THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,331) Marc Bolan — “The Lilac Hand of Menthol Dan”
Hey, T. Rex, don’t bite the lilac hand that feeds you! “Such an ace track..Mr Marc B [see #935] you were a genius”. (ScenesFrom Palacio, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MauPc83jaKw) Yes, he was. It was on “Lilac Hand” that Bolan “finally unleashes his new voice with gusto, a howl that peaks spectacularly on the ‘Dan, Dan, Dan’ choruses.” (liner notes to the CD comp 20th Century Superstar) John’s Children’s official website says that “[It] was a song Marc had written before joining the band. After he did, it became known as ‘Dan The Sniff’ and was intended for inclusion on the ‘second’ JC album that never got recorded.” (http://johnschildren.info/music.html).
How did Bolan connect with John’s Children? Phil Hebblethwaite writes:
Mar[c] met manager Simon Napier-Bell in 1966, and they initially set about making Marc a star by promoting him a singer-songwriter in the mould of Bob Dylan. When his early singles flopped, Napier-Bell suggested he join a beat group he was also managing, John’s Children . . . . He learned much about performance from their outrageous live show, but their life as a band was short-lived. In 1967, they released the Bolan-penned single “Desdemona”, which contained the lyric, “Lift up your skirt and fly” – about a witch, Marc claimed, but the line aroused suspicions. The BBC banned the song, and the name of their only album, Orgasm, caused issues in the US, too. In 1968, the band called it quits . . . .
https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/e059d91d-1141-47e9-8c67-c779db4190b6
David Wells adds:
Groomed by Yardbirds’ manager Simon Napier-Bell, endearingly inept pop-art hopefuls John’s Children had been dropped by EMI when Kit Lambert at Track offered them a deal on the alleged proviso that guitarist Geoff McClelland was replaced by another of Napier-Bell’s teen proteges, Marc Bolan. The dirty deed was done, but it proved a short-lived union. Hot on the heels of their 14 Hour Technicolor Dream appearance, the reconstituted band issued the Bolan song “Desdemona”, which incurred the wrath of the BBC . . . . Following the withdrawn “Midsummer Night’s Dream” single a couple of months later, Bolan left John’s Children: by the end of July, he had turned his back on electricity and was hatching plans with fellow flower child Steve Peregrine Took to work as acoustic duo Tyrannosaurus Rex. As a result, Bolan/John’s Children collaborations like [“Lilac Hand”] . . . would be left on the shelf.
liner notes to the CD comp Real Life Permanent Dreams: A Cornucopia of British Psychedelia 1965-1970
And Uncle Dan:
John’s Children were active for only two years. During that short time they had several line up changes, released or nearly released three albums and numerous singles. In The Perfumed Garden could have been their third and final album and the only album to feature future glam pioneer Marc Bolan. Marc was only in the band for a fiery brief four months but during that time the band managed to record several singles and one album’s worth of songs and was thrown off a tour for upstaging the headliners The Who who complained they were too loud and violent. Known as much for their outrageous stage performances as they were for their loud and raw musical style they foreshadowed both glam and punk long before either one was realized. Marc Bolan was installed in the band by manager Simon Napier-Bell as a Pete Townsend type in-house writer and brooding intellectual figure. At the time Marc was a struggling unknown who modeled himself as a Dylan type folkie artist who had released several unsuccessful singles, the first under the name Toby Tyler before settling on the name Marc Bolan but he would not develop his distinctive vocal style until just before joining John’s Children. . . . [“Lilac Dan” was o]ne of many songs Marc brought with him into the band. . . . rechristened “Dan The Sniff” by the band. They played it live but never had the chance to record it. After Marc left the group he recorded this version using John’s Children as his backing band . . . . The song was not released until the 80s and he never returned to the song after forming Tyrannosaurus Rex.
https://whatif-misc.blogspot.com/2018/02/johns-children-in-perfumed-garden-1967.html
Richie Unterberger:
[John’s Children] were perhaps more notable for their flamboyant image and antics than their music. Yardbirds manager Simon Napier-Bell recalled that they were “positively the worst group I’d ever seen” when he chanced upon them in France in 1966, yet he was conned into taking them on as clients. Not proficient enough to be trusted to play on their own records, their first single, “Smashed Blocked”/”Strange Affair,” was recorded with sessionmen in late 1966. This disorienting piece of musical mayhem, opening with a crescendo of swirling organs and an otherworldly over-reverbed vocal, was one of the first overtly psychedelic singles. Their improbable saga was launched when the single actually reached the bottom depths of the U.S. Top 100, cracking the Top Ten in some Florida and California markets. The group’s U.S. company, White Whale, requested an album, which they shelved when it was received — an LP with the then-unthinkable title of Orgasm. The actual album consisted of mediocre studio material smothered in audience screams lifted from the A Hard Day’s Night soundtrack . . . . Their second single, “Just What You Want — Just What You’ll Get”/”But You’re Mine,” reached the British Top 40 and featured a guitar solo by recently departed Yardbird Jeff Beck on the B-side. . . . Marc Bolan joined the group for a time as their principal singer and songwriter . . . . [before] depart[ing] in a squabble with Napier-Bell, and the group released a couple more flop singles before disbanding in 1968. . . . [T]he group — who managed some decent modish power pop once they learned their way around their instruments a bit — were acclaimed as pre-glam rockers of sorts by historians. Andy Ellison (the group’s lead singer except during Bolan’s brief tenure) recorded some decent pop singles at the end of the ’60s, and members of John’s Children were involved with the obscure British groups Jook, Jet, and Radio Stars in the ’70s.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/johns-children-mn0000239381#biography
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