Glam Rock Read online

  Glam Rock

  Tempo: A Rowman & Littlefield Music

  Series on Rock, Pop, and Culture

  Series Editor: Scott Calhoun

  Tempo: A Rowman & Littlefield Music Series on Rock, Pop, and Culture offers titles that explore rock and popular music through the lens of social and cultural history, revealing the dynamic relationship between musicians, music, and their milieu. Like other major art forms, rock and pop music comment on their cultural, political, and even economic situation, reflecting the technological advances, psychological concerns, religious feelings, and artistic trends of their times. Contributions to the Tempo series are the ideal introduction to major pop and rock artists and genres.

  The American Songbook: Music for the Masses, by Ann van der Merwe

  Billy Joel: America’s Piano Man, by Joshua S. Duchan

  Bob Dylan: American Troubadour, by Donald Brown

  Bon Jovi: America’s Ultimate Band, by Margaret Olson

  British Invasion: The Crosscurrents of Musical Influence, by Simon Philo

  Bruce Springsteen: American Poet and Prophet, by Donald L. Deardorff II

  The Clash: The Only Band That Mattered, by Sean Egan

  Glam Rock: Music in Sound and Vision, by Simon Philo

  The Kinks: A Thoroughly English Phenomenon, by Carey Fleiner

  Kris Kristofferson: Country Highwayman, by Mary G. Hurd

  Patti Smith: America’s Punk Rock Rhapsodist, by Eric Wendell

  Paul Simon: An American Tune, by Cornel Bonca

  Phil Spector: The Sound of the Sixties, by Sean MacLeod

  Ska: The Rhythm of Liberation, by Heather Augustyn

  Sting and The Police: Walking in Their Footsteps, by Aaron J. West

  U2: Rock ’n’ Roll to Change the World, by Timothy D. Neufeld

  Warren Zevon: Desperado of Los Angeles, by George Plasketes

  Glam Rock

  Music in Sound and Vision

  Simon Philo

  ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

  Lanham • Boulder • New York • London

  Published by Rowman & Littlefield

  An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

  4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706

  www.rowman.com

  Unit A, Whitacre Mews, 26-34 Stannary Street, London SE11 4AB

  Copyright © 2018 by Simon Philo

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

  British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Philo, Simon, 1966- author.

  Title: Glam rock : music in sound and vision / Simon Philo.

  Description: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, 2018. | Series: Tempo: a Rowman & Littlefield music series on rock, pop, and culture | Includes bibliographical references and index.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2018015658 (print) | LCCN 2018016311 (ebook) | ISBN 9781442271487 (electronic) | ISBN 9781442271470 (cloth : alk. paper)

  Subjects: LCSH: Glam rock—History and criticism.

  Classification: LCC ML3534 (ebook) | LCC ML3534.P495 2018 (print) | DDC 781.66—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018015658

  TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

  Printed in the United States of America

  For Linda and Amelie—

  “When you rock and roll with me / No one else I’d rather be.”

  Foreword

  You are holding here in your hands the work of an astrophysicist of popular music. Simon Philo peered into the universe of rock ’n’ roll, with finely tuned instruments and his finely attuned knowledge of its history, to map, chart, and better understand glam rock. He traced its origins back to a kind of big bang moment in the 1950s that emitted pulses and particles that formed stars, some of which were named Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Little Richard. As these stars aligned into the constellation rock ’n’ roll and then collided with American and British cultures, a show of “northern lights” began. Some say the sky show was harder to see for about a decade as the 1960s burned white hot with earthbound rockers. But as the 1970s began, a Starman appeared on television, visible for the first time to the naked eye, and David Bowie turned our gaze up, out, and beyond. The show was back on again, with rock, roll, and the glamorous splendor of heretofore unearthly sounds and sights.

  Consider this book a popular presentation from a scientist who can speak the language of the people and illuminate specifics with the light of bigger contexts. Following his previous writing for this series, British Invasion: The Crosscurrents of Musical Influence, Philo develops the story of glam as a socially, politically, musically, and aesthetically vital stage in the evolution of twentieth-century popular culture. He plots its course and the course of the 1970s as a moment of realizing more public, performative statements of personal identity, and notes the confluence of these two culture-shaping streams. While Bowie’s radiance commands center stage for a while, Philo’s scope is set to wide. Bowie alone does not a star cluster make, and thus Philo explores the compositions and influences of first-generation glam acts such as T. Rex, Roxy Music, Sweet, Slade, and Queen, noting along the way some of their more permanent influences on musical groups since the 1970s.

  Glam opened vistas, stimulated the senses, reoriented rock ’n’ roll’s history, and probably still leaves each person who encounters it somewhere between gobsmacked and wonderstruck. Like watching an eclipse, seeing a shooting star, or holding a meteorite in the palm of your hand, a direct encounter with glam’s sounds and visions is an experience you shouldn’t pass up anytime the opportunity presents itself. But how nice it is to also have someone help you know more about what it is, where it came from, and how it relates to you, as Simon Philo does here.

