PT. 1: Glitter'n'Glum: Tom Robinson and Jobriath Meet at the Gay Crossroads of Rock & Role

Brad Kyle guides us through two lost icons!

Two notes from Lavender Sound editor-in-chief Max Freedman:

1. This post is written by the one and only Brad Kyle of the iconic Substack publication Front Row & Backstage. Enjoy!

2. Part 2 of this post is HERE.

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50 Shades of Gay

David Bowie was one of the biggest-selling solo recording artists of the 1970s. He was also gay. Or, was he? Did he merely purport to be, or was that all a ruse by a drunk-with-power publicity agent hoping to coax a little more star-maker-machinery ink for their client?

Does It Matter? Should It?

I was in high school in the early ‘70s, and I sure thought Bowie and even Elton John were gay! That’s what the rock press kept telling us, anyway, and I read ‘em all and had no reason to disbelieve them!

It didn’t matter to me at the time. I was too busy working through my own emotional sturm und drang to wonder what two British millionaires did (or might do) in their private lives!

But I bet it mattered to the American musician Jobriath and the famous British artist Tom Robinson! Both followed rapidly in the glitter’n’glam footsteps of Bowie’n’Elton, and they, too, had to wonder (if not worry) about the public perception of their chosen (or declared) sexual orientations, especially with a multi-year recording contract on the line for each ($500,000 on a 2-album deal with Elektra Records for Jobriath, according to The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock and Roll, and a reported 5-year, 5-album 1977 deal with EMI for Robinson.

We’ll look more into the lives and music of Jobriath and Robinson after we take a peek at the role-modeling of two who came before: Bowie and Elton.

Role Call

David Bowie: The Chameleon of Rock….and Role

By 1970, Bowie had married Angela Barnett, whom we would come to know as Angie Bowie. In spring of ‘71, he famously appeared on the UK version of his The Man Who Sold the World album, in a dress:

Does any of that make him gay, especially with a pretty blonde wife on his arm? The press seemed to applaud in unison, including Rolling Stone’s John Mendelssohn (who’s now on Substack), who described Bowie as “ravishing, almost disconcertingly reminiscent of Lauren Bacall.”

In a 1972 interview with the British music magazine Melody Maker, Bowie stated he was gay. But, in a September 1976 interview with Playboy, he seemed to backpeddle: “It’s true–I am a bisexual. But, I can’t deny that I’ve used that fact very well. I suppose it’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Still, in a 1983 interview with Kurt Loder of Rolling Stone, the singer declared that that was “the biggest mistake I ever made,” finally asserting, “I was always a closet heterosexual.”

His claim of bisexuality, though, has been supported by Angie, according to an interview with Will Hodgkinson of the London Times: “I didn’t care about David’s lovers, as long as they realized I was the queen.”

Nevertheless, his early out’n’proud declaration and daring, androgynous style were significant touchstones for queer culture on the heels of the Gay Liberation movement of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.

In retrospect, it’s disappointing, if not somewhat disconcerting, to have a musical role model perceive the need to change personal stripes as frequently and easily as one does his trousers.

In his well-known 1971 song, “Changes,” Bowie may have foreshadowed not only his musical and sartorial “stripe-changing” that made him famous, but his own personal need to discover a comfortable landing spot for his yearning heart:

“Strange fascination, fascinating me. Ah, changes are taking the pace of changes I’m going through.”

Elton John: Crocodile Rock...and Role

Elton John first came out as bisexual in a 1976 interview with Rolling Stone’s Cliff Jahr. He later came out as gay, stating he was “quite comfortable about being gay” in a 1992 Rolling Stone interview. He began a relationship with David Furnish in 1993, and they entered into a civil partnership in 2005, on the very day that civil partnerships became legal in England. They were married in 2014.

The Patience of Jobriath

“Asking me if I’m homosexual is like asking James Brown if he’s Black.” -Jobriath

📸John Michael Cox, Jr.

Bruce Wayne Campbell, known professionally as Jobriath, was born in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania (15 miles northwest of Philadelphia) in 1946. He passed away at the age of 36 in 1983.

Generally little-known by rock fans but revered by many in the biz, Jobriath was one of the first major-label musicians to die of HIV/AIDS. He was also the first openly gay rocker who was signed to a major label (Elektra Records). In fact, Jobriath once proudly (and in some corners, controversially) described himself as “rock’s truest fairy.”

He dropped out after one semester in Temple University’s music program, admitting he lacked the necessary study skills. He dated a younger blonde girl he met at his Presbyterian church at this point, according to a tumblr chronology.

Drafted into the Army in 1966, he decided to enlist, and he entered basic training. He went AWOL in 1967, changed his name to Jobriath Salisbury (“Salisbury” is his mother’s maiden name), and moved west. Now sporting long blond locks past his shoulders, he landed a role in the L.A. production of Hair as the lead character Woof. He briefly performed in the Broadway production but quickly got bored of it.

Jobriath recorded two albums for Elektra Records. As Dave Thompson writes for Allmusic: “Neither [album] has been scarred by time, neither has been overtaken by age. In 1973-1975, Jobriath records were regarded as a waste of time. Today, they are simply timeless. …

“At the time, however, Elektra’s belief in Jobriath appeared limitless. The label spent over $80,000 on his eponymous debut album, with almost half of that sum being poured into promotion. At the height of glam rock, Jobriath was being portrayed as the glammiest artist of them all -- and when the inevitable comparisons with David Bowie were floated, [Jobriath’s manager, Jerry] Brandt knew precisely how to respond. ‘Jobriath is as different from Bowie as a Lamborghini is from a Model A Ford. They’re both cars, it’s just a question of taste, style, elegance and beauty.’ …

“Elektra Records head Jac Holzman later confessed, ‘I made two errors of judgment in my days at [the label], and signing Jobriath was one of them.’ Equally incriminatingly, Jobriath doesn’t receive a single mention in Holzman’s official label history, Follow the Sun. …

“He attempted to break into Hollywood, auditioning for a role alongside Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon, but was passed over. Attempts to record a third album never got beyond the demo stage; there was also talk of a presumably autobiographical rock musical, to be titled Pop Star. It, too, never came to fruition, and by the early ‘80s, Jobriath was working as a singer in a New York cocktail bar. He passed away in July 1983, of AIDS-related illnesses.”

In a March 2012 Guardian article, Soft Cell’s openly gay lead singer, Marc Almond (above), praised Jobriath: “For me, above all else, he was a sexual hero: truly the first gay pop star. How extreme that was to the U.S. at the time. His outrageous appearances on the hallowed U.S.rock show The Midnight Special prompted shock, bewilderment and disgust. Everyone hated Jobriath – even, and especially, gay people. He was embarrassingly effeminate in an era of leather and handlebar moustaches.”

Replica Los Angeles recently put a button on Jobriath’s career. “But the business of music is oh-so-fickle, and was especially cruel to Jobriath. ‘The world wasn’t ready for him,’ some will say. Others blame the unoriginality of his music, labelling him ‘a record label’s attempt to manufacture a Ziggy Stardust.’ His live shows were mostly cancelled, and he had no top hits. So he did what one does: proclaimed retirement from the whole industry, holed up in a rooftop pyramid apartment in New York’s Chelsea Hotel, and rebranded himself as a cabaret singer. This time, the name was ‘Cole Berlin.’”

For much more on Jobriath’s impact on popular music, and his life before and after his mid-’70s recording career, see my “Audio Archaeology” from 2023:

Audio Archaeology, 1973: The Legacy of Jobriath as Morrissey, Numan, Def Leppard Remember

Thanks for reading Part 1! Part 2 is HERE.

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