words: Tony Norman
pictures: Michael Putland
THERE are many reasons for Marc Bolan's success and, as you know, new theories are being invented every week. But the thing that always amazes me is his seemingly endless supply of energy. He is never content to sit still and gloat over the present. For Marc Bolan, the future is always of the greatest importance.
His trip to France recently was a good example. T. Rex had just come back from an exhausting tour of America. It would have been natural enough for them to stagger off to their respective homes to take a well-deserved rest. But Marc had other ideas.
He thought it would be a good time to finish off work on his new album (out in January) and record a single, "Solid Gold Easy Action".
"The flip side carries a Christmas message, a bit of 'Jingle Bells' and 'Hi there! It's really been a great year. One of those, you know. Then there's 'Born To Boogie' which I wrote for the film (shot with Ringo Starr earlier this year). The only trouble was I wrote...
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IT WAS AMAZING WE WERE LIKE SUPERMEN
it too late for inclusion in the film!
"That shows what a shrewd and together business man I really am," he laughed. "I forgot to write the title song!"
T. Rex used the Honky Chateau Studio in France. They no longer record in Britain for tax reasons.
"Originally we worked in Denmark Marc explained. We did "Telegram Sam" and all that stuff over there. I first got interested in recording in Paris when I heard Paul Simon had done some things there. Also Reg (Elton John, his close friend) was pleased with
the studio. I think he did something off "Madman Across The Water" there, then of course there was the "Honky Chateau" album.
"So anyway, I decided to go over myself and check things out."
The studio, just ten miles out of Paris, proved
to suit Marc's taste. "First of all we did "Metal Guru" there," he told me. "Then we finished off The Slider. And lo and behold, we returneth and did the new one there too!"
Judging by his excellent humour and the frequent roars of laughter that shook his slender frame,
Bolan was more than happy with the way the new album had gone.
"The good thing about working at that studio is that if you are limited to just three days over there and you know you want to get a certain number of tracks down, you tend to
do it. I kept it pretty strict. We'd get in about ten and have breakfast. Then, until about two, we'd be goofing about and loosely going through numbers. After lunch we'd really do it. Maybe we'd go through
until two the next morning. "When you're in a place
and you're actually there just to record, you tend to give much more. Sure, we could have gone on longer if we wanted. But after a six week tour of America, the guys in the band are gonna want to go home.
So we set that three day limit and in that time we
got nineteen tracks down
"It was amazing! We were like Supermen!"
• Marc went on to talk some more about the next album and many other things. All will be revealed in next month's Music Scene. Be there, or be square!
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