Another Blast From The Past

Sometimes an artist is a much better songwriter than a performer. Not that he is a bad performer, but I think Leo Sayer was one of the better songwriters of the 70s. The problem for him at first was to get people to take him seriously.

When he first came out, he wore a clown suit to draw attention to himself while performing live. In his case it worked. Because while people were checking out the "dude in the clown suit", they were quickly finding the guy could write some darned good tunes and wasn't a bad singer as well.

If you mention his name today, you will likely invoke memories of his later music when his commercial success was more disco/bubblegum than I cared for. What many of those same people may not know or remember is, his best music came from when he wore that silly clown suit.

In this first song, we see that Leo could really rock. Here is a quintessential 70s rock song with some pretty poignant lyrics for a late 20 something:



I happen to think this next one was his best ever. It's a mellow and pensive tune about destitution and loneliness, and some of the misunderstandings that come with them:



Here is one from his later years that I was able to get into. It was a commercial success, but I still thought it was a great love song:



Enjoy.