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MAD DONNA
1973
Mad
Donna is the classic T.Rex boogie track. It is a powerful short burst
of energy, typical of the time, with its almost throwaway quality; again
this is very typical of the time. Strangely it starts with a small child
speaking in French saying. The album was recorded in France at ---- and
telephones were always a feature of Marc's lyrics. The most famous being
1972's Metal Guru. Marc says 'hmm beautiful' and the song starts, it's
not
a song that delves particular deep or has complex lyrics. The title though
is intriguing, it was about this time that Marc's marriage to June began
to
finally crumble, after several affairs and the final meeting of Gloria
Jones
this was perhaps no surprise. Look at Mad Donna as a title and it does
not
seem to mean anything, but the two words together and you get Madonna,
was
June Marc's angel? After all Marc sings,
I'm
going to change Mad Donna
I'm going to change Mad Donna
I'm going to change Mad Donna for you
The
song does feature the backing vocals of Gloria Jones who was of course
to change Marc's life. In a rough mix version her vocals almost drown
Marc's out.
Further
clues come from an acoustic home demo; it's a rough work out of the
tune and some nonsense lyrics, yet the Mad Donna line is there, this leads
me to believe that the initial lyric idea had been in Marc's head since
the
start. To me it is a typical piece of Marc's humorous word play. The song
as ever of this time has a very sexual nature. With lines like,
Would
you ever rock a ship?
And let me get my thighs on you
It does
not leave a lot to the imagination. At the end of the track there
is some studio talking, this suggests that the song was done in the minimum
number of takes, possibly the one. It certainly has that feel, Marc at
this
time was still working on captivating the spontaneity and energy quick
recordings gave. Though some songs on Tanx would stray from this idea
and
some like Mad Donna did not.
At one
stage it was rumoured as a single, but thankfully Marc kept to more
wise choices, though it is far from being a terrible song. I have always
enjoyed the energy on tracks like Mad Donna it does seem to have a
particularly frantic pace to it. Because of the balance of Tanx its hard
to
say how Mad Donna sits on the album, it is certainly more from the Slider
era as opposed to the future which was to be Zinc Alloy. The only hint
at
the future is the piano, which features on the track. Perhaps with Tanx
Marc should have been pushing the boundaries further, but of course that
would come with the next album.