Middle Man (album)

Middle Man
Studio album by Boz Scaggs
Released April 1980
Recorded 1979
Genre Blue-eyed soul
Length 41:27
Label Columbia
Producer Bill Schnee
Boz Scaggs chronology
Down Two Then Left
(1977)		 Middle Man
(1980)		 Hits!
(1980)

Middle Man is the ninth album by Boz Scaggs, released on Columbia Records in 1980. Scaggs re-hired the members of the band Toto as session musicians, and shared song-writing credits with them. He re-embraced the commercial rock appeal of Silk Degrees (1976).

The album reached #8 in the Billboard 200 album chart, and two singles reached the Billboard Hot 100: "Breakdown Dead Ahead" at #15, and "Jojo" at #17.[1]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic [2]
Smash Hits5/10[3]

Writing for Smash Hits in 1980, David Hepworth described Middle Man as an "impeccably tasteful collection of sophisticated white soul" that was "useful as background music in the more sedate kind of nite spot". Acknowledging that the album was "well done", Hepworth noted that Scagg's previous albums were "thrilling as well as perfectly formed". Hepworth went on to say that the album sounded as though "they designed the sleeve first and then made the record to go in it".[3]

Allmusic's retrospective review commented that the album "caps off the decade with equal nods to [Scaggs's] '70s hitmaking formulas and the newer, shinier production techniques of the coming decade." They made a point of noting the album's repeated imitation of then-popular fads, while at the same time opining that these imitations were successful.[2]

Track listing

All songs written by David Foster and Boz Scaggs, except where noted.

Side One

  1. "Jojo" (Foster, David Lasley, Scaggs) – 5:51
  2. "Breakdown Dead Ahead" – 4:33
  3. "Simone" – 5:05
  4. "You Can Have Me Anytime" – 4:56

Side Two

  1. "Middle Man" – 4:51
  2. "Do Like You Do in New York" (Scaggs) – 3:44
  3. "Angel You" – 3:38
  4. "Isn't It Time" (Scaggs) – 4:53
  5. "You Got Some Imagination" (Steve Lukather, Scaggs, Bill Schnee) – 3:56

Personnel

References

  1. ↑ Boz Scaggs Chart History, Billboard.com. Retrieved January 9, 2012.
  2. 1 2 Middle Man at AllMusic
  3. 1 2 Hepworth, David. "Boz Scaggs: Middle Man". Smash Hits (May 1–14, 1980): 29.
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