Lonely Planet Boy

Born Bruce Wayne Campbell in December 1946 in Pennsylvania U.S.A., Jobriath was somewhat of an oddity in the early 70's music scene. Unlike Bowie who exuded an air of androgyny, Jobriath was to become rock music's first openly gay artist. With strong vocal talents and training as a classical pianist, he started up several bands before eventually landing a role in the Broadway musical Hair. Attracting the attention of Jerry Brandt, Carly Simon's former manager after hearing a demo tape that was submitted to CBS Records, together they began to piece together songs for Jobraith's debut album. David Bowie was starting to break big in the U.S. at the time and Brandt saw it as an opportunity to come up with the "American" equivalent of Bowie so to speak. Jobriath's debut album was produced by veteran producer Eddie Kramer (Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin) and also enlisted such artists as Peter Frampton to play on it as well. In a massive marketing campaign, full page adds were taken out in Vogue, Penthouse and Rolling Stone magazines as well as a 40 ft. billboard overlooking Times Square. His first self-titled album received rave reviews by Rolling Stone and the band made a widely publicized debut performance on the legendary Midnight Special television program that ran on Saturday nights on NBC. A mere six months after the debut album was released, work was completed on the follow up album Creatures Of The Street which not only featured Peter Frampton but also Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones on bass for several tracks. The band's first series of live shows occurred at New York's The Bottom Line and were a rousing success. Cracks began to appear when manager Jerry Brandt presented the record company with the bill for the band's wild and flamboyant $200,000 stage set-up for their first world tour that was rejected as too "over the top" in it's sexual content and the label refused to pay for it. Things got worse during their first U.S. tour in 1974 with allegations of fraud hurled against Brandt and eventually Elecktra Records dropped the band. Jobriath retired from the music scene in 1975.

This compilation, put together and produced by Morrissey (Morrissey, The Smiths) for his Attack Records label is a fitting tribute to a long forgotten artist. His albums on vinyl have become collector's items over the years and have long been out of print. Lonely Planet Boy contains tracks from both his debut and Creatures Of The Street albums as well as one unreleased track and marks the first time any of his music has been available on CD. Jobriath's music can be described as 70's glam rock with a "white soul" sound, much like David Bowie experimented with on his Young Americans album. Haunting piano and vocals on several tracks bring classic Elton John to mind especially Morning Starship with it's similarities to Elton's Burn Down The Mission. Some of the more up-tempo material is reminiscent of the Hunky Dory, Aladdin Sane and Ziggy Stardust era Bowie. There's a certain Broadway cabaret flair to many of his songs and he sings them with great passion and emotion.

After his failed music career, Jobriath tried his hand at acting and eventually emerged as a lounge singer under the moniker of Cole Berlin. Morrissey, being a big fan, tried to convince him to open for him for his Your Arsenal tour but to no avail. He became ill in 1981 and with persistent coughs, colds and bouts of bronchitis as well as unexplained weight loss, he was diagnosed with AIDS. Jobriath died alone in his hotel room in 1983.

I really found the liner notes and other info I received from the label to be a very fascinating read. I've always been a big fan of the early 70's glam rock (i.e. Sweet, Slade, New York Dolls, Mott The Hoople, T. Rex, Bowie etc.) and I found it hard to believe that I'd never heard of Jobriath. Being an openly gay artist in rock music in the early 70's was almost certain career suicide as even artists such as Elton John knew the climate wasn't right to "come out" so to speak. The androgynous look was an accepted part of the glam rock era but homosexuality wasn't. It's sad for an artist with obvious talent to fall victim to the perils of bad promotion and management as well as the consequences of his wild lifestyle. The sad irony of all this occurred during an interview with David Bowie in 2002 when the topic of Jobriath came up to which he responded "Whoa..what a mistake that was. Very strange guy....he was like at every concert when I first went to the States...". Meanwhile, the very stage set-up that was designed for Jobriath's debut world tour, the $200,000 monstrosity that the label wanted no part of, was eventually sold to David Bowie for his Young Americans tour....