Kim Rolla; T-Rex, Marc Bolan, Electric Warrior, Get It On

I was 14, it was 1973, and I got news of first impression for me: a friend had died. Her name was Kim Rolla. We knew each other from kindergarten. She lived in my neighborhood. We played together as kids. She was beautiful – blonde hair, straight. Smart and energetic. All of our friends were one big group. My birthday is February 26th. Kim’s is the 28th or 24th, something like that. We had lots of late February birthdays in that group.

We stayed in the same neighborhood grammar school, Longfellow, PS#28, Scranton, PA, through 6th grade. The junior high was North Scranton. In 7th and 8th, I would see Kim and sometimes (I think) we would spend time together. I used to go to her house during the early years, I just don’t when that stopped. I moved north about 23 miles - an eternity for a kid - during the summer following 8th grade.

The last time I saw her was on the corner of Green Ridge St. and Sanderson Ave. If was before school some warm day. We said hello, chatted for a moment, and off we went in different directions. I was walking, she was waiting for a ride.

My friend Artie called me and told me about the accident. Some girl that I knew as a wild seed with little common sense was racing down a dirt road after a car full of boys. Kim was in the passenger front sitting on the door and banging on the hood. The car flipped, and Kim was crushed underneath.

She had this upturn to her nose before the accident. The reconstruction they did for the funeral presentation didn’t bring back that feature. She was buried in a wedding dress.

I remember, and can still picture, that Sunday’s newspaper. I turned the pages until I found her obit. I stared at the words as I lay on the floor facing the mountains. My brother was on my left in a chair.

I wrote to her mom a few months later and said how sorry I was. She wrote back telling me how Kim had a crush on me when we were younger. I smiled; funny, the crush was unspoken but mutual.

I don’t go to Scranton anymore, but when I did, I always drove past her house on Sanderson Ave., close to where Marion St. comes in.

It was a few years later, 1976 maybe, that I went to her grave for the first time. It was winter. I touched her stone, stayed for a while, talked to her. I have never gone back, but it is funny how I think about her regularly.

Somehow or another, T.Rex’s Get It On because associated with her. Had to be because of when I was emotionally open at the news of her death. Every time I hear the song, Kim’s face comes to me.

The song was released as a single on July 24, 1971; released on the Electric Warrior album on September 17, 1971. In England the song was entitled "Get It On." In America, to avoid confusion with a song with the same name by another artist (Bill Chase, an American trumpet player and leader of a jazz-rock fusion band, Chase) it was re-titled "Bang a Gong, (Get it On)." Not credited on the liner notes is Rick Wakeman of "YES," who played piano on the song.

I found an extensive writing on the studio sessions and reproduce it (in part) below. Following that writing is four versions of the song (videos) and the lyrics. I introduce briefly each version.

[BEGINNING OF EXCERPTED SESSION NOTES]
In early '68 the duo [Marc Bolan and percussionist Steve Peregrine, performing as Tyrannosaurus Rex] was discovered by Tony Visconti, a young arranger/ musician/ engineer from Brooklyn who'd moved to England during 1967 and hooked up doing work with producer Denny Cordell. Visconti helped the group land a deal with EMI's Regal Zonophone label and then took them into the studio to produce the first Tyrannosaurus Rex LP-the fancifully titled My People Were Fair and Had Sky in Their Hair, But Now They're Content to Wear Stars on Their Brows. This was the beginning of an association that would eventually produce ten studio albums.

According to Visconti, after the band cut "Hot Love" in January, they traveled to America for a short tour, and "I followed them there with the excuse to visit my parents in New York. When we met up in New York, Marc suggested we start recording the next album; this was late April. We booked Media Sound Studios on 57th Street and recorded 'Jeepster' and possibly 'The Motivator' for the Electric Warrior album. Bob Margouleff was the engineer.

"Then the group flew to Los Angeles for a gig at the Whisky-a-Go-Go," Visconti continues. "We hooked up with Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, and I remember us having a lovely jam up at Howard's house in Laurel Canyon. We made plans to book Wally Heider's studio to cut a few tracks, including 'Get It On.' … Marc was a prolific songwriter. He had a lined schoolbook chock-full of lyrics and chord symbols. He would open the book at the beginning of an album, and then when we had enough tracks recorded-say, about 17-he'd close the book. 'Get It On' was just one of about 50 or 60 he had in the book at the time. When I first heard it, only the day before we recorded it, it sounded like a hit to me. At Howard's house, we were singing it for hours and banging things for percussion. We were totally vibed to record it the next day. I can still remember driving in a van with the band to Wally Heider's through freeways and unbearable sunshine-we all had the complexions of maggots, coming directly from gray London.

"The session was like any other T. Rex session. We had an engineer called Rick [Pekkonen] who was a very nice guy. Flo & Eddie recommended him and the studio. The drums were quickly set up, and we got sounds immediately. I was impressed with the speed of American engineers at that time; it was a much slower process in England. The recording started sometime in the middle of the afternoon. We cut 'Get It On' and two other tracks in a few hours. The group already knew the songs, and we had rehearsed backing vocals with Mark and Howard the previous day at Howard's. By 10 p.m., we were cutting the backing vocals. Flo & Eddie were self-starters-they could harmonize the phone book! My job with them was mainly to have enough tracks for them and to make sure we covered all the harmonic possibilities before they left. But everything was always done fairly quickly on T. Rex albums, because Marc wanted to keep costs down, an old habit from the days when we hardly had a decent budget to record.

