12 February 1972
You can still send a telegram today. Isn’t that cute? Less cute is how anyone nicknamed Telegram Sam today is more likely to be an avid user of a certain social media site frequented by right-wing knuckle-draggers with lEgiTiMaTe qUeStIoNs.
There are a few competing footnotes as to who the Telegram Sam of this song actually is—manager, accountant, drug dealer— and if there was an actual telegram, but we don’t need to be too concerned about this man behind the wire. Likewise, it’s probably best we don’t flesh out Purple Pie Pete and Jungle Face Jake and what’s defining them. Rather, let’s get our groove on and enjoy yet another wonderful, wonderful T. Rex classic.
The Bolan sound has now morphed into the bass-heavy stomp of archetypal glam, but with the key elements of ‘Hot Love’ and ‘Get It On’—banshee backing vocals, plangent strings, buzzsaw riffing—squared or even cubed. And the lyrics kick on from Arthurian spell book to American comic book. The essential thing, of course, is that ‘Telegram Sam’ all sounds glorious: T. Rex continuing to define glam while still sounding totally unique and unmatched. Plus I’ve checked again, and Marc Bolan is still the greatest pop star ever: send post.