  Scott Calhoun, Series Editor

  Timeline

  World and Cultural Events

  Glam Events

  September 26, 1945: Bryan Ferry born in Co. Durham.

  January 8, 1947: David Jones (David Bowie) born in London.

  September 30, 1947: Mark Feld (Marc Bolan) born in London.

  April 1948: Marshall Plan secures financial aid for postwar reconstruction; UK receives billions of dollars in loans and grants.

  December 1955: Bill Haley’s “Rock Around the Clock” at no. 1 in the UK, signaling arrival of rock ’n’ roll.

  June 1964: King Bees, with David Jones on lead vocals, release “Liza Jane.” It fails to chart.

  November 1965: Release of Marc Bolan’s debut single “The Wizard.” It fails to chart.

  March 1967: Release of Velvet Underground’s debut LP.

  April 1967: 14-hour “Technicolor Dream,” a happening in London. Pink Floyd perform, Lennon in attendance; John’s Children, with Bolan on guitar, release “Desdemona.”

  June 1, 1967: Sgt. Pepper LP released.

  June 1967: Release of David Bowie’s eponymous debut LP. It fails to chart.

  July 1967: Sexual Offences Act decriminalizes homosexual acts in private between consenting men of 21 and over. Only applies to England and Wales.

  July 1967: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, having been initially jailed for drug offenses, are released on appeal; the Beatles perform “All You Need Is Love” to a global TV audience of 400 million.

  October 1967: UK reports worst ever monthly
trade deficit; “death of hippie” ceremony held in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury.

  June 1968: Stonewall riots in New York mark the beginnings of the gay rights movement.

  August 1968: Tyrannosaurus Rex’s “One Inch Rock” is released. It will make the UK Top 30.

  July 1969: Moon landing.

  August 1969: Woodstock Festival.

  September 1969: Bowie’s “Space Oddity” is released, and will go on to reach the UK Top Five.

  December 1969: Murder of a fan at Rolling Stones’ free concert at Altamont Speedway, Northern California.

  February 1970: First National Women’s Liberation Conference, Oxford, UK.

  March 28, 1970: Live debut of Bowie’s proto-glam band, Hype.

  April 1970: Beatles break up.

  June 1970: In the UK, the Conservative Party regains power after six years of Labour Party rule, with a 30-seat majority.

  June 1970: Kinks release “Lola.”

  July 1970: First issue of UK publication the Ecologist.

  August 1970: 600,000 attend the Isle of Wight Festival to see Jimi Hendrix, the Doors, the Who, Joni Mitchell, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and Sly Stone.

  September 1970: Jimi Hendrix dies.

  October 1970: T. Rex releases “Ride a White Swan.”

  October 1970: Gay Liberation Front founded.

  November 1970: US release of Velvet Underground’s Loaded—last LP with Lou Reed.

  January 1, 1971: Slade plays first of the year’s 150 gigs at Wolverhampton Civic Hall.

  January 1971: First British soldier killed in active service in Northern Ireland in 50 years.

  January–February 1971: Bowie makes first visit to the US.

  February 1971: Alice Cooper’s “Eighteen” in Billboard Top 30.

  March–April 1971: T. Rex’s “Hot Love” is UK’s no. 1 for six weeks. TV appearances confirm the arrival of glam.

  September 1971: Bowie in the US to sign with RCA; also meets Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, and Andy Warhol.

  September 1971: Release of T. Rex’s Electric Warrior. Glam’s first UK no. 1 LP will be the year’s best-seller.

  November 1971: National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) begins an overtime ban.

  November 1971: Slade’s “Coz I Luv You” gives the band the first of its six UK no. 1s; Bowie records the bulk of Ziggy Stardust LP in just one week.

  December 1971: Release of Bowie’s Hunky Dory.

  January 1972: Miners begin national strike; in what will become known as “Bloody Sunday,” British troops shoot dead 14 unarmed people in Derry, Northern Ireland.

  January 1972: Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange on general release in the UK; Bowie “outs” himself in an interview with Michael Watts in Melody Maker.

  February 1972: Strike ends in victory for the mineworkers, who are awarded a 20% pay raise.

  February 25, 1972: T. Rex plays a disastrous show at NYC’s Carnegie Hall.

  March 1972: UK government takes direct control of Northern Ireland.

  March 18, 1972: T. Rex plays to 20,000 at London’s Empire Pool. It is the height of “Trexstasy.” T. Rex will sell an estimated 16 million records in just over a year.

  June 1, 1972: Bob Fosse’s Cabaret goes on general release in the UK with an “X” rating.

