Boz Scaggs - Middle Man (1980) LP - €10,00

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Middle Man is the ninth studio album by Boz Scaggs released by Columbia Records in 1980. Scaggs hired members of the band Toto as session musicians and shared songwriting credits with them, returning to the commercial, soul-influenced rock of Silk Degrees (1976).

1980’s Middle Man was Boz Scaggs’ last album for Columbia before an eight-year self-imposed sabbatical. 

Scaggs nonetheless caps off the decade with equal nods to his ’70s hitmaking formulas and the newer, shinier production techniques of the coming decade.

The synthesizer rocker “Angel You” and the title track are given the full in-vogue androgynous (i.e., Hall & Oates) treatment, while the opener “Jo Jo” and “Simone” are pages taken from his Here’s the Low Down-era grooves that wedded soulful vocals against a flurry of jazz changes.

His penchant for the ballad is explored on “You Can Have Me Any Time” and “Isn’t It Time,” while his seldom-seen rockier side comes up for air on the bluesy “Breakdown Dead Ahead” and “You Got Some Imagination,” both featuring stinging guitar from Steve Lukather. Not his best album, but a very timely one.

This one sounds like a continuation of Scaggs' Silk Degrees. The songs mentioned are amongst his best. Jojo is one of the best he ever wrote, but the other songs on the album are not as good. 

The ones I didn't consider highlights are the songs that are more rock and less signature Scaggs blue-eyed soul. The guitar sounds kind of sterile and formulated on those. 

It sounds like it needed more inspiration. This comes as a surprise because Steve Lukather from Toto is manning that instrument on this release.

The production on those songs sounds like they were trying to bring Scaggs into the 80s and although the ideas were good, they didn't materialize as well as past efforts in the rock style. David Foster was the producer and his influence is apparent in Scaggs' sound. 

In this case it wasn't a good thing. Foster has a very distinctive style that tends to mark music and push it into 80s Chicago territory. This sometimes works very well, but sometimes it clashes with the work in question. 

If the rock section of this album had been produced more in the vein of Lido Shuffle, or Lowdown from Silk Degrees, I think that it would have worked better, even though at the time of production it would have sounded a bit dated. 

It's hard to say whether the problem came from Lukather, Scaggs or from Foster. The rock songs aren't bad, but you can hear an unrealized potential in them that sinks the album and brings it down from stellar to average.

The album reached No. 8 in the Billboard 200 album chart, and two singles reached the Billboard Hot 100: “Breakdown Dead Ahead” at No. 15 and “Jojo” at No. 17.

Side A

A1.  Jojo - 5:52  

A2.  Breakdown Dead Ahead - 4:34   

A3. Simone - 5:07  

A4.  You Can Have Me Anytime - 4:57  

Side B

B1.  Middle Man - 4:52  

B2.  Do Like You Do In New York - 3:44   

B3.  Angel You - 3:39 

B4.  Isn’t It Time - 4:52  

B5.  You Got Some Imagination - 3:57 

Personnel

• Boz Scaggs – lead vocals, guitar 
• David Foster – synthesizers, acoustic piano, string arrangements, electric piano, synthesizer programming
• Don Grolnick – electric piano , acoustic piano 
• David Paich – additional synthesizer, organ, synthesizers 
• James Newton Howard – clavinet 
• Michael Boddicker – synthesizer programming
• Larry Fast – synthesizer programming
• Steve Porcaro – synthesizer programming
• Ray Parker Jr. – guitar, bass 
• Steve Lukather – lead guitars, additional guitars (2), guitar solo, all guitars 
• Carlos Santana – guitar solo 
• John Pierce – bass 
• David Hungate – bass 
• Jeff Porcaro – drums 
• Rick Marotta – drums 
• Joe Vitale – drums 
• Lenny Castro – percussion
• Adrian Tapia – saxophone solo 
• Marty Paich – string arrangements 
• Charlotte Crossley – backing vocals 
• David Lasley – backing vocals 
• Sharon Redd – backing vocals 
• Paulette Brown – backing vocals 
• Venetta Fields – backing vocals 
• Bill Thedford – backing vocals 
• Julia Tillman Waters – backing vocals 
• Oren Waters – backing vocals 
• Bill Champlin – backing vocals
• Chuck "Fingers" Irwin – backing vocals
• Rosemary Butler – backing vocals 

Production

• Producer and Engineer – Bill Schnee
• Assistant Engineers – Stephen Marcussen and Gabe Veltri
• Mastered by Doug Sax and Mike Reese at The Mastering Lab (Los Angeles, CA).
• Design – Nancy Donald
• Photography – Guy Bourdin
• Management – Irving Azoff

Notes

Release: 1980

Format:  LP

Genre:  Pop, Rock

Label:  CBS Records

Catalog#  86094

Vinyl:  Goed (VG)

Cover:  Goec (VG)

Prijs: €10,00