reading British magazines going like, oh, I got to get this new record. And then I'm like, they're from.
- [40:07]
DJ Morty Coyle
From Vegas.
- [40:09]
Josh Adam Myers
I was like, I could have gone three hours and seen him. Yeah, yeah. Anyway. Yeah.
- [40:13]
DJ Morty Coyle
So I. So we only have a little bit more time. What are the main other. I would. I would.
- [40:17]
Josh Adam Myers
The next.
- [40:18]
DJ Morty Coyle
So Cosmic Dancer.
- [40:19]
Josh Adam Myers
Cosmic, yeah.
- [40:20]
Mark Bolan
Cosmic Dancer.
- [40:22]
Josh Adam Myers
This is template.
- [40:23]
Mark Bolan
And speaking of movies, you know, I mean, the. The opening scene for. For the movie. Elliot. Yeah, that's. I think. Gosh, I was. I was quite young when that came out. But I do remember very clearly the scene of Billy Sort of jumping in slow mo with this song playing in the background. And that almost encapsulates all of the emotion and the feel of this song. It is. It's really magic.
- [40:53]
Josh Adam Myers
Yeah.
- [40:54]
Mark Bolan
And the drumming on this as well is just brilliant towards the end.
- [40:58]
Josh Adam Myers
Very much like the day in the life. That sort of spacey. I mean, you see here. See what's there.
- [41:05]
DJ Morty Coyle
Do we read it?
- [41:05]
Josh Adam Myers
Yeah. Yeah. And by the way, if you want to know the lasting impact of this song. 1991 at the Forum in Los Angeles. Morrissey covers this. Who comes out and does the duet with him? David Bowie.
- [41:17]
Mark Bolan
Wow.
- [41:17]
Josh Adam Myers
Yeah. There's a recording of it.
- [41:19]
Mark Bolan
Have you heard Nick Cave do this?
- [41:21]
Josh Adam Myers
No, but it makes absolute sense.
- [41:23]
Mark Bolan
Really.
- [41:24]
Josh Adam Myers
Like it makes absolute. Scott Walker would have done it.
- [41:26]
Mark Bolan
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
- [41:27]
Josh Adam Myers
I was dancing. Brian Ferry, too. Yeah.
- [41:30]
DJ Morty Coyle
So never a single, but even as album track, it remains beloved, endearing to the T Rex fans. It's about reincarnation and living a full life. And got both of these when it was featured as the opening song to the wonderful 2001 film Billy Elliot, about a poor English boy who aspired to become a dancer despite his father's initial reluctance. They might have seen Billy Elliot.
- [41:55]
Josh Adam Myers
You never seen it now, now.
- [41:56]
DJ Morty Coyle
He was.
- [41:57]
Josh Adam Myers
Originally.
- [41:57]
DJ Morty Coyle
He watched an alien.
- [41:58]
Josh Adam Myers
It was a play and then it was a movie and then it was a musical. Elton John ended up doing the music for another acolyte. I mean, another T Rex. Contemporary and a fan. And then he ended up doing the music for the musical. But like. Like Long Legs. It's a pretty much a big T. Rex.
- [42:15]
DJ Morty Coyle
Oh, wow.
- [42:16]
Josh Adam Myers
Yeah.
- [42:16]
Mark Bolan
It's.
- [42:16]
Josh Adam Myers
Because it's. It's of its time. It's supposed to be contemporary to that.
- [42:20]
DJ Morty Coyle
So let's. Let's take it. So Jeepster thoughts on that?
- [42:24]
Josh Adam Myers
What do you question? Were you really a dancer or was that. Was that really a thing? Or is that just sort of in the bio about one.
- [42:31]
Mark Bolan
When I was younger, I definitely. That was my first love and passion. I love that I wanted to essentially join a ballet school and everything and. And. And do that whole business.
- [42:43]
Josh Adam Myers
Wow.
- [42:44]
Mark Bolan
Yeah.
- [42:44]
Josh Adam Myers
Something talk you out of it or was it just.
- [42:46]
Mark Bolan
Yeah, I think it was. It was a. It was a reality of if I was to have gone, it would have been like a boarding school.
- [42:57]
Josh Adam Myers
Gotcha.
- [42:57]
Mark Bolan
And all this kind of stuff. And I don't think my parents wanted someone else bringing me up.
