Ok so bear with me bc this is a little bit crazy. So obviously Jobriath was supposed to be "the next Bowie," & was explicitly marketed as such, which ofc is ridiculous. He was definitely being marketed with knockoff Bowie imagery, had a song about being a space man, etc etc.
Anyway, I looked at some of his album art and promo shots. Right away I rolled my eyes, because he's got the "looking creepy and alien, topless with a red pompadour & lipstick, with a nonhuman lower half revealed on the other side of the sleeve" just like Bowie did with Diamond Dogs.
And then I saw he was explicitly doing a Pierrot the Clown thing, and even uses the name in a song, and did a ton of promo photos in various states of Pierrot costume. Bowie famously did Pierrot for Ashes to Ashes, so I was like "oh BROTHER, are you KIDDING me?"
Except...you guys, these photos are all
posted in order.
Jobriath's album art happened first.
And Jobriath was doing Pierrot first.
Now, I'm not saying Bowie needed to copy this guy. But holy shit, Bowie doing Pierrot years after this guy has flopped, and singing "...to get things done, you better not mess with Major Tom" in the video....
*X-Files theme*
What I'm saying is that yes David Bowie definitely invented AIDS and gaymurdered Jobriath
/endBowiesperg