Sometimes Age just jumps right up and kicks me in the jimmies, although most of the time I don't think about it. Driving around the mountains of North Carolina a couple of weeks ago listening to the eccentric classic rock of The Ride gave me plenty of time to torture poor Dawn, who is 11 years younger than I am, with all kinds of trivia and quization.
When "Lowdown" came on I said "who is that?" She didn't know. When I said it was Boz Scaggs she said "oh yeah." Then I asked what band Boz was in before he went solo, she didn't know. That's when I felt old because I thought EVERYONE knew Boz Scaggs started off as a member of the Steve Miller Band, but only people 45 or older know that, apparently.
So anyway, "Lowdown" was on one of the best albums of the '70s - and the most important of Boz's career, the multi-platinum Silk Degrees. Produced by Joe Wissert and arranged by keyboardist David Paich, Degrees is the very apex of cool blue-eyed soul, and stayed on the charts for 115 weeks from early-'76 into '78.
The band - a collection of the highest-end studio musicians including Paich, Jeff Porcaro on drums, David Hungate on bass, Fred Tackett and Louie Shelton on guitars - would become Toto a couple of years later. The songs, mostly by Scaggs and Paich, are all first-rate, but the album didn't hit right away.
The first single, the sprightly "It's Over" straggled barely onto the chart in May. The album's most memorable song, "Lowdown" - with Hungate's serious funk bass line, Paich's flutey synth melody, and Scaggs' sly vocal - languished for weeks after its summer release until an urban station in Philadelphia picked the song up, followed by a rock station in Cleveland.
Article comments
1 - Mark Saleski
man, i hated that record back in the day...mostly because it didn't sound like ted nugent or bad company.
but then a while back, when my fricken' 70's nostalgia bloomed, i bought that one as well as his latest.
2 - TDavid
Breakdown Dead Ahead was a catchy song. Haven't listened much more to him, though.
3 - Eric Olsen
His anthology is very solid - I think you will be surprised how many songs you recognize. I'm getting seriously back into the Boz now after a long break. I have to get the new ones also.
4 - Mac Diva
I have a deep thing for the Boz, Eric. The entire Come on Home LP is on my iPod, along with select cuts from earlier efforts. I listen to it at least every other week. I believe it is one of the best relatively recent compilations of the vintage soul sound.
The Boz is also a great performer. His delivery and intonation are about as sophisticated as that of another master of the blues, Buddy Guy. And, he can sometimes measure up to BG with guitar licks, too.
I don't have his new CD, but want it. (Hmmm. I'm gonna add it to my Amazon Wish List.)
It doesn't hurt that I find the Boz an incredibly sexy older man, either.
Mark and T, get yourselves some Boz.
5 - Eric Olsen
Thanks MD, you are a woman of the world - glad to hear you dig the Boz
6 - Rodney Welch
Great review, Eric; Silk Degrees is a masterpiece without a weak cut on it. The only thing I might add is that I think "Lowdown" might have gotten a boost of chart action from being used in the movie Looking for Mr. Goodbar -- a movie which, like the song, no one under our age is likely to remember.
7 - JR
I’d have to rate the “Boz Scaggs” album, with backing by the Mussel Shoals rhythm section and Duane Allman, right up there with “Silk Degrees”. My problem with the anthology is that it doesn’t include “I’ll Be Long Gone”; that had to be a big FM radio hit back in the day. Either that or my parents played the record a lot.
I’ve heard “Livin’ In the U.S.A.” on my local classic rock station within the last year, although it’s not obvious that Boz Scaggs is on it since apparently he didn’t sing when he was in the Steve Miller Band.
8 - Eric Olsen
Thanks Rodney and JR, agree with all you say and forgot about both "Looking For Mr Goodbar" angle for "Lowdown" and the "I'll Be Long Gone" tune - good points.
Boz was only with Steve Miller through '68 and two albums "Children of the Future" and "Sailor" - he did play guitar and sing backup on "Living In the U.S.A."