- [43:03]
Josh Adam Myers
Gotcha.
- [43:03]
Mark Bolan
And you know what? Like, it's totally fine. In fact, one of my. My cousins ended up taking on that, going down that path and joining the Royal Ballet.
- [43:13]
Josh Adam Myers
I was gonna ask. Wow. That's as prestigious as you can get. Yeah. And I think Billy Elliot, I mean, I don't, I don't want to blow any of it.
- [43:19]
Mark Bolan
Yeah. I think he ends up in the London royal one.
- [43:22]
Josh Adam Myers
Yeah. I didn't. I don't want to. Spoiler. Spoiler alert. He's a dancer.
- [43:27]
Mark Bolan
Yeah.
- [43:27]
DJ Morty Coyle
Yeah.
- [43:28]
Mark Bolan
No, it's a great film and you'll love it.
- [43:30]
Josh Adam Myers
Yeah, it's, it's. It's a classic. And I saw that. I was married to a British woman at the time when I saw it, and I was. And it was just one of those.
- [43:38]
Mark Bolan
But what do you think of Jeepster then?
- [43:40]
Josh Adam Myers
Hit it.
- [43:40]
DJ Morty Coyle
Oh, I love it. Jeepster. Mark has acknowledged that he based this on this. On a Howlin World song. Helen Wolf, what's you had world? It recorrected me and Howlin Wolf song written by Willie Dixon called you'll Be Mine. And besides lifting ideas from old blues records like the Stones and Led Zeppelin, this also utilizes the long standing tradition of using a car as a metaphor for a sex object or act. Yeah, great song.
- [44:10]
Josh Adam Myers
I mean, this is, this is. Yeah, this is the boogiest. This is the first epic boogie on this record. And it's just. I mean, it's that I could just do that rhythm to somebody if I just went stomp. You just go, oh, it's Jeepster. And then it became Lay Down Sally for Eric Clapton. And it's. I mean, this is. This to me is a better song than Get it on. But it's. Well, because I love Get it on. But I hear get it after I've heard it a couple times. Like with Jeepster, it still has that I love.
- [44:48]
Mark Bolan
I look. Controversial opinion. I love Jeepster. Sonically, it does not sound as good as Get it on in my opinion.
- [44:56]
Josh Adam Myers
I agree.
- [44:57]
Mark Bolan
I love the use of the language. I mean, what was what I find really interesting about this song in particular? I've seen, I've seen footage of it live. I mean, can you imagine what the. I mean, what the mum and dads would have thought of with the line like, I'm a vampire for your love and I'm gonna suck it. And the way that he says it.
- [45:17]
Josh Adam Myers
As lascivious as he can it.
- [45:19]
Mark Bolan
Like, so you're going from the worried parents. You had to deal with the Rolling Stones and the Beatles with Satisfaction, et cetera, or this rebellion. And then with Mark, it's like hyper sexualized. And the way that he sings and his like body language, it just took. It took all of that, like, to a completely different new level, which the. The younger generation of the United Kingdom hadn't seen, you know, all too well.
- [45:49]
Josh Adam Myers
So, yeah, it's a knockout. And then if you. Yeah, you can. Like I was saying, one thing I noticed about that is because of all the acoustic kind of. It doesn't have a clean sound, like, Get It On, Get it on is. But with this one, it's like, even with. It's not as. It's not as focused when it has its hits.
- [46:12]
Mark Bolan
Right.
- [46:12]
Josh Adam Myers
So you end up with a lot of sort of artifacts on the track that you can hear and it. Like where the band's not landing on the one together at the same time. Yeah.
- [46:22]
Mark Bolan
It was probably just one of those things that happens in the studio where stuff gets moved around. We got it, you know, and like, I don't know, like, it's like. It's so many things. Even where you place a drum kit in a room can change, like, the way, like, everything else gets picked up. But for me, and I've said this before in a few other interviews, but Get it on to me is possibly the greatest sounding song I think, that's ever been recorded.
- [46:56]
Josh Adam Myers
Wow.
