Did Marc Bolan influence David Bowie?

Yes, yes, and yes.

Bolan pretty much started doing it first, and Bowie borrowed a lot from Bolan. The song "Lady Stardust" on the Ziggy album is a tribute to him, and the vocals on "Black Country Rock" from The Man Who Sold the World copy Bolan's vocal style. Bolan also played on the original single version of "The Prettiest Star," though not the Aladdin Sane version. They also played together live in the late 70's, including at the final live performance Bolan ever gave.

The two were also old friends, though Bolan eventually got jealous of Bowie's fame and they had a bit of a falling out in the Ziggy/Aladdin Sane period.

So why do you think Bowie was more successful with it? Better songs? Even more "gay" than Bolan?

Bolan was huge in the UK, of course. I don't know why he never made it much in the U.S. Did he tour enough?

my mom says she saw them at the santa monica civic center!

Were they making out?

T.Rex did fine in the states early on. From Ride A White Swan until about the slider anyway. not very long, i guess. it was all downhill after that. 20th century boy wasn't released in the u.s. on vinyl until the 80's. the real question should be, would there have been a t.rex or bowie without flo & eddy? hahahahahaha!

or la heavy psych in general. rodney on the roq was the first guy to bring bowie to hollywood! (allegedly)

Well, I wonder how many copies the self-titled album, Electric Warrior, and The Slider sold in the U.S.

Yeah man, I think there exists a fairly large disparity between T.Rex's popularity in England as opposed to the United States. Wasn't he a bone fide teen idol in England whereas in American he was more of a cult figure, right? Wrong?

Sorry to stary off thr subject but who are the other musicians Bowie borrowed from? Was Petre Hammill one of them? It sounds like it to me.

bowie liked Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Syd Barrett, Scott Walker etc. It'd be great if he made a record of cover versions showing some of his favorite songs and artists.

I really like the version of "See Emily Play" on Pinups.

"Bang a Gong" was the only T.Rex song to ever really make it in the US. He probably had a bit of a cult following, but "T-Rextacy" never caught on over here like it did in the UK.

I'd say that Bowie caught on because of the fluke success of "Space Oddity" (which was re-issued right around the time that Ziggy hit) and because of more aggressive promotion. But even so, Bowie didn't make that big a dent in the American market until Young Americans and after. It's easy to look back on the importance of his career and forget that albums like "Low" and "Heroes" were total commerical flops at the time. Bowie only really became a "superstar" in the sense that we think of John Lennon or Mick Jagger when "Let's Dance" came out.

As for Bolan, I think he ran out of ideas. His early stuff is catchy and interesting, and Electric Warrior/The Slider/Tanx are classic, but every thing after that are either re-hashes or directions his fan-base just didn't "get" at the time (in retrospect, "Zinc Alloy..." is a pretty good album).

Unlike Bolan, Bowie was "lucky" enough to have invented the Ziggy character, which gave him a convenient "out" when he saw the end in sight for early 1970's glam rock. Ziggy retired and Bowie became "Halloween Jack," "The Thin White Duke," etc. Bolan didn't have that luxury. Listening to "Zinc Alloy," one can see that Bolan was growing tired of the glam-boogie that he'd been doing for 3 years, but unlike Bowie, he couldn't just "kill off" a character and move on.

Also, he hit a songwriting slump, which is something Bowie really didn't do until "Let's Dance," although if one listens to some of his later singles ("I Love to Boogie" stands out, here), it seems that he was just beginning to find his muse again when he died.

The whole Bolan story is really depressing, actually.

The whole last album, Dandy in the Underworld, is great. Strange production, though.

Yeah, I've heard mixed things about "Dandy in the Underworld..." but haven't gotten around to listening to it for myself. From what I understand, it's one of those albums that seemed to promise something great right around the corner... and then Bolan died.

Who knows, though? Bolan was embracing punk at the time. Indeed, his last tour was with The Damned. Who knows where he'dve gone next? Alas, like the endless streams of posthumous Hendrix releases, none of the posthumous Bolan releases seem to shed too much light on the question.

I met him, you know. He was on the quiz show I was a contestant on. Still have the signed "Zip gun" album.

awesome. details plz

That's pretty sweet, Mark.

wasn't todd rundgren a big influence on bowie, too?

im obviously biast being a massive Bolan fan but in my opinion and its only my opinion he was miles ahead of bowie for class,songs,image.Bolan was and still is such an influence on more and more bands and you only have to look at the tv ads,films,etc to see how popular hes music still is