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| Jobraith |
One of the most depressing developments in modern music has been the degradation of the term “glam”. Say that you like “glam” music, and many (most?) people (particularly if they are under 30) will assume that you are referring to the incredibly derivative pop metal from the 80’s a la Motley Crue (late era of course; early Crue was a fantastic band), Poison, Ratt, and the “W” bands (Winger, Warrant, Whitesnake, etc.). These bands adopted the superficial fashion aspects of true glam, diluted it down, and used it to soften their “cock rock” look and lite heavy metal sound so that it would more readily appeal to its teen and preteen female audience. It should come as no surprise that I consider this entire period of music to be easily the least interesting (lyrically or sonically) in the entire history of rock, and my iPod contains almost no music by any of these bands (even for nostalgia purposes, which is rare for me; even when I find something cheesy or lame I will still often appreciate it for the memories it evokes).
As if the horribly monotonous anthems and ballads these bands and their legions and legions of followers foisted on the world for several years weren’t bad enough, one of the great tragedies of that late 80’s musical movement is how many bands that were actually GOOD were lost in the shuffle to find the next Ratt, Poison, Warrant, etc. It almost seems like the music industry made a conscious effort to clone only the most banal fashion and musical aspects of their predecessors, ignoring bands that actually had musical merit.
Three cases in point: the Hangmen, Junkyard, and the Sea Hags. The Hangmen, formed by Bryan Small in the mid-80’s, were equally influenced by the Stooges and the Stones, with a dash of the country of X and the swamp blues of Gun Club tossed in. Their single “Rotten Sunday” (originally released on a compilation put out by the now-legendary Scream club in LA) is hard rock with a grungy, bluesy feel to it. Their first album did not quite capture the sloppy intensity of their live sets, and the band faded into obscurity, though fortunately for fans of Stonesy hard rock they achieved a revival of sorts in the late 90’s that continues to this day. “In the City” off their Loteria album, “I Want To Be Loved” off In the City, and “Drunk, Broke, and Stoned” off Metallic IOU are great showcases for their meters-pegged, country/blues tinged rock assault.
Junkyard also played a relatively simple blues-based AC/DC influenced hard rock but their sound held elements of southern rock (Molly Hatchet and Skynyrd in particular) as well. Guitarist Brian Baker had been a founding member of Minor Threat and had played in Dag Nasty and the Necros (and would later play in Bad Religion), and he brought a streetwise punk edge to their sound as well. They had a modest hit with their song “Hollywood” off their first album and released a second album in 1991 but were dropped by their record company the following year. Like the Hangmen, they too achieved success later in life, reforming near the turn of the millennium and releasing some outstanding albums. “One Foot In the Grave” and “All Those Bad Things” off their album Joker are two songs that capture their AC/DC-with-a-boogie-backbeat sound. My favorite song by them is “Waste of Time”, off their Tried and True EP, which has a magnificently driving guitar riff. Anyone who likes classic 70’s hard rock like Aerosmith, AC/DC, or Kiss but prefers it with a punky edge should download this ASAP.
The final group in my triumvirate of forgotten 80’s hard rock bands is the Sea Hags. They originally hailed from Seattle, and this is intrinsic to their sound, which combined blues-based 70’s hard rock with the first dark and sludgy inklings of what would eventually morph into grunge. Their first album was critically acclaimed but not commercially successful but is still a well regarded musical document. “Doghouse”and “Too Much T-Bone” perfectly capture their sludgy, AC/DC-by-way-of-Mudhoney vibe while “Half The Way Valley” is a faster, more driving song.