- [46:57]
Mark Bolan
I. I don't know what it does to me. Maybe it's. It's the perfect mixture of, like, the. The groove and that. The mix itself. But there's something about it. Like, even now, it's that it sounds so fresh to me and exciting and every time, not necessarily with my solo stuff, but when I'm doing stuff with, like, the band, I always keep coming back to that and just be like, how can. How can I grab a little bit of that magic, you know? But it still sounds just so effortless.
- [47:37]
Josh Adam Myers
But yet those downward flams is where it comes alive to me, is where could you hear the ching, ching, ching, ching, ching? You can't. But then it's the. Just the sound of. Of the snare coming down with, like, almost like the piano trill on it. And it's just like, incredible. Well, we should do that one next. And then we.
- [47:55]
DJ Morty Coyle
This is the. The second UK Chart topper was retitled Bang A Gong with Get it on in parentheses for U.S. release to avoid confusion with the same titled song by the band Chase, which nobody knows.
- [48:08]
Josh Adam Myers
Nobody knows this song.
- [48:09]
DJ Morty Coyle
It became their only U. S top top 10 hit. The backing vocals were provided by the Turtles, Howard Kalin and Mark Volman under their pseudonyms Flo and Eddie, with this swaggering toe tapper helping to further the T. Rex to see which is. Which is Mark Boland's version of Beetle Mania, as was. As it was called. We can only assume that similarly to the car metaphors we discussed earlier. Getting it on, banging a gong. Carry on the rock and roll tradition of being euphemism. Euphemisms for sex. Which by the way, rock and roll.
- [48:43]
Josh Adam Myers
Well.
- [48:45]
DJ Morty Coyle
Yeah, dude, you said you were. You were raised in a religious household. So without secular music.
- [48:53]
Mark Bolan
Defined secular, sorry.
- [48:55]
Josh Adam Myers
Prior, not non religious.
- [48:57]
Mark Bolan
Oh, right, right, right. Yeah. But it's. It's a funny thing because my, my mum, when she was growing up, she was into Queen and she was into T Rex, Gordon, Lightfoot, abba that, you.
- [49:11]
Josh Adam Myers
Know, so she heard the radio, it wasn't cut off.
- [49:14]
Mark Bolan
And so was my, my dad. You know, they. They loved all of that stuff, but it was. It just wasn't really hanging around all that much, you know. And. And I honestly, I feel so lucky to have sort of not had that because when I was 15 and everyone around me was like Green Day, American IDIOT and Blink 182 and all of this sort of stuff that I just couldn't connect with the Warp tour, which was so American to me and I was just like, nah, I don't really get it. And then hearing these songs and these artists, those are the ones where I was like, wow. Like, not only does it resonate for me, but it's also. I have a direct link to it. You know, this is also my musical heritage in many ways, you know, which is I find really inspiring even till this day.
- [50:11]
Josh Adam Myers
And that's a pride thing, which I think a lot of people, because, you know, the Beatles, everybody was imitating, you know, they were feeding us back black music.
- [50:19]
Mark Bolan
Yeah.
- [50:19]
Josh Adam Myers
Because we weren't hip enough to get it here.
- [50:21]
Mark Bolan
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [50:22]
Josh Adam Myers
And then it was like, even with the British stuff at the same time I've remarked to him and to anybody that at that point in time that you were listening and I don't want to say white music, black music, but because hip hop had become so hegemonic in music, these people in these short pants rock bands had. Were as. Were trying to be as white as possible. Everyone went from when you came up, you always wanted to have a little bit of soul. Freddie or anybody had a little bit of. But they were like, I just can't get out with. It's all downstroke. It's like their voice matches downstroke guitar. They don't want. They realize I'm never going to beat that. I'm never going to be as soulful or sexy Right. So I'm going to go the other way and sing as nasal as I can.
- [51:10]
DJ Morty Coyle
And.
- [51:10]
Josh Adam Myers
And I re. And I. As a singer, I noticed, I was like, wow. Because even when swing music arbitrarily happened, because black music became too good at it, and before Eminem, because until Eminem, white people couldn't figure out they had mental ice and they lost it. But it was that coming up. I can imagine what that must have sounded like to ears that heard this and the warmth and. And then heard this. Very sort of. It wasn't even angular. It was just like kind of tantrumic. Angry. Like angry white people, like in. In crowds jumping up and down.
- [51:44]
Mark Bolan
Yeah.
