This is it. When your friends ask you what’s all the fuss
about “glam” and “glitter” rock, put this on and sit back and smile. All the
signposts are here: simple melodies that stay in your head for days;
misogynistic lyrics about ball-busting birds succumbing to the charms and
sexual prowess of the electric warrior, Marc Bolan; introspective evaluations
of our place in the universe, all delivered in a soupcon of blues, folks, rawk,
and pedal-to-the-metal, foot-stomping bravado that’s rarely been equalled, certainly
in the subsequent careers of fellow glitterati, Bowie, Ian Hunter, Gary
Glitter, and Roy Wood’s Wizzard. Slade may have moved more product, but that
was over an extended career of chart toppers.
Electric Warrior stands the test of time as THE glam rock
album of all time because it was the first to condense the movement into 40
minutes of all killer – no filler. Released a week before Bolan's 24th
birthday, it topped the charts before Bowie, Glitter, and Slade, despite
Bolan’s staunchest supporter John Peel practically disowning him for changing
horses midstream, from the hippy gumbo of Tyrannosaurus Rex to the electric
boogie woogie of T. Rex. The debut was a headscratching bridge between the two
worlds, but non-LP hits ‘Ride A White Swan (#2) and ‘Hot Love’ (Bolan’s first
chart topper) signalled the end of Tinkerbelle’s fairy dust.