At the time, Heider's was equipped with a custom console, a 16-track recorder, and "they had all my favorite mics," Visconti recalls, "dynamics for the drums, but U87s for the toms; I used to insist on that. We recorded the drums over three tracks. In those days, it was such a dilemma-do we record the kick on a separate track and the rest of the kit in stereo? Or should we record the snare on a separate track and record the kick in with the stereo kit? Should we record the kick and snare on separate tracks? I tried everything for Electric Warrior. Since we needed tracks for backing vocals, strings, horns and percussion, the drum configuration was a very important decision. In the end, we went with keeping the kick separate with the snare and the rest of the kit in stereo on 'Get It On.'

"From memory I can say that the bass guitar was probably coming off just the amp stack to one track," Visconti continues. "Marc's live guitar was recorded to one track from a mic in front of his Marshall. This track was used and not replaced, so the live groove was preserved. He overdubbed a second guitar playing groove parts and the short solos. Mickey Finn's two conga mics were mixed to one track. There was an open vocal mic in the room during tracking. Marc sang on some takes but didn't on the master take. We used this vocal mic for the final mix as an ambience mic. We used about four or five tracks for Flo & Eddie, with Marc joining them. I always used a U87 on vocals and backing vocals."

After the Heider's sessions, the group returned to England, and work on the song (and album) continued at Trident Studios, with Roy Thomas Baker engineering. Blue Weaver played grand piano on the track, and King Crimson's Ian McDonald is responsible for the honking sax line. "He played all the saxes, one baritone and two altos," Visconti says. "I kept the baritone separate but bounced the altos to one track. I bounced the backup vocals to two tracks, making an interesting stereo image."

Though Visconti usually plotted out his always-creative string arrangements well in advance of orchestral sessions, the simple-but-effective string part for "Bang A Gong" was an afterthought: "We didn't intend to put strings on 'Get It On,' but when I was writing arrangements for 'Cosmic Dancer' and the other titles with strings, I felt maybe I should have something ready for 'Get It On,' just in case. At the session, I reminded Marc that our first two hits had strings on them and maybe we should continue the trend. Superstitiously, he agreed. All I had written out were the notes G-A-E, as whole notes over the chords of the chorus. We did those first and realized it was icing on the cake! There was no need to write any more for an already dense track. It took about ten minutes."

As for outboard effects on the record, Visconti notes that "Trident had the usual effects available in those days-basically a bank of compressors and two EMT plates. We did our tight slapbacks and phasing with three tape recorders at the mixing stage, with someone in the band or the tape assistant slowly sweeping the VCO. There will never be a digital box that phases and flanges as well as the original method, because that method would technically process before and after the signal, crossing the 'node,' whereas a modern phase program only processes after the signal. There are many instruments treated this way on Electric Warrior. Ambience was our only other 'effect.' I'd often record guitars and hand claps from a microphone about 10 feet from the source, aimed at the studio window, in cardioid mode. I was never a fan of hitting analog tape very hard-to me it always sounded better live; the playback was always a disappointment."
[END OF EXCERPTED SESSION NOTES]

This first video has a really bad mix, and seems to be an early version of the song.



This is the released version of the song, with really bad lip syncing in the video. Remember, MTV was not even a concept. To make music videos was rare.



I love this live version from 1973. Check out the black girls – they own those mics. Screaming! One girl has hair bigger than a medicine ball. Marc goes wild with early ‘70s stage presence. It’s funny that the performance is for a studio audience – Marc clearly seems to be playing to a stadium.



This video is from 1972. This performance is to a larger crowd. The video itself comes from the 2007 Rexmania festival. Video bad, audio good.



Well you're dirty and sweet
Clad in black, don't look back, and I love you
You're dirty and sweet oh yeah

Well you're slim and you're weak
You got the teeth of the hydra upon you
You're dirty sweet and you're my girl

Get it on, bang a gong, get it on
Get it on, bang a gong, get it on

Well you're built like a car
You got a hubcap diamond star halo
You're built like a car oh yeah

Well you're an untamed youth
That's the truth
With your cloak full of eagles
You're dirty sweet and you're my girl

Get it on, bang a gong, get it on
Get it on, bang a gong, get it on

Well you're windy and wild
You got the blues
In your shoes and your stockings
You're windy and wild oh yeah

You're built like a car
You got a hubcap diamond star halo
You're dirty sweet and you're my girl

Get it on, bang a gong, get it on
Get it on, bang a gong, get it on

Well you're dirty and sweet
Clad in black, don't look back, and I love you
You're dirty and sweet oh yeah

Well you dance when you walk
So let's dance, take a chance, understand me
You're dirty sweet and you're my girl

Get it on, bang a gong, get it on
Get it on, bang a gong, get it on

Get it on, bang a gong, get it on
Get it on

Get it on, bang a gong, get it on
Get it on, bang a gong, get it on

Get it on, bang a gong, get it on
Get it on, bang a gong, right on

Take me

Meanwhile I'm still thinkin'