JOHN'S CHILDREN

Before Marc Bolan blew minds as T. Rex, even before he gently blew beards as Tyrannosaurus Rex, he was demolishing stages with John’s Children, a pop-art mod band hell bent on one upping the Who in the destruction department.  Featuring Andy Ellison on vocals, Geoff McLelland on guitar, John Hewlett on bass, and wild man Chris Townson on drums, Bolan joined the band briefly in 1967 and wrote one of their most beloved songs, the very twisted and far out Desdemona, which can be heard in the above video that features photos of Bolan with the band.  Although he doesn’t sing lead, his patented guitar playing is front and center and his one of a kind vibrato voice provides backup.  The suggestive lyric ‘Lift up your skirt and fly’ was enough for the BBC to ban the song, and after a brief four month stint, Bolan moved on to develop himself as a solo artist. Sans Bolan, John’s Children would continue to plug away, wrecking stages in their midst and creating a reputation based on their antics rather than their musicianship.  They even released an album that would find American distribution on White Whale Records called Orgasm, which was ruined by a record execs brilliant idea of inserting crowd noise between songs to make it more ‘live’.  Down below is a rare promotional video the band made for the album, which is apparently part of the Smashed Blocked film that never saw the light of day.  Band member Andy Ellison, whose Corn Flake Zoo must be heard to be believed, even commented on an older post of the video that “Smashed was a mod term for drunk, and blocked was a mod term for being pilled up (high on amphetamines)”.  This newer version of the video has significantly better sound that others