Obscure Glam Rock - Jobriath

If you have ever seen the glam rock movie "Velvet Goldmine", you may have tried to work out who exactly the main protagonist, Brian Slade, was based upon. You may have hypothesized that it was about David Bowie (as I did) and been confident in that assumption and simply left it at that. However I recently discovered a new artist called Jobriath. He was signed to Elektra records in 1972 for a staggering reported $500,000. Allegedly the highest amount ever paid to an artist for a recording contract at that time. All well and good you might think, unfortunately nobody bought his records.

So what was the problem? Well, he was the first openly gay rock musician and on top of that apparently he was marketed in an over-the-top manner. This included a 43’ by 41’ billboard in Times Square, featuring a nude Jobriath, made to resemble the remains of a ancient, Roman statue and full length bus posters.

Here is a picture of the first Jobriath album.



Anyone that has seen the Velvet Goldmine movie will immediately recognize the likeness of this album cover to the one of fictional artist, Brian Slade (shown below).



So Jobriath released his first album in 1973, just a year after David Bowie had introduced Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars to the public. The album is packed full of superb musicianship, excellent piano playing from Jobriath and vocals reminiscent of David Bowie and Mick Jagger but with a theatricality that Bowie and Jagger did not possess. The album also has a Broadway blended with science-fiction quality to it. The songs wouldn't be out of place in the "Rocky Horror Picture Show" or "Phantom of the Paradise" movies.



Jobriath's next idea was to plan a grand live tour of the European Opera Houses. However, due to dismal sales and impossible logistics this idea fell by the wayside. His second album, "Creatures of the Street" (picture below) was released in 1974 and sold in even lower quantities than the first.



After the commercial failure of the second album, his manager and label gave up on him and he was left to make a living as a cabaret piano act in NYC and to fade away into obscurity. He finally succumbed to an AIDS related disease in 1983 (the first rock musician to pass away from this virus), a tragic occurence as he was to soon to become known to a wider audience through artists like Morrissey, Gary Numan and Siouxsie Sioux.

If you are a fan of "Ziggy Stardust" era David Bowie or Glam-Rock in general, you should definitely check both his albums out. I will end this transmission with a live video of Jobriath.