GLAM ROCK

And that’s real glam. None of the hyper-hairsprayed power ballad brigade, none of the Quiet Riot-play-Slade’s-Greatest-Hits-Badly boyz. Just good ol’ highkickin’, mascara-drippin’, fist-wavin’, “hey hey” shoutin’, stompin’, rompin’ mutant teenaged lust-mongers, that wave of howling hormones that swept the U.K. pop scene in the early 1970s, and has been haunting the fringes of rock and roll ever since. It was heady stuff then, and it’s even headier today, as we sulk through whatever catastrophe the news has flung at us this morning, and yearn for a return to the days when silly clothes and dafter lyrics weren’t simply a saleable commodity, they were a cultural imperative.

And so, in the words of Gary Glitter… “Come on, come on. Come on, come on. Come on, come on, come on. I say.”

1 — Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)

Andy Warhol invented glam rock, no matter what