Customer Reviews

Silk Degrees (Exp)

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

We have been waiting for a long time for this to be re-mastered and re-released. Sometimes I am not thrilled with the sound of the remastered versions. It seems that so much more can be done, like with the recent re-release of ELO's Out of the Blue (which is very good, but could have been better). Silk Degrees comes alive on this version. The songs, of course, are wonderful, as anyone looking at this already knows and probably has owned it in more than one format. The sound is what draws you in and will keep you coming back, I know I will. Hopefully the rest of the wonderful Scaggs releases will get the same treatment. Be sure to buy this one and maybe there will be more.

Few albums encapsulate America of the mid-70s as smoothly as Scaggs' 1976 commercial breakthrough. The bluesy-rock roots he sang with Steve Miller and the blue-eyed R&B he recorded since his 1969 solo debut provided a foundation for something more polished and sophisticated. The key was a production sound that took in the elements of disco - strings, horns, synthesizers and danceable beats - but didn't cast Scaggs' soul into slickness. The resulting record grabbed dancers by their velvet lapels and compelled radio listeners to the record store. Scaggs made the urbane turn Robert Palmer would visualize on video in the '80s.

"Silk Degrees" wasn't completely unprecedented, even among Scaggs catalog; he'd already been edging in this direction, bathing in the blues and soul of collaborations with Duane Allman and the Muscle Shoals rhythm section. His preceding LP, 1974's "Slow Dancer," boasted horns, strings and some embryonic disco rhythms, but it didn't have Joe Wissert's sharp production or the L.A. studio rhythm section anchored by drummer Jeff Porcaro and bassist David Hungate. The blend of Porcaro's crisp playing and Hungate's lightly funky low strings creates a propulsive groove throughout the album. Their percussive opening on "Lowdown" is just one of the album's great instrumental moments -- and a popular sample to this day.

Scaggs' songs brimmed with optimism, fitting perfectly into an America that was still re-awakening from the debacles of Vietnam and Richard Nixon, and readying itself for a bicentennial celebration. The horn charts carried the warmth of an L.A. summer, and Scaggs is - for the first time at album length - completely at ease. The album sparkles with the band's intense studio craft, but still feels effortless and organic. Scaggs' tenor fits both the mid-tempo numbers and the soaring ballads with memorable perfection. If you were an American high school student in 1976, you no doubt have fond memories of slow-dancing to the six-minute "Harbor Lights."

Legacy's 30th anniversary reissue includes new notes from Scaggs and an essay by Bud Scoppa. Three bonus tracks provide contemporaneous versions of "What Can I Say" "Jump Street" and "It's Over" from a 1976 concert at the Los Angeles Greek Theater. They're a nice coda to the original album, showing how the songs translated to live performance (good, but not as good as the studio versions), but after ten perfect tracks, the reprise is nearly superfluous. [©2007 hyperbolium dot com]

Boz Scaggs, or this album in particular, is one of the enduring "guitly pleasures" of my misspent youth in the '70s... Now, I didn't own this album back then -- you didn't have to, since just about every track on here got tons of radio airplay, all through the disco era. It's whiteboy soul of the highest order -- slick, modern, immaculately produced but also soulful and sung with great passion. This 2007 reissue/remaster boasts wonderful sound quality as well as a trio of live tunes ("What Can I Say," "Jump Street" and "It's Over") recorded at a show in LA's the Greek Theater that demonstrate that Scaggs and "Silk Degrees" weren't just an in-the-studio phenomenon. One of the classic '70s albums that really stands up well over the decades.

And the sound is wonderful-clean,full,dynamic,enachnes the vocals and music greatly without shrillness or compression."Silk Degrees" is,of course,Boz Scaggs commercial breakthrough,yeilding the smashes "Lowdown" and "Lido Shuffle" plus the radio hits "What Can I Say?","It's Over" and "We're All Alone"(later a Top 10 smash for Rita Coolidge!).It is one of the definitve albums of the mid-70's-a record that seems very much of its time while still pulsing with the immediacy of fresh invention.The 3 bonus tracks are fine live takes of "It's Over",the rocking "Jump Street",and "What Can I Say?".A must-have!

