There are too many stories of dudes dying young for one reason or another and leaving open to speculation what could have become of their talents if not for such a truncated life. Marc Bolan is just another one of those guys. That's not meant to be dispiriting in anyway, but Bolan, like countless other dudes from the later part of the '60s disappeared off the face of the earth. His death, though, wasn't tied to drugs. He was the passenger in a car as he was being ferried home one evening, but he didn't make it. Ironically, Bolan never got a driver's license due to his fear of accidents. They were apparently warranted.

That was 1977. But his musical life with Tyrannosaurus Rex began roughly a decade earlier. Over a three year period, Bolan and his percussionist, Steve Peregrin Took, released three albums with a forth slab featuring a different line up in 1970. Those discs roughly sit in the same musical territory, with that last album - A Beard of Stars - featuring slightly different instrumentation.

While known more for his hits from the '70s with a fully electrified band, Bolan made a name for himself during the '60s first in this twisted folk band with its elongated moniker. Getting a gig in late '66, Bolan didn't have a band to back him, put an add in the paper and on the day of the show picked out 17 year old Steve Peregrin Took to accompany him on drums. The group was booed off stage apparently. That surprising occurrence, while impacting the duos perception of their work, didn't stop them from performing again. And due to the mystical nature of the band's work, Tyrannosaurus Rex gained a decent following in and around the London underground music scene counting Syd Barrett amongst its followers.

Even with this success at home and a series of relatively successful discs, as the band prepared to tour the states the personal relationship between Bolan and Took began to disintegrate. Partially based upon the latter's desire to contribute songs to the band's catalog and Bolan's dismissal of the idea coupled with Took's increasing drug intake served to estrange the two. And after the tour of the states, upon arriving home, Took was summarily dismissed.

The one final Tyrannosaurus Rex album, which featured a different percussionist, began a musical shift towards what Bolan would be best known for. Took's replacement, though, was thought to be less musically inclined, which could have then necessitated the different sound of T. Rex.

As the '70s wore on, Bolan was credited with assisting in forming the basic tenets of glam in a very broad sense. And in that, Bolan has partially become associated with some proto-punk stomp as his hits from this decade did certainly contain an aggressive manner that his work from the '60s didn't necessarily contain. It's always interesting to contrast the two distinct sides to Tyrannosaurus Rex and T. Rex. There really aren't too many similarities lyrically or musically, but that only points to what Bolan could have achieved if given the chance.