You didn't actually think this was Leo Sayer, did you?
Whilst wandering around a street food market during a festival in Nathorn, I saw an old fella limping through the crowds pushing a trolley with a battery on it, playing a guitar and with a mini drum kit strapped to his back. A one-man band!
When I saw him, memories came flooding back of a time in the 1970s, when one-man-bands were quite commonplace in town centres around the UK, busking for coins and to be fair, had a rather larger assortment of instruments but nevertheless this guy was still the definite article.
One memory which perhaps, I would have preferred not to have come back was a certain song. Isn’t amazing how we seem to automatically attach music to visual memories?
The song had a chorus; “well I’m a one-man band”, obviously I suppose, and a picture of its singer flooded my brain. His name, Leo Sayer.
source That must have been a short album...
The thought stayed with me until I arrived home and then despite my better judgement, I made a fatal error. I typed his name into You Tube, then doubling down on my idiocy by also Googling him. Another hour of my ever-decreasing life disappeared into the ether.
In a way, using Google and You Tube in this way is a sub-conscious way of validating memories, did I really remember a short-arsed little fella with a huge curly perm and full clown make-up singing some god-awful ballad on Top of the Pops when I was a kid? Thankfully, dementia hasn’t yet kicked in and I did, and so, a #threetunetuesday post was born. This is Three Tune Tuesday dedicated to Leo Sayer.
Looking at his Wikipedia entry and discography, I guess he must have been a fairly big deal back in the day. Looking down some of the chart listings from the time, I was surprised how often his name appears. What I was also surprised at is how many names of artists and bands are still playing and touring together, all these years later. I thought only the big name old rock bands were still living their past glories but some of the other names on the list are still doing the circuit. I'll not mention any names, it will be a 'nice' surprise for next weeks #ttt post!
What really amazed me was that at 76 years old, he was still going strong. I don’t know why I was so surprised, we don’t seem to be able to get rid of old rock bands making their ‘final tours’, so why not some ancient poppy crooner? He has in fact just completed a UK and Ireland tour this year with a gig at Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall on the 27th of October. (I bet @meesterboom was there!)
So here are three four tunes from Mr Leo Sayer, including the one in the pierrot clown suit!
Let’s start with the performance that I remembered, which to be honest, I couldn't remember the song. It seems it’s called,
The Show Must Go On
So, this song was Leo's first single and reached number 2 on the charts after being released in 1973 and is taken from the album, Silverbird.
Right. This is dreadful. Even before hitting ‘play’ the sight of a banjo had me retching green puss out of my ears. He really tries hard to perform this but it looks like he’s trying to remove the listener’s focus away from the dire music. All very dramatic but it's obvious why I couldn't remember the song. It’s totally unmemorable with no obvious catchy chorus or redeeming lyrics or melody. Full on dreadful. 30 seconds in and that horrendous banjo has me hitting the stop button. Let’s move on. Quickly!
You Make Me Feel Like Dancing
This is hmm, catchy I guess you could say, but another complete racket. The guy already has a squeaky, thin high tenor voice and decides to hammer the falsetto, sounding like he’s just downed twenty balloons full of helium. And then there’s the chorus; ‘You make me feel like dancing. Woooo’? For god’s sake. Doing one ‘woooo’ is enough but then compounding the pain by repeating it over and over is enough to make me want to jam BluTac in my ears. Enough already.
Thunder in My Heart
This track actually got remixed again in 2006 and released by a British DJ called Meck, reaching number 1 on the UK charts, a feat the original failed to do after only reaching number 22 the first time around in 1977. I don't remember the original, but I have heard the remix which updates and pumps up the beat somewhat, improving the original disco tempo and feel.
I think I most definitely saved the best until last. This isn’t a bad song and captures the disco vibe which is no mean feat for a little white bloke with a perm. If this were today, it would be ‘cultural appropriation’ some might say. This may also be the reason, at the height of disco popularity, and the great disco bands and artists around at the time, the track didn't do too well on the charts. I don't know why he must be so dramatic when he’s singing though. I wonder whether he has a nervous tick or was just ‘speeding’. Anyway, ‘it’s alright’ is praise indeed from this Yorkshireman but I still won’t be adding it to a play list anytime soon.
A side thought, who the hell thought it was a good idea to add flutes to a disco track? Seriously!
Thunder In My Heart Again
As a comparison, and as a bonus track, I’ve included the remix for you to compare. Still not my cup of tea but I see why it did much better than the original.
And that’s Leo Sayer covered. Sixteen albums later and still going strong! Finally, if you are wondering what he looks like today, surely the perm must have been left back in the 70s...WRONG
This photo is nicked from Leo's Facebook page
Sorry, I have just realised I forget to post the track that was the inspiration for this post, One Man Band! The track was originally written for Roger Daltrey, he of The Who fame which I find completely bizarre. This video was obviously taken from the same concert as my first choice as he's still wearing the pierrot clown outfit and the bloody banjo is still twanging away so I'm not even going to review it!
And that really is it now, but I'll just mention that the old man in the market was limping because he was keeping tempo with his playing by pulling a string with his foot to bang the drum!
Thank you very much for reading and I hope everyone has had a fantastic start to the week.
Martin
@nathen007
Some great tunes, a musician and a great entertainer too is Leo. Such talent really make the world a joy to live in sometimes. I do miss these 1 man bands and have been listening to Reinhardt Buhr recently and also Dom Whiting doing something different. He is on a 1 man mission doing d&b on his bike and has been quite good to watch.
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Thank you very much :-)
You're right, to be fair, he is a great entertainer. I don't know Don Whiting, I'll Google him later but I do know Reinhardt Buhr who is a genuinely talented multi-instrumentalist.
Thanks once again for dropping by and the upvote and I'll report back on Don Whiting :-)
If you'd had said you were a fan in the 70's.., you might have got a flag. Urgh..., that Thunder Remix was alright though in the noughties.
LOL Nooo, I think even as a wee nipper, I found him sickly and annoying! There was one rather odd band I did quite like though. Maybe next week and no, its not Showaddywaddy, who it turns out, are also still touring!
Showaddywaddy, Darts, Shakin Stevens... all 50's wannabe bullshit..
I hadn't heard of Leo Sayer before, but the "One man band" song is actually really good.
Seems like a talented dude with a good set of humour also
What an interesting take on Leo Sayer and the memories his music evoked! It’s funny how certain songs can bring back vivid images, like your experience with the one-man band.
Hi. Thanks for the lovely comment.
When you're as old as I am, it only takes a tiny event to trigger a long forgotten memory to bubble up to the surface.
Enjoy making memories while you're young.
Best wishes :-)
@nathen007, I paid out 0.581 HIVE and 0.168 HBD to reward 4 comments in this discussion thread.