i thank the lord humbly
for laying rocknroll on this world
to have lived in this day of rocknroll
to have been a childe in its golden age
oh how blessed i am
and god this olde earth doth feel so lonely
without george and john
none of you have any idea how groundbreaking this was
every idea by every other rock band you ever heard of
came from the beatles
and yet
strangely while acknowledging their supremacy
i do not love them the most
even though they and only they made all of this possible
course over in america you got your bob d
hes a different thing
but boy harness those 2 things those 2 elements
yer beatles and yer bob
and truly thou shalt be called a true rocker
course the old rolling stones had to add sex n violence
and brian wilson added wonderful sweet musicality
and mr jimi added fucking fire and animal and brute virtuosity
and then cream invented supergroups
and jack bruce played lead bass
and ginger baker played lead drums
and then came prog
and lo, that was ok for a while
not much sex n violence but lots of musical virtuosity
(but not much of it sweet)
oh im forgetting the byrds
the byrds showed us how rock could glide
(a lesson not lost on me, fiendss)
and then mark feld who called himself bolan
and david jones who called himself bowie
c,mon these guys made it interesting again for me
what a pair of twentieth century characters
what the hell was it i loved about em so much
i dunno
maybe why i always go back for more
can you believe that in 1973
i turned up at work looking like
a freckly aladin sane
at the public service in canberra
this guy said to me
youd kiss david bowies arse!
and he wanted to punch me in the halls of primary industry
right then n right there
especially when i said ….yeah…
(no fiendss, i was just incensing this ninny)
instead he just sadly shook his head n walked away
i was surprised he even knew who my haircut was sposed to be
then i was happy that it did suggest bowie
cos i cut it myself
(my david cassidy do hit the bathroom floor)
and then i dyed it with some dye my mum bought for me
my fuckin hair went bright SCARLET
my dad came home
n
he was in disbelief
like those indians seeing columbus’ ships coming over the sea
like
he was so shocked n miffed
he just said to no one in particular
‘as ‘e dyed ‘is bloody ‘air or what?
and that was the end of it
he just couldnt comprehend why a bloke would wanna do that
funny my dad had this do
a bit of an old bodgies thing
combed back with brylcreem or something
with a little wave he used to pat up
that was ok
but my vermillion spiky mess was just too much
anyway a few days later
a few guys from school drove past me
when they saw my hair
they were all laughing
and one of em held up a copy of pin ups
(they just happened to have)
and pointed at me and they all laughed
i was deliriously happy of course
and my hair do n i frequented a night clubs called jack stones
where they played the sweet n suzi q n stuff
when the the thin white drake came on we all were mesmerized
for he n bolan truly were such a notch above the other glammers
my good friend michael farrant who runs a church fanzine in england
the maven
he gave me a marvellous gift
a double glam rock cd
and its got all the classics on there
all on one double record they still sound good
by the way im continuing enjoying bab zoo on youtube
a good example of glam
anyway
my my
i digress
but ive lost track now
n too lazy to scroll back
and see what i was rabbitting on about before
yeah
and make no mistake
bowie idolized bolan
if you dont believe that then listen to black country rock
off the man who sold the world
you see they were like freud n jung
one makes the other possible i guess
sometimes the pupil goes on to better the master
bowies sphere of influence much greater
bolan was a fleeting minor star in the states
he made 3 or 4 great records and he implodes
but bowie is watching bolan from the wings
and what he unleashes eclipses bolan in many ways
i should write a book on this
i cant see anyone else who could do it better than me
such was i saturated in their music n myth
a giant poster of marc bolan..just slightly pre glam
adorned my bedroom wall
i listened to virtually nothing but bolan bowie
i mean where do you go after that?
funnily enough
back into the rolling stonies and lou reed
thats where you go
and bands like silverhead and aerosmith
i reckon theres a few great aerosmith songs btw
i sat on a plane with steve tyler once
and such was his charisma that i couldnt
figure out how it was done….!!??
anyway it also brought me into contact with mott the hoople
wow!
3 sensationally good records
all the young dudes has gotta be
one of the best songs ever written in rock
can you believe bowie…?
producing transformer and doing raw power
and tossing off this song all the young druids n producing the lp
for a couple of years everything he touched turned to gold
except lulu doing man who sold the world…that didnt…
people back then didnt understand diamond dogs or lous berlin
how can you not understand berlin??
it had it all but the idiots back then dismissed it
can you imagine dismissing an album like berlin
because it wasnt the vu all over again?
no wonder lou went off the rails
mind you rocknroll animal is an essential

essential
look i wont have any body criticize this record
the guitars are perfection
entwining and interlacing and rocking n rolling
i hate all that virtuoso lead stuff
but this was different
this was scintillating stuff
dick wagner n steve hunter
fuck those cats can rock
rocknroll animal
oh ho
boy that record hit me square between the eyes when it came out
still the best live record ever sayeth me who must surely be an expert
after all
i went out and tried to live in these guys shadows
a confused apostle spreading some word…what word was that…?
anyway that is enough
see ya down jack stones ha