Born Stephen Ross Porter, he later took his name from the hobbit Peregrin Took in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. At the age of 17 he was recruited as drummer for the electric band that Marc Bolan was forming in response to his departure from John's Children. Took outlived a gig disaster, the departure of other sidemen, and the repossession of the band's equipment. Marc and Steve formed an economy version of the band, busking in subways on acoustic guitar and bongos. As an ersatz flower-power unit, Tyrannosaurus Rex proceeded onto the club and stage circuit and thence into the record shops, where they clocked up three albums and two top 40 hits. It was Took’s arrangements which were instrumental in transforming Bolan’s music from the straightforward rock ‘n roll it had once been (and would again be one day) into an 'exotic' brew of musical influences. Took was Bolan’s translator, turning his words into audio signals to trigger off mental pictures in a tripped-out audience. In Tyrannosaurus Rex, Steve Took contributed backing vocals, drums, bongos, African drums, kazoo, pixiephone; Chinese gong and in later stages some bass guitar. While still in Tyrannosaurus Rex, Bolan refused to let the duo perform any of Took's songs, so he took two of them to Twink. Subsequently, the songs were included on his seminal album Think Pink. He also worked with David Bowie and appears on a BBC Bowie album. After being sacked by Bolan, Took formed the Pink Fairies with newly ex-Deviant Mick Farren and Twink. They evolved out of the drinking club of the same name by Took, Syd Barrett, the Pretty Things, the Deviants etc in 1969. However, this didn’t last that long as Twink and the other Deviants formed a new band called the Pink Fairies which were greeted with applause before they even played a note due to the reputation of the name gained by the Took/Farren/Twink incarnation. Took appears prominently on Mick Farren's first solo album Mona the Carnivorous Circus (1970). Took played support slots for Hawkwind and the Pink Fairies, as well as jamming as third drummer, and once even playing bass guitar for the Pinks. He worked with a number of Hawkwind members during his lifetime, most notably Robert Calvert and Nik Turner. While still with Bolan, Took recorded a session with Syd Barrett; it appears likely that Barrett is on the recordings done in Mayfair by Took and friends in 1972. Farren recalls that Took would "drag a bemused Syd Barrett along" to events in Ladbroke Grove in the late 1960s. Took died, aged 31, when he choked on a cocktail cherry.