- [51:45]
Josh Adam Myers
And I would have gone like, oh, I would. I mean, I gave any. I'd probably listen to what you were listening. Yeah.
- [51:49]
Mark Bolan
I mean, look. I mean, there's. Especially now that there's so much at our fingertips, which is a real sort of, like, gift, and it's amazing, and I absolutely love it, I think. But with all of that, like, being said, it is sort of. It's really important to sort of stay true to yourself and love what you love and. And when you can as well. Sort of. What I've always tried to do is at least, if I'm. If I'm not gonna particularly be the biggest fan of something, I'm gonna at least sort of, like, really do some research and, like, think about, well, why is it that something's not connecting with me? But, you know, going back to everything we're speaking about now, it's like. You're right. I mean, talk about soul, like, there's. There's so much of that in this music. And just to sort of expand on what you said earlier in terms of. In many ways, musically, like T. Rex or Mark, essentially, the songwriter, you know, is sort of very much imitating his, like, American black heroes, like the Stones were, like the Beatles did in their early days. But the funny thing is, like the Stones, for instance, it's like. It's almost white kids plagiarizing it. Yeah, right. To the extent where Mick has. Like that. Yeah. He has the American accent. The Beatles sort of had that. What's really different about Mark, and especially on the songs on this album, is, for instance, Cosmic Dancer. He doesn't say dancer. I was dancing when I. It's one of the first artists to really embrace, like, his sort of, like, uk, like, roots and his culture. And I think that also has something to do with when he was a younger man in. In. In the mod scene as well. And I think that sort of early 60s mod thing was one of the first sort of musical movements where they were saying to themselves, like, you know what? We're not going to look to the United States and we're not going to look to the blues and all these other. Other artists like Howlin Wolf, etc, in terms of what we're going to say. We're going to talk about our own struggles and we're going to talk about the. The towns that we live in. We're going to name these places. You know, I mean, the who being one of the.
- [54:27]
Josh Adam Myers
Oh, yeah.
- [54:27]
Mark Bolan
Absolute, like, leaders.
- [54:29]
Josh Adam Myers
And then the King's getting left.
- [54:31]
Mark Bolan
Exactly.
- [54:31]
Josh Adam Myers
American Dust. And then his entire, you know, over his entire life of lyrics of that point are him literally naming. Yeah, he became a darling of British society because he was like, no, no, I'm good. I mean, we already did that blues thing. I'm going to literally sing about the, you know, Preservation Society and I'm going to sing about incredibly British things. And that's why the Kings to this day, our beloved in a way that almost none of the other bands are. Yeah, way. None of the other bands are in England because they. Because they. Because of visa issues and insulting.
- [55:07]
DJ Morty Coyle
Sure, I know that. I know the whole story.
- [55:09]
Josh Adam Myers
Of course, we had Dave Davis on.
- [55:11]
Mark Bolan
Oh, okay.
- [55:12]
Josh Adam Myers
Because of it. They never really got to break America till years later they stayed insular and became like, well, we're not leaving you for America, so here's what we're giving you. And they gave the dedicated follower of fashion and. Yeah, everything that you hear about Blur, where you think Blur sounds too British, is direct lineage.
- [55:33]
Mark Bolan
I've. I've worked with quite. I mean, I've had phases where I've really wanted to do something very English on. On a lot of albums that I've done. And working with American producers that they call it Fish and Chip Rock.
- [55:47]
DJ Morty Coyle
Right. Which makes absolute.
- [55:49]
Mark Bolan
Which I really loved that term. Butch Walker, actually.
- [55:52]
Josh Adam Myers
Well, that makes sense.
- [55:53]
Mark Bolan
Yeah. He coined that phrase when I was working with him, but it's totally right. But I mean, again, going back to. What makes Mark, like, so unique is he is using, like, musically the influences of his American heroes. But again, it's his choice of language, which I think really sets him apart from everyone else. It's that mixture of his sort of Tolkien fascination, which a lot of bands had at the time. I mean, Zeppelin, Plant, you know, they were all doing it at some point. But meeting that with this kind of like boogie woogie 12 bar kind of thing, it did create something really, really Unique. And to be honest, those bands that followed after T Rex, when he began to sort of gracefully, not. Well, not so graceful. Descend.
- [56:47]
Josh Adam Myers
Yeah.
