Saturday, January 15, 2022

glampunk - Jeff Starship




Joey Ramone in 1973 fronting Sniper

Hard to tell because he's such a bad singer at this point but I think that is his attempt at "fey"

And the lyric appears to be about how much he wants a "glitter doll"

Joey at this point bore the alias "Jeff Starship" and he later recalled that  he "used to wear this custom-made black jumpsuit, these like pink, knee-high platform boots- all kinds of rhinestones- lots of dangling belts and gloves".

Mickey Leigh - "Joey started getting into glitter and joined his first band... Sniper and started hitching rides down Queens Boulevard to hang out at this club called the Coventry. I think Joey became the lead singer of Sniper by answering an ad in the Village Voice: "Let's dress up and be stars tomorrow." I thought it was great that Joey was in a band, but it was really dangerous to hitchhike down Queens Boulevard looking the way Joey did. Joey's so unusual to begin with, so tall - he's about six six naturally, but in platform shoes he stood over seven feet tall. And he wore a jumpsuit. At that time, you really couldn't be doing that safely. You were taking a chance hitchhiking down Queens Boulevard like that..... Sniper became regulars at Coventry - playing a couple of times a month - so I wanted to go check them out, see what was going on. When I got there it was a real glitter crowd - everyone was into that band the Harlots of 42nd Street. So I thought it was going to be lame. I was shocked when the band came out. Joey was the lead singer and I couldn't believe how good he was." -  (from Please Kill Me




Nothing to alter my verdict here (and recycled in the book)

"the period after Loaded and before Marquee Moon strikes me as historically significant and importantly transitional, but surprisingly thin in terms of actual musical achievement"

Still, the rock pickings were even thinner in Los Angeles at this time, so there's that

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