As I write this it is 16th of September 2022, exactly 45 years since the accidental death of Marc Bolan just 14 days before his 30th birthday. That was the day that my Teenage Dream finally ended, but not my love for Marc as that will never die. I had turned 22 just 5 days before, but still not really ready to face the full force of adulthood.
Marc wasn't the first star to give teenagers their teenage dream, far from it, perhaps there has always been a teenage dream as long as there have been stars who gave us music that stirred our souls and filled us with love. Yet perhaps it has only really been since the mid 1950's when kids who reached their teens were no longer young adults, but this strange rebellious, tempestuous, hormonal creature called the teenager.
In the mid 1950's a slang words for having sex, rock and roll became a familiar turn to describe a music and indeed now we don't think of it as having any other connotation other than that. Yet sex is at the heart of Rock and Roll, it may be covered up with such terms as love or whatever, yet it is still there.
Elvis who is known as the King of Rock and Roll, didn't become famous just because of his voice and yes as we all know he had a great voice, even more famously he poured sexuality, the famous Elvis the Pelvis and became the biggest star in the world. Others who followed were too squeaky clean or very poor imitations of the King and it really wasn't until the 1960s when four lads from Liverpool claimed the crown. The Beatles, became the biggest band in the world and I doubt we'll ever see another like them again. Behind the nice lyrics there was pure sex and rock and roll lived on. Just listen to a Hard days Night and it is there. Sadly, both of the above were limited by the age they lived in for the revolution or may be evolution had not quite happened.
By the end of the 1960s and the end of the so called Hippie era, thanks to the pioneering work of those above the kids were ready for a new Teenage Dream, one of their own, the Children of the Revolution were ready for our hero and that was Marc Bolan. Marc was overtly sexual, his songs were about having sex, having a good time without the sugar coating of love, well okay some sugar coating and some of the sloppy sentimental stuff. As our hormone raged and we found our sexuality and over things Marc was our god as much as the previous gods had been to previous generations. It was our time for fun before adulthood and adult responsibility. This is why we still love Marc and why pervious generations and future generations loved their Teenage Dream makers.
The Teenage Dream doesn't ever last for long, for me personally, mine ended on the morning of 16th of September 1977, when Marc was taken and my heart broke and the realisation there would be no more T.Rex, not more boogie apart from in fond loving memories. Punk rock had already broken through and another load of kids had their heroes, heroes that Marc (as many acknowledged) open the door for. Even his great friend David Bowie had become a bigger star, but one whose love for Marc still shone through until his own passing.
John sadly was killed just 3 years later than Marc. Elvis, had gone and the stage was empty until the rise of Kurt Cobain who electrified another generation and while the Teenage Dream was different it was still the Teenage Dream share by a rebel, a pioneer, I am not sure of the word to use, whatever it is. Sadly as with Marc his life would end before his 30th birthday.
We should all love our Teenage Dream even if we are now in the final part of our journey, because if we don't then we lose the happy part of ourselves, when we believed, lived and loved like tomorrow was nothing to be frightened or aware of. We Children of the Revolution owe it to all generations to become their own children of their revolution and to have their own Teenage Dream.
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