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Jobriath - anyone heard of him?


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Old 22-10-2013, 10:48
laurence1870
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I was on Spotify browsing the glam era and came across this guy - Jobriath. Not me or anyone I've asked has heard of him, but he done some really good tracks. Reminded me very much of Bowie.

Anyone know him?
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Old 22-10-2013, 13:59
Neil_Norton
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From what I remember he was one of the first openly gay rock musicians.
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Old 22-10-2013, 14:47
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From what I remember he was one of the first openly gay rock musicians.
Yeah, he developed a cult following, but his open
homosexuality meant mainstream audiences weren't
interested in his music.

He eventually became a recluse and died of AIDS.
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Old 22-10-2013, 15:03
Lazlo_St_Pierre
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I was on Spotify browsing the glam era and came across this guy - Jobriath. Not me or anyone I've asked has heard of him, but he done some really good tracks. Reminded me very much of Bowie.

Anyone know him?
I'd never heard of him until recently, when I watched this video about the famous Chelsea Hotel in New York - home of NYC bohemians and their famous subculture.

Here he is extolling the virtues of living in a pyramid.

http://youtu.be/6ZCwSbTmnEU?t=1m34s

He doesn't seem much like Bowie here, but I haven't heard his other stuff.
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Old 22-10-2013, 19:54
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I'd never heard of him until recently, when I watched this video about the famous Chelsea Hotel in New York - home of NYC bohemians and their famous subculture.

Here he is extolling the virtues of living in a pyramid.

http://youtu.be/6ZCwSbTmnEU?t=1m34s

He doesn't seem much like Bowie here, but I haven't heard his other stuff.
Sounds like he followed the "New Age" idea popular in
the seventies that pyramids focused beneficial energy
(people used to buy cardboard pyramids to sharpen
their razors then).
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Old 22-10-2013, 21:19
speigel
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I remember seeing a clip of him live on TOGWT, sometime mid 70's> He had some weird spacesuit with big bubble helmet.
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Old 23-10-2013, 00:13
DavetheSensible
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A massive fail in the UK despite an enormous attempt by the record company distributors to ram it down people's throats.
That in itself really didn't help at all, but the resistance to him was enormous, especially from Bowie fans who just thought he was a shoddy rip-off.
Elektra Records spent an absolute fortune on him, with an insanely expensive European tour with full orchestras. Not like the label at all, although it was when David Geffen considered he could do no wrong.

The shop I worked in sold two copies of the album. One to a well-known drummer who will remain nameless or I'm a dead man (), the other in the annual sale about 6 months later.
For 50p.
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Old 23-10-2013, 15:23
Lazlo_St_Pierre
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A massive fail in the UK despite an enormous attempt by the record company distributors to ram it down people's throats.
That in itself really didn't help at all, but the resistance to him was enormous, especially from Bowie fans who just thought he was a shoddy rip-off.
Elektra Records spent an absolute fortune on him, with an insanely expensive European tour with full orchestras. Not like the label at all, although it was when David Geffen considered he could do no wrong.

The shop I worked in sold two copies of the album. One to a well-known drummer who will remain nameless or I'm a dead man (), the other in the annual sale about 6 months later.
For 50p.
This is the advantage of discovering an artist years after their music has been released.

You obviously have a down on Jobriath because you remember a time when he was being rammed down people's throats by the hype machine... the kind of sycophantic promotion and media coverage, I imagine, that puts me off Mumford and Sons or Jake Bugg today. Fair enough, hype can be enough to put anyone off an artist if you don't think it's justified.

People who weren't around then can listen to him with fresh ears, as the OP has done, with no preconceptions as to what he might be like. I discover a lot of early 80s music with no idea as to whether the artist was at the time a record label/media darling or slammed by the critics, and it enables you to concentrate on the music.

One disadvantage of discovering artists from years back, though, is you can never go and see them live.
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Old 24-10-2013, 00:00
mr muggles
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I have an old vhs of the Chelsea Hotel doc which features him. He'd carved out a small niche as a pianist/entertainer for bars & did occasional prostitution. His lyrics are quite witty and its a shame he never reached his true potential.

Morrissey & Siouxsie are huge fans. Morrissey had a hand in bringing out a compilation cd of his music afew years back. For his time, he was ahead of the pack as an out gay rock performer. Rock was (& still is) generally a hetero hang-out. He was talented & had ideas.

There was a memoir online (cant remember the site), but it was looked after by a member of Jobriath's family, possibly brother? It featured a lengthy piece by a guitarist who was part of Jobriaths backing band and was a warts n all depiction of the band coming together, rehearsing at Jobriaths mothers house and the band flying to LA for some publicity. It was a gr8 peek into the early 70's rock scene and how it fused sex & drugs. the guitarist didn't get on with Jobriath, as he apparantly was extremely narcissic & a bitch (ain't all rock stars!?).
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Old 24-10-2013, 01:08
DavetheSensible
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This is the advantage of discovering an artist years after their music has been released.
You obviously have a down on Jobriath because you remember a time when he was being rammed down people's throats by the hype machine
Erm, hang on and mo and can I explain a bit.
What I tend to do is explain how it was from a retail perspective when it all went down. I tend to post quite a bit from the retail perspective back then as there's probably not many people online here who are ancient enough to have the experience of working in the business at the time. (I'm guessing here, but it looks like there's possibly 3 of us about in the forums).
Just gives a slightly different, and sometimes insightful, view.

With posts like that, I don't ever give a personal slant, that's about facts, not feelings.

However ... heard the album before it came out, and it sounded crap and I didn't like the image. Heard it since, and haven't changed my mind. Mind you, I didn't have to pay for it, and there were loads of albums every week to listen to. I don't have a down on Jobriath, just there are a million songs in Hype City that deserve the listening more
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Old 11-11-2013, 14:34
wonkeydonkey
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A massive fail in the UK despite an enormous attempt by the record company distributors to ram it down people's throats.
That in itself really didn't help at all, but the resistance to him was enormous, especially from Bowie fans who just thought he was a shoddy rip-off.
Elektra Records spent an absolute fortune on him, with an insanely expensive European tour with full orchestras. Not like the label at all, although it was when David Geffen considered he could do no wrong.

The shop I worked in sold two copies of the album. One to a well-known drummer who will remain nameless or I'm a dead man (), the other in the annual sale about 6 months later.
For 50p.
The publicity campaign at the time was pretty bad. The strap line was "Jobriath: a true fairy."
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Old 11-11-2013, 15:06
DavetheSensible
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The publicity campaign at the time was pretty bad. The strap line was "Jobriath: a true fairy."
superbly remembered, wonky!!!
I wonder whether the ad campaign for Todd Rundgren's 'A Wizard A True Star' earlier the same year was a misguided influence. Albert Grossman, who ran Jobriath's label, was also associated with Elektra Records.

Incidentally, just noticed for the first time that Jobraith did a record released on Decca in 1969. Don't go there, trust me.
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