Bobby Jameson

On May 12, 2015, Jameson died in San Luis Obispo, aged 70, of an aneurysm in his descending aorta.

For the next twenty years, he lived quietly with his mother in San Luis Obispo County, California, overcoming his alcoholism. In 2003, he discovered that Songs of Protest and Anti-Protest had been released on CD without his knowledge. Before then, he was rumored to be dead by many who knew him. He was brought back to the public eye by music historian Steve Stanley, who conducted a private investigation into Jameson's whereabouts. In 2007, Jameson started a blog, detailing his life and his continuing attempts to seek some financial recompense for his earlier recordings.

Increasingly, Jameson became frustrated and disillusioned with the fact that he had never received any financial rewards from his music. He was hospitalized several times after drug overdoses and other suicide attempts, detailed in his later blog. He also intermittently made unreleased recordings, with Jesse Ed Davis, Ben Benay and others, and in 1972 featured in an article about his life and personal troubles in Rolling Stone magazine. For much of the 1970s he was either institutionalized, or living on or close to the streets, and making several attempts to give up alcohol and drugs. He recorded several tracks for RCA in the late 1970s, but they were unreleased, aside from one single issued as Robert Parker Jameson. In 1985, he left the music business completely.

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.

Jameson was featured, along with many others, in the experimental 1967 documentary movie Mondo Hollywood, directed by Robert Carl Cohen, in which he talked about his beliefs and career, and was filmed with his then-girlfriend Gail Sloatman (later the wife of Frank Zappa) and recording "Metropolitan Man". He also made a brief uncredited cameo in the 1967 CBS documentary Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution.

He began working with arranger and producer Curt Boettcher on an album, Color Him In. The album, credited simply to Jameson, was released in early 1967 by Verve Records as a result of Jameson's connections with Zappa. Two singles on the Verve label, "New Age" and "Right By My Side", followed that year. However, Verve were unwilling to release Jameson's later recordings, and he left the label in 1968. By this time, Jameson was making increasing use of LSD, other drugs and alcohol, and was arrested 27 times, being charged at one point with assaulting a police officer. In 1968, he recorded his last album, Working!, for the small GRT label, with musicians including James Burton, Jerry Scheff and Red Rhodes.

Early in 1966, Jameson recorded (under his own name) a single for the Mira label, "Vietnam" / "Metropolitan Man", on which he was backed by members of The Leaves, who had recorded Jameson's song "Girl from the East" on their own album, Hey Joe. In 2010, writer Jon Savage described "Vietnam" as "an all-time garage-punk classic – a vehement statement against a war that, by early 1966, was already spiralling out of control." However, at the time the record was barely promoted and did not receive airplay because, according to Jameson, its sentiments were seen as too contentious, and Jameson himself had a reputation as someone who had blown his chances of success. In addition to The Leaves, playing drums on the recording session for "Vietnam" was the elusive musician Don Conka from the group Love.

Later in 1966, Jameson recorded two singles for the Penthouse label, another subsidiary of Mira. Both the singles, "Reconsider Baby" and "Gotta Find My Roogalator", were arranged and produced by an uncredited Frank Zappa, who also played guitar, with other musicians including Carol Kaye and Larry Knechtel. Jameson also recorded a single, "All Alone", for Current Records. However, none of the records were commercially successful. At about the same time, he was considered for one of the roles in The Monkees, but decided not to pursue the opportunity, and for a time became actively involved in anti-Vietnam War protests in Los Angeles. One report at the time stated that "his outspokenness and active participation in the recent Sunset Strip riots has acquired him the honorary title 'Mayor of the Sunset Strip'".

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.

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:

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:

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. 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. 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.

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

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

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. 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.