- [56:48]
Mark Bolan
He, you know, they just couldn't. They couldn't touch on his. On his originality. And it became sort of like a genre of music that the songwriters with their lab coats got into the studio and produced songs for like, Sweet and Mud.
- [57:07]
Josh Adam Myers
Yeah. Mike Chapman. We did a record with Mike Chapman and he told us all the stories and they were the best. But that's what the chap. The Chin chap. You know, Chin and Chapman, they were all that stomp, all that Gary Glitter stomp, all the sweet stomp. All this. I mean, Slade. It really all comes from kind of a wall of something, but a very concentrated effort to kind of do a T. Rex.
- [57:32]
Mark Bolan
Yeah.
- [57:32]
Josh Adam Myers
What is it. What is it that makes the audience. We will rock you in 77 is exactly like. When you listen to that, you're kind of like, oh, it's communal stadium music. You can't go wrong. You can't ask people to play polyrhythms with their hands.
- [57:50]
Mark Bolan
Yeah.
- [57:50]
Josh Adam Myers
But you can ask anybody to stomp, clap, stomp, stomp, clap and that. Get it on. It's Jeepster and all that.
- [57:56]
Mark Bolan
And to circle back, go full circle moment Rider, White Swan, which basically opened the door to. To everyone to T Rex. Again, it is just a stim. It's a simple.
- [58:09]
Josh Adam Myers
Yeah.
- [58:11]
Mark Bolan
And you watch all the old footage of when it went number one in the uk, I believe it went number one.
- [58:16]
Josh Adam Myers
Yeah, that was. That was the first. That was the kick the door open moment because Deborah and all those. They were bummed, didn't find. And then Hot Love, I believe.
- [58:24]
Mark Bolan
And then you. You see all of the kids and it's one of the first, like, moments where the kids are all sort of actually like, participating in the music, like, and. And having their very own number one record with their own, you know, generational new generation.
- [58:41]
Josh Adam Myers
God knew it wasn't your. It wasn't. I'm at home with the Beatles and the Stones as Bowie, you know, cleverly sort of encapsulated. Yeah, it was. This is your generation's music. And in. From the 60s to the 70s, and if you were lucky enough to be in 71, 72, to be 8 years old or 9 years old up until teenager, this T Rex to see was real. It's unbelievable in America because it's like hearing about like Five Star or somebody that never really broke here. I mean, Spice Girls to a degree, but Spice Girls were huge. Imagine, like Spice Girls not breaking America.
- [59:17]
DJ Morty Coyle
Yeah.
- [59:17]
Josh Adam Myers
And somebody trying to explain it to you. Well, it's like Girl Power and they.
- [59:20]
Mark Bolan
Wear big shoes.
- [59:23]
Josh Adam Myers
And one's at this and one's called Scary and one's called Posh. Rich. There's somebody called Rich? No, it's like she's like. That's a whole idea. And it. I don't think even in America, I mean, when Power station in the 80s with Robert Palmer, right before he broke again, when he did get it, when they did get it on, it's like, like their first single was something like it Hot. It's. To us it was just sort of like a song we vaguely knew. Being redone in this with, you know, the chic drummer and like this, you know, with this guys from Duran Duran, that was more important. But when you really, you know, the way they did it with all this like weird technology. Well, they didn't realize in America we heard it as like. Exactly. It was the Power Station, so get it on Bangalore. But I understand is what they were doing was a song from like, you know, 15 years earlier that was the biggest monumental hit from this band. And they're sort of feeding it back to us with, you know, famous British people.
- [60:25]
DJ Morty Coyle
Sure.
- [60:25]
Josh Adam Myers
You know, so.
- [60:26]
Mark Bolan
Yeah.
- [60:26]
DJ Morty Coyle
Well, my question is because. Because like, obviously both of you guys, like, I'm just becoming a fan. So then why isn't T Rex in the discussion of like for. When we're talking about Americans saying, oh, the biggest British, you know, rock bands of all time. Why do you think T Rex just never got.
- [60:43]
Mark Bolan
I. I think it could be a combination where it's the million dollar question. I. I personally think it's a combination of the. The short lived, like bright moment that he had, which a few other bands that also had, like Slade for instance, is probably one of the only other sort of like collectives like T Rex in that time where it was just one number one after the next in England, in the United Kingdom. Right.
