Glam looks - what were they thinking?

[JKL2000]

I know that hindsight is 20/20, but come on, I wouldn't ever have been caught dead dressing like this, ESPECIALLY if I was having my picture taken!

This is Eddie Jobson - I just posted this on the UK Boxed set thread. I really had to confirm this was him because, well, I never would have guessed it was. Nice hair!


Eno. Oh no.







Todd doesn't look like God (Prog mag had a great caption for one of these photos once, something like "Todd tries on the costumer's latest work, while trying to find his missing pet hawk.":


Ok, I know there are a ton of other great ones, so I'll let others post them too...

[Rarebird]

I liked the looks of Eno.

[at least 100 dead]

Love the glam look. It takes a lot of guts to pull it off.

[JKL2000]

Love the glam look. It takes a lot of guts to pull it off.

It did take guts, but I don't like it aside from the comedic value. I'm sure they all felt pressured by Bowie. I didn't like many of the looks that Bowie sported, but he did manage to make it work for him.
Maybe these rest of them did too, but I still find it amusing more than anything else.

[at least 100 dead]

It did take guts, but I don't like it aside from the comedic value. I'm sure they all felt pressured by Bowie. I didn't like many of the looks that Bowie sported, but he did manage to make it work for him.
Maybe these rest of them did too, but I still find it amusing more than anything else.

It's a fairly cost-effective marketing ploy. Here we, nearly 45 years later, still talking about these outfits. Imagine how outrageous they must have been then. Besides, Rundgren, Eno and Ferry had the substance to go with the style. As did Bowie and Gabriel.

[GuitarGeek]

Todd doesn't look like God (Prog mag had a great caption for one of these photos once, something like "Todd tries on the costumer's latest work, while trying to find his missing pet hawk.":

Creem ran a photo of him in this ridiculous outfit that looked like he bought it at either Buck Rogers' or Flash Gordon's garage sale, with the caption: "Now can I play Han Solo in the next Star Wars movie?!"

Personally, I never thought the glam thing looked all that bad. I like it when people get "dressed up", as it were.

Now if you want to talk about looking silly, I tend to think more of punk. First of all, you had these guys ripping up their clothes because, somehow just going onstage in ordinary jeans and t-shirts wasn't enough of a renouncement of glam.

If that wasn't bad enough, you then had the British punkers dressing up in Nazi gear. Yeah, I get it, "we have to upset our parents", so they get dressed up like a bunch p'toks, "just because". There was an even episode of the British sci-fi show The Tomorrow People where the plot hinged on that whole particular "fashion statement" (as I recall, the plot hinged on the then current Nazi regalia fetish as being the result of the UK being sprayed in WWII with some kind nerve agent that caused the children who were born in the subsequent couple decades to fall under the sway of Hitler, who in this reading, is a still living extraterrestrial who was in the late 70's bent on finishing what he started in 1939). I think I read some of the punks subsequently apologized for letting themselves get duped into that whole thing.

Oh, and then you've got the grunge thing in the 90's, where everyone started dressing like they'd be sleeping in an alley for the last week.

Compared to all of that, at least glam had a sense of pageantry to it.

[JKL2000]

It's a fairly cost-effective marketing ploy. Here we, nearly 45 years later, still talking about these outfits. Imagine how outrageous they must have been then. Besides, Rundgren, Eno and Ferry had the substance to go with the style. As did Bowie and Gabriel.

Oh, that's part of what seems odd to me - they didn't need to dress like that. Or maybe they did to get noticed. But I agree, a lot of the glam artists were very talented.

I don't see Gabriel as ever really going into the glam look, despite a little makeup. And dressing like a flower.

Of course, Kate Bush kind of did it too, but since she's a woman it's not as amusing.

[JKL2000]

Of course, I could be wrong...

[moecurlythanu]

Might as well ask why orangutans are orange.

[Mister Triscuits]

Might as well ask why orangutans are orange.

Because if they were green they'd be greenutans. And if they were tan they'd be tanutans.

[Jefferson James]

What were they thinking? "If I dress outrageously maybe it'll help get my band signed to a major label, and maybe we'll get some chicks, too. It can't hurt."

[moecurlythanu]

Because if they were green they'd be greenutans. And if they were tan they'd be tanutans.

If they were black, would they be blackntans? At least you could drink with them.

[JKL2000]

What were they thinking? "If I dress outrageously maybe it'll help get my band signed to a major label, and maybe we'll get some chicks, too. It can't hurt."

Especially with the lipstick and eye shadow!

[at least 100 dead]

Remember Chicory Tip? I don’t.

[klothos]

I don't care, they are still one of my favorite rock bands, regardless:

[JKL2000]

The Glam rockers ALL look like they escaped from a Sid & Marty Kroft show.

[klothos]

The Glam rockers ALL look like they escaped from a Sid & Marty Kroft show.

Kapt Kool and the Kongs anyone? I think its oppositte: I think Sid & Marty Kroft got the idea from the Glitter Rock movement (Depending on what historian you talk to, "Glam Rock" was the 80s -- "Glitter Rock" was the 70s)

[Mister Triscuits]

(Depending on what historian you talk to, "Glam Rock" was the 80s -- "Glitter Rock" was the 70s)

I don't think so. The terms "glam" and "glitter" were already being used interchangeably in the '70s.

[klothos]

I don't think so. The terms "glam" and "glitter" were already being used interchangeably in the '70s.

right --- but post-80s, the terms were usually separated (depending on the author) to distinguish the two periods....or, at least, thats how it usually reads in books and biographies

[spellbound]

I always wondered what possessed the late, great Gene Clark (Byrds) to dress like this ^ on the cover of his 1974 album, "No Other." Maybe Glam was a phase musicians were going through at the time. Great album, in any case.

Three years later (and almost 40 years before the first hipster sported a beard):

[klothos]

I always wondered what possessed the late, great Gene Clark (Byrds) to dress like this ^ on the cover of his 1974 album, "No Other." Maybe Glam was a phase musicians were going through at the time. Great album, in any case.

Holy crap, thats Gene Clark? Now I know where Gino Vinelli got his stage-look inspiration from

[GuitarGeek]

Kapt Kool and the Kongs anyone? I think its oppositte: I think Sid & Marty Kroft got the idea from the Glitter Rock movement

Yeah, more than likely. I actually had a Kapt Kool & The Kongs puzzle when I was little. My older brother Frank helped me put it together, and we mounted it on a piece of cardboard.

(Depending on what historian you talk to, "Glam Rock" was the 80s -- "Glitter Rock" was the 70s)

Well, no. Actually, the 80's is "glam metal", pejoratively known as "hair bands".

"Glitter rock" and "glam rock" I've always heard interchangeably to refer to the 70's era bands.

[GuitarGeek]

Holy crap, thats Gene Clark? Now I know where Gino Vinelli (sic) got his stage-look inspiration from

And David Hasselhoff got his look from Gino Vannelli.

[Rarebird]

And David Hasselhoff got his look from Gino Vannelli.

But not his talent.

[Jerjo]

My younger brother had this album - it always cracked me up

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