Marc Bolan
October 9, 2012 4:14 PM   Subscribe

Full episodes of T-Rex frontman Marc Bolan’s 1977 series "Marc" are now available online.

via Consequence of Sound -

...they are amazing in several ways. For one, Bolan, dressed in ultra low-cut shirts and leather pants, drearily lip syncs through his songs backed up by the “Marc Bolan Dancers” whose droll, dead-eyed choreography are straight out of some drugged out ’70s campy B-movie and there’s feathered mullets, tiny gold earrings, glammy set designs, and Bolan staring right into the camera with sad, dead eyes.

Marc is also legitimately awesome because it features live, non lip-synced performances from The Jam, Generation X, Eddie and the Hod Rods, David Bowie, Thin Lizzy (lip-synced), and more.
posted by davebush (19 comments total) 43 users marked this as a favorite
 
Anyone know where episode 2 is?
posted by univac at 4:25 PM on October 9, 2012


In other words, this is great and I want it all.
posted by univac at 4:26 PM on October 9, 2012 [1 favorite]


Bowie's mullet is strong in this one.
posted by saul wright at 4:48 PM on October 9, 2012


That trip off the stage is pregnant with symbolism, eh. That was his last public appearance, before... y'know.
posted by blue t-shirt at 5:42 PM on October 9, 2012


...or maybe not? did I just make that up?
posted by blue t-shirt at 5:49 PM on October 9, 2012


Wow, Marc Bolan in a leopard print jumpsuit, introducing The Jam after lip-synching to one of the crappier T Rex tunes*. Worlds collide.


I love T Rex, but Sing Me A Song is a stinker.
posted by oneirodynia at 6:18 PM on October 9, 2012 [1 favorite]


"droll" means "humorous", not "dull"
posted by Joseph Gurl at 7:57 PM on October 9, 2012


Jamie Wild and Woody Harrelson: Separated At Birth
posted by not_on_display at 8:03 PM on October 9, 2012


And I really can't figure out what's great about it, at least unironically. Seems embarrassing, more or less.

(Still, kinda rad you could be a sexy glam frontman with bad teeth back in the day...)
posted by Joseph Gurl at 8:06 PM on October 9, 2012


Wow. I didn't know he had a show. It's hard to imagine there was once a pop landscape that could support this much T. Rex on TV every week.

I'm a casual T. Rex fan, but I think I wouldn't be if this had been my first exposure to Bolan. The creepy decadence was always part of his appeal, but it's outright disturbing here when set amidst the cheesy overlit TV sets and the awful jumpsuited disco dancers. I can't tell if there's something rotten and sad here in a fat Elvis kind of way or if it's just unsettling because I don't understand where it's coming from.

I think I'll stick to Electric Warrior and forget I ever saw this. (But thanks for the post! An eye opener for sure.)
posted by absqua at 8:36 PM on October 9, 2012 [3 favorites]


Nigel Tufnel sighting in episode 1 at 13:55. Loved the early Weller.
posted by dubwisened at 10:35 PM on October 9, 2012


And I really can't figure out what's great about it, at least unironically. Seems embarrassing, more or less.

Yeah, a lot can go wrong in four or five years. This is far more like it.
posted by philip-random at 11:12 PM on October 9, 2012


and this, and this. And this.
posted by philip-random at 11:21 PM on October 9, 2012


The more I see or hear old T-Rex, the more I feel I need to go on a spending spree and dive in.

Any folks here fans with recommendations?
posted by kmartino at 5:04 AM on October 10, 2012


They don't cover everything but the artistic (and commercial) peak of T-Rex is two albums basically: 1971's Electric Warrior + 1972's The Slider.

Start there.
posted by philip-random at 8:11 AM on October 10, 2012


Hawkwind and The Boomtown Rats.
In a single episode.
yay
posted by Homemade Interossiter at 8:35 AM on October 10, 2012


Man, this whole time I was thinking of Mack Bolan. I was so confused.
posted by nushustu at 9:49 AM on October 10, 2012


Who needs TV, when you've got T-Rex?
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:53 AM on October 10, 2012 [1 favorite]


He looks like Johnny Depp.
posted by Trochanter at 7:51 PM on October 10, 2012


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