- [61:16]
DJ Morty Coyle
Yeah.
- [61:17]
Mark Bolan
And then I think what happens is when you have that sort of level of success and that pressure, you start to. I think Mark may have like began to believe his own hype, his ego. And he was, he was already one to sort of like spin a yarn and create almost like a fantasy sort of Persona for like people around him and the public.
- [61:48]
DJ Morty Coyle
And.
- [61:50]
Mark Bolan
You know, I think, I think he may have just sort of like ran out of wrong of kind of ideas.
- [61:56]
Josh Adam Myers
Yeah.
- [61:56]
Mark Bolan
The opportune moment when he should have been breaking American and it really, it really stayed with him. And I think that was the. The most bittersweet pill he had to swallow was, you know, David, the person that he, you know, really kind of influenced sonically, was able to do that. And Mark was never able.
- [62:21]
Josh Adam Myers
Yeah.
- [62:21]
Mark Bolan
Even when he came back and cleaned up his act and he had.
- [62:24]
Josh Adam Myers
He had a television show, if you want to know how big this guy was. He had a show called Mark that Bowie ended up going on and doing it. And in the. And in the saddest and the most like, metaphorical way, Mark slips off the stage while they're playing together and gets back on. Yeah, it's like. But it's one of those. Like, if you wrote it, you'd go, oh, what about if he just, like, what if his shoe and he sort of slips out of frame and then gets back. But that it was, you know, because what Mark did. Bowie was an incredibly adaptive chameleon, as we've talked about. He knew when to pivot and he knew when to go like, oh, I also like. And Mark very much took all the imagery and all this stuff and had. Because it was a lot of. It still had that Boogie Woogie thing. Once you've heard enough of it, it's like Gary Glitter. If I play you three Gary Glitter songs, I need never play you another Gary Glitter song before you go. I get it.
- [63:20]
Mark Bolan
I think what's also interesting, though, is, like, we've seen. We've seen this a lot. I mean, going back to a question you asked me in terms of, like, oh, you know, who's my band? The Struts, Sort of like Beatles to the Stones, for instance. I think there's so much to do with timing as well. I mean, I think Mark, you know, was probably ahead of the curb of what was. What was. What the Americans were. Were ready for. I mean, that's something that I've personally experienced. When my band first broke, essentially, in the US was like, 2016 and late 2015, like, one of our biggest songs was such a. An unexpected, like, success. And it was the worst time to be, like, in a rock band in 2015.
- [64:19]
Josh Adam Myers
Right.
- [64:20]
Mark Bolan
I mean, you would have listened to the alternate radio stations, which is where we were heavily, like, played on. There was no guitar music whatsoever. And we were sort of, like, waving this flag of consciously really wanting to bring back a real throwback, vintage, like, rock sound. And, you know, we pushed, push, pushed and pushed for that, and our trajectory was looking really great and healthy. And then, of course, Covert happened. But I've also seen, like, other bands like, you know, Greta Van Fleet, for instance, and who we took out on their first tour ever kidding. And they were out with us for months and months and months and they were. They just sort of really began and you know, and. And for reasons that no one really knows. It's just some things like connect at the right moment and. And I think. I think someone like Mark was probably responsible in. In some ways even if it was just one song or, or a whole bunch of interviews that he. He had done for the US press. So just subtly people getting ready for someone like David Bowie.
- [65:39]
Josh Adam Myers
Right. He made it okay.
- [65:41]
Mark Bolan
Yeah.
- [65:42]
Josh Adam Myers
For the glitter to get.
- [65:43]
Mark Bolan
Exactly.
- [65:44]
DJ Morty Coyle
So we have the heart out. So I want to get the rap as fast as you can do these. This has been so.
- [65:48]
Josh Adam Myers
The one thing I want to say though we literally have like this good quick is just that you were championed by. I'm friends with Matt Sorum and a lot of people. All those rock bands really exalted you in when you came here because they saw kinship. A lot of those rock bands, you know, the David Grohls and Taylor. I mean rest in peace. A lot of those people you were. I mean every time he would post it would be like see what Luke and the Struts are doing.
- [66:13]
Mark Bolan
Yeah.
- [66:14]
Josh Adam Myers
Right now. Because they're the. His. They're the new sound.
