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DOES IT REALLY MEAN THAT?
After posting some of these songs on the Till Dawn Chat List, Mick Gray, who has worked with Marc Bolan for many years, has expressed a different opinion: "It means nothing, it was just a pattern of words that Marc liked. You should never try and be too intellectual with Marc's lyrics, they were just words."
I'm quite sure it may be so when considering many songs composed by Marc Bolan. On the other hand, Marc was clever enough to pretend they don't mean much. In the film IMAGINE, John Lennon also pretended many of his lyrics were just tricks or coincidences. But can we really believe him when we hear lyrics such as: "There is nowhere you can be that isn't where you were meant to be" from All You Need Is Love? And what about Across The Universe, Tomorrow Never Knows, Nowhere Man, Imagine - to name but a few? John was just covering up, as Marc was. It's part of their job - and in a way it does protect themselves from crazy fans who are looking for gurus.
But I'm sure, deep inside, they were quite proud. It doesn't mean they were fully conscious, when they were writing these songs, that they were actually writing philosophy - and this is where we all agree - it just "happened", and this is simply called "inspiration". This is why some people write songs and make records, and others don't. It doesn't have to be 100% conscious all the time. And, it doesn't work all the time, either... This is why Mick Gray is partly right when he says: « ...they were just words. »
If I was to have a talk with Marc about the songs quoted in THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARC BOLAN, even if he would tell me it wasn't supposed to mean what I wrote, I could still maintain it does. He may not have been conscious of doing it that way, but the words do have a signification, and used in such a pattern they can naturally mean what is explained here. And someone else may probably be able to explain something different as well. This is the purpose of creating works of art: for people to read or listen to and understand what's already part of their own experience.
The artist is a medium, and a medium just receives inspiration and expresses it. The artist gives his work, and his work pushes us further, provokes us, gives us clues he sometimes isn't even conscious of, but that's OK. This is called 'dialogue', exchange, communication, life...
This is... « ART ».
Michel Laverdière
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