Customer Reviews

Middle Man

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a fine album. The music has a much harder edge than any of his others. There are excellent musicians on this album including, Steve Lukather, Jeff Porcaro, David Foster, Ray Parker, Jr., and Carlos Santana. Lukather's guitar really shines on this album as well as Foster's piano playing. The Vocals are strong and music is very smooth and crisp.

Hot Damn! Middle Man finally released in CD! Thanks Columbia! I've been looking for this for a long time. My vinyl version was beginning to show daylight though it. Middle Man is one of Boz Scaggs best. A steller studio production, tightly written and orchestrated. It is a logical extension of Silk Degrees and further refines his elegant approach to R&B incorporating what Rolling Stone said of Silk Degrees, "..the ever-present female personfication.." as focal points of his songs, Check out "Jojo" or "Simone" as examples. It's too bad that "studio" or "produced" have become such dirty words in this day of unplugged-ism, listen to Steve Luthakers guitar solo on "Some Imagination" or Boz's wordsmith on "Simone". Just as some dismissed Silk Degrees as "disco" they miss the point here as well. I'm pleased to include this CD along with his others, from the early days to the present as they represent a tremendous and sometimes underrated talent.

Go put "Do like you do in New York" on your B & O and turn it up to 7 or 8. This guy knows how to Rock.

I agree with most of those who reviewed this great album. I've been a Boz Scaggs fan ever since Lowdown and he's never let me down since. Middle Man is Boz at the top of his game with some great singles along with that beautiful "jewel in the crown" Simone; what a wonderful surprise that was and it remains one of my favorite Boz Scaggs songs today. All in all an excellent album that's managed to keep its freshness even 26 years later! I'd love to see music today go back to this sound, it was feel good music for all ages that I'll love forever.

This may be Boz Scaggs' best CD/album and that's no small feat - most of his CD's are quite good. I still consider Boz to be very underrated and 'Middle Man' really brings out the great vocals, songwriting and sophisticated production job. This is a very tight, listenable CD. JoJo, Breakdown Dead Ahead, and Isn't It Time are wonderful songs, that when you think about it, were really kind of ahead of their time, since I believe this was from 1979. Boz ranks among of the best, and became one of the real slick performers of the era along with Steely Dan, The Doobie Brothers and Little Feat. This is definitely worth the price and you'll want to keep listening to it as time goes by.

I really think that Simone is one of the more overlooked songs by
the critics. Every time I listen to it, I find something new about it. It is just an incredible song...Boz, you are the boss!!!

I won't bore you with a long winded opinion on the music. If you are a Boz fan, you've probably heard this one back in the day. In short, it's one of Boz's better albums, and it had a number of hits.

I submitted this review just to inform potential buyers that this 2008 budget version uses the remastering of the 1998 reissue rather than the older 1987 mastering. This one is significantly louder than the old '87 version, but it sounded pretty good on my initial listen. Doug Sax (who mastered the original LP in 1980, and is one of the best mastering engineers in the business) remastered this CD in 1998 which is the same as this 2008 budget version.

This one is fun to listen to, but it isn't as good as some of his other stuff. Highlights:

Jojo

Breakdown Dead Ahead

Simone

You Can Have Me Anytime

Angel You

Isn't It Time

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 highlights mentioned are first-rate and make the album by themselves.

If you are new to Scaggs, then start with his My Time: Anthology collection. It has all the essential tracks from this album and most of his other greatest hits.

This is the edgiest Scaggs there was and IMHO, the peak of his performance. "JoJo" and "Do Like you Do in New York" showcase that the man can really rock. Doesn't hurt to have a chunk of Toto working behind the scenes, too.

I hear Scaggs is on tour and is rocking the house. Very good news.

Boz's Middle Man when released was the ever present joy in my life the follow up and smash that I felt superceded Silk Degrees and the players that what made Toto the group that they were and as a huge fan, still is today. Let me just inform everyone I just concluded a concert on Friday August 18, 2006 headlined by a one Mr. William Royce "Boz" Scaggs himself, let's just say everyone there's still a breakdown dead ahead, and Jojo stil has those Broadway lights below him, and absolutley superb concert showcasing Boz at this best and he has lost nothing today, tomorrow, or yesterday.

A couple of years after his excellent follow up to the multi-million selling "Silk Degress" met with a rather luke-warm reception Boz returned to the top 10 with this masterpiece - his best ever album? Very possibly.

The first two cuts ("Jojo" and "Breakdown Dead Ahead") both made the top 20, but the rest of the album is just as good - if not better.

David Foster co-wrote most of these tracks just before becoming one of the 80s big names in production - and they're every bit as good as the David Paich co-writes from 'Silk'. Closing cut, "You Got Some Imagination" might be his hottest rocker ever, no surprise given that it was co-written by Steve Lukather of Toto, whose lead guitar is breathtaking as always. But, while the musicanship is of an impeccable standard, it's the vocals that really lend the album its overall sense of class.

It's a pity Boz began his 'semi-retirement' shortly after this album's release, but at least he left in style.