Bobby Jameson

Robert Parker Jameson (April 20, 1945 – May 12, 2015) was an American singer-songwriter who was briefly promoted as a major star in the early 1960s and later attracted a cult following with his 1965 album Songs of Protest and Anti-Protest, issued under the name Chris Lucey.

From the mid 1960s to early 1970s, Jameson was active in Los Angeles underground music circles, working with musicians such as Frank Zappa and members of Crazy Horse.

The brothers and their mother then lived in various small towns in Arizona, before moving to Glendale, California in 1962.

Starting his career in 1963, Jameson was hyped as the next major pop event in an elaborate promotional campaign that ran in the magazines Billboard and Cashbox.

For the next five years, he released 11 singles across eight different American and British record labels.

At one point, he was the opening live act for the Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, and Chubby Checker, and also declined an offer to join the Monkees.

Credited as Bobby James, he made his first record, "Let's Surf", with Elliot Ingber on guitar, on the Jolum label in 1963.

In 1964, while sharing a house in Hollywood with Danny Whitten, Billy Talbot, and Ralph Molina (later of Crazy Horse), Jameson met Tony Alamo, who became his manager and promised to make him a star.

Alamo mounted a major promotional campaign in the music press, describing the 19-year-old Jameson as "The Star Of The Century" and "The World's Next Phenomenon".

Jameson later wrote:

"For some reason, that is still a mystery to me to this day, Tony just started promoting me in Billboard and Cashbox magazine without ever telling me he was going to do it. He just showed up one day in a coffee shop in Hollywood with a copy of both publications and I was in them. We had no contract, no agreement of any kind and no record. But there I was, world wide in both mags. I don't know what I can say to describe how weird it was to be nobody and then have that happen....The ads continued to run for 9 weeks doubling in size with each new edition. Half page, three quarter page, full page and so on. By the 8th week the ad ran in Billboard only and was a 4 page, full color fold out..."

Jameson recorded a single for Alamo's label, Talamo, "I'm So Lonely" / "I Wanna Love You", both self-penned songs.

The record became a regional hit in the Midwest and Canada, and as a result he opened shows for The Beach Boys and Chubby Checker, and appeared on American Bandstand.

However, the follow-up, "Okey Fanokey Baby", was less successful, and Jameson wanted to get away from Alamo's increasingly manipulative behavior.

As a friend of P.J. Proby, who had already achieved success in Britain, Jameson traveled to London, where Andrew Loog Oldham had expressed an interest in recording him.

There, he recorded "All I Want Is My Baby", co-written by Oldham and Keith Richards and probably featuring session guitarist Jimmy Page, with a Jagger/Richards B-side, "Each and Every Day of the Year".

After appearing on the TV show Ready Steady Go!, featuring his gimmick of wearing a glove on only one hand, he stayed in London and in 1965 recorded "Rum Pum" / "I Wanna Know", produced by Harry Robinson, for the Brit Records label set up by Chris Peers and Chris Blackwell.

Again, however, it was unsuccessful and Jameson returned to Los Angeles.

After his return to California, Jameson was approached by Mira Records, a company established by Randy Wood, previously of Vee-Jay Records.

They had recorded an album, Songs of Protest and Anti-Protest, with another singer-songwriter, Chris Ducey, for release on their mid-price subsidiary Surrey label.

The album sleeves had already been printed, with Ducey's name and the track titles, but with a photo showing Brian Jones.

However, in the meantime Ducey had entered into another contract with a different company, which meant that Mira were unable to release Ducey's record.

The label asked Jameson — who at the time was "broke, homeless, and sleeping on people's couches" — to write and record new songs to match Ducey's song titles, and arranged to have the record sleeves overprinted so that the name "Ducey" would appear as "Lucey".

Within two weeks, Jameson wrote the songs, and recorded them with producer Marshall Leib (previously a member of The Teddy Bears with his friend Phil Spector).

The record was released without fanfare, with Jameson credited as songwriter, but without any agreement over his legal rights to the recordings.

It was later issued on the Joy label in the UK under Jameson's own name, and the title Too Many Mornings.

Although Songs of Protest and Anti-Protest was not promoted commercially, and was ignored when first released in late 1965, over the years it acquired a strong reputation.

According to Dean McFarlane at Allmusic:

"This sought after psychedelic pop gem... [is] often compared to Love's Forever Changes, in that it is an intricate exploration of sophisticated arrangements and bleak and twisted lyricism... [It] may have been a little too courageous for its time, tackling blues, exotic - almost lounge arrangements and pure pop psychedelia. Its beauty is in its absolute fracture and collage of a million and one ideas."

The album's dark lyrics and sophisticated arrangements led its advocates to note similarities with Love's 1967 album Forever Changes.

For decades, little was known about Jameson or his origins, and he was more famous for engaging in public disturbances and suicide attempts than his music.

During this period, he participated in the Sunset Strip riots, appeared as a subject in the 1967 documentary Mondo Hollywood, and garnered a reputation as someone who had ruined his chances at success.

After Songs of Protest and Anti-Protest, he released only two more albums: Color Him In (1967), a collaboration with Curt Boettcher, and Working (1969), an album of cover songs.

Jameson's life was affected by personal misfortune, followed by alcoholism and criminal activity.

He grew increasingly frustrated and disillusioned with the music industry, alleging that his managers and employers failed to ensure him financial compensation and royalties, and that some companies had illegally claimed the intellectual property rights to his songs.

For much of the 1970s he was institutionalized or homeless, but eventually achieved sobriety.

After 1985, he left the music business completely, and was rumored to be dead for many years.

In 2002, Songs of Protest and Anti-Protest was reissued without Jameson's knowledge, and in response, he resurfaced in 2007 with a series of autobiographical blog posts and YouTube videos, which he maintained until his death in 2015.

Bobby Jameson was born in Geneva, Illinois, but by the age of 10 was living with his mother, stepfather and brother in Tucson, Arizona.

He and his brother began to learn guitar and entered talent contests, before his parents divorced.