(PRIDE) AIN’T EASY: LONG JOHN BALDRY’S TALL SHADOW

In 1964, having just exploded in international popularity, The Beatles were given the opportunity to invite a number of their friends to appear with them on a television special called Around the Beatles. Those viewing the show no doubt took notice of the lanky, suit-clad British gadabout with wild eyes performing the Muddy Waters classic “Got My Mojo Workin’” in a voice wise and weathered beyond his 23 years.

This was Long John Baldry, perhaps the first openly gay rock star and a Zelig-like figure in music history.

Standing at 6’7”, the man born John William Baldry was given his nickname early (his height as a newborn was itself impressive). He grew up in southeast England, where he began his career singing with Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated. Alongside Korner, Baldry would share the stage at one time or another with four-fifths of what would become The Rolling Stones, as well as every future member of Cream. It was during this period that he met Paul McCartney, at a Beatles performance at Liverpool’s Cavern Club, resulting in a friendship that would allow Baldry to introduce the music of Waters to an international audience. It could be argued that Baldry was, for all intents and purposes, the father of British blues.

Homosexuality had not yet been decriminalized in the U.K., but despite the potential consequences, both legal and social, Baldry was proudly out to his friends. This created some friction in the blues community, but Baldry’s undeniable stage presence and genuine passion for the music prevailed. He remained a respected figure on the music scene and a trusted confidante and at one point enjoyed a brief romantic entanglement with The Kinks’ Dave Davies.

In 1963 Korner and bandmate Cyril Davies parted ways and Baldry became frontman for the Cyril Davies All-Stars, which became Long John Baldry & His Hoochie-Coochie Men after Davies’ death in 1964. That band, which also featured a young Rod Stewart, later changed its name and lineup, adding Brian Auger on organ, before splintering after two years.

Undeterred, Baldry landed a U.K. #1 in 1967 with “Let the Heartaches Begin” and formed a band called Bluesology featuring saxophonist Elton Dean (later of Soft Machine), guitarist Caleb Quaye and a young keyboardist named Reg Dwight.

Dwight left Bluesology to go solo in 1968, adopting the first name “Elton” to honor bandmate Dean and the surname “John” in tribute to Baldry.

Later that year, struggling with his own sexual identity and facing an impending marriage to a woman he did not love, Elton John attempted to take his life; his writing partner, Bernie Taupin, found him lying on the floor next to an active gas oven and rescued him, but it was Baldry who helped John learn to accept himself as a gay man. This resulted in his 1975 hit “Someone Saved My Life Tonight,” with Taupin’s lyrics referencing “Sugar Bear,” a nickname for Baldry. As John recounted in Paul Myers’ biography of Baldry, It Ain’t Easy: Long John Baldry and the Birth of British Blues, “That song is about John Baldry at the Bag o’ Nails [nightclub] saying, ‘You’ve got to call the wedding off.’ Without that it could have been an entirely different story. He really did change the course of my life, bless his heart.”

After the dissolution of Bluesology, Baldry went solo with a little help from his friends. His protégés Elton John and Rod Stewart co-produced a pair of records for him, 1971’s It Ain’t Easy―the title track would be recorded by David Bowie the following year and appear on The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars―and 1972’s Everything Stops for Tea. These albums helped secure Baldry some success in the U.S. It Ain’t Easy had been home to his biggest Stateside hit, “Don’t Try to Lay No Boogie Woogie on the King of Rock and Roll.” Further albums followed, but none made as big an impact.

In 1979, more than a decade after homosexuality was decriminalized in the U.K. and three years after Elton John publicly revealed his sexual identity, Baldry came out to the world in his own inimitable way, releasing the album Baldry’s Out. It included the song “A Thrill’s a Thrill,” a paean to 1970s gay culture.

Shortly thereafter, Baldry relocated to Vancouver and settled down with his partner, Felix “Oz” Rexach. He continued to record albums and tour over the next several decades and developed a second career as a voiceover artist in the 1990s, portraying the evil Dr. Robotnik in the animated Sonic the Hedgehog television series.

Despite this comfortable lifestyle, Baldry was plagued by health issues dating back to the ’70s. He underwent multiple hospitalizations for gout, ulcers and osteoporosis, among other ailments. He died at 64 on July 21, 2005, from complications of pneumonia.

In his memory, the Vancouver Pride parade placed Baldry’s photo on the lead car to honor the man who had unwittingly helped a new generation of LGBTQ artists find their voices.