Toby Tyler, Marc Bolan, and John's Children

Marc Bolan was born Mark Feld on 30 September 1947 at Hackney Hospital, London, to Simeon (Sid) and Phyllis. His older brother, and only sibling, Harry had been born two years previously.

The Britain that Mark grew up in bore no similarity to the fey, magical Albion celebrated in his later lyrics for Tyrannosaurus Rex. Stoke Newington, where the family lived in north-east London, was, like the rest of the city, dotted with vacant lots, some razed, most still strewn with debris, grim reminders of the Luftwaffe's unwelcome attention during World War Two. The Felds lived in a small, rented two-bedroom flat that had no hot running water and was heated by a single coal fire. Harry and Mark's bedroom pulled double duty, serving as the living room during the day. Their flat did at least have an indoor toilet, still a luxury in late 1940s Britain.

But a new-found optimism for the future was changing the country. The National Health Service was founded the year after Mark was born. 1951 saw the Festival of Britain, a five-month celebration of post-war recovery where, according to Labour cabinet member Herbert Morrison, the Festival's prime mover, British people could give 'themselves a pat on the back.' In 1952, the year young Mark Feld first attended Northwold Road Primary School, 25-year-old Elizabeth II ascended the British throne, ushering in what many proclaimed to be 'a new Elizabethan age.' And in 1957, the year of Suzie and The Hula-Hoops' brief and possibly fictitious career (see below), Prime Minister Harold MacMillan famously told Britons they 'had never had it so good.'

Additionally, two very different yet entirely interconnected phenomena which were to have a profound social and cultural effect marked the 1950s apart from its predecessors.

The first was Rock and Roll. Like many others, Mark's introduction to this exciting new music came via Bill Haley and His Comets, and, also like many others, he soon graduated to Elvis Presley, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Eddie Cochran, and Gene Vincent. He was an early fan of Cliff Richard and the Drifters (as the Shadows were then known), and the fact that England was now producing rock stars would have been a source of excitement and inspiration.

At the age of nine, he talked his mother into buying him a guitar, and the following year he joined his first group, Suzie and The Hula-Hoops, although it is telling that none of the other members, including future chart-topper Helen Shapiro, recall that, or any other, name. The 'Suzie' tag appears to be an after- the-fact Bolan invention, an early example of the self-mythologising he would become so adept at.

Helen Shapiro reached number one in the UK singles chart twice in 1961, with 'You Don't Know' and 'Walkin' Back to Happiness', and the fact that someone he knew could become a pop star opened up a world of possibilities for Mark. If she could do it, surely he could too?

However, according to friends at the time, it was clothes and not music that was Mark's primary obsession. He was a teenager, that other great phenomenon of the '50s. This initially meant not dressing like your father, but with the emergence of the Modernists in the 1960s, it extended to not looking like anyone else, full stop. Mark aligned himself with these early Mods, to whom individualism was key. A 14-year-old Feld appeared in a 1962 issue of Town magazine in an article spotlighting the Mod movement commissioned by future talk show king Michael Parkinson and photographed by acclaimed war photographer Don McCullin. How serious was he about his clothes? An answer to a question about his wardrobe suggests very. 'I've got ten suits, eight sports jackets, fifteen pair of slacks, 30 to 35 good shirts, about 20 jumpers, three leather jackets, two suede jackets, five or six pairs of shoes and 30 exceptionally good ties.'

But the times, they were a-changin'. Bob Dylan's albums had all been successful in the U.K. since his eponymous 1962 debut, two having claimed the top spot. Mark Feld was a fan and would later namedrop Dylan in interviews and songs, but for now, he saw an opportunity. Just as Cliff Richard had been Britain's answer to Elvis, surely the time was ripe for someone to take on the mantle of the British Bob Dylan. Enter Toby Tyler.

