“Everybody shut up”: How Iggy Pop influenced T Rex
Plenty of people make the mistake of thinking that T Rex was simply Marc Bolan. It’s easy to make, though, as Bolan’s voice and energy loomed large over the group, as frontmen tend to. He wrote the songs and he sang them, swaggering around the stage and solidifying himself as one of the 1960s and ‘70s most stylish leaders while the band backed him up. But when the cracks in the group became irreparable, members took influence from one of music’s most scandalous singers to deliver the final blow. It was Iggy Pop that inspired the end of their early era.
Although T Rex was technically a band, it functioned more like a glorified solo project. Formed by Bolan in 1967 as Tyrannosaurus Rex before quickly being shortened, the group was driven solely by Bolan’s vision. He was the sole consistent member, the primary songwriter, and the frontman. For the other members, this dominance posed an ongoing issue.
It was especially a problem for Steve Peregrin Took, one of the original members and who played drums and various percussion instruments for the group. At first, he was enamoured with Bolan’s creativity, but that still didn’t wipe him of his own as much as the singer wished it would. A few albums in, Took tried to be more vocal about his music creations, hoping Bolan would be open to some ideas. He hoped that the band could maybe work on some of his songs. But the singer said no, rejecting Took’s songs in favour of his own for the band’s fourth album, A Beard of Stars, in 1970.
In response, the drummer took his songs elsewhere, offering them to other bands instead. Despite rejecting them, this angered Bolan, leading to a total breakdown of their relationship and essentially an end to their working connection.
But a contract is a contract, and they’d already signed on the dotted line to do a US tour. That didn’t help either, as the tour was poorly planned, placing this early version of T Rex with their soft psychedelic songs on the same bill as thrashing electric acts. It was conflicting; Took wanted out of the band but also wanted this tour to go well or for their crowds to at least pay attention. So, naturally, he looked to music’s troublemakers.
Around the same time in the early 1970s, Iggy Pop and The Stooges were tearing through the US, terrifying their crowds with their wild antics. After the Stooges split due to their singer’s addictions, Iggy Pop only got crazier as he even begged one crowd in LA to stab him. For Took, it was a perfect example to follow to demand attention from their tired American audiences.
“I took my shirt off in the Sunset Strip where we were playing and whipped myself till everybody shut up,” Took recalled of the night he unleashed his plan. “With a belt, y’know, a bit of blood and the whole of Los Angeles shuts up. ‘What’s going on, man, there’s some nutter attacking himself on stage.’ I mean, Iggy Stooge had the same basic approach.”
Soon after, the band returned to the UK, and Bolan swiftly found a replacement for Took. But it was also after this moment that he began to pivot to a full rock band sound, so perhaps he did take something from Took’s creativity after all.
