An interesting headline from Bolan in this article that also applies to our time. Underground today, according to Bolan`s theory, should be rock, and escpecially hard rock. Almost no mainstream TV or Radio exposure even if rock bands are selling a large number of concert tickets and even a lot of (used) LPs and CDs.
So even with a large fan-base you could say that in 2021 it is counted as underground.
Read on.
Underground groups are those which don`t get TV exposure
says Marc Bolan of Tyrannosaurus Rex to Nick Logan
TAKE away such bourgeois luxuries as the shiny new stereo, the TV lurking self-consciously in one corner and the delicious strawberry gateau thoughtfully provided by girlfriend June and the cliche scene of the angry-young-man haranguing the world from his one-roomed garrett becomes complete.
It would be out of character for Marc Bolan, the energetic impish bundle behind Tyrannosaurus Rex, to harangue. Sense is what he talks and his anger manifests itself in vexation rather than violence.
“You are one of the few journalists who actually like our music,” said Marc, perching cross-legged on the one piece of furniture in the room — the bed. “People have built up this big intellectual barrier against Tyrannosaurus Rex.
It`s just pop
“It’s just pop music as far as I am concerned. Not pop music taking it as far as Dave Dee but all the same it is not something totally incomprehensible.”
It was the friendly June who drove me out to the couple’s home in Ladbroke Grove at the top of one of those tottering old houses long since removed from a lick of paint.
Burning joss sticks and three vases of daffodils scented the air and the tiny room itself resembled a fairy grotto full of curious knick knacks, the walls covered in drawings and paintings cut from colour magazines — a Bosch, a Picasso, a Dali. The floorboards were bare and furniture at a minimum.
Radio 1 and television and the lack of time accorded by either to the Underground are the targets for Marc’s anger.
“Producers and disc jockeys just don’t want to know us,” said Marc, striking a fork into his gateau as Flute, his cat, snaked around his legs.
“`One Inch Rock` didn’t get played a lot but at least they played it. The last single hardly got any radio plays at all.
“That’s why we haven’t released a single for about six months — it seems to be a waste of time. People don’t even listen.
Shrugged
“`Pewtor Suitor’ was taken round to deejays and producers and when they heard it was the new Tyrannosaurus Rex single everyone just shrugged their shoulders and said we know what that’s going to sound like. They didn’t even want to hear it. “But, we’re trying once more with a single. I get so excited about singles because I can write one so quickly and get it out, in three weeks and if then it is not going to be played…” He shrugged. “To record in a studio is for me the ultimate in communication because you can spend a long time getting everything just right. Then you are robbed of getting it over to people. “But we have our audience. The LPs sell incredibly well and we get full concert halls. You can only continue and hope that it becomes acceptable. “It is only actually not being on television and of getting in the papers that is the drag.” For acceptance Marc is looking to America, which the Rex visit this month for the first time. A big build up is being planned for them and Marc feels that if they do made it there everyone in England will turn round and say: “Well I always knew they’d be big.” “I am so excited at going to America,” he says. “The kids here are a gas but the media is just saying nothing. If America wasn’t there or there weren’t good singles around like ‘Pinball Wizard` then I wouldn’t make records. I would just play at home.”
Such a teaser
And then back to his earlier theme: “It is such a teaser for Radio 1 to give us `Top Gear’ and to then virtually take it off, because what they’ve done amounts to that.
“We have got so near to having complete satisfaction. It was like the radio really wanted to help and there was a monster audience there wanting to listen.
“Most Underground groups are just Top Ten groups without the exposure,” added Marc in a quote which just about sums up the whole situation.
Those words should be carved in huge stone letters and erected in the offices of every deejay and producer in the country.
Radio 1 aside, life isn’t too bad for Marc and Steve. Mr Bolan’s first book of poetry, “The Warlock Of Love,” was recently published and is selling well, their new single, “King Of The Rumbling Squires,” is released this week and the duo has just finished a successful concert tour.
The third Rex LP, “The Unicorn,” is selling well and represents a change in musical policy. The bongos are gradually being edged out to be replaced by cello, bass and organ, the latter used on the album being a £12 model Marc bought in Woolworths and surprised himself by discovering he could play it.
The fourth album, Marc promises, will take the transformation to electric backings even further.
There has been a change in Marc’s singing too. “It really bugged me because people said they couldn’t hear the words,” said Marc. The climax came when some copies of “Prophets, Seers And Sages” went out minus the words sheet.
I tried to rethink my whole way of singing. You see I use my voice as a physical release — like Clapton uses a guitar. But I had to discipline myself into making the words heard.”
Marc walked down the Underground with me (there must be something symbolic there) and left me with this parting quote: “It is not so much for us, because we’ve already had the exposure through ‘Top Gear,’ but what about all the other new groups that will never get the chance… It’s sad. It really is.”
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