I can't get no satisfaction; all I want is easy action

Such - erm - interesting fashions Mr Bolan wore...

Timeslip moment again...

This time, we've hitched a ride in Jon Pertwee's TARDIS waaaaaay back to ancient history, or what might as well be! It's 1972 - the year of the Watergate scandal, Bloody Sunday and the Troubles, expulsion by Idi Amin of Asians from Uganda, the new Poet Laureate John Betjeman, Under Milk Wood, the Munich Olympics massacre, Black Panthers, Nixon in China, Are You Being Served?, CND's Aldermaston march, Ken Russell's The Boy Friend, miners' strikes, dock-worker strikes, The Godfather, the first official gay pride march in London, Olga Korbut, Mark Spitz, Jesus Christ Superstar, Vietnam, Vicky Leandros, A Clockwork Orange, The Chancellor of the Exchequer Anthony Barber, What's Up, Doc?, The Joy of Sex, Willy Brandt, Graham Hill, Dirty Harry, Bobby Fischer, the Baader-Meinhof Gang, Cod Wars, and the discovery of a Japanese soldier who had spent 28 years in the jungles of Guam still believing WW2 was on; the births of Geri Halliwell, Ben Affleck, Jude Law, Cameron Diaz, Dita Von Teese, Jonny Lee Miller, Idris Elba, Sakis Rouvas, Claudia Winkleman, Atari, Shaquille O'Neal, Jimmy Carr, Home Secretary Priti Patel, Mark Owen of Take That, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Vanessa Paradis, Liam Gallagher, Gwyneth Paltrow, Eminem, Dana International, DNA molecular science and the fast-food doner kebab; and the year that Margaret Rutherford, Maurice Chevalier, The Duke of Windsor, the Brighton Belle Pullman car train, Louella Parsons, the Ford Zephyr, Mahalia Jackson, Charles Atlas, J. Edgar Hoover, Ezra Pound, Cristóbal Balenciaga, Esma Cannon and Britain's last trolleybus/tram system all died.

In the headlines almost half a century [eek!] hence, in December 1972: the famous "Blue Planet" photograph arrived from Apollo 17, Gough Whitlam was elected as Prime Minister of Australia, the death of former US President Harry S. Truman was announced, and news of the horrendous circumstances of the survival of passengers of the Uruguayan plane crash in the Andes shocked the world. In our cinemas: Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, The Pied Piper, Dracula A.D. 1972. On telly: Mastermind with Magnus Magnusson, Emmerdale Farm, Doctor Who: The Three Doctors and Pebble Mill at One.

And in our charts this week forty-seven years ago? Chuck Berry's smutty sing-a-long My Ding-A-Ling ruled the roost (as it would for the next few weeks), holding at bay both The Osmonds and Slade in the process, as well as Rod Stewart, Elton John, Donny Osmond, Michael Jackson and his brothers The Jackson 5. Ironically, among all these Jacksons and Osmonds, it was "Little Jimmy" [groan] who was destined to topple dirty ol' Chuck in time for Xmas. However, there was one more megastar of the moment who gave it a try...

...Mr Marc Bolan (of course)!

T. Rex - Solid Gold Easy Action

I was nine years old that year, sitting in front of Top of the Pops, in awe...