But getting back to the main point of this post: TRUE glam, as hopefully some still know, was as much a fashion as a musical movement that arose in the late 60’s and early 70’s in England and later took root in several American cities (notably New York and Los Angeles). Glam rock fashion embraced glamorous (hence the name), romantic, theatrical, mystical and futuristic elements, with sequins, glitter, feathers, jumpsuits, and so forth. Musically, glam was even more variegated, and embraced everything from singer/songwriter ballads, diva-esque torch songs, show tunes , Broadway and Tin Pan Alley, rockabilly and rock revival, bubblegum pop, hippie folk, prog, space rock, and acid rock. Marc Bolan and T. Rex created an electrified hippie folk/pop vibe and released a slew of hit singles, all of which are just as infectious and catchy today, such as “Hot Love”, “Ride A White Swan”, “Bang a Gong”, and my personal favorite “Raw Ramp”. David Bowie embraced the futuristic, space rock elements, merging them with his folk singer past and a show tune mentality to produce some of the most bombastic and theatrical rock of all time. I recently went back and “backfilled” my embarrassingly meager Bowie MP3 collection with selections off his first album and off Pinups, Ziggie Startdust, and Diamond Dogs. I actually think I like the Pinups stuff the best. Often dismissed as a “filler” album of covers between his more compelling original compositions, I actually love the pumped-up aggressiveness of these songs. The covers of the Yardbirds’ “I Wish You Would” and Pink Floyd’s “See Emily Play” are two of Bowie's most rocking songs; Mick Ronson’s guitar crunches, noodles and soars better than anything he and Bowie did themselves. Excellent stuff.
There were, of course many other purveyors of glam, ranging from the stadium stomp of Gary Glitter and the working class singalongs of Slade to the soaring prog rock of Roxy Music, the orchestral hard rock pomp of Queen, and the bubblegum crunch pop of the Sweet (“Little Willy”, “Fox On the Run”) and the Bay City Rollers (“Saturday Night”). And of course there were many unheralded bands flying under the radar. I say “unheralded” but that’s not totally accurate—they were unheralded in AMERICA, but often these groups had big hits on the English charts. Bands like Mud and Wizzard were hugely popular in England but never made much headway in the States; their sound hewed closely to the bubblegum boy-band pop of Sweet and the Rollers, a crunchier, luded-out version of the Monkees if you will. “Tiger Feet” and “Crazy” by Mud are good examples.
Others took a similar musical direction to Ziggy-era Bowie. These days Michael Des Barres is better known as an actor (and to a lesser extent as the ex-husband of legendary groupie Pamela Des Barres, formerly of the Zappa-supported girl group the GTO’s, and who once famously danced with my friend and called him an asshole at a restaurant opening, but that’s another story for another time), but he achieved his first fame as the front man for the early 70’s Ziggy-esque English glam band Silverhead. Their sound fell equidistant between the crunchy, futuristic space rock stylings of Ronson and Bowie and the heavy blues of Zep, with a dash of the Faces and Iggy thrown in for good measure. “Bright Light”, “Heavy Hammer”, “Only You” and “16 and Savaged” off the latter album are all great examples of this bluesy take on the Stardust vibe, but both of their albums are available on iTunes or Amazon.com and are worth checking out. "Bright Light" has a glam rock bump and grind appeal that also touches on the heaviness of Zep and the rasp of early Rod Stewart; "Heavy Hammer" has the lurching funk feel of "Misty Mountain Hop" or "The Ocean". Des Barres broke up Silverhead in ’74 and formed the even more Zep influenced band Detective (who recorded for Zep boutique label Swan Song), while bassist Nigel Harrison eventually joined Blondie.
