Jeepster Telegram Sam Buick Mackane Metal Guru T Rex

Jeepster Album: Electric Warrior (1971)
Telegram Sam Album: The Slider (1972)
Buick Mackane Album: The Slider (1972)
Metal Guru Album: The Slider (1972)
by T. Rex

This music to "Jeepster" is based on a Howlin' Wolf blues song called "You'll Be Mine," which was written by Willie Dixon. As is typical of many blues songs, there are many sexual references in the lyrics, which are made in the form of car metaphors. In interviews, T. Rex leader Marc Bolan acknowledged that he "lifted it from a Howlin' Wolf song."

Marc Bolan had left the band's label, Fly Records, and signed with EMI shortly before Jeepster was released. This caused some controversy because Fly didn't have Bolan's permission to release the song.

Marc Bolan explained: "I don't sing the old rock 'n' roll songs myself. I prefer to change the words and make new songs out of them. That's all 'Jeepster' is."

Tony Visconti produced Jeepster. The American went on to do a lot of work with David Bowie.

Visconti recalled to Uncut in 2016: "When I heard 'Jeepster' I thought, 'Wow, this is seriously different.' I know there's an old blues song he copied, but he threw in some dramatic melodic and chord changes. The song's in A but the chorus jumps to the key of C – no one in the '50s did that!"

According to Tony Visconti, the stomping and rattling at the beginning of Jeepster happened organically and was not overdubbed: a very enthusiastic Marc Bolan jumped up and down as he played guitar, shaking the microphone stands. These kind of noises are typically considered mistakes, but in this case they added to the feel of the song.

Protex recorded Jeepster for their 1980 album Strange Obsessions.

London-based Shazam Entertainment created the music-recognition app Shazam. They initially launched it only in the UK, and on April 19, 2002, using pre-launch software, "Jeepster" became the first-ever Shazamed song. Back in those days you had to dial 2580 to Shazam a song, then they'd text you with its details.

T-Rex leader Marc Bolan wrote Telegram Sam as an ode to his manager, Tony Secunda. "Telegram Sam" was Bolan's affectionate nickname for his Secunda. Other people who show up in the song: "Jungle-face Jake" was Sid Walker, Secunda's black assistant, and "Bobby" is Bob Dylan.

When Bolan referred to Secunda as his "Main Man," it brought the phrase into popular culture.

Telegram Sam was the first single released on Marc Bolan's own T Rex Wax Co label.

The goth-rock group Bauhaus covered Telegram Sam In 1980.

In 1977, on the "Dandy in the Underworld" tour, Marc Bolan sang "Third vision and the David Bowie blues" instead of "3D vision and the California blues" - hinting at David Bowie's depressive tendencies.

Marc Bolan described Buick Mackane as his "Zep Rex" experiment, meaning it was inspired by Led Zeppelin. Bolan was actually ahead of Zeppelin in using a car as a sexual metaphor, as Led Zep's "Trampled Underfoot" wasn't released until 1975.

Buick Mackane had lyrics that were typical of Marc Bolan, who was the group's songwriter. The words are sexually tinged but nonsensical, with "Buick MacKane" apparently being the name of a girl. Perhaps the best synopsis came in the New York Times review of the album, where Loraine Alterman wrote: "Bolan does have a certain fey charm that in the end defies analysis."

A rock group led by Alejandro Escovedo called Buick MacKane took their name from this song. They released just one album: The Pawn Shop Years (1997).

Guns N' Roses recorded Buick Mackane for their 1993 covers album The Spaghetti Incident?. Their rhythm guitarist at the time, Gilby Clarke, made it clear that he wanted to do a T. Rex cover. "Back then I was wearing a T. Rex T-shirt, like, every single day," he told us. "Matt [Sorum] used to joke, 'Okay, we got it, we got it.'"

The Guns N' Roses cover of Buick Mackane features a rare backup vocal from their lead guitarist, Slash.

Marc Bolan wrote Metal Guru about his preoccupation with cars, adding a mystic dimension, "'Metal Guru' is a festival of life song," he said. "I believe in a god, but I have no religion, and I thought God would be all alone without a telephone."

Bolan repeats "Metal Guru" 21 times. "My lyrics always come before the music," he said in a 1972 interview. "Repetition comes into my songs a lot because I think my lyrics are so obscure that they need to be hammered home. You need to hear them eight or nine times before they start to make sense."

T. Rex recorded "Metal Guru" with their producer, Tony Visconti, at the Chateau d'Herouville studio northwest of Paris. At the time, the studio was known as "Strawberry Studios," but it later became known as the "Honky Chateau" after Elton John recorded his album of the same name there.

Tony Visconti produced all the band's albums from their Tyrannosaurus Rex psychedelic folk days until well into their second, glam rock phase. Asked by The Sun in 2022 about this song's meaning, Visconti said it was to do with Bolan's relationship with cars. "It was about a Cadillac," he explained. "There are so many damn cars in his stuff, he could have been a car salesman."

Despite Bolan's fascination with motor vehicles, he never learned to drive. When he died in a car accident in 1977, his girlfriend, the singer Gloria Jones, was at the wheel.

Bolan gave Visconti carte blanche on the strings so the producer did the string arrangements for this song. "He loved them and never contributed a single note himself," said the producer. "There was real trust."

Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan of The Turtles sang backup on this track, The duo, also known as Flo and Eddie, performed backing vocals on many of T. Rex's classic tracks ("Hot Love," "Telegram Sam," "Main Man," etc.).

The Smiths musically based their 1986 song "Panic" on "Metal Guru."