September 30th, 2007:   Had he lived musician Marc Bolan would have celebrated his 60th birthday today.  The UK artist who fronted T-Rex (originally known as  as Tyrannosaurus Rex in their pre glam days) scored a ton of hits including the brilliant 20th Century Boy (see video above). collaborated with David Bowie (he played guitar with Bowie and also shared the same producer -Tony Visconti), and was arguably responsible for glam rock (thanks to T-Rex's  Visconti producted sound coupled with his unique & smart fashion sensibility including an affinity for wearing boas & sporting glitter onstage - long before any other artists did), tragically died in a car crash at age 29 on September 16th, 1977.  He was just two weeks shy of his 30th birthday. Today in the UK several low-key events are planned by fans of the late great artist, and in New York a concert event was scheduled to celebrate his 60th birthday anniversary - to be  attended by Tony Visconti, Patti Smith, Robert Gordan, his son Rolan Bolan and others.

But even before I realized that today would have marked Bolan's 60the birthday he had been on my mind a bit this past week. The reason being that  every time  I hear Devendra Banhart's voice I can't help but think of Marc Bolan who he is more than a little reminiscent of.   And in the past week on the radio I've been hearing a lot of Devendra Banhart because his recommended new album Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon  (XL Recordings) dropped. Pick it up at Amoeba Music and while you are there pick up a T-Rex release if you don't already own one or more.   Meantime for more background reading on Marc Bolan check out this website  or his fan club website. Or do a YouTube search for such videos as "Jeepster" or "Get it On (bang a gong)" or better still, as I said,  hit up the Rock isles of your nearest Amoeba Music.