Boz Scaggs had been waiting a long time for a big record. One that would take the singer/guitarist’s career to the next level with sales, hit singles, gigging in larger concert venues, and put him and his music in the national zeitgeist.
He got that—and much more— with 1976’s Silk Degrees. It hit No. 2 on the charts, yielded two monster hits with signature tune “Lowdown” and “Lido Shuffle,” and two minor ones with “It’s Over” and “What Can I Say.” It convinced many of his backing musicians (which included co-writer David Paich) to form their own band that would go on to have a bit of success all its own—a little unit called Toto.
To date, Silk Degrees has been certified 5X Platinum and remains by far the biggest-selling album of Scaggs’ career. The cover image cemented his suave, gentleman caller image.
It also remains the first and last thing much of the general public knows about the music of Boz Scaggs, the “If You’ve Only Got One Album…” sort of thing.
But over the course of 60 years and 19 studio records, he’s explored not only the blue-eyed R&B and disco of Silk Degrees, but also blues, jazz, big band, country, rock and even (briefly) rap.
Music writer Jude Warne takes a look at all of those discs and how they chart the career of the man born William Royce Scaggs (“Boz” was a childhood nickname that stuck) with Lowdown: The Music of Boz Scaggs (352 pp., $30, Chicago Review Press). Warne previously wrote the authorized biography of the band America, and this work marks the first book of any kind on Scaggs.
Warne remembers Silk Degrees being one of her parents’ favorites. But it wasn’t until about a decade ago when her mother played her “Georgia” from that album that the Boz Bug really bit.
“I thought, ‘Whoa, this is really great stuff.’ And it’s close to a lot of other artists whose work I already liked,” she says over Zoom. “But it had more of a unique sound. And Boz’s voice is so captivating. From there, I went to explore both the albums that came [before] as well as the more recent ones.”
Like her book on America, Lowdown mostly concentrates on the music over biographical information. Warne says that was wholly on purpose. She did approach Scaggs himself to be interviewed for the work, but says she received a “polite decline.” Warne did get to speak with several backing musicians, including members of Toto (that band’s singer/keyboardist/songwriter David Paich, who had a heavy hand in Silk Degrees, wrote this book’s intro).
“I wasn’t shocked that Boz [declined]. But I tend to focus on the music. I would feel weighed down writing about someone’s personal life and the facts of that,” Warne offers. “I’m such a record person, a listener, so I do an intense analysis of the songs. Though they are my impressions.”
For the 19 studio albums, Warne says she “jumped around” listening rather than intensely focus on each one chronologically. She too understands how large Silk Degrees looms over the rest of his catalog. But the entire book is a treatise of the quality of Scaggs’ career as a whole.
“When he made that record, he was kind of just going along on his path and didn’t see it as this incredible, special record. And he used a lot of romantic and narrative tropes that he’d already established,” Warne offers.
Keep in mind that Silk Degrees was indeed his seventh studio record. Seemingly an eternity today, it speaks to the proclivities of records companies yesteryear to hang onto an artist for far longer than they would today. In the hopes of striking vinyl gold at some time.
One fun fact that Warne writes about: John Travolta was so enamored of “Lowdown” that he fought for it to be the soundtrack for one of his character Tony Manero’s spotlight dances in Saturday Night Fever. Producers eventually went with the Bee Gees’ “You Should Be Dancing” and Tavares’ “More Than a Woman” for those.
Scaggs lost the chance to appear on a gazillion-selling soundtrack (and the pursuant royalties he would have received). But he needn’t have been too worried. His lush, non-album ballad “Look What You’ve Done to Me” appears in both a pivotal scene and on the soundtrack of one film near and dear to the hearts of Houstonians: Urban Cowboy.
One album that both Warne and this writer adore—but received little to no attention—was Dig. A natural successor to Scaggs’ “Holy Trinity” of Silk Degrees, Down Two Then Left, and Middle Man. It was unfortunately also released on September 11, 2001, at a time when most of the U.S. had its mind on other things.
The record’s highlights include the romping “Payday” and “Call That Love;” romantic “Miss Riddle,” “Thanks to You,” and “Desire;” grooving “Vanishing Point;” and Texas-themed “King of El Paso.” It was includes Scaggs’ tongue-in-cheek attempt at rapping with “Get on the Natch.”
“That one definitely groups in with the others, though it also has that modern, early 2000s-era pop sound. And he works again with David Paich on several tracks again with the writing, so that’s another way to trace that sonic line that ties it to the other records,” she says. “And ‘Miss Riddle’ is such a wonderful song. I do feel it got lost in there.”
So why, one can venture, why hasn’t the Hershey Chocolate company snapped up the rights to use “Payday” in a commercial for its candy bar of the same name?
“Very true! That’s a good point!” Warne laughs, before returning a major theme of her book in the sheer diversity of Scaggs’ genre-hopping. And whether that might have helped or hurt his overall career.
“I feel like the best artists are those who do get into those different era and explore sounds, like David Bowie. The book tries to showcase what a beautiful and versatile vocalist he is. Especially with his records that cover the Great American Songbook,” she says. “And also, the blues and soul [covers] from the last three records.”
Fans though, do hold out hope that the now 80-year-old Boz Scaggs has at least one album of originals left in him. Warne feels that he works best sometimes in collaboration, bouncing ideas off other co-writers or musicians. And that could be an impetus.
Finally, she may be a bit biased, but Warne does tackle the question: Does Boz Scaggs belong in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? To date he has never even been on the nomination ballot, despite having been eligible since 1994 when major label debut Boz Scaggs appeared (not counting 1965’s bare bones “busking” record Boz, which was largely only available overseas).
“Well, the Hall in general, I feel shouldn’t be called the ‘Rock and Roll’ Hall anymore just because of the different genres that are in there now as the decades that have gone by. It’s branched out,” she offers. “That means classic artists like Boz Scaggs, like Warren Zevon, or America are not in there. And that’s problematic. But the easy answer is yes, he absolutely should be in there.”
For more on Jude Warne and her work, visit Jude Warne.com
