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Then came Tyrannosaurus Rex, an acoustic duo featuring Bolan and the percussionist Steve Peregrin-Took, but with the former evidently calling all the shots.
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By the time of his first minor flush of fame in the late 60s, the former Marc Feld had already been a teenage mod who appeared in Town magazine, boasting about how many ties he owned, and a Dylan-inspired folkie called Toby Tyler, before becoming Marc Bolan, the author of two Donovan-esque flop solo singles and the guitarist and second vocalist in the Who-esque troublemakers John’s Children. Photograph: Ernesto Notarantonio/Ipa/Rex/Shutterstockįor another of the album’s contributors, the singer-songwriter Devendra Banhart, part of Bolan’s appeal is “the idea of switching up your style without any real concern, because he was really going for it”. ‘Maybe he could be running a cult in Fiji’. I thought: ‘This guy doesn’t give a fuck, he’s just being who he is and he’s loving every single minute of it.’ And that had a great effect on me.” At a time when I was still becoming Elton John, he was a great role model. “His songs were great, his records rocked, he had attitude, he had performing skills, he looked fabulous, he dressed the part. “He was the perfect pop star,” says John. The sense that, while other artists ultimately sold more records or had longer careers, it is hard to think of anyone who has been better at actually being a pop star than Bolan, with his self-mythologising lyrics – “I drive a Rolls-Royce / ’Cos it’s good for my voice” – his interviews filled with wild claims and outrageously entertaining lies, his looks, his charisma. The image: what the Edge calls “that transgressional thing of challenging stereotypes and being this ambiguous creature … that really did create a new kind of space”. What continues to attract musicians to an artist whose imperial phase lasted barely two years? The music, obviously: the golden run of singles that begins with 1970’s Ride a White Swan and ends with 1973’s 20th Century Boy the insouciant, sexually charged brilliance of the albums Electric Warrior and The Slider.
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The last project Willner worked on before his coronavirus-related death in April was assembling Angelheaded Hipster, a Bolan tribute album that brings together an array of artists, from Nick Cave and Father John Misty to Peaches and Kesha, by way of Todd Rundgren, Marc Almond and Perry Farrell its special-guest list manages to include both Donald Fagen of Steely Dan and Jim Thirlwell of Foetus. It features Bolan’s friend Elton John as guest pianist – a role he also played when T Rex performed Get It on on 1971’s Christmas Top of the Pops – and was recorded at the behest of the renowned music producer Hal Willner. I’d never seen anything like it: ‘What the hell is this? Real lads are not into this kind of stuff – this is clearly music for girls.’ But when I picked up a guitar a year later, Hot Love was the first song I learned to play.”įorty-nine years later, U2 have released a cover of Hot Love’s follow-up, Get It on. It’s funny, the go-go dancers of the era were the legendary Pan’s People – he was way more intriguing sexually than they were. “ Marc Bolan was magical, but also sexually heightened and androgynous, with this glitter and makeup. “It was kind of challenging,” says Evans – better known as U2’s guitarist the Edge – of T Rex’s celebrated appearance performing Hot Love, frontman Marc Bolan sporting glitter under his eyes, the ground-zero moment for glam rock. He was already a Beatles fan, but, by his own admission, he was completely unprepared for what was about to happen on screen. I n early 1971, a nine-year-old called David Evans was sitting at home in the suburbs of Dublin watching Top of the Pops.