- [66:17]
DJ Morty Coyle
As fast as we can do it. Favorite song on the record.
- [66:20]
Mark Bolan
My favorite song on Electric Warrior is Get It On.
- [66:23]
DJ Morty Coyle
Is there anything you skip over? No, no. Can you to this?
- [66:29]
Mark Bolan
Oh, absolutely.
- [66:31]
DJ Morty Coyle
What's your elevator pitch? How do you get somebody to listen to this that's never heard it? You basically already said it. But how do you sum it up in a sentence?
- [66:37]
Mark Bolan
I would say if you're into mystical rock and roll with a filthy, bluesy, sexy rhythm to it, this is the album for you.
- [66:49]
DJ Morty Coyle
Take it. Promote away everything you want to promote work. You said the new record's coming out or it just came out.
- [66:55]
Mark Bolan
Yeah, I just had a. I just released my first debut solo album entitled Love Will Probably Kill Me Before Cigarettes and Wine. My. It's available to buy and stream everywhere at the moment. And my. My band the Struts, we're about to embark on a. A ten year anniversary tour celebrating our release of our debut album that came out 10 years ago. And we're going to be hitting all across the United States and tickets are on sale.
- [67:26]
Josh Adam Myers
The struts.com now do you play any solo stuff on a Struts tour or the guy sort of like.
- [67:32]
Mark Bolan
Well, I think for now we're just gonna.
- [67:34]
Josh Adam Myers
Because you have duets, Kesha And Jo Eliot. Yeah. You've worked with a lot of people.
- [67:38]
DJ Morty Coyle
All right, we got to get out of here. This has been so great. Thank you.
- [67:40]
Mark Bolan
Thanks for having me, man.
- [67:41]
Josh Adam Myers
Thank you.
- [67:43]
DJ Morty Coyle
What I tell you?
- [67:44]
Josh Adam Myers
What did I tell you?
- [67:44]
DJ Morty Coyle
The one and only Luke Spiller. Follow him on Instagram at Luke Spiller and at the Struts on Facebook. The Struts. And you can find them at the struts.com and check out the Struts Life podcast and their latest album, Can't Stop Talking. Their music is great. Really, really dig the rock and roll that they guys are producing. Morty wanted me to say something. According to Roland Boland, Mark Son, the new documentary film Angel Headed Hipster, the Songs of Mark Bolan and T Rex is set to be released in July. So hopefully you guys can see it and carry on your own T Rex to see soon. So check out that documentary now for new music pick this week. We just listened to Electric Warrior by T Rex this week it's She's Just Like California brought to you in part by just your kid. It's from Luke's solo record Love Will Probably Kill Me because before Cigarettes and Wine and you can find links to the music on our website the500podcast.com and if you are in a band or were directly influenced by one of these albums artists, you want your music featured on the 500 section of the album of the thing. Send us your song to 500 podcast gmail.com and we will play it next week. It's number 159 with Kiss Alive from 75. Do your homework y' all Be.
- [69:07]
Josh Adam Myers
Loving.
- [69:08]
Evan
Her Loving me Jesus life California I haven't seen her since the rain Stall me Eyes that'll pull you wonder you she wrote goodbye but not a name and I wish she'd stay forever the only one that I will need.
- [69:49]
Josh Adam Myers
I.
- [69:49]
Evan
Close my eyes and pray that I'll see you soon someday until I I hold her in these arms again she's just like California Riding high along the way Starry eyes aband the summer.
- [70:19]
Josh Adam Myers
That.
- [70:19]
Evan
I mel the sun see again.
- [70:25]
Mark Bolan
She'S just like California Holds me like California.
- [70:36]
Evan
She'S just like California Holds me like California Jesus Like California Kisses me to.
- [70:59]
Josh Adam Myers
Slide the rain.
- [71:03]
Evan
Eyes like stars that make you wonder I was born to know to make California she just like California I haven't seen her since the.
- [71:24]
DJ Morty Coyle
Rain.
- [71:37]
Evan
The 500 keeping it fleecy.
- [71:45]
DJ Morty Coyle
For the fleece nation.
- [71:49]
Evan
On the 500.
- [71:53]
Mark Bolan
The.
- [71:54]
Evan
500.
- [72:02]
Josh Adam Myers
Next Chapter podcast.