T Rex – Ride a White Swan

T Rex had something in common with Status Quo. They had a lot of hits in the UK but only one here…Get It On. I’ve been going through their catalog and listening to their singles…I need to work on the albums. With Status Quo, I thought they should have played more here. With T Rex…I think yeah, they should have had hits here.

They were considered glam rock by 71 and some people say that glam didn’t make it in America. Well, that doesn’t hold much water when you see what David Bowie did with Ziggy Stardust. I looked at some of their tours of America and I can see some problems. They opened up for Blue Öyster Cult, Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, and Three Dog Night. Let’s think about this a second…all great bands yes…but not a hotbed for glam rock.

Bolan had a knack for taking a title and making it into a catchy song. Look at their titles…Jeepster, Telegram Sam, Metal Guru, and 20th Century Boy. All have a rhythm just in the title and he was very good at getting good songs out of that. Ride a White Swan was written by Marc Bolan.

Before this single was released…they were known as Tyrannosaurus Rex, two years of their single releases had yielded just one appearance in the UK Top 30, with One Inch Rock. This stand-alone single was the duo of Marc Bolan and Mickey Finn’s first under the newly-abbreviated name T Rex, and the first for the Fly label, newly formed by David Platz with the support of Track Records’ The Who management team of Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp.

Here is an excerpt from the book Bolan:The Rise and Fall of a 20th Century Superstar by Mark Paytress.

  The new songs spoke loudly of transition and wish-fulfilment; one in particular managed to encapsulate everything Marc Bolan had been looking for. At one session in July 1970, he asked Tony Visconti to start rolling the tape. He wanted to put down a new song, ‘Ride A White Swan’; “Let’s call it ‘Swan’,” Visconti called back from the Trident Studios control booth, unaware that the next few seconds would reveal the key to Marc Bolan’s glorious future. With his cherished Gibson Les Paul around his neck (stained orange in homage to Eddie Cochran’s six-string), Marc formed an open E shape chord above the capo he’d strapped over the fourth fret, and kicked out a clipped rock ‘n’ roll chord just like James Burton on those old Ricky Nelson B-sides. Almost the instant Visconti flicked a switch, adding a small amount of reverb on the guitar track, Marc shouted back emphatically: “I want that sound!”

        ‘Ride A White Swan’ not only sounded simple; it was simple. The ingredients were few – that clipped, three-chord-trick guitar, Marc’s cautious vocal (sung from a sheet hastily typed by June), handclaps on the offbeat and a rudimentary Bolan bass line (played on Visconti’s Fender Precision bass), offset by a modest, Visconti-arranged string section and that trademark Tyrannosaurus Rex falsetto backing drone. The lyrics – just twelve short, sweet lines – were similarly economical, even by Marc’s recent standards. And the crucial parts that Dib Cochran and The Earwigs lacked – a genuine voice, and a rock ‘n’ roll backing – were here in abundance.

 “When we heard what we got,” recalls [Marc’s music publisher] David Platz, “it was simply so exciting that we knew we had a potential Superstar on our hands. It had such a different sound, and was exactly right for that particular time.” Releasing ‘Ride A White Swan’ as the band’s next single seems in retrospect to have been an expertly judged calculation, but at the time its success took almost everyone by surprise – even Marc whose memory was already saturated with misplaced hopes. In fact, the route to number two in the British charts in November 1970 was tortuous and complicated, with several factors contributing to the success of ‘Ride A White Swan’.

The song peaked at #2 in the UK, #48 in Canada, #9 in New Zealand, and #76 on the Billboard 100 in 1970.

Elton John: “The perfect pop star, his songs were great, his records rocked, he had attitude, he had performing skills, he looked fabulous, he dressed the part. At a time when I was still becoming Elton John, he was a great role model. I thought: ‘This guy doesn’t give a fuck, he’s just being who he is and he’s loving every single minute of it.’ And that had a great effect on me.… He was sitting there in a cloak covered in stars, writing songs that sounded like Chuck Berry, very simple songs. What?”

The Edge: Marc Bolan was magical, but also sexually heightened and androgynous, with this glitter and makeup, I’d never seen anything like it: ‘What the hell is this? Real lads are not into this kind of stuff – this is clearly music for girls.’ But when I picked up a guitar a year later, ‘Hot Love’ was the first song I learned to play.“I’ve no doubt every aspect of how he presented himself was just an outpouring of his understanding that things could be magical, things could be heightened. Out in the ordinary world, he managed to cast a spell over all of us.”

