Boz Scaggs Songs - Lowdown Lyrics

Boz Scaggs - Lowdown

Boz Scaggs - Lowdown Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Silk Degrees
Released: 1976

Lowdown Lyrics

Baby's into running around
Hanging with the crowd
Putting your business in the street talking out loud
Saying you bought her this and that
And how much you done spent
I swear she must believe it's all heaven sent
Hey boy you better bring the chick around
To the sad truth the dirty Lowdown

(Who I wonder who) taught her how to talk like that
(Who I wonder who) gave her that big idea

Nothing you can't handle nothing you ain't got
Put the money on the table and drive it off the lot
Turn on that old love light and turn a maybe to a yes
Same old schoolboy game got you into this mess
Hey son better get back to town
Face the sad old truth the dirty lowdown

(Who I wonder who) put those ideas in your head
(Who I wonder who) yeah
Come on back down little son
Dig the low low low low lowdown

You ain't got to be so bad got to be so cold
This dog eat dog existence sure is getting old
Got to have a Jones for this Jones for that
This running with the Jones boy
Just ain't where it's at
You gonna come back around
To the sad sad truth the dirty lowdown

(Who I wonder who) got you thinking like that boy
(Who I wonder who)
(Who I wonder who said who I wonder who)
Oh look out for that lowdown
That dirty dirty dirty dirty lowdown
(Who I wonder who oh oh)
Got you thinking like that

Writer/s: DAVID PAICH, BOZ SCAGGS
Publisher: SPIRIT MUSIC GROUP
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Lowdown Song Chart

Scaggs wrote this song with the keyboard player David Paich , who would later form the band Toto and write many of their hits. "Lowdown" was the first song that Scaggs and Paich wrote together; it was Silk Degrees producer Joe Wissert who put them together.

In our interview with Boz Scaggs , he explained: "We took off for a weekend to this getaway outside of LA where there was a piano and stayed up all night banging around ideas. We hit on 'Lowdown,' and then we brought it back to the band and recorded it. We were just thrilled with that one. That was the first song that we attempted, and it had a magic to it."

This was the second single released from Silk Degrees. The first was "It's Over," which charted at a modest #38 in May 1976. Scaggs had little name recognition at the time, and sales were stagnant for the album until an R&B radio station in Cleveland started playing "Lowdown." Other stations followed suit, and it quickly became clear that the song had crossover appeal and hit potential. Scaggs' label, CBS, released it as a single and it climbed to #3 on the Hot 100 in October, spurring sales of the album along the way.

The song is about a girl who doesn't appreciate what her man gives her. The "dirty lowdown" is the honest truth - what Scaggs is encouraging this poor sap to face.

The word "Lowdown" was popular slang meaning a summary of what's going on for real. The first Hot 100 entry with the term in the title came in 1969 with the instrumental "Lowdown Popcorn" by James Brown (#41, 1969). Next came Chicago's song "Lowdown" (#35, 1971).

Along with keyboard player David Paich, two other future Toto members also played on this track: drummer Jeff Porcaro and bass player David Hungate. The Silk Degrees marked the first time that Scaggs used these studio pros, and it was also his first album produced by Joe Wissert, who was a staff producer at Columbia Records who had previously worked with Earth, Wind & Fire.

The crew for the album found just the right sound, a Disco-blend that could play in dance clubs and pool halls. Scaggs credits Wissert for giving him and the other musicians plenty of freedom in the studio, resulting in one of the most successful albums of the '70s - Silk Degrees went on to sell over five million copies.

This won the Grammy for Best R&B Song of 1976, making Scaggs the first white artist to win the award (Leo Sayer was the second, taking the trophy the next year for "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing.")

The producers of Saturday Night Fever asked to use this in their movie, but Scaggs' manager turned them down and instead used it in the movie Looking For Mr. Goodbar. Not a good move - Saturday Night Fever became one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time.