10 June 1972
Since last we saw T. Rex at number one in Ireland, four months earlier with ‘Telegram Sam’, the 1972 Irish top spot has been variously occupied by Irish folk acts and showbands protesting Bloody Sunday, a British Army regiment stationed in Northern Ireland at that time, and noted political agitator Paul McCartney. Anyway, that astonishing sequence of records is behind us now. It’ll be five years before we meet another chart-topping song that directly addresses the Troubles – and it’ll be from an act even more mind-bendingly improbable than Paul McCartney.
Only the most oblique of readings could ascribe political meaning to ‘Metal Guru’, or any meaning at all. Instead, we simply get another glittering tinsel boa of OG glam magnificence to drape off the top of our charts. The gang’s all here: stomping beat; crunching chords; Arthurian-comic-book lyrics; weeping-willow strings; banshee backing vocals; the greatest pop star of them all. By the magic of will-to-power and near-enough pronunciation, Marc Bolan fashions the ugly-duckling title phrase into a graceful hook. The swooping mid-section is a glorious panorama of whatever astral plane Bolan has once again conjured up by running the high voltage of his genius through thick-cut riffs and nonsense verse. Yes, it’s formulaic. But what a formula!