Ride The White Swan

Ride it on out like a bird in the sky waysRide it on out like you were a birdFly it all out like an eagle in a sunbeamRide it on out like you were a bird

Wear a tall hat like a druid in the old daysWear a tall hat and a tattooed gownRide a white swan like the people of the BeltaneWear your hair long, babe you can’t go wrong

Catch a bright star and a place it on your foreheadSay a few spells and baby, there you goTake a black cat and sit it on your shoulderAnd in the morning you’ll know all you know, oh

Wear a tall hat like a druid in the old daysWear a tall hat and a tattooed gownRide a white swan like the people of the BeltaneWear your hair long, babe you can’t go wrong

…

Unknown's avatar

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

69 thoughts on “T Rex – Ride a White Swan”

      2. Yes it is… “Nashville is expected to see a partial solar eclipse starting at about 12:45 p.m. with the event lasting until about 2:30 p.m.”
        But the clouds are terrible.

        Liked by 1 person

  5. My friend David (who introduced me to Los Lobos) also introduced me to Tyrannosaurus Rex in their acoustic days. He was a voracious reader of the British music press and became an early T-Rex fan. I’ll admit his enthusiasm (for T-Rex and Glam Rock in general) never rubbed off on me. I remember “Jeepster” getting some airplay at the time.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Yea Get It On and Jeepster was played over here I believe. Many of their songs sound catchy…I just thought they would have caught on a little more…but they had to be heard first I guess.
      I do like that acoustic period as well.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. They really had some cool songs. The more I listen to them the more I like some of their stuff. I’ll check that album out…that one had Telegram Sam on it I believe.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Yes that’s the one. When you did the ‘Buick Mackane’ take you sent me back to the record. I was eventually going to do a take on it. It was in my brothers pile so it was my intro to T Rex. Flo and Eddie are all over it. I hear a lot of Beatles in it. Plus Ringo was involved. I forgot about that until I was reading the jacket. Songs are very catchy to my ear.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Yes I remember that documentary that Ringo did about T Rex…Born to Boogie.
        Yea I will check it out…I remember the cover…with Bolan wearing a top hat…that was probably the time they were making the doc…just never listened to the full album.

        Like

      3. I think it was before ‘Gong’ and ‘Jeepster. It’s a bit of and easy listen (not easy listening) if that makes sense. Quick pops. Lyrics and riffs that stay with you.
        I want one of those Artful Dodger hats.

        Liked by 2 people

      4. I got you…I’ll check it out. I like those as well…I saw Slade’s lead singer wear one.

        Like

  7. The song’s brand new to me , sounds decent. TRex , then later The Jam are I think the epitome of tastes not translating across the ocean. Both had strings of multiple #1 and #2 hits there, one hit here (actually more like 0 hits here for The Jam, one in Canada). With TRex, too glam. Maybe for audiences, or maybe for record companies to believe could be accepted here.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. I’m trying an unoffical theme this week except on Wednesday…these bands that just couldn’t break America…lol and you nailed one I am going to do. I already have it written…plus a couple of other ones.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      2. I never thought of Queen…I guess because The Game was so huge over here…and also Queens Greatest Hits followed it closely. That is when I discovered Bohemian Rhapsody…I was an early teen then.

        Like

  8. I think the glam scene never flew in America because it was ‘bad’ enough for guys to be wearing their hair longer than a macho buzz cut, but stars stuck on your head, face-paint, stacked heels and glitter from these English poseurs? Too much! Until, of course the ‘made in the USA’ New York Dolls and Kiss made it more acceptable. Buta little later. Not at the forefront. America saw itself as the musical powerhouse because it HAD led the world for decades. The Brit Invasion upset the old applecart and there was a bit of bitterness with having to share the musical stage with these strange sounding but cute and loveable Liverpudlians and cheeky Cockneys. (And, Gawd help us, Ozzy ‘Brummie’ Osbourne.) At this stage American musical tastes remained pretty conservative. I just -like it or loath it- couldn’t see Punk springing out of Suburbia, USA.

    Sorry, Professor Obnoxious will now climb off his high horse and let T-Rex play.

