Brett Smiley - Like Jobriath, But, Y'know, Good

I have a minor fascination with glam that bubbles up now and again - not the ultra-sleazy "just 'cuz we're in drag doesn't mean we're not macho het dickheads" post-bubblegum/pre-hair-metal Nick Faust-approved likes of Slade and Sweet (or the Stones-aping apes of the New York Dolls) and not the artsy hipster-approved likes of Bo-e or Rocks-e or Loo Read, as much as I may enjoy some of their work. I'm talking the just kinda' uncool third stream between the two, the land where wild Jobriaths, Smileys, Harleys, Zolars and Riddells roam. 

I've always thought that Jobriath really had everything going for him except for his voice, which managed the seemingly impossible feat of being too affected, gay, thin, reedy and theatrical for glam but he always had some of the scene's best tunes (I put "Movie Queen" and "I'm a Man" on the first mix I made for my sole girlfriend - which may have influenced her strongly-held belief that I was, in fact, a gay cis man.) Andrew Loog Oldham find Brett Smiley however was as close as you could get to the total package and really should've been the poster boy for glam - with a shock of blond hair and pouty lips, he lisped through a harp-and-swoony-MGM-musical-strings-addled medley of the Four Tops* and  "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" which is pretty much the most glam thing to ever happen that doesn't involve David Bowie and stomach-pumps. I also think he might have even actually been gay. Problem was: he really only had like five good songs. Had he been given Jobriath's songbook, we'd be looking at at least one absolute Great album, but we'll have to make do with a lost semi-classic instead. And hey you may like the rest of the album more than me! Anyway, here's the single he actually released back in the early 70s, b-side first, 'cuz the a's ableist. 

"Space Ace:"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4vn-c9iD8c

Like Sun Ra! Geddit? :3

"Va Va Va Voom"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfRXbZpi1H0

IT'S SO WRONG OMG but also so good

so yeah there you go this was a worthless post ugh
 
*It just suddenly dawned on me that the Four Tops are literally named the Four Tops and I couldn't stop laughing. What, you think Levi Stubbs would be a bottom? Snrk.