Glam Rock part 1– “a walk on the Wild Side”

Posted on 14. Oct, 2009 by Mike in Memories, Music

I feel fortunate to have been a teenager growing up in the early 70´s and Glam Rock was the first music that had a major impact on my life.

There were no videos, no MTV and you had to use your own imagination when listening to songs. You had 12 inches of tremendous art work and you didn’t need a magnifying glass to read the credits. You had at tops 10-12 songs on an album so there were no poor tracks (listen to any Bowie album from the 70´s). And to this day I still say vinyl sounds better (warmer) than a CD.

Glam Rock is an English phenomenon all about tribal, rhythmic beats with songs which lasted around three minutes. For me it was euphoric Rock N Roll. It was also about personal style – flamboyant glitter, silver jump suites, platform boots (the higher the better) and men in make-up.

The fashion filtered down to the high-street as brightly colored trousers with high waistbands (the more buttons the cooler you looked) wide bell-bottoms, jumpers with three stars on them, shirts with massive collars, tight t-shirts and of course platform shoes.

I first became aware of Glam Rock through my brother (sharing a bedroom) as he had the poster from the T.Rex album Electric Warrior pined to the wall. I remember thinking how special and exciting Marc Bolan looked with guitar in hands standing in front of a large amplifier with an electric glow around him. I was 10 years old and a wanna-be glam rocker.

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The birth of Glam Rock in 1970, saw Marc Bolan and T Rex (formally the acoustic hippy duo Tyrannosaurus Rex) with their first hit single Ride A White Swan, a UK chart number 2. Marc was the first man to appear with glitter on his cheeks on Top Of The Pops.

¨Get It On , Bang A Gong ¨ – T Rex
The official start of Glam Rock was 1971 when, T Rex had three hit singles, along with Slade. And the Sweet first appeared on the scene (awful A-Sides brilliant self penned B-Sides). I remember at school you were either a Sweet fan or a Slade fan – never both!! And if you were a Sweet fan you were called a poof!

¨All The Young Dudes¨ – Mott the Hoople
1972 was a dark year with the miner’s strikes and power cuts, but that didn´t seem to matter to teenagers as 1972 was a golden year for the ever colourful Glam Rock – especially as we rented our first colour TV around this time.

Unforgettable moments include David Bowie’s appearance on TOTP when he put his arm suggestively around platinum blonde Mick Ronson and blew the mind of lonely young gay men across the UK.

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And those of a certain age will never forget Alice Cooper’s “Schools Out”, the massive summer anthem released in time for the school holidays. Lou Reed’s “Walk On The Wild Side” was another defining moment in many young music lovers lives – how did this song get past Mary Whitehouse and the BBC Governors?

Other Glam Anthems must include Gary Glitter’s “Rock N Roll” (his only really credible song), Roxy Music’s “Virginia Plain” and Mott The Hoople with the Bowie penned ¨All The Young Dudes¨- they have just finished a series of reunion shows to celebrate 40 years since they first formed.

¨You Better Beware¨ – the Sweet
At the start of 1973 the Sweet gave us “Blockbuster” the first of their superior glam singles .They were written by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman – the 70´s equivalent of Stock Aitkin and Waterman. This talented duo also wrote for Mud, Smokie, The Arrows, Racey and many more.

Also in 1973 the leather-clad Suzi Quatro emerged with another Chin/Chapman song “Can The Can”, the first of a string of hits for her and the first female rocker to appear on British TV.

There were also fake-glam artists hanging on the coat-tails of our heroes – like Alvin Stardust, Elton John, Zappo, Barry Blue, Kenny and Chicory Tip.

Glam rock was about to reach it’s pinnacle in 1974 – but I will save that (and a sad ending) for my next post.

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6 Responses to “Glam Rock part 1– “a walk on the Wild Side””

  1. Phil

    15. Oct, 2009

    Who remembers everyone in school singing “Tie a yellow mini around an old oak tree” when Marc died.?

    Kids can be cruel :)

  2. Mike

    15. Oct, 2009

    No but I do remember the joke – sick- that his last hit was a tree!!

  3. Andy Montgomery

    03. Nov, 2009

    Great article, Mike, such memories! Like you, I feel privilaged to have been around for those early, heady days of glam rock. I was in love with Marc Bolan and Micky Finn and remember at my school when rumours went flying around that the two of them had been discovered IN BED TOGETHER – SHOCK, HORROR!!!

    I’m so old I remember Slade BEFORE their glam rock days when they were Britain’s first skinhead band and and their music was awesome. ‘Shape of Things to Come’ still sends a shiver down my spine.

  4. Mike

    03. Nov, 2009

    Hi Andy,
    Yes those were innocent times I also remember when David Bowie came out in Melody Maker saying he was bi-sexual.

    I always thought that Slade were not really Glam they were just riding the Glitter wave at the time. I also remember them as skinheads and I thought it was a much better image for them.
    Have you heard the solo album from Jim Lea “Therapy” 2007 a very good album.

  5. Allan Moore

    03. Nov, 2009

    Oh dear you are all making me feel old.

    I grew up through the late 50’s and early 60′, saw the pop music scene change from principly American, to mainly British.

    I don’t think I have ever, in all that tme, listened to an album that didn’t have at least oen track that I wished they hadn’t included. Not necessarily because it was bad, but at least because it wasn’t goood enough for the rest of the album.

    Bowie Bi-sexual? There is to this day a school of thought that that announcement was merely Glam Rock hype desigend to sell concert tickets. We’ll probably never know the real truth.

    CD’s versus vinyl? Yes I agree, though even vinyl started to loose it’s integrity when they started digital editing. At least CD’s only te the music from analogue to digital, not analogue-digital-analogue thus dubling the degradation. Digitally produced music to my ears is too clinical.

    Many people say that you don’t need frequencies outside the “audible” range, but I’m not so sure. The brain may not interpret them as sounds, but I becamse convnced that it uses them for positional information. Why? I used to help out in a Hi-Fi studio in the early 80’s. One of the other guys came in really excited, he had found a new cartridge which he said was brilliant and the boss let him set it up on the best equipment we had in order to let us here why.

    Technically the cartridge had a much higher frequency response than any other we knew, way above the audio frequencies. What difference did that appear to make? With a good system the “image” allows you to place each individual performer at a definite point between the speakers. Using this cartridge the image was so stable that you could walk around the room and the performers didn’t move, like they did normally. The only explanation I can come up with for that phenomenon, to this day, is the extended frequency response of that cartridge. I have never experienced it with any other cartridge.

  6. Mike

    05. Nov, 2009

    Hi Allen,
    Great to hear from you,
    I agree on the Bowie/Gay front – it was probably hype. Maybe one day he¬¥ll write a book and the truth will be “outed”.
    I personally wish he would record a new album. “Reality” was six years ago now.
    You lost me a little with the Technical aspect of recordings but thank you for taking the time to reply,

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