underground overground

 Here, although already becoming a pop star, Bolan sounds like he still half-belongs in the world of Ten Years After, Edgar Broughton Band, the Deviants, The Groundhogs

Then again, he sounds pretty raw even at the other side of his pop stardom

If it weren't for that feathery exploded-ostrich thing wrapped around his neck, would you even think "glam" here?

This is my preferred form of pop -  underground goes overground, the pop group as autonomous aesthetic unit, steering its own path, often fronted by a warped personality chasing his own freak visions

I mean, yes, the manufactured, manager-conceived pop packaging process gets results, produces entertaining products for the delectation of ears and eyes - in this era, The Sweet

But I am all about the line from the Stones to Barrett-Floyd to T.Rex to Adam Ant to Smiths to Pulp to... I'm not sure what the equivalent is today. (Some would say Billie Eilish and Lorde) 

For it to work, it has to actually chart, and chart big, or decent-sized

Having a pop aesthetic, being a pop aesthete, but no actually hits is a pathos-laden scenario