Today’s musical selection is the great 1971 T. Rex earworm, “Jeepster.”
The song was suggested by Motor City Garage reader Myron Vernis, car collector extraordinaire (Paxton, Hoffman X8, Davis Divan, Porsche tractors) and the mind behind the Glenmoor Gathering in Canton, Ohio.
Of T. Rex’s charismatic frontman Marc Bolan, Myron notes, “Crazy thing is that, as much as he included automotive references in his music, he never got a driver’s license because he feared an untimely death. Ironically, he died in a car crash before he was 30.”
Indeed. He was the passenger in a Mini 1275GT driven by Gloria Jones, his longtime girlfriend and the mother of his son. The fatal crash (into a maple tree) occurred on September 19, 1977, a week before Bolan’s 30th birthday and a mile from his Southwest London home.
“Jeepster” is memorable both for Bolan’s impossibly catchy guitar riff and for lines like these:
Just like a car you’re pleasing to behold
I’ll call you Jaguar if I may be so bold
Cos you’re my baby, ‘cos you’re my love
Oh girl I’m just a Jeepster for your love
This version is from a live performance at Wembly in 1972, chosen for Bolan’s free-spirited stage and guitar improvisations. It’s lots of fun, check it out.
As someone pointed out, Bolan is wearing a shirt with his own face on it. Not many can pull that off. And as the video shows, he was a wonderfully inventive and skilled guitarist, vastly underestimated today. A rhythm monster.