Life After Glam (part 1)

So with the glam rock years slowly fading into memory - what music was produced by some of its guiding lights?

Slade: Nobody's Fool (a-side) released in 1976 - This song did not chart at all even in the UK, the first Slade song to do so. In fact they didn't have another top 40 hit until 1981.

Sweet: Stairway to the Stars (a-side) released in 1977 - As with Slade this song did not chart in the UK. They would only have one other major hit with Love is Like Oxygen in 1978.

T Rex: Dandy in the Underworld (a-side) released in 1977 - This also didn't chart. For Marc Bolan and T Rex it was a case of diminishing returns as far as chart action was concerned.









I guess the time for the big glam acts to have major hits was over. But I can't help thinking that had the above songs been released in 73 or 74 they would have been top 10.

Slade: Nobody's Fool

Sweet: Stairway to the Stars

T.Rex: Dandy in the Underworld

Mott the Hoople: Hymn for the Dudes (album track), T Rex: Raw Ramp (b-side)

Ok, the first one isn’t a b-side, I just like it.

The second track is a b-side and appeared on the T Rex # 1 single “Get It On” in 1971. I love the way it goes from a slow, string infused song into a more trademark Bolan rock n roll boogie.

Mott the Hoople: Hymn for the Dudes

T Rex: Raw Ramp

Re-posts

All the Young Dudes (Bowie guide vocal) - David Bowie & Mott the Hoople

original post here.

Children of the Revolution (alternative version) - T Rex

original post here.

Star Studded Sham - Hello

original post here.

La Maison de L'amour - Son of a Gun

original post here.

Teenage Lament 74 - Alice Cooper

original post here.

“Glam singles became great events, full of sirens, explosions, shocked expressions, themed with mysterious plots, chock-full of chants that sounded meaningless but who really knew”?

“The songs were ultra-ludicrous platform-booted forced marches through exclusively teen domain, designed specifically to annoy dad as he relaxed in front of Thursday nights Top of the Pops. Hell, Sweet’s Steve Priest even delivered his camp one-liner dressed in a Nazi uniform.

Ultimately, Glam Rock may have had no more message than a simple ‘Wake Up!’ But it was unashamedly attempting to be top entertainment at a time when most so-called serious rock was so far up its own ass that even putting on stage clothes was considered gauche by the delicate flowers of the singer/songwriters scene.

And considering David Bowie’s enlightened demand that rock’n’roll be reborn by becoming a parody of itself, the reality as it descended upon the 1970’s pop charts was, at times, quite spectacular and inventive. That we still have trouble defining this apparently simplistic phenomenon is a true testament to its clod-hopping Will ‘o’ the Wispiness”.

From ‘Re-Make/Re-Model’ by Julian Cope – a ‘GlamRockSampler’
http://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/albumofthemonth/1990

What's in a name?

A little name changing didn't hurt in the glam rock world.

David Robert Jones - David Bowie Marc Feld - Marc Bolan
Bernard William Jewry - Alvin Stardust
Paul Gadd - Gary Glitter
Barry Ian Green - Barry Blue
Frederick Bulsara - Freddie Mercury
Stephen Malcolm Ronald Nice - Steve Harley
and best of all

Luther James Grosvenor - Ariel Bender (guitarist with Mott the Hoople)

Tyrannosaurus Rex - T Rex
The Sweetshop - The Sweet
Ambrose Slade - Slade

A couple of classic album tracks, a lost 45 and a Bowie out-take to check out.





'Baby Boomerang' taken from the album 'Slider' 1972
'How Can It Be' taken from 'Old New Borrowed and Blue' album 1974
'Turn It Down' was a single released in 1974 reaching #41 in the UK charts
'Sweet Head' is an out-take from the 'Ziggy Stardust' album in 1972

T Rex: Children of the Revolution (alternative version)

"Children of the Revolution" is a song by T.Rex. It was a #2 hit single in September 1972. The song broke their sequence of four official single releases all reaching #1 ("Hot Love", "Get It On", "Telegram Sam", "Metal Guru").

