(* as part of Tyrannosaurus Rex )
Chart entered : 8 May 1968
Chart peak : 34 ( 7 on reissue in 1972 )
Number of hits : 26
Well this one's taken me by surprise. I knew it was a big hit on reissue in the early seventies but hadn't realised it made the charts first time round. As it is, it's probably the first hit ( certainly here ) to owe some of its success to the still-infant Radio One , more specifically it's most left field DJ, John Peel.
Mark Feld was born in London in 1947 to a Jewish father and Christian mother. As previously mentioned he was in a band at school with Helen Shapiro. He was expelled from school at 15 and became a male model , a face for the burgeoning mod scene. He changed his name to Toby Tyler. In 1964 he moved in with gay photograher Allan Warren who became his manager. Warren arranged his first recording session which came to nothing and Warren later sold his contract to his landlord in lieu of back rent. Whatever he thought he could do with it at the time the landlord ripped it up when berated by Marc's mother leaving Marc free to sign with Decca in 1965 under his new name Marc Bolan ( apparently a contraction of Bob Dylan ).
His first single was released in 1965. "The Wizard" was part of a fantasy inspired by a weekend in Paris with an actor friend Riggs O'Hara and the single came out with a nonsense press release about magic cats and the god Pan. It was recorded with the Ladybirds ( shortly before their 12-year gig as part of the Top Of The Pops house band started ) although their presence is hard to detect ( perhaps a bit of cooing on the fade-out ). It certainly sounded like nothing else around at the time with its stomping Motown beat, Marc's feline whine and sparing Eastern touches supplied by arranger Mike Leander. Despite a fair bit of media attention it failed probably due to its brevity ( barely over the 90 second mark ) and lack of any chorus.
Although Marc's deal with Decca was for one single only, they did give him another shot and "The Third Degree" was released in May 1966. What's most striking about it is how quickly all the mystical stuff has been put aside as Marc bemoans the reaction to "The Wizard" - "I am too much to take in, they only say that I am faking" set to a spiky circular riff pre-dating Credence Clearwater Revival. Amped-up a bit it would sit easily alongside his early 70s material. Despite some support from pirate radio it was another flop.
Always single-minded in his pursuit of fame , Marc's response was to find new friends and he approached the Yardbirds' manager Simon Napier-Bell. Napier-Bell was impressed , arranged a deal with Parlophone and produced his third single "Hippy Gumbo" released in November 1966. This bizarre nursery rhyme with Marc accompanied only by his de-tuned acoustic guitar and stretching his vibrato to the edge of tolerance was his most extreme record yet. It actually sounds a lot like miserable US folkie Richie Havens although I'm not sure Marc would have heard him at this point.
When it failed Napier-Bell put a new proposition to Marc. He had another group on his books John's Children, a band of pretty boys of limited musical ability and suggested that Marc join as their guitarist, second vocalist and songwriter. Aware that the band were beginning to draw attention through their outrageous stage act, Marc agreed although he probably never intended to stay very long. His tenure was short but eventful. In April they appeared at the 14 Hour Technicolour Dream Concert at Alexandra Palace alongside Pink Floyd. His song "Desdemona" released in May 1967 with its hook line of "lift up your skirts and fly" and hints of rude goings-on in Paris was banned by the BBC although whether its tuneless garage rock would have got much airplay anyway is open to question. The band went on to support The Who but were kicked off the tour for causing too much damage on stage. They recorded another single "Midsummer Night Scene" in June 1967 but it was withdrawn when Marc decided to quit the band making it one of the most collectible items in British pop. Heavily influenced by Pink Floyd ( it's certainly arguable that Marc could not have made the same impact had Syd been able to hold it together ) it's even weirder than its predecessors with the changing time signatures and atonal howling of the latter half anticipating prog. Marc's departure seems to have been anticipated and accepted with good grace. Napier-Bell continued to be his manager and John's Children recorded some of his songs after his departure.
Marc put an ad in Melody Maker seeking a guitarist, bassist and drummer but ended up with just a percussionist, Steve Porter. Accounts differ as to how this came about. A BBC documentary suggested the inspiration came from Marc attending a Ravi Shankar concert where all the performers were seated but Rob Chapman asserts that Track Records re-possessed all the electric instruments and drum kit when he left John's Children leaving Marc with little alternative to forming an acoustic duo.
Porter, a fully-fledged, acid-fried hippie wanted to be known as Peregrin Took after the impulsive young hobbit in Lord Of The Rings. This marks the moment when the cult of Tolkien broke out of American sci-fi fandom which had nurtured it since the early sixties and went overground, much to the disgust of the ageing author. Marc hadn't actually read the book, being dyslexic he relied on his wife June to acquaint him with the hippies' literary preoccupations.
Tyrannosaurus Rex had barely formed when their own Gandalf arrived on the scene. After returning from America, John Peel had found work as a disc jockey for pirate station Radio London and columnist for underground newspaper International Times. Peel had played "Desdemona" on his Perfumed Garden show and tracked down its writer's earlier singles. When he played them on his penultimate show on Aug 8th 1967 Marc mailed him an acetate of two demos he'd been working on. Peel aired them the following week just before the Marine Offences Act shut down Radio London and expressed a wish " to meet him and find out where that strange voice comes from".
This was soon arranged and Peel became the band's champion as well as a personal friend, helped by their respective wives' friendship. Peel already had a student audience who would turn out to see him DJ in person and he made a support set from the band a condition of his bookings. His manager Clive Selwood didn't like them and claims that some social secretaries told him "next time don't bring Larry the Lamb" but Peel was unwavering in his support. He played them on his new Radio One show Top Gear despite his producer's hostility and called for them to be signed in International Times. Marc got another big break when one of the gigs was witnessed by young American producer Tony Visconti who offered to work with them.
The band soon had a record deal with Regal Zonophone and "Deborah" produced by Visconti was their first single. I have to admit I hate it. Marc's acoustic guitar work is nice enough but the endless, meaningless mantra "Dug and redug" set to Took's galloping bongos and occasionally interrupted for a relatively palatable snatch of verse, sets my teeth on edge. It might sound great after a bong or two but stone cold sober it's grating. Nevertheless the radio exposure and hard gigging got it a foothold in the charts. That the singer would go on to become the first big star of the next decade still seemed unlikely but these were strange times.
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