    And, as I’m sure I’ve said before, one of my bro’s favourites at the time. He played the grooves off of it.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. LOL…professor Obnoxious is alright.
      I do see what you are talking about and agree… and the question I ask…is how did David Bowie slip through? Now I get that he started to be huge with Ziggy and that was when T Rex was starting going down in 1973. Maybe that was part of it I don’t know…a little too early maybe.
      Like I told Dave…this week I’m doing a few that didn’t quite make it huge over here…but no glam…

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. I just put it down to being too ‘out there’- and the dude is wearing a dress- that wasn’t going to fly over there. Though his early-mid 70s glam days through to ‘Diamond Dogs’ were the best for me personally, outside of ‘Heroes.’ The Jam ARE the essence of not translating over there. Perhaps, like the Kinks, just too English in sound and lyrics. And let’s face it, the bouncy but grim ‘That’s Entertainment’ is no breezy ‘We Built This City.’ Ummmm, no, there has to be a better USA themed song than that!?!?

        Look forward to the post, and I’m still listening to ‘Pontiac’ which I recommended to my younger bro in Ohio.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. That is me also about David Bowie. Songs like life on Mars and through to the mid 70s were just great.

        I’m glad you are still liking it and consider it a repayment for Israel Nash. I can’t get enough of him.

        Liked by 2 people

      3. I have to jump in Max & suggest maybe you’re looking thru slightly revisionist glasses in that I don’t think Bowie really caught on in US until ‘Fame’…even ‘Space Oddity’ wasn’t REAL big back then. Of course in later years he became revered and considered darn near a demigod here…but in the TRex days, I don’t think so

        Liked by 2 people

      4. “Bowie” didn’t but Ziggy Stardust did do rather well Dave. He is the first real rock star I remember as a kid. The Stardust character sold well and got national news…now like I told obbverse…he was big over here in 1973 and that is when T Rex was starting to go down…but they were touring over here at that time. That is when they opened for those bands.

        Liked by 1 person

      5. 1972’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust… went to #21 and was 2X Platinum and Gold…the next album 1973’s Aladdin Sane went to #17 and was Platinum and Gold. He would get a top 10 album in 74.
        Was he number 1? No…but he rarely was. All I was saying is that he was pretty wild but got accepted over here…that is why it puzzled me on Bolan….BUT in all fairness…Bolan was huge in the UK from 70 – 73….so Bowie’s success over here was at the time where Bolan’s dominance was ending.

        Liked by 2 people

      6. Max, all that stuff was playing FM radio, but maybe they took awhile to come around on AM? I really don’t remember because once I found FM I had little interest in AM. I just have to wonder what they were thinking when:
        ” They opened up for Blue Öyster Cult, Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, and Three Dog Night. Let’s think about this a second…all great bands yes…but not a hotbed for glam rock.” Talk about a mismatch!

        Liked by 2 people

      12. Bowie was musically and stylistically influenced by The Velvet Underground and Lou Reed in the “glam” period you speak of, and his lyrics often contained US references such as “New York’s a go-go” and “panic in Detroit” and a general American-ness in lines like “some cat was layin’ down some rock ‘n’ roll”, “jiving us that we were voodoo”, “plug a few civilians”, “news guy wept when he told me”, “a cop knelt and kissed the feet of a priest” and “with God-given ass” and also in sexually-inspired phrases like “give me sweet head”, and “well-hung” that weren’t widely used in the UK at the time. I remember listening to Ziggy in 1972 and being aware that these were Americanisms he was using. Furthermore, Aladdin Sane was very much touted as “Ziggy goes to America”.

        There was definitely something cosmopolitan about Bowie.

        Bowie also had a bit of an obsession with America that meant he was always over there, and he was friends with Reed etc. He sort of appealed to the US in a similar way that Mick Jagger did.

        Also, strangely, Elton John’s “glam” phase (72-74) went down well in the US too.

        Liked by 3 people

      13. With Bowie…yes I can see the American influence…in Life On Mars as well.

        I really hate that “too British” term…the bands to me that would fit that…although I don’t agree with it were The Kinks and Jam. Great is great to me. It’s not like they are speaking a different language.

        Liked by 1 person

      15. That was mainly around 76-77 (The Idiot and Lust For Life Iggy era) but I am sure he knew Iggy from the early 70s. There are also a few songwriting collaborations with Iggy on 1984’s Tonight album by Bowie.

        Liked by 1 person

  10. Pingback: T Rex – Ride a White Swan – MobsterTiger

  11. T.Rex were revolutionary for the UK music scene, aimed at teens, they upset mums and dads and that was a huge plus, and there had been nothing before that sounded like T.Rex, possibly bar Donovan, but electric. I heard this record first in Singapore and had no idea who Marc Bolan was or what he looked like – Singapore, like most of the US, just wouldnt have been able to handle glitter and all that on TV – it took a decade before a bunch of rip-off US rock-acts managed to get careers on what the UK did in 1971/72 and then killed off in 1975 until the next goth and New Romantic phase of Glam/androgyny came along in the New Wave early 80’s, which led right into Motley Crue and the like (image-wise, and rock Glam covers) for which you can probably thank MTV and UK pop videos. Those outlets weren’t around in the 70’s.

