Marc: the megastar who died in a Mini

T. Rex and the revolution. Sunday musical excursion #31

When the Beatles released their single Revolution in 1968, the lyric included a last-minute addition that took a swipe at Chairman Mao of China. Mr Lennon would later express his regret at having slighted the Chairman in that way.

But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you ain’t gone make it with anyone anyhow

John Lennon subsequently progressed from being revolutionary to being out-and-out anti-establishment. Whether he was truly pro-Mao is another question. Lennon was a musical genius, and his death at age 40 has been greatly mourned. His fans were devastated.

The Revolution, as a band, were formed some years later, in 1979, in the United States of America, by the prodigious Prince “An-Album-A-Year-Whether-They-Like-It-Or-Not” Nelson (39 studio albums between 1978 and 2015), who would later go on to record as Prince and The Revolution, after which he himself would become a nobody (TAFKAP—the artist formerly known as Prince—just so people knew which nobody it was). Prince was a musical genius and the circumstances of his strange death at age 57 have never really been unravelled. His fans were devastated.

The Children of the Revolution came between these two other revolutions. I’m really not sure what the lyric means, but in it Marc Bolan, who wrote it, thinks that a Rolls-Royce was good for his voice. Personally, I’d be prepared to test the proposition at the drop of a hat.

The Rolls-Royce he sings of in the second verse is probably the motor car. What’s less clear is whether the first line of that verse is a reference to the 1930s American Terraplane car, or whether he sings tear a plane. The car is a candidate, given other tracks on the Slider album, like Buick MacKane, Cadilac (sic), or even Chariot Choogle (T. Rex’s previous album, Electric Warrior, also included the track Jeepster). It could be a play on aquaplane as well, which is what motorists do in falling rain. Truth is, Bolan never learned to drive (even though he did own cars, including a Rolls-Royce) because he was frightened he would die before reaching the age of 30. He was killed in 1977, in a car crash, in London, as the passenger in a Mini driven by his lover, the mother of his only child. A child of the revolution. Born Mark Feld, he would have turned 30 two weeks later. He was a musical genius, who invented glam rock. His fans were devastated, and we still are.

Image: graffiti in Zagreb.¹

All guessing aside, the lyric certainly means that you won’t fool the children of the revolution. Not by bumping, or grinding, or, like Lennon, by twisting and shouting, or by letting it all hang out, Terraplaning in rain, or getting a Rolls-Royce for the good of your voice. None of that will fool us. No way.

Children of the Revolution

Written by Marc Bolan

Performed by T. Rex

From their 1972 album The Slider

In the video, T. Rex are Mickey Finn on bongos, Steve Currie on bass, Bill Legend on drums, and Marc Bolan on guitar. The Slider was produced by Tony Visconti, who produced David Bowie’s album “Heroes”, featured a few weeks ago, and whose kiss inspired the title track on that album. Bowie and Visconti attended Bolan’s funeral.

1. By JasonParis from Toronto, Canada - Flickr: Zagreb Museum of Contemporary Art, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24833979.