Silk Degrees by Boz Scaggs (Vinyl, 1976)

Music on Vinyl

8713748981747

24050138106

Bud Shank, Boz Scaggs, Les Dudek, Fred Tackett, David Paich, Tom Scott, Jeff Porcaro, David Hungate, Plas Johnson, Jim Horn

Vinyl

1976

Stereo

Silk Degrees

LP

Disco, R&B

40 mins 54 seconds

Personnel: Boz Scaggs (vocals); Fred Tackett, Louie Shelton (guitars); Les Dudek (slide guitar); Plas Johnson (tenor saxophone, horns); Bud Shank (saxophones, horns); Chuck Findley (horns, flugelhorn); Jim Horn, Tom Scott, Dick Hyde, Paul Hubinon, Vincent deRosa (horns); David Paich (keyboards, synthesizer); David Hungate (bass); Jeff Porcaro (drums, percussion); Carolyn Willis, Marty McCall, Jim Gilstrap, Augie Johnson, Maxine Green, Pepper Swenson (background vocals). Recorded at Davlen Sound Studios and Hollywood Sound Studios, Los Angeles, California. Boz Scaggs's 1976 breakthrough, SILK DEGREES, was not only his biggest-selling album, it was also one of his best. Here Scaggs collaborated with keyboardist and bandleader David Paich, who would soon form the hugely successful band Toto with this record's drummer, Jeff Porcaro. In Paich, Scaggs found a foil who added just enough pop gloss to make his blues- and R&B-tinged material palatable to the masses. Crucially, though, the pair keeps Scaggs's remarkable voice at the center of things, never going too far overboard with the studio polish. As a result, hit singles "Lowdown" and, particularly, the horn-spiked R&B of "Lido Shuffle" still sound fresh, while the ballads remain soulful. A year or so later, Rita Coolidge would take one of those ballads, "We're All Alone," into the Billboard Top Ten with her own version.

Mojo (Publisher) (p.130) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he record is solid the whole way through, luxuriating in a range of styles from R&B to reggae to rock."

Sony Music Distribution (

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