Bowie: A Biography - JFK247

penchant for boasting to the eager rock press. He
claimed in 1971, for example, “I definitely believe in
reincarnation. I believe that all my lyrical ability was
learned in a past life as a bard.” Whether taken
seriously or not, Bolan remains a major figure in both
David Jones’s and later David Bowie’s life and
career, and in rock ’n’ roll.
Shortly before meeting David, Marc Feld had
experienced a life-altering encounter with “the
Wizard.” The Wizard was likely just that, a fantasy
creature, sprung from Marc’s imagination, but he
insisted on more than one occasion that shortly
before changing his name permanently to Bolan
(after a very brief period as Bowland), Marc was
whisked off to see the Wizard at his forty-room
château near the Bois de Boulogne. He’d
encountered the robe-clad mysterio in a London
street. There, with only his cosmic tutor and a barn
owl for company, he was tutored in the ways of
magic, forming a new, heightened persona and
writing verses such as “Golden eagles at his door /
Cats and bats played on the floor.”
“He was a magician actually, very powerful man,
very learned man,” Bolan told a reporter years later.
“I learnt a lot of very important things off him, just sort
of mythology, good things. I read a lot of books. He
had amazing books there, books by Aleister
Crowley and handwritten books and things like that.
Then I came back home again.”
The first thing Bolan did upon returning to London
was (perhaps inevitably) suffer a nervous breakdown