Mark entered Maximum Sound Studios in January 1965 to record a two-song demo of Dylan's 'Blowin' in the Wind' and a 1964 Dion B-side 'The Road I'm On (Gloria)', and when he returned to pick up the acetates, he scored out his given name and replaced it with Toby Tyler. Like his song choices, there wasn't a lot original about his chosen stage name. It was lifted from Walt Disney's 1960 movie of the same name, itself an adaptation of an 1880's children's book. His look, going by his first professional photoshoot as a musician, was equally appropriated, this time from the front cover of the Bob Dylan album.

'Blowin' in the Wind' (Bob Dylan)

'Blowin' in the Wind' was probably not the right vehicle to convince record company executives of Toby's talent. Although only released two years earlier, it had already become a standard and had been recorded by a myriad of artists, including Peter, Paul and Mary, Jackie De Shannon, The Staple Singers, Bobby Darin, Odetta, Nina & Frederik, Marianne Faithfull, and The Seekers. What could young Mister Tyler possibly bring to his version to make it stand out?

The answer was not a lot. His vocal is fine in terms of clarity but having not yet found his own voice, he sounds like he's aping his previous idol Cliff Richard, and the words are sung without conviction. What really lets the performance down is his rudimentary guitar and harmonica playing. It's of entry-level busker quality, and as such, does nothing to distinguish Toby from the faithful filling folk clubs up and down the land.

For reasons now obscure, Toby only recorded the first two verses of 'Blowin' in the Wind'. Perhaps the third verse was a source of consternation, particularly the line 'How many deaths will it take 'til he knows / That too many people have died?' Certainly, when the Chad Mitchell Trio recorded the first-ever cover version of the song for their In Action album in 1963, the record company baulked at a song including the words 'deaths' and 'died' in their lyric and delayed release. In the meantime, Peter, Paul and Mary released their version, sold 300,000 in its first week, had a global hit, and made the song part of the social and cultural zeitgeist.

'The Road I'm On (Gloria)' (Dion DiMucci)

Toby's second choice was as obscure as his first was pedestrian. 'The Road I'm On (Gloria)' was the B-side to Dion's 1964 take on the old Willie Dixon / Muddy Waters standard 'I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man', a single that was bought by pretty much no one on either side of the Atlantic. By this stage in his career, Dion had abandoned his rock and roll and doo-wop roots, and for that matter his Belmonts, and was ploughing the now-popular folkie-furrow. This is a guitar and harmonica number, very much in the Dylan mould and therefore right up Toby's street.

However, he blows it. Leaving aside his under-developed musical ability, poor enunciation and a far sprightlier tempo robs the song of the regretful tone that makes the original worth seeking out.

Even although he didn't write it, and it wasn't released until twelve years after his death, the 'Paul is Dead' brigade like to point to 'The Road I'm On (Gloria)' as the first example of Bolan's precognitive prowess. 'The road I'm on, gal, won't run me home' anticipates his fate, and Gloria, of course, was both his future partner and the driver of the car in which he died.

'The Road I'm On (Gloria)' was originally released as a CD single in 1989 by Archive Jive Records before being packaged with two takes of 'Blowin' in the Wind' and rereleased by Archive Jive and Zinc Alloy Records in 1994.

The recordings are historic, but they did nothing to launch Mark's career. Meanwhile, the British Dylan was indeed born when, two months later, Donovan scored a top five hit with 'Catch the Wind'; the song also cracked the Billboard top 30. Exit Toby Tyler and enter Mark Feld's single greatest work of art, Marc Bolan.

Where the name Bolan comes from will forever remain open to speculation, but the three top theories are that it was adapted from the surname of actor James Bolam, whom Mark was flat sharing with at the time (Mark's brother Harry subscribes to this option); that it comes from the French fashion designer Marc Bohan, who was hugely influential throughout the 60s and 70s; or that it is a contraction of Bob Dylan. What is certain is that when Mark Feld signed to Decca Records in August 1965, he did so under the name Marc Bolan.

The following month found the newly christened Bolan in Decca Studios in West Hampstead recording the two tracks that would become his first single, 'The Wizard' and 'Beyond the Risin' Sun'. Both tracks were Bolan originals. They were produced by Jim Economides, best known for his work with Bobby Darin, and arranged by Mike Leander, who had previously worked with Marianne Faithfull and would later find fame as...