    Ride A White Swan, though, was irresistibly catchy and rifftastic, and sounded terrific in the tropical, lazy, sunny lifestyle of Singapore, an immediate fave of this 12-year-old, and Bolan got better and better with each record after this. I guess the more image-ridden poetic lyrics might also have been a drawback for US radio, wtf is a “Metal Guru?!” and all that, but Children Of The Revolution sounded like the kids had the power and the grown-up elders don’t, which is always a fantasy that appeals to teens 🙂

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. As I’m listening now…the songs were riffy and incredibly catchy. Now Slade…I really don’t understand. They were considered glam by some…I just didn’t see that as much as Bolan.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Slade were very much UK glam, the kings of it along with T. Rex, Sweet and sssh – (Gary Glitter).

        Songs like Cum On Feel The Noize, Skweeze Me Pleeze Me, Gudbuy T’ Jane and Mama Were All Crazee Now are nothing if not catchy.

        To be “glam” in the UK in 1972 to 1974 you needed your music to stomp. Slade stomped, big time.

        Liked by 2 people

      2. I liked them a lot. What is odd is that Quiet Riot turned around and did essentially the same versions and got huge hits a decade later.

        Liked by 1 person

  13. That couple I used to babysit for where the wife went to work and the dad was a 3rd shifter and slept, where the guy had the kickass record collection, was where I first listened to T Rex. It was the album with Bang A Gong on. I’ve recently come across The Slider and think it’s kickass also. Marc Bolan had great stage presence and reminds me of Bowie in many ways. This song is new to me. I really like the lyrics, which are also forward-thinking.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. He was very good at lyrics and melodies. I can’t believe he didn’t have more hits here. There is a documentary that Ringo made about T Rex called Born to Boogie…it’s good.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      2. Apple films were still going and he made it in 1972 with Bolan…it’s pretty cool. Ringo wanted to be in film making.

        Liked by 1 person

      5. I think you made the point in your review that Bolan could make a great hooky song out of what may have initially sounded like a pretty senseless lyric –

        “Telegram Sam, Telegram Sam, yo-ooh-ooh are my main main”

        “Metal Guru – is it you?”

        “Get it on – bang a gong, get it on”

        “She’s faster than most and she lives on the coast -a-ha-ha”

        He could also get a bit flamboyant with his imagery –

        “You’re built like a car, you got a hubcap diamond star halo”

        “You’re an untamed youth, that’s the truth with your cloak full of eagles”

        Basically, Bolan could take a few seemingly nonsense lines, say a few spells and baby there you go…..

        (see what I did there? Almost Bolanesque)

        Liked by 1 person

  14. Save the best for last! (OK, you published it first but I’m going backwards…) I love Marc Bolan, and think he’s up there as one of the best rock stars, ever. He just had whatever it is you need to be one: sex appeal, to both boys and girls, amazing guitar playing, great hair… And like you and everyone else has said, could make amazing songs out of total nonsense. ‘Ride a White Swan’… wtf is that about? Who cares? Anyone who can come up with the lyric “I drive a Rolls Royce, Cos it’s good for my voice” deserves to be classed with Shakespeare!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. LOL…love your last line. I’m just shocked at the quality of the sound and these should have hit over here!
      I can’t believe the bands they teamed them up with…it just didn’t fit. I agree to all what you said…it boggles my mind that he wasn’t played over here.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  16. For me growing up in the UK, Ride A White Swan was the best song that T-Rex put out, yet when I bought their Greatest Hits CD in the 90’s when I was living in the USA, it didn’t even appear on the CD, yet some other “non hit” songs did. Very strange.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I’m at a loss why they weren’t not as big over here…they had catchy songs that should have taken off as Get It On did.

      Like

      Reply

      1. I totally agree, it’s amazing how they just didn’t catch on at the time. It’s not like the UK and US weren’t featuring the latest bands and music from the other side of the “pond” back in 1970.

        I loved Badfinger at the time too, another great band with some classic hits.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Oh yea… Badfinger I admire and feel bad for at the same time. They were the definition of getting ripped off by a manager in the worse way.

        Like

Leave a comment