It was March 1971 when file producer Tony Visconti arrived in Los Angeles. He was there with Marc Bolan and T.Rex to work on some new tracks together with “Get It On,” which grew to become the band’s subsequent single, and, swiftly, their second UK No. 1, on July 24, 1971. Tony takes up the story…
‘I had to show him my driver’s license earlier than he would imagine me’
“I was walking down Sunset Boulevard, wearing shades and sweating in my t-shirt,” he remembers. “I went to Tower Records; at the time it was the largest record shop in the world, where I heard Bowie’s ‘The Man Who Sold The World’ blaring out from the loudspeakers. In the middle of the almost empty store a sales clerk was playing ‘air bass’ to my bass part on ‘She Shook Me Cold.’ I couldn’t resist it: ‘I’m Tony Visconti, the producer and bass player of that song.’ ‘No way!’ I had to show him my driver’s license before he would believe me.”
Visconti and Marc Bolan have been in LA to file with Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman who had been the singers within the Turtles, the band that had a worldwide hit with “Happy Together” in 1967. After leaving the Turtles they needed to change their names to Flo and Eddie, as contractually their former file label owned their names. They proceed to carry out as a duo to at the present time.
‘T.Rex became all that high voiced harmonies’
In response to Mark Volman: “Actually we first met Marc when he was on Fly Records with Tyrannosaurus Rex. He came to the US as an opening act for Flo and Eddie. So we hung out with him. When we toured the UK with [Frank] Zappa we looked him up. He was doing things like ‘Seagull Woman,’ I think, and then he had ‘Hot Love.’ We ended up recording a lot with Mark, we contributed the high voices, and T. Rex became all that high voiced harmonies. We did Electric Warrior, ‘Jeepster’ etc and appeared on 10 or 12 of his records. Including ‘Bang A Gong’.”
“Bang A Gong” was what T.Rex’s single “Get it On” was known as in America as there was already an R&B single of that identify and it was felt it might keep away from confusion. Tony Visconti remembers the story of recording “Get It On”:
“Earlier than going into the studio we rehearsed the brand new materials at Howard Kaylan (Eddie)’s Laurel Canyon home. All his home windows and doorways have been open and we might scent the orange bushes that encompass his pool. I’d by no means ever met anybody with a swimming pool in his again yard. Mickey Finn and Steve Currie staged a pretend sluggish movement gunfight by the pool, which I filmed on my Tremendous 8 cine digicam, earlier than we retired inside to routine the back-up vocals for a brand new tune known as, ‘Get It On’.
‘Marc was a prolific songwriter’
“Rehearsing in such a lush home, near a personal swimming pool was a surreal expertise. Marc was a prolific songwriter. He had a lined schoolbook chock-full of lyrics and chord symbols. He would open the ebook in the beginning of an album, after which after we had sufficient tracks recorded – say about 17 – he’d shut the ebook. ‘Get It On’ was simply certainly one of about 50 or 60 he had within the ebook on the time.
“After I first heard it, solely the day earlier than we recorded it, it gave the impression of successful to me. The subsequent day we drove what appeared like miles and miles (typical of distances in LA) to Wally Heider Studios and recorded ‘Get It On’ – the sunshine appeared insufferable to us, with our maggot-like complexions from gray London. Our engineer was a really useful, and keen, Rik Pekkonin; I’d seen his identify on many file covers. We did it in a single night, full with overdubbed backing vocals from Flo and Eddie – we knew we had our subsequent single.
“Again in London we have been including my string association to ‘Cosmic Dancer’ in Trident Studios when a thought occurred to me. ‘Marc, you do realize that both the last two singles have strings on them and there are none on ‘Get It On’?’
“He went pale on the spot. ‘Tony we must have them, can you write something?’ With the string players patiently sitting in their seats I quickly dictated the three notes the strings were to play on the chorus. Without a score to read from I simply pointed to them when they were meant to play the three notes and repeat them when necessary. They had to watch me carefully to stop playing the three notes because the repetition was different each chorus.”
‘Get It On’ took them to an altogether completely different place’
“The counterpoint to working on T.Rex was brought into even sharper focus in July with the release of ‘Get It On’; it was the beginning of [the fan mania that became known as] T. Rextasy. Although the two big hits had catapulted Marc and the band up several rungs on the ladder, ‘Get It On’ took them to an altogether different place; it become universally the most popular T. Rex song.”
Lastly, a few items of trivia. The final line of T.Rex’s “Get it On,” “Meanwhile, I’m still thinking…” was a nod to Chuck Berry‘s song “Little Queenie,” which includes the same lyric and inflection. The saxophonist on the record is King Crimson’s Ian McDonald. We might additionally prefer to dispel a fable surrounding Rick Wakeman enjoying piano on this file. The pianist was, in reality, Blue Weaver, who had been in Amen Nook and Fairweather and was quickly to hitch the Strawbs; Blue was later within the Bee Gees band for a few years. He informed us in 2014: “Yes, it’s true. Although it’s been quoted that Rick played, Tony Visconti said it was me and I also did the piano gliss on ‘Telegram Sam.’ The greatest kick was watching Elton [John] mime to my part on Top Of The Pops.”
The extracts by Tony Visconti come from his ebook, Tony Visconti: The Autobiography: Bowie, Bolan and the Brooklyn Boy.
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