How Marc Bolan became a part of David Bowie’s Tin Machine
Although Marc Bolan and David Bowie would ultimately pioneer the glam-rock era in the early 1970s, both had set out in the mid-60s in humbler musical backgrounds. Bolan cut his teeth fronting Tyrannosaurus Rex, a psychedelic rock outfit precursory to T. Rex. Meanwhile, Bowie struggled to garner a loyal fanbase following his misguided yet promisingly peculiar debut album of 1967.
By 1970, Bowie had become close with his friendly rival, Bolan, and his American producer Tony Visconti. At this point, Bowie had begun working on material for Hunky Dory, but at the time, he also had a contract with Philips to record ‘The Prettiest Star’. During these sessions, Bowie brought in Visconti as his bassist and producer, Rick Wakeman on piano and Bolan on lead guitar to record the intended B-side, ‘London Bye Ta-Ta’.
“Mercury released another single, ‘The Prettiest Star’,” Visconti recalled in a past interview with Uncut. “It had been recorded in January, having been started during the day of the evening that we played the Speakeasy. It was finished a few days later, along with an old chestnut, ‘London Bye Ta-Ta’. This is the third time I recorded the song, once for Deram, once for the BBC and now, possibly the quintessential version, with myself on bass, Marc Bolan on lead guitar and Godfrey McLean on drums, who was in a London soul band called The Gass.”
Unfortunately, the session was not a happy affair, especially for Bolan. “Marc came to the session for an hour, played his solo and left promptly,” Visconti remembered. “The atmosphere was very heavy.”
“All I wanted to do was promote Marc as an electric guitarist,” Visconti told Spinner in 2010. “I thought it would have been a great coup to have him play on David’s record. David was extremely happy to have Marc play on the record.”
He added: “But after Marc had played this brilliant solo – and he also played on another track too called ‘London Bye Ta-Ta’ – [Bolan’s wife] June just sniped at David, ‘He’s too good for you! He shouldn’t play on your music!’ and she dragged Marc out. It was one of the few times that I saw him at a loss for words.”
“Marc just wanted to be a star,” he concluded. “This was like the carpet was pulled out from under him. If Bowie had asked him to join the band, he probably would have.”
Although there was apparent professional rivalry between Bolan and Bowie, the pair maintained a solid friendship through their respective rise to popular acclaim: Bowie under his first alter ego, Ziggy Stardust and Bolan with T. Rex amid the release of the 1971 masterpiece Electric Warrior.
Tragically, Bolan’s career was cut short on September 16th, 1977, when he was involved in a fatal car accident in Barnes, south-west London. Naturally, Bowie was deeply distressed by the death of his peer and held sacred a guitar that the T. Rex frontman had gifted him not long before the accident.
In an early 1980s interview, Bowie discussed his new band Tin Machine and their eponymous single, which was joined on its A-side by an energised cover of Bob Dylan’s 1965 classic ‘Maggie’s Farm’. While jamming to the song in a soundcheck, the band realised its similitude to the Electric Warrior hit ‘Jeepster’ and decided it would make for a resonant live track.
When asked if they chose that particular Dylan song because of Margaret Thatcher and the contemporary state of British politics, Bowie replied: “I must be quite honest, it didn’t even dawn on me until somebody pointed it out and then, of course, it became quite obvious. It was literally because I was playing that particular Dylan album that day, and we went to sound check and said, ‘Aye, let’s have a go at this one. It’s such a great song.’ And then it turned into ‘Jeepster’, which was intent.”
Continuing, Bowie explained how the ‘Jeepster’ aspect was made doubly authentic thanks to a gift from an old friend. “Interesting thing is that Reeves [Gabrels] played a lot of the guitar on this album [Tin Machine] on Marc’s old guitar,” Bowie continued. “Because Marc gave me a guitar tragically just before he died and said, ‘Hey David, I won’t be using this no more, man. You can have it.’ I’ve always kept it, and it’s the first time it’s been played since 1978, I guess.”
Listen to ‘Maggie’s Farm’ by Tin Machine below.