It did not receive a regular album release, but was featured in "Born to Boogie" a 1972 film based around a T Rex concert at Wembley Empire Pool. The movie was directed by Ringo Starr, and was released on The Beatles' Apple Films label.
Born to Boogie consists of concert footage; recorded studio scenes with guest stars Ringo Starr and Elton John, and various vignettes reminiscent of The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour, shot at Denham and Tittenhurst Park, Sunninghill. The Tea Party sequence was filmed at John Lennon's estate in the same spots as Lennon's Imagine video was filmed.
The song is about teenage rebellion, and upon its release, some critics blasted the song, as it marked a change in the band's sound. This is an alternative version played in the film with Elton John on piano. A string quartet version of the song also appears in the film.
"The film was made purely as a piece of rock and roll entertainment. I feel it documents the phenomenon that has been T.REX through the past year – and that was the purpose of the film initially. But as Ringo and I became more involved in the making of “Born to Boogie” we decided to add several more scenes, bringing in “accidental” humour and to shoot actually “live” without dubbing. By doing so we were endeavouring to to get a spontaneity which does not come naturally from some films.
In some of the scenes outside of the concert we let our imaginations take their courses and, with the aid of props and a dwarf, let which ever happened, happen. And it did. We made the film strictly for a teenage audience who demand youthful excitement of the cinema – as well as on television and in the theatre. I think the film does that – no more, no less".
Marc Bolan 1972

T Rex - Life's A Gas (b-side): Sitting Here (b-side)

"Television man is crazy saying were juvenile delinquent wrecks, Oh man I need TV when I got T Rex" All The Young Dudes - Mott The Hoople 1972. Written by David Bowie.
Someone once said "you can never go back." Well I'm not so sure, because here I am.It was the start of the 70's, the Beatles had finally split, bitter and broken. Apollo 13 had been a trip too far. Brazil had won the world cup and the beautiful game was born, and on Top Of The Pops one Thursday evening in 1971 glam rock too was born.


Hot Love was to be the first UK number one for T-Rex, staying at the top for six weeks from March 1971. Main man Marc Bolan appeared in silk and stars with tears of glitter running down his cheeks. It wasn't called glam rock yet, but this was the beginning.
Glam rock reached its greatest highs in 1973, from then on there was only one way to go. By Christmas 1975 glam rock had one last epic swan song with Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody then was gone.
Two people stood above everyone else in the glam rock world, David Bowie and Marc Bolan. Even now Bowie is still my all time favourite artist, not just for the glam stuff but for all the music that he produced later. Bolan is probably the one responsible for kick starting the glam rock genre, but Bowie is the one who gave it fuel.
By 1973 when I started buying records, Bolan had peaked, which is why I probably preferred and bought more Slade and Sweet at the time. Bowie and Bolan may have been seen as the leaders of the genre, but Slade sold more records and had more number 1's.

For me, T.Rex were a more visual thing, I got my weekly fix by watching them (and others) on Top Of The Pops every Thursday. While Bowie had songs that always seemed to have more depth, both musically and lyrically. But while Bowie has gone on to bigger and better things, Bolan and T.Rex will always be synonymous with glam rock.

Life's A Gas (b-side)
Originally uploaded by Honeytripper

Life's a Gas was released on the Electric Warrior album in 1971 and as the b-side to Jeepster the same year. The song peaked at #2 in the UK charts.The record was released by Fly records without Marc Bolan's prior permission. The singer had just signed with EMI and was about to start T.Rex Wax Co. However Bolan still promoted the song even when not totally happy with its release.

Bolan also sang the song with Cilla Black on her British TV show at the beginning of 1973. He first mimed to another song on the show 'Mad Donna'. It was usual in those days (and still is for that matter) for a band or artist to mime to a recording rather than do the song live. But after singing (miming) the song, Marc and Cilla decided to sing a live duet of Life's A Gas.
Although on paper singing a live duet with Cilla Black would seem to be a bad idea, in reality the simple beauty of the song came through, and not even Cilla Black's tuneless, nasal warble could spoil it

Sitting Here is the B-side to Truck On (Tyke) a late 1973 single from T-Rex. It only reached number 12 in the British charts, by Bolans standards (up to that point) not very good. Even though Truck On is not seen as one of Bolan's best singles, I personally rate it quite highly. Again this might be because I bought it at the time so it brings back good memories but also because it had one of the better b-sides, a nice simple love song predominantly played on the acoustic guitar.
It also had the classic lyrical couplet of:
"Oh love's a wonderful thing that comes and goes
Even when I'm pickin' my nose"