The links contained in this portion of this Web Page contain a biography of Marc Bolan - the creator and Main Man behind the seventies rock group T.Rex. (They are still under construction to a large extent, so if you encounter problems or see things that look out of place, keep that in mind). The following books were all used as sources in creating this biography and I wish to give credit and praise to them. Each of these references are excellent resources for learning more about Marc Bolan and T.Rex and I would highly recommend any of them (although they may not be easy to obtain). I have attempted to the best of my ability to avoid plagiarizing them directly but readily admit that everything I know comes from these sources plus a few other tidbits I've run across here and there. To the extent that it may intrude slightly on a copyright here or there, I apologize and submit that I have made no money from this venture and my purposes are solely to keep the memory of Marc Bolan alive.
My brother gave me the T.Rex "Electric Warrior" album when I was in high school. That was the only T.Rex album I had till I read that Marc had died during my first year at college in 1977. Out of sympathy, I suppose, I bought 5 or 6 more albums and found that I really dug the music, though I knew little about the man.
After graduating from college, I withdrew from the music scene (careers call, you know) and simply bought no albums for nearly a decade. Sometime around 91 or 92 I started catching up on all the music I had been missing and started re-listening to some of the music I hadn't heard in years - T.Rex included. Around the same time, I took a business trip to England and, while browsing in a book store in Cambridge, came across the biography of Marc by Paul Sinclair.
It's difficult to explain, but when I read the biography, what I learned about the man Marc Bolan coupled with my appreciation for his music must have flipped some switch in me. Of particular significance were a couple of quotes that Marc had made during his life. One regarded his son and how much of a change his son had made in his life. My son was at about the same age at the time that Marc's would have been when he made those comments, and being a father of a young son I felt deeply touched and saddened knowing that Marc's life ended when his son was so young. Another was a quote in which he said "I am determined that everybody will remember me." At that moment I somehow made up my mind that I had to do something to help that memory live.
At that point I started working on putting together the history which is now this home page. I had originally intended it as a recording (kindof a Casey Kasem type thing) with history interspersed with the music. But, figuring I had a snowball's chance in hell of getting copyright permissions on the music to do anything with it, it would have went no further than family and a few close friends. Then it popped into my head that the WEB was another outlet and - there you have it.
If I had to reveal the highpoint of my "search for Marc" as it were, I'd have to say it was my return trip to London a few years ago. At the tail end of a business trip to Israel I stopped in London originally only intending to search area record and book stores for any T.Rex items. I hadn't realized that the Underground had a convenient stop in Golders Green, and after discovering it did, I was compelled to go there. After several hours of searching, only because I was stupid enough not to pick up a London Map, I found the Crematorium and simply cannot describe the emotions I felt at having visted there.
Anyway, I have had a number of mails from people who have visited the biography and can only say that it is very gratifying to know that there are people out there that were glad to see it cause that's why I did it. If anyone has any inputs or info they'd like me to add send me mail. And if you know of any other WEB tributes to Marc let me know and I'll happily add a link. It's up to us to carry the torch.
David Regenold (that's me) was born in Tennessee. After nearly succumbing to some dreaded infant disease, his parents loaded up the truck and moved to the east 100 miles or so and settled at the foot hills of the Appalachia in a place called Elizabethton.
There the young boy lived in peace until at age 14 his younger brother Jimmy (who was 11 at the time) turned him on to a beer and life was never to be the same again. His parents went gray and aged considerably over the next 4 to 5 years.
Picking up drums at age 15, The young DaveR joined up with several rowdy Rock'N'Roll bands but was unable to make a decent living doing so. Then one night he got a call from some country folk who's drummer had been sent to prison requesting that he come in for an audition. The young Regenold had an undying and absolute hatred for that most primitive form of music known as "country" but - money is money.
The band - known as Jerry's Road-runners because the lead singer's name was Jerry (not Garcia although come to think of it they looked a lot a like and met similar fates in life) - hired Dave and spent the next two years sneaking him into VFWs, Moose, and Elks clubs (because he was still under legal drinking age) to play with them. The five piece band consisted of Jerry, a bass player named Rick (who sang for the first two hours and then got so drunk the next two hours that we'd have to secretly turn his mike off so that he would only think he was singing), Tommy on keyboards, and lead guitarist Donnie Davenport. Actually those were quite fun years and Dave was able to continue despite his hatred for country music by dousing himself with a half-case of beer during each gig (one does not have to be too sober to play boom-tap-boom-tap-boom-tap over and over and over again as all country music does). Unfortunately Jerry had a heart attack while driving his car on a deserted country road one night, thus ending any hope that Jerry and the Road-runners could ever get back together to make that platinum reunion album. The only photograph in existance today of this long-lost classic country band is shown below. (Dave is the 4th red-neck standing from the left).
Following the demise of Jerry and the Road-runners, Dave, Donnie, and Rick joined up with another band that can only be described as some sick DJ's idea of a joke. The sick DJ will rename nameless (cause I can't remember his name), but he went under the stage name of Sneaky Snake and was accompanied on stage (for at least part of the show) by two female dancers known as the Sun Down Dancing Girls. Only problem was that they weren't really females at all - they were two drunken old men who dressed in drag and danced around and sang like compete idiots for an hour. But the crowd, strangely, loved it and the band made some pretty big bucks for about a year before things went sour. Things went sour basically because the strain of touring (it was 10 whole miles from the VFW in Elizabethton to the Moose club in Bristol) and an over-indulgence in alcohol which began to take its toll in terms of broken marriages and a few black eyes.
Dave was able to get in and out of a few rock bands which never made much money but were a lot more fun to play in. The first of these was know as "White Horse" and was the first rock band (and the last) to do a Saturday night gig in the Elizabethton High gym. The concert began with an incredible (as in incredible the audience didn't walk out on it) rendition of Hendrix's version of the star-spangled banner and ended with an equally audacious version of "Purple Haze". Otherwise the concert was historically notable only in that it alerted the local police department in this small hamlet of 12,000 that it was high time to up the headcount of the force. No pictures of this band or the other rock bands Dave was in are known to exist today other than the one below which had no name but could have been called the "Regenold Trio" since the members were Dave's brothers (from left to right, Robert, David, and Jim).
. . . To Be Continued