As part of Sony Music Japan campaign titled AOR CITY 1000 featuring a low-priced reissue on classic AOR / AC albums from their back catalog (many of them out of print or hard to find) in remastered form, here’s BOZ SCAGGS 1980’s album “Middle Man“.
Looking for a more mainstream sound and hit FM radio, for “Middle Man” Scaggs and his recording label made it simple: hired all members of the band TOTO as session musicians and shared songwriting credits with them.
Indeed, “Middle Man” is considered a ‘Toto album’ without Kimball or Lukather vocals. Slick production and great songs – which seems, in fact, were entirely written by Toto – makes “Middle Man” an album that you never get tired of… timeless quality music for sure.
”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 bright sonic treatment, while the opener “Jo Jo” and “Simone” are pages taken Scaggs’ original Seventies grooves with the addition of modern guitar licks against a flurry of synths.
Boz 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.
1 Jojo
2 Breakdown Dead Ahead
3 Simone
4 You Can Have Me Anytime
5 Middle Man
6 Do Like You Do In New York
7 Angel You
8 Isn’t It Time
9 You Got Some Imagination