The James Burton, Marc Bolan Connection

The day Marc Bolan, front man of the band, TREX, stepped on stage with glitter splashed on his face, wearing a satin jacket, tight pants, and Mary Jane slippers, Glam Rock was born. But not only that, he created a sound unique, mixing the different influences he had heard as a boy, more specifically, the most influential in his life, James Burton.

I could quote Bolan but here is the actually Rolling Stone article where he talks about Burton as his influence.


As you can see Bolan attempted over and over to copy Burton's riffs on the song Suzie Q and decided since he was unable duplicate them, he assumed they must have been dubbed.

A few years ago, a group of friends of mine decided to send a copy of Marc Bolan's book of poetry, The Warlock of Love to a dear friend, Rick Dalvano, as a birthday gift. This creative loving gift idea was by Michael Burnham, a long standing member of The Tilldawn Organization, an online Bolan Community. There were musicians, fans, and friends of Marcs who had autographed the book. It had traveled around the world gathering signatures and pics of people from across the globe. Then the book came to me. I had only been a girl at the time Bolan was big and was of no consequence. I certainly didn't have much to offer by autographing the book and felt I had nothing to add to make it as special as some of the well known names that had received the book before me. Then it came to me. I knew someone who could make it very special, the man himself, James Burton.

Next step in making this contribution to the book, my friend Heather Stimits contacted Burton's son, who gave us James' number. We explained how influential he had been on Bolan and asked if he was available to sign this book for our friend, Rick's birthday gift.

He said, "Sure, but you will have to meet me at the airport at 2pm tomorrow, I'm being inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and will be gone for some time.

I met him outside the Shreveport Airport the next day. As he signed the book, I explained to him who Marc Bolan was, how he topped the UK charts for years, 56 million records sold, and the article how Bolan said his riffs were dubbed therefore unable to duplicate.

James laughed and said,
"Sweetheart, there was 3 musicians, one mic in that room, one take. There was no dubbing in that song. I "chicken picked" that song."

I asked, "What is chicken picking ?"

He explained it was a picking technique (I later found out he invented) where you hold the pic and play, but with the rest of your fingers you pick with them as well, simultaneously. How I wish Bolan had known that! He just assumed because he couldn't master it there was some trick! :)

Marc Bolan


Burton holding the Bolan book of poetry





More than the music, the thing that makes both men true stars, is their love for the kids. Marc did everything he could to get the music to kids and make it affordable by putting the hits on the B sides to keep the costs down.

Mr. Burton has created, The James Burton International Guitar Festival. It was created to help raise funds for the James Burton Foundation. The Foundation is dedicated to raising money to provide technical training, music lessons and free guitars to young musicians.


James was fortunate that his parents sacrificed to purchase his first Fender guitar. Through his humble beginnings, James learned that a quality instrument is very important. It's been James' dream to give back to the community by helping young musicians realize their potential. Your participation in the James Burton International Guitar Festival and donation to the James Burton Foundation enables future generations of musicians to keep the music alive!

Marc Bolan, taken from the movie, Born to Boogie, performing "Jeepster"

Mr. James Burton playing Mystery Train, demostrating hybrid picking.

And finally Suzy Q - Dale Hawkins, featuring James Burton- absolutely fantastic