Originally published in Harpers & Queen, 1998

Ten great glam rock albums you cannot afford to live without…

Electric Warrior/T. Rex (1971)

Retooling his band as an electric quartet, Marc Bolan served up this potent mix of futurist boogie (“Jeepster”, “Get It On”) and post-hippie warbling (“Cosmic Dancer”, “Mambo Sun”). Crunchy guitar riffs, wonderfully limp-wristed singing, and hysterical backing vocals courtesy of former Turtles Flo and Eddie all combine to produce Bolan’s most enduring long-player.

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars/David Bowie (1972)

Ziggy Stardust was the great glam concept album, the story of a polysexual space invader who comes to earth and conquers it with flashy, plastic rock ‘n’ roll. Steering a middle passage ’twixt the apocalyptic blues-metal of 1970’s Man Who Sold the World and the piano-driven ear candy of 1971’s HunkyDory, Bowie used his “leper messiah” alter ego to deconstruct the whole idea of stardom through self-reinvention.

All the Young Dudes/Mott the Hoople (1972)

Boasting a brilliant Bowie-penned title track that hit No. 3 in August 1972, Dudes showed that even West Country homophobes could toy with cross-dressing and cover Velvets songs (“Sweet Jane”). If Mott’s core sound suggested a wasted Dylan fronting a boozy Faces, “Sucker” and “Sea Diver” were notably Bowie-esque deviations, and “Dudes”… well, “Dudes” became glam’s national anthem.

Transformer/Lou Reed (1972)

With the ex-Velvet relocating to London to record this masterpiece with David Bowie and Mick Ronson, songs like “Vicious” and “Walk on the Wild Side” provided the clearest link between the demi-monde of Warhol’s Factory and the new Brit world of glam androgyny—which was precisely what Bowie wanted to achieve with the album. Flip, amoral vignettes from an elder statesman of New York sleaze.

For Your Pleasure/Roxy Music (1973)

The first Roxy album was a breathless art-rock mess, but the follow-up was an assured classic. From the strident “Do the Strand” to the majestically eerie “In Every Dream Home a Heartache”, this was shimmering, sinister music that moved beyond pop art to fashion a futuristic sound of elegant gloom, like F. Scott Fitzgerald set to music by Kraftwerk and Cole Porter. “A new sensation, a fabulous creation…”

Raw Power/Iggy and the Stooges (1973)

Like Transformer, Raw Power was recorded in London under the aegis of Bowie; unlike Transformer, it was a one-band demolition derby, a sonic blitzkrieg that pushed Iggy to the edge of drugged oblivion and defined punk rock avant la lettre. From the military metaphors of “Search and Destroy” and “Death Trip” to the jaundiced balladry of “Gimme Danger” and “I Need Somebody”, this is glam rock as animal nihilism, glitter exhibitionism as primal howl.

The New York Dolls/The New York Dolls (1973)

As with the Iggyheads who berate David Bowie’s mix of Raw Power, there are Dolls fans who’ll toe the Johnny Thunders party line that producer Todd Rundgren ‘fucked up’ the band’s debut album. Ignore them: The New York Dolls remains an impossibly exciting record, crammed with squalling guitars, storming riffs, and inspired lyrics about the flotsam and jetsam of the Rotten Apple delivered in the gargled roar of David Johansen’s voice.

Here Come the Warm Jets/Eno (1973)

After his split from Roxy, androgynous Lothario Eno commenced his career as everyone’s favourite egghead maverick with this wondrous artefact. The guy was no singer, but he took the raw spirit of Roxy’s debut and turned it into music of delighted whimsy, navigating a middle ground between glam—the prancing “Baby’s on Fire”, the exultant “Needles in the Camel’s Eye” (used to ace effect in Velvet Goldmine)—and the more cerebral terrain of his later ambient music.

Jobriath/Jobriath (1973)

Regarded as a camp joke at the time, and an unfortunate victim of backfiring hype, Jobriath was America’s first openly gay singer, a wannabe-Bowie whose songs really weren’t bad. Drawing heavily on Hunky Dory, Elton John, and the kind of neoclassical arrangements Bob Ezrin was writing for Alice Cooper, Jobriath included one unabashed classic of queerpop, “I’m a Man”, and a superb track called “Morning Starship.” Well overdue for CD reissue.

Coming Up/Suede (1996)

Twenty-five years after Electric Warrior and Hunky Dory, the post-Bernard Butler Suede delivered this retro-glam gem. The logical extension of the group’s classic early singles (“The Drowners”, “Metal Mickey”, et al), and closer to the brazen pop tease of T. Rex than to the kooky space-boy languor of Hunky Dory, Coming Up was a tragicomic love letter to the confused, mascara-smudged teens who peopled Brett Anderson’s lyrics. It also brought the glam story full circle.

Watch: “All the Young Dudes” by Mott the Hoople [at youtube.com]

Watch: “Walk on the Wild Side” by Lou Reed [at youtube.com]

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