Also heavily influenced by Bowie was Bruce Wayne Campbell, better known as Jobraith. Jobraith started as a singer in musicals such as Hair and as a folk singer but changed his name to Jobraith and was famously signed for half a million dollars to Elektra Records in 1973 in the wake of Bowie’s Ziggy success. A massive P.R. campaign followed, which only contributed to the eventual backlash and collapse, and Jobraith is almost unknown now. And this is unfortunate, because Jobraith, while admittedly deeply indebted to Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust sound and look, produced some outstanding songs that ranged from hard rocking numbers like “Rock of Ages”(a stomping rocker that showcases his ability to rock out in “Sufragette City” manner) and “I’maman” to torchy piano heavy ballads like “Ecyuban”, “Ooh La La”, and “Gone Tomorrow” (which evokes “Lady Stardust”). Being the first openly gay popular musician certainly didn’t help Jobraith, which is a total shame; he is currently one of my very favorite hidden artistic gems of 70’s music. Anyone who loves Ziggy Stardust era Bowie or early Queen will surely enjoy his work too. Jobraith retired from rock and spent his remaining days living in a pyramid atop the Chelsea Hotel and singing cabaret music in NYC before dying of AIDS tragically young in 1983.Sadly, none of Jobraith's music is available for download on either iTunes or Amazon.com (though Amazon does have his audio CDs for sale), but a few songs and performances have been uploaded to YouTube, including all of the above.
Steve Harley and his band Cockney Rebel occupied that strange netherworld between prog, pop, and glam. Their music incorporated a wide variety of folk instruments and eclectic mixes of styles. Their single "Judy Teen" has a strange, plucking rhythm and the vocals sound like Ray Davies’ in the Kinks. "Make Me Smile" has a rollicking, good-time 70's feel to it and Bowie-esque vocals that give it a glam sheen. iTunes has two Cockney Rebel albums and an excellent compilation containing these and other songs.
David Werner is another lost 70’s gem of a songwriter who’s music drew heavily on glam. Werner released 3 well-regarded albums between 1975 and 1979, each of which contained songs that crackle with tight songwriting, intelligent lyrics, and soaring, glammy guitars. “One More Wild Guitar” is another Bowie/Ziggy-esque gem with strumming acoustic guitars interspersed with whining electric guitars and an occasionally shrill vocal reminiscent of “Ziggy Stardust”. “Whizz Kid” off the album of the same name starts with shimmering guitars before launching into a boogie woogie guitar solo that then melds into a repeating riff, pounding pianos, and David’s terrific vocals. This song struts like “Rebel Rebel”. My favorite song by Werner is "What's Right", which is so Bowie-esque that you'd SWEAR it was Bowie himself; this song has a low, sultry growl and strut to it and is a high point. Alas, iTunes has nothing by Werner for sale but Amazon.com has "What's Right" available for MP3 download, and this and the other songs are uploaded on YouTube as well.
And finally, while he’s better known for the crunchy guitar pop of his late 70’s top 40 hit “Hot Child In the City”, Anglo-Canadian Nick Gilder’s music, both as a solo artist and prior to that as a member of Vancouver’s Sweeney Todd, often crossed back and forth between guitar-based pop and glam. His debut solo album, You Know Who You Are, contains several terrific glam/pop/rock gems that often celebrate the marginal and sleazy: “Rated X”, “Roxy Roller, “Tantalize” and “Runaways In the Night” (which was featured in the recent Runaways biopic starring Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart) are catchy, crunchy, enjoyable pop rock confections bursting with memorable hooks and Gilder’s distinctively feminine vocals (I admit to my embarrassment that in the 70’s I actually thought “Hot Child In the City” was sung by a WOMAN and was STUNNED when I learned it was actually a man!). "Tantalize" has a mesmerising, echoing guitar and keyboard riff that then rips into a magnificent strutting rhythm that evokes the very best of Bowie and Bolan's early 70's pop crunch; it's my current fave by him. A close second is "Rated X", which also has the cocky chug of T. Rex hits like "20th Century Boy". His second album, City Nights, contained his hit “Hot Child In the City” along with what may be his best song, ”Got To Get Out”, which has a kicky, catchy riff, with a memorable, sing-along chorus. This is glam at its punchy, addictive best; discovering Gilder's work beyond "Hot Child" has been one of the high points of my own musical journey. Neither album is available in its entirety on iTunes or Amazon but all of these singles and a handful more are available via the "best of" album The Best of Nick Gilder on both sites.
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