Bolan’s Chords

The limit of Bolan’s chord knowledge has been overstated. He used the standard open string shapes for A,C,D,e ,G,Am,Em,A7,D7,E7 and G7, Amaj7, and Cmaj7.

The chord boxes on the left give some unusual shapes which Bolan discovered just by shifting position or lifting a finger off a string.

Bolan’s lead

Marc’s lead playing was limited to major and minor pentatonics, and was occasionnaly hit-or-miss in terms of whether he found the right position on the fretboard. Sometimes his notes sound odd because he would, for example, play A pentatonic over an E major backing. But what he lacked in technique, he often made up for in imagination, often featuring backward guitars or multiple lead guitar soloing. Certain solos have caused a few raised eyebrows over the years, owing to a touch of over-bending here and there, as well as suspect tuning.

Bolan guitarist

As a guitarist, Bolan was at the opposite end of the musical spectrum to players like Vai or Satriani. By all accounts, his knowledge of the fretboard, of chords, scales, tunings and musical theory, was small. As such, he was a fine example of innate, and largely unconscious, creativity. As Tony Visconti said : ‘There was definitely a touch of genius there, for him to have made it with such a limited knowledge of music.’

He played instinctively whatever sounded right in the context of his songs, and drew from the fifties rockers who were his inspiration. Classic T.Rex is all about feel.

When the sheet music appeared for the early Tyrannosaurus Rex songs, it was a guitarist nightmare. Back in those days there were no off-the-record tab books. The standard format was a piano arrangement with chord names written above it or just the vocal melody. Judging from the sheet music Bolan seemed to have an unfathomable taste for extreme sharp or flat keys. That would normally mean barre chords all the way. Even if you had the stength to play them they never sounded right.

Enter Marc’s fave tool the capo.

In reality Bolan was using a capo and moving it up and down the neck while he played standard open shapes ! The capo on these early songs gets as high as VI or VII, making the guitar sound more like a mandolin.

To further confuse matters he also frequently tuned down a semi tone, lending his acoustic a deeper tone.

Marc’s musical ear seems to have been sensitive to the fact that playing in different places on the neck with the capo has a different feel and tone, even though you may be using the same shapes.

A good example of Bolan’s use of capo with Tyrannosaurus Rex would be Debora, a single from the ‘My People Were Fair’ sessions, which reached number 34 in 1968 and the Top 10 when re-released in 1972.

The key is B, and the chords are B,Eb,F , with the C9 (no 3^rd) used for the ‘na na na na na’ bits. Bolan was simply playing G,C, and D . Example 1, Debora gives a very nice minor 9 figure Bolan often used with Tyrannosaurus Rex.

With ‘A Beard of Stars’ Marc started recording with the Fender Strat he’s bought along with a wah-wah pedal The colour of the Strat – white – is a significant clue as to where some of his electric inspiration came from. Example 2 Twentieth Century Boy is taken from that album. ( no way ! site author’s note !)

Ride A White Riff

Example 3 gives the main guitar riff for Ride a White Swan, a top three hit late in 1970. Bolan has a capo at the fourth fret and is playing an E shape, which is actually A. It sounds to me as though he is playing the constant bass note with his thumb.

Example 4 is the solo, a pentatonic minor with an additional 9^th again, probably not played with a pick.

When T.Rex played the Weeley festival in 1971, Marc could be seen on site in a red, Chuck Berry T-shirt.

Bolan’s first five hit singles show a clear debt to the 50’s rock’n’roll of Presley and Berry.

Hot Love (Example 5) owes something to All Shook Up and its B-side Woodland Rock imitates the stop start tactic of Jailhouse Rock and Long Tall Sally.

Marc himself throws in a line from Berry’s Little Queenie on the coda of Get It On (Examples 6 and 7) when he sings over the fade ‘meanwhile I was still thinking’, and, in one of his verses, alludes to Untamed Youth, a film in which eddie Cochran starred.

Marc told Charles Shaar Murray in 1972, ‘I wanted to record Little Queenie, but it wouldn’t have worked again. So I put my own song to it’, adding that he put the allusion at the end so people wouldn’t accuse him of ripping off, ’because, in the end, it’s only the feel of the song’.

From ‘Electric Warrior’ comes Example 8, the riff for Jeepster, borrowed from ‘Howlin’ Wolf’s You’ll be mine’. The main riff is an A7 chord and the lead phrase (Example 9) is a nice example of a harmonised pentatonic major run. Supergrass used similar shapes on their song Time. Bolan is renowned for his catchy riffs, and our final example is Children Of The Revolution (Example 10). No one’s ever really got close to matching the feel of these.

By the end of 1973, Bolan’s muse was deserting him. There’s some nice rythm guitar on Rapids and Electric Slim and a lovely lead break at the close of Highway Knees from the ‘Tanx’ LP.

On later records the inspiration is fitful. Later tracks that have something of the old T.Rex magic would include Venus Loon, Jupiter Liar and the acoustic guitar on Life’s An Elevator.

Guitarist May 1997

Chronology - Albums Critics - Back to main site ( Write Me a Song )