1964–1967: Early career In 1964, Bolan met his first manager, Geoffrey Delaroy-Hall, and recorded a slick commercial track backed by session musicians called "All at Once" (a song very much in the style of his youthful hero,
Cliff Richard, the "English Elvis"), which was later released posthumously by Danielz and Caron Willans in 2008 as a very limited edition seven-inch vinyl after the original tape recording was passed on to them by Delaroy-Hall. This track is one of Bolan's first professional recordings. Bolan then changed his stage name to Toby Tyler when he met and moved in with child actor
Allan Warren, who became his second manager. This encounter afforded Bolan a lifeline to the heart of show business, as Warren saw Bolan's potential while he spent hours sitting cross-legged on Warren's floor playing his acoustic guitar. Bolan at this time liked to appear wearing a corduroy peaked cap similar to his then-current source of inspiration,
Bob Dylan. A series of photographs was commissioned with photographer Michael McGrath, although he recalls that Bolan "left no impression" on him at the time. Warren also hired a recording studio and had Bolan's first acetates cut. Two tracks were later released; the Bob Dylan song "
Blowin' in the Wind" and
Dion's "The Road I'm On (Gloria)". A version of
Betty Everett's "
You're No Good" (still unreleased) was later submitted to EMI as an audition tape, but was turned down. Warren later sold Bolan's contract and recordings for £200 to his landlord, property mogul
David Kirch, in lieu of three months' back rent, but Kirch was too busy with his property empire to do anything for him. A year or so later, Bolan's mother pushed into Kirch's office and shouted at him that he had done nothing for her son. She demanded he tear up the contract and he willingly complied. The tapes of the first two tracks produced during the Toby Tyler recording session vanished for over 25 years before resurfacing in 1991 and selling for nearly $8,000. Their eventual release on CD in 1993 made available some of the earliest of Bolan's known recordings. He signed to
Decca Records in August 1965. At this point his name changed to Marc Bolan via Marc Bowland. There are several accounts of why Bolan was chosen, including that it was derived from
James Bolam, that it was a contraction of Bob Dylan, and – according to Bolan himself – that Decca Records chose the name. He recorded his debut single "The Wizard" with
the Ladybirds on backing vocals (later finding fame with
Benny Hill), and studio session musicians playing all the instruments. "The Wizard", Bolan's first single, was released on 19 November 1965. It featured
Jimmy Page and
Big Jim Sullivan, was produced by Jim Economides, with music director
Mike Leander. Two solo acoustic demos recorded shortly afterwards by the same team ("Reality" and "Song for a Soldier") have still only been given a limited official release in 2015 on seven-inch vinyl. Both songs are in a folk style reminiscent of Dylan and
Donovan. A third song, "That's the Bag I'm In", written by New York folk singer and Dylan contemporary
Fred Neil, was also committed to tape, but has not yet been released. In June 1966, a second official single was also released, with session-musician accompaniment, "The Third Degree", backed by "San Francisco Poet", Bolan's paean to the
beat poets. Neither song made the charts. Following this concert, Bolan pared the band down to just himself and Took, and they continued as a
psychedelic-folk rock acoustic duo, playing Bolan's songs, with Took playing assorted hand and kit percussion and occasional bass to Bolan's acoustic guitars and voice. Napier-Bell said of Bolan that after the first disastrous electric gig: "He didn't have the courage to try it again; it really had been a blow to his ego... Later he told everyone he'd been forced into going acoustic because Track Records had repossessed all his gear. In fact he'd been forced to go acoustic because he was scared to do anything else." One of the highlights of this era was when the duo played at the first free
Hyde Park concert in 1968. Although the free-spirited, drug-taking Took was fired from the group after their first American tour, they were a force within the hippie underground scene while they lasted. Their music was filled with Bolan's otherworldly poetry. In 1969, Bolan published his first and only book of poetry entitled
The Warlock of Love. Although some critics dismissed it as self-indulgence, it was full of Bolan's florid prose and wordplay, selling 40,000 copies and in 1969–70 became one of Britain's best-selling books of poetry. It was reprinted in 1992 by the Tyrannosaurus Rex Appreciation Society. In keeping with his early rock and roll interests, Bolan began bringing amplified guitar lines into the duo's music, buying a white
Fender Stratocaster decorated with a
paisley teardrop motif from
Syd Barrett. After replacing Took with
Mickey Finn, he let the electric influences come forward even further on
A Beard of Stars, the final album to be credited to Tyrannosaurus Rex. It closed with the song "Elemental Child", featuring a long electric guitar break influenced by
Jimi Hendrix.
1971–1975: T. Rex, glam rock and other styles Becoming more adventurous musically, Bolan bought a modified vintage
Gibson Les Paul guitar (featured on the cover of the album
T. Rex), and then wrote and recorded his first hit "
Ride a White Swan", which was dominated by a rolling hand-clapping back-beat, Bolan's electric guitar and Finn's percussion. At this time he also shortened the group's name to T. Rex. Recorded on 1 July 1970 and released later that year, it made slow progress in the
UK Top 40, until it finally peaked in early 1971 at number two. Inspired by his muse, June Child, Bolan developed a fascination with women's clothing, an unlikely characteristic for a British male rocker at the time. Bolan followed "Ride a White Swan" and
T. Rex by expanding the group to a quartet with bassist
Steve Currie and drummer
Bill Legend, and cutting a five-minute single, "
Hot Love", with a rollicking rhythm, string accents and an extended sing-along chorus inspired somewhat by "
Hey Jude". Bolan performed "Hot Love" on the BBC television show
Top of the Pops wearing glitter on his face: the performance was later recognized as the foundation of glam rock. Regarded as one of the band's best songs,
Paste and
Billboard ranked it number one and three on their lists of the top 10 T. Rex songs. In 1972, he achieved two more UK number ones with "
Telegram Sam" and "
Metal Guru" taken from
The Slider, and two number twos in "
Children of the Revolution" and "
Solid Gold Easy Action". Bowie's song "
Lady Stardust" is generally interpreted as alluding to fellow glam rock icon Bolan. The original demo version was entitled "He Was Alright (A Song for Marc)". In 1973, Bolan played twin lead guitar alongside his friend
Jeff Lynne on the
Electric Light Orchestra songs "
Ma-Ma-Ma Belle" and "Dreaming of 4000" (originally uncredited) from
On the Third Day, as well as on "Everyone's Born to Die", which was not released at the time but appears as a bonus track on the 2006 remaster. ==Personal life==