Columbia, which spit out some terrible CDS in the early days of digital sound, has remastered some of its 70s recordings with success, but this isn't one of them. The original LP of "Silk Degrees" was compressed and short on the bass end. The remastering sounds equally bad: the sound is thick, unlayed, lacking separation and "air". It makes you wonder if the master tape was lost or damaged and all that's left in the vault is an awful, equalized dub. Compare the sound of the studio recording from 1975 with the live ones from a year later. Great music but this disc is sad.

I saw Boz when he came to Australia in 2010 with Michael McDonald and Mick Fleetwood. They were all AWESOME but Boz blew the crowd away right from his opening track, JoJo!! Any Boz Scaggs album is great but this one is a classic!! We love you Boz!

Take a really good musician, not your favorate, but one you respect. Get him or her into a studio one night when the moon and all the stars seem in the right place. Get the best back up musicians. Add some great writing, and watch a usually consistent artist just SIZZLE.

That moon and those stars must have been smiling the time Boz Scaggs made Silk Degrees--one of the 1970s best albums. "What Can I say," "Georgia" "Lowdown," all the tracks on this album take a tart, Memphis funk and run it through the slick machine of the best, highest end 70s pop.

By slick, I do not mean packaged or sterile: by the mid-70s, the best musicians of the 60s were walking around with all the diversity--Beatles, Stax, Motown, progressive--in their systems. They became more refined players, and had production that could make the tone of their instruments razor sharp, letter perfect.

On Silk Degress, what amazes is the refinement: these musicians could dazzle anytime they want, but never do: they hang back, feet cemented in Scaggs' deep southeastern funk, keeping the playing sharp and lean. It is one thing for an ok player to keep it simple; but the best don't keep it simple, they keep it restrained, subtley hiding their technique for just the right point, doing the creamy little fill in just the right place. When the recording is this good, it shines like a razor blade catching light in the dark.

The production here meets the gold standard--as good as any 70s Steely Dan album, and the synergy of roots and elegance--delta clay and southern estates- make Silk Degrees perfect.

This is an easy review, just a case of replacing a worn copy of the vinyl with a CD. Silk Degrees can easily be considered part of the sound track for the late 70's early 80's. You could get away with renaming it Greatest Hits.
Imagine a breezy Sunday summer evening, on the top deck of a house-boat, floating at anchor, in a cove, on a lake, listening to Boz's silky satin voice.....That was the setting for the sound track many times. Those memories are refreshed every time I hear these songs, the boat's been sold and the girl moved to Virginia but, as the song says "You Can't Take the Memories".

1976 was an epic year for great albums - Eagles' 'Hotel California', Jackson Browne's 'Pretender' and J.D. Souther's 'Black Rose' to name just three - and 'Silk Degrees' is right up there with the greats.

Commercially, 'Silk Degrees' was a slow starter, looking like it might sell 200-300,000 copies. But DJs gave "Lowdown" a lot of airplay, word got around and the album became a five-million-seller, charting for 115 weeks and yielding three hit singles. Truly a breakthrough album for Boz Scaggs.

And this success was richly deserved. 'Silk Degrees' is a seamless blend of pop, rock and blues, classy, stylish, beautifully performed and produced. Every song is memorable. The album's tone was 'balmy nights beside the pool'.

This legacy production has been beautifully if subtly remastered, restoring all and more of the clarity that was so noticeable on the vinyl original but rather lacking in earlier CD versions. A great bonus here is the inclusion of marvellous live versions of "What Can I Say", "Jump Street" and "It's Over". If you've ever wondered whether Boz and the band could replicate the studio power of the songs in a live setting, here's the proof.

If you're not familiar with 'Silk Degrees', treat yourself. A great album.

One of the great albums of the 70's! Still sounds great and as an added bonus, 3 live tracks from 1976, highly recommended!