  June 1972: Watergate break-in.

  June 1972: Release of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

  July 1972: Collapse of secret talks between the British government and the Irish Republican Army (IRA); first issue of second-wave feminist magazine Spare Rib.

  July 1972: Bowie performs “Starman” on Top of the Pops; release of Mott the Hoople’s version of glam anthem “All the Young Dudes.”

  July 8, 1972: Bowie headlines at London’s Royal Festival Hall with Lou Reed joining him on versions of “Waiting for the Man,” “White Light / White Heat,” and “Sweet Jane.”

  August 1972: 60,000 attend the 10-hour Rock ’n’ Roll Show at Wembley featuring Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Bill Haley.

  August 1972: Roxy Music performs “Virginia Plain” on Top of the Pops; Bowie works with Lou Reed on the latter’s Transformer LP.

  September 1972: Slade’s “Mama Weer All Crazee Now” gives the band its third UK no. 1 in under 12 months; David Bowie kicks off first major North American tour in Cleveland and plays Carnegie Hall at the end of the month.

  November 1972: Release of “The Jean Genie.”

  December 1972: Ringo Starr–directed T. Rex movie Born to Boogie goes on general UK release.

  December 31, 1972: Estimated 24 million working days “lost” to industrial action in the UK in 1972.

  January 1973: UK joins European Economic Community (EEC); Green Party founded as PEOPLE Party; cease-fire in Vietnam.

  January 1973: Sweet’s “Blockbuster” at UK no. 1 for five weeks; Bowie begins 100-day world tour in NYC on January 25.

  March 1973: Last US combat troops out of Vietnam; IRA bombs mainland UK, leaving one dead and 200 injured.

  March 1973: Release of Roxy Music’s For Your Pleasure; Slade’s “Cum On Feel the Noize” at no. 1 for four weeks.

  April 1973: Pink Floyd’s LP Dark Side of the Moon at no. 1 in the US; in this year British acts—Floyd, George Harrison, Wings, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Jethro Tull, the Moody Blues, and Elton John—hold the no. 1 position on the Billboard album chart for a total of 27 weeks; Suzi Quatro’s “Can the Can” is UK’s no. 1 single for three weeks.

  April 13, 1973: Release of Bowie’s Aladdin Sane LP, with UK record advance orders.

  May 1, 1973: Estimated 1.6 million UK workers take strike action in protest of the government’s pay restraint policy and price rises.

  May–August 1973: Televised hearings into Watergate break-ins.

  July 4, 1973: Bowie “retires” Ziggy at Hammersmith Odeon gig, the last of 61 shows in 53 days.

  July 21, 1973: IRA explodes 20 bombs in a single day in Belfast, leaving 11 dead and 100 injured.

  August 1973: US publication Creem runs “The Androgyny Hall of Fame” as a cover story, featuring Bowie at its center with Bolan, Jagger, Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop, and Elvis orbiting around him.

  October 1973: Oil crisis precipitated by Egypt’s invasion of Israeli-occupied Sinai; OPEC quadruples the price of oil, effectively ending the affluence that had marked the preceding 10 years.

  November 1973: UK miners call another overtime ban; UK government declares a state of emergency.

  November 1973: Release of Bowie’s Pin Ups and Bryan Ferry’s These Foolish Things.

  December 18, 1973: IRA bombs in London injure 60.

  December 1973: Stranded gives Roxy Music its first UK no. 1 album; Slade’s “Merry Xmas Everybody” spends a total of five weeks as the UK’s best-selling single. The fastest-selling 45 in UK history, it caps a chart year in which glam singles would hold the top spot for 28 weeks. David Bowie also sets a new record for the number of weeks an act spends on the album chart in a calendar year—182.

  January 1974: UK government imposes a “three-day week” to ration power consumption; IRA detonates five bombs in London and two in Birmingham.

  January 1974: First Top 10 of the year includes eight glam singles.

  February 1974: Miners begin national strike; UK prime minister Edward Heath calls a snap general election and promptly loses; IRA bomb kills 12 on a bus carrying army personnel and their families on the M62.

  February 1974: Mud’s “Tiger Feet” is the UK’s no. 1 for a month and would be the year’s best-selling single. It is also the first in a run of three consecutive glam no. 1s—as it is followed by Suzi Quatro’s “Devil Gate Drive” and Alvin Stardust’s “Jealous Mind.”

  March 1974: Labour’s Harold Wilson becomes prime minister of a minority government; “three-day week” ends.

  May 1974: Diamond Dogs is released.

  June 1974: Bowie is on a six-month tour of North America with the most theatrical (and costly) show ever seen.

  July–
August 1974: BBC technicians strike keeps glam lifeblood Top of the Pops off-air for several weeks.

  August 9, 1974: President Nixon resigns.

  September 1974: President Ford pardons Nixon.