Cosmic Dancer : The Life and Music of Marc Bolan

Marc Bolan was the biggest pop star in post-Beatles Britain and in 1972 the Beatles acknowledged Bolan and his group T.Rex as their natural successor. His singles outsold the combined sales of Jimi Hendrix and The Who. But just when Bolan was at the summit of his success it all went sour. Bolan was haunted by the fear that he would die before his 30th birthday. He repeatedly told friends, family and colleagues that he had foreseen his own death in a car crash and that the car would be a mini. He had alluded to the tragedy in several songs and a poem in which he named the tree that would become a shrine to his grieving fans. It is said that he had also known the date of his death, gleaned from a painting, titled 'The Sixteenth of September' by the Belgian surrealist Rene Magritte which foreshadowed an iconic image on the cover of his 'The Slider' album. Whatever the truth, it is a fact that on that very date in 1977, two weeks short of his 30th birthday, Bolan's morbid prophecy was fulfilled. This is the incredible story of Marc Bolan's roller-coaster rise to fame and his resurrection as the self-styled 'Godfather of Punk' that promised to put him back on top until the fatal accident in 1977 which cut short his life and hopes of a comeback -- an accident mysteriously accurately predicted by Bolan himself. Paul Roland chronicles the life and music of the vibrato-voiced glam rock idol and 20th century boy who created some of the most instantly appealing and enduring songs of the 70s -- 'Ride A White Swan', 'Hot Love', 'Get It On', 'Telegram Sam', 'Children of the Revolution' and 'Solid Gold Easy Action' -- in what appears to have been a fevered rush to cheat Fate. Cosmic Dancer is a truly definitive account of one of the most colourful and contradictory characters in rock. The book features a cover by the renowned artist George Underwood and is illustrated with many rare and previously unpublished photographs.