But you still leave a Marc on me…
You may have seen the double-sided collage above on eBay at the end of last month. It was snapped up via the Buy It Now button for $3,499.00 USD.
Created by Marc Bolan sometime between late 1975 and late 1976, it’s a curious piece entitled ‘David & The Monsters’ that features three images of David Bowie along with various b-movie monsters and Peter Cushing!
Here’s the eBay description…
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Here’s a truly rare Marc Bolan collectible–an original collage by Marc Bolan of his friend David Bowie titled “David & The Monsters.” Bolan, a longtime science fiction fan, cut and pasted photographs of famous monsters and David Bowie onto construction paper, signing his initials MB on the front and writing the title “David & The Monsters” on the back.
This collage was made for Bolan and Bowie’s friend George Underwood (who created the album cover artwork for Tyrannosaurus Rex’s debut album, “My People Were Fair….” and Bolan’s album “Futuristic Warrior” as well for Bowie’s self-titled second album and “Hunky Dory,” among others.) Underwood told us that Bowie and Bolan had a friendly rivalry dating back to the 60’s, and this illustrated Bolan’s somewhat ambivalent feeling for Bowie at the time.
We obtained this directly from George Underwood. At our request, George Underwood authenticated the collage on the reverse, writing “Collage by Marc Bolan, presented to me George Underwood.” We’ve seen Bolan drawings before, but never a collage or a piece of original artwork by him anywhere this sophisiticated. This was done on the back of a John Lennon album cover or promo piece, and measures 10″ x 11 1/4″.
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I’ve singled out most of the relevant bits in the montage above. The picture on the left looks to be from the 1975 Tom Kelly session, probably best known for being the session that the CHANGESONEBOWIE cover shot was taken from.
The other smaller black and white shot of Bowie in Bolan’s collage is a still from the set of The Man Who Fell To Earth.
The image on the right was cut from the Guy Peellaert painting of Lou Reed and David Bowie, below, which appeared in Peellaert’s Rock Dreams book.
The inner sleeve of John Lennon‘s 1972 album, Walls and Bridges, was used as the ‘canvas’ for Bolan’s collage. I wonder what Marc did on the back of the other side?
I guess we’ll never know if there was any hidden meaning behind the ‘mix’ and ‘mixer’ lines of text, but Marc and David were friends at this time and would work together for the last time a year or so later for Bolan’s 1977 TV show, Marc.