T.Rex: "Blowin' In The Wind" Single (1993).

TMarc Bolan as Toby Tyler’s "Blowin' In The Wind" was released as a CD single in the UK by Archive Jive Records (catalog number ZAR CDS 9005) in 1993

These two songs are the earliest surviving recordings made by Marc Bolan. According to his first manager, Allan Warren, Bolan re-corded two songs at Regent Sound Studios, London during the winter of '64, but no further evidence has yet surfaced from that initial rendezvous. Then, earlier this year, a reel-to-reel master tape from Marc's entire session recorded at producer Vic Keary's Maximum Sound Studios came to light. On it were six takes of "Blowin' In The Wind" and three of "The Road I'm On (Gloria)" as well as two finished mixes of each song: the best versions are featured here. Keary took over the studio (which originally housed the Radio Atlanta pirate station) towards the end of 1964, and recalls Bolan being one of the first to walk through the doors at 47 Dean Street, Soho to record his demo: so the session probably dates from January 1965. Vic also thought that a third song, "The Perfumed Garden Of Gulliver Smith", may have been taped that day, but the emergence of the original master tape appears to disprove this. What this fascinating find does offer, though, is an early example of Bolan allying himself to a cult style (contemporary folk), and giving it his own populist sheen. In this instance, his interpretation of Bob Dylan's "Blowin' In The Wind" missed out the all-important anti-war verse, and was delivered as a piece of 12-string melodic pop rather than a song to motivate Civil Rights marchers. Choosing to record Dion Di Mucci's "The Road I'm On (Gloria)" was less predictable: the song was tucked away on the flip of Dion's "Hoochie Coochie Man", issued in March 1964. Again, Marc reworked the song by weaving an uptempo, 'pop' thread through the mournful lyric, which at times echoes the vocal style of his boyhood hero Cliff Richard. Bolan's familiar vocal warble is almost entirely absent from these recordings, which place him firmly in the folk/pop idiom, a market that Donovan soon made his own in the wake of a mini-residency on "Ready, Steady, Go!". In fact he wasn't even called Marc Bolan at this stage in his career. Between the time he recorded the session and the day he came to pick the acetates up, he'd made the transition from plain old Mark Feld of Summerstown, south-west London to Toby Tyler, an alter-ego that lasted for a couple of months that spring. Then he met publicist Mike Pruskin, signed a record deal with Decca and became Marc Bolan. Archive Jive issued one version of "The Road I'm On (Gloria)" on 45, which was rightly welcomed as a priceless find by Bolan collectors and aficionados everywhere. It served its purpose well: but you'll be astounded by the quality of these snapshots from the very beginning of Marc's recording career - carefully transferred from the original master tape. The image of Marc Bolan as a folk troubadour isn't one that usually springs to mind, but for a few months during 1964 and 1965, that's exactly what he was. And, of course, an astute judge of prevailing trends in the pop world.

Mark Paytress, Record Collector, 1992.

Mark Paytress's biography, 20th Century Boy: The Marc Bolan Story, is published by Sidgwick & Jackson.