So, what have you been listening to lately?

[uwe]

Yet he never misses a beat!

[Pilgrim]

I noticed that back in the 90s. A radio station popped up in Chicago called US99. They played "modern country". It sounded like AOR "rock" with a bit of twang and maybe a fiddle or steel guitar. I also noticed that some of these folks looked like they got their wardrobes and stage sets handed down to them from the then failing hair metal bands.

Yes,  BRING BACK NUDIE SUITS!!! Them's country!!

Image from https://www.nudiesrodeotailor.com/ ....they are alive!

[uwe]

Yes, real Yacht Country in suits!

Manly undershirts, rodeo embroidery!

More rodeo shirt embroidery, card games from arid regions!

Their fans rave about how "real country" these guys are. It's not that I dislike their music which is pleasant enough, but if they are "real country", then so was Glenn Frey, because their singer sings the songs like a baritone version of Glenn's tenor voice. But being compared to Glenn Frey is no insult in my book, never mind how coming from Detroit doesn't really give you Deep South credibility.

While we're at it: Blondes have more fun ...

Thank God they're actually from Georgia! (Has the authentic accent Gestapo run a quick check on them yet?)

And finally, we can't conclude this post without a reference to Ritchie Blackmore ... or his wife:

Long Island as the heartland of C&W, way to go! And an urban East Coast JAP upbringing as ultimate country girl credentials. 😎

[Dave W]

0:53 the guitar player stops miming over the solo and just snaps his fingers...

The guitarist on that studio track was Danny Cedrone, who had died before the movie was filmed.

Danny Cedrone and the guitar solo that started rock 'n' roll

[4stringer77]

Country, pop, rock or whatever it is. James Burton's solo here is perfection.

I think the Geezinslaw brothers might have the same perception as Dave when it comes to some of today's country like that band Midland. The song starts at 5:18.

[Dave W]

The Geezinslaws were a comedy act  -- at least some people thought they were funny. But it was an act, not an opinion. Likewise with Sammy's obnoxious talk radio persona, which eventually got him fired.

[Dave W]

Young Levon

[Alanko]

Three Dog Night. I read a comment recently from somebody who saw them sharing a bill with Nazareth. I assumed (wrongly?) that they were lightweight pop shite. If they shared a bill with Nazareth then maybe they had some teeth... off to YouTube I went.

Instead they appear to be a glorified bar band with three lead singers wearing their civvies, plus some practicing occultist on keyboards, towering up the back. Not only does this geezer look spooky, but he is playing a Chamberlin, which is a spookier version of the Mellotron. Even the white, road-hardened Mellotrons used by Yes and King Crimson sounded a bit spooky, but the cocktail-cabinet sized Chamberlin with all that polished dark wood, giant Bakelite control knobs and eerie backing-track tapes somehow sounds even more dead and haunted, somehow.

[ilan]

Young Levon

My favorite Band song.

[Dave W]

Three Dog Night. I read a comment recently from somebody who saw them sharing a bill with Nazareth. I assumed (wrongly?) that they were lightweight pop shite. If they shared a bill with Nazareth then maybe they had some teeth... off to YouTube I went.

Instead they appear to be a glorified bar band with three lead singers wearing their civvies, plus some practicing occultist on keyboards, towering up the back. Not only does this geezer look spooky, but he is playing a Chamberlin, which is a spookier version of the Mellotron. Even the white, road-hardened Mellotrons used by Yes and King Crimson sounded a bit spooky, but the cocktail-cabinet sized Chamberlin with all that polished dark wood, giant Bakelite control knobs and eerie backing-track tapes somehow sounds even more dead and haunted, somehow.

lol! Three Dog Night were mus1ical chameleons ranging from the sappiest pop to somenice deeper stuff. But this is their version of Leo Sayer's original 1973 song and stage performance.

From Leo's website: Leo went on a British and European tour supporting Roxy Music, now appearing on stage dressed as the Pierrot. His wife Janice made the costumes and applied his make-up, and they were quite inseparable. "The Show Must Go On", released as the second single, went to number 2 in the U.K. charts and the "Silverbird" album also reached number 2 in the album chart. The B.B.C. filmed a special live 'Leo In Concert' performance for T.V., and as the year of 1973 drew to a close, both the The Melody Maker and The Sun newspaper (featuring the Pierrot on the cover of its new year issue) were predicting Leo would be The Star Of '74.

Over in the U.S.A., Three Dog Night had covered The Show Must Go On and took their version right to the top of the singles chart there. They had seen Leo on British television dressed as Pierrot and dressed up as circus clowns on U.S. T.V., in their interpretation of Leo. They had ironically changed Leo's lyric from "I won't let the show go on" to: "We must let the show go on", but not many people seemed to notice. This proved Leo's songs and persona could travel, as Leo was now starting to get lots of attention in all corners of the globe. Soon Leo was preparing for his first visit to the U.S.A.

[Dave W]

My favorite Leo song.

Leo moved to Australia about 50 years ago but still tours in the UK every year.

[Alanko]

Liking that first Leo Sayer clip. I didn't expect that voice to come bursting out after his slightly humdrum introduction. His version of that song benefits from not having the funfair organ parts littering it.

[4stringer77]

Three dog night had enough talent to hang with Roberta Flack. RIP to Roberta as well.

[uwe]

Not everything Three Dog Night did was rock, but they could rock out if they wanted to:

And that three-pronged lead vocal attack could be really mighty, I'd even go as far as to say that it might have left an impression on Blackmore when he decided that Purple needed a twin-lead vocal boost in 1973, dumping Ian Gillan for David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes on dual lead vocals. There was no escaping from Three Dog Night if you toured the US in the early 70s like Purple did and TDN had a tremendous pulling force as a live act.

Back to Leo, call me a wuss, but what he did here is one of the most beautiful love songs from the road ever:

And that short acapella harmony burst at 02:55 is ingenious.

For some reason, the Leo Sayer number always reminds me of this here, another classic:

Jim Diamond, a Scotsman like you Alan, had only a few years before wandered on entirely different paths, more Faces or Humble Pie:

[Alanko]

Interesting Jim Diamond clip. Looks like they are rocking out in the village hall in Auchtermuchty.


Leo Sayer had a glimmer of recognition when I was in school as he turned up on the reality TV show Big Brother, and made an arse of himself. Cue lots of ribald juxtaposing of an angry middle aged man with archive clips of him in mime makeup singing in a virtual falsetto.

This is a gorgeous interpretation of a Sayer work: