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JobriathJobriath is most well-known as a Glam singer of 1973 and 1974. Signed to Elektra Records, he was advanced by his manager Jerry Brandt as the great American glam singer. A huge marketing campaign ensued, with Jobriath's naked torso on buses, in music magazines, and on a billboard in Times Square. Jobriath is credited as the first mass-marketed popstar, and the first to be openly gay. On both counts, it was thought to be too much. Jobriath's first LP (self-titled) was well-reviewed, but commercially was not a huge success. The public seemed, not frightened, but puzzled by the performer who sang of hard sexual themes, posed as an alien, sang in a range of styles and voices, and name-checked everyone from Jesus to Marlene Dietrich. Losing interest in the act, Brandt cancelled their much-talked-of stage show. Jobriath himself drifted off into a strange, private hell of gender contortions. A second LP, "Creatures of the Street" (songs from the same extensive sessions) was released, but to little interest. Glam itself was fading, and by mid-1974, had all but died. Jobriath and his band embarked on a brief American concert tour, and the act folded. Over the next decade, he became known as one of the industry's most expensive blunders. But he retained a cult of admirers, particularly among British popstars like Morrissey, Mark Simpson of The Pop Group, Souxsie Sioux, Neal Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys, and Gary Numan. Jobriath himself sought to distance himself from his solo career, taking a new name, Cole Berlin, and adopting a new style - cabaret. He played the rest of his life in local diners and at parties. Under contract to Brandt for 10 years, he could not record music, but worked privately on a series of musicals, including the fabled "Popstar." When the contract was up, Jobriath was dying of AIDS. He died in July 1983, by then indifferent to the fate of his music. In November 2004, Morrissey oversaw Jobriath's first CD re-issue.
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