Search - Boz Scaggs :: Slow Dancer

Timeless and Extraordinary

jcjzap9 | Oxford, NY | 11/01/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am writing this review, because it is an insult to Boz to have a work this complex and beautiful be ignored. The fact that I am the first person to be reviewing an album that I consider to be one of the finest recorded in the last 30 years, is tragic. Boz is best known for "Silk Degrees" which was released during the disco era.

Boz is a complex character. He was on Steve Miller's first album. He has a lot of soul for a white guy and a gift for romantic melody and rhythmn. These are all features of "Slow Dancer." His unabashed use of full orchestras, hypnotic rhythmn sections and background vocalists, is as close to ectasy as you are going to get off a recording. This album is about love. This album is for lovers, or for people holding on for love. Yes, I realize it is 2002, and most humans are whining about their personal agendas with their head buried deep up their own ass and looking for the light switch. Just because people are ignorant and self obsessed and unable to love doesn't mean there is something wrong with the passionate sounds of "Slow Dancer." I will tell you one thing: "Slow Dancer" is as great today as it was almost 30 years ago and "Silk Degrees" sounds dated and slightly contaminated by its association to disco. The point is simple - truly great music survives. If there is anything alive in you above the waist - treat yourself to "Slow Dancer""

Back to the Bay Area

John Stodder | livin' just enough | 11/11/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I arrived in the Bay Area in the mid-1970s with psychedelic visions in my head, only to learn that the ultra-hip region was in the midst of a neo-Soul revival led by Tower of Power along with a bunch of white ex-rockers, especially Boz Scaggs. That Bay Area sound broke into the nation's consciousness in about 1976 with the release of Boz's "Silk Degrees," a huge hit that had a slightly more sophisticated take on the disco/nightclub sound. It's a fine album, but the real gem was its predecessor, "Slow Dancer," which sounds like more of a tribute to the strings-drenched Philadelphia soul sound, combined with the singer's evident love for classic R&B. A few cuts feature that almost Native American tom-tom beat that some soul singers used, and one cut even features a country-tinged pedal steel guitar. This album was only a regional hit when it came out, but was reissued with a new cover in the wake of "Silk Degrees" success. This album is incredibly romantic, heartfelt, and is bursting with creative ideas. The songs are strong throughout, but my favorites are the title song, "You Make It So Hard (To Say No)," "Angel Lady," "Pain of Love," and "There's Someone Else." Worth discovering."

The songs have aged like fine wine

Kelly | Beltsville, MD USA | 01/15/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The first Boz Scaggs album I ever owned was, naturally, Silk Degrees (1976). I was so intrigued by his talent and his unique voice that I started going from record store to record store (those were the pre-Amazon days) to track down his earlier works. Slow Dancer was the first such album I found. I fell in love especially with the title track and Sail on White Moon. I also enjoyed Hercules and I Got Your Number. Heck I actually could listen to the album repeatedly all day. Every cut has its own special quality and flavor. Though I was only 16 years old, I really "got" Boz and his music.



I moved to the States when I was 19 and was no longer listening to Boz Scaggs regularly, as I did during the preceding few years. Unfortunately, it was precisely during this time that Boz's star began to fall. Between my preoccupation with my new life in this country and Boz's getting less air play, his music gradually drifted out of my life.



Before moving to his country, I taped all of Boz's songs from the albums I had been lucky enough to find in the stores: My Time (the original album, not the anthology), Moments, Boz Scaggs, and maybe one more really old album. At any rate, Slow Dancer was always my favorite of all the pre-Silk Degrees albums.



A couple of weeks ago I was digging through my cassettes in the car and stumbled upon those very "compilation" Boz Scaggs tapes that I personally made. It's not as if I hadn't been listening to those tapes every now and then but something happened to me that day. I started to yearn to have Boz's voice back in my life--to enrich and enhance it, as it did so very effectively when I was 16 and living in a foreign land.



As a result of this reunion, I purchased Slow Dancer on CD along with CDs of his earlier works. I even had to resort to buying "My Time" and "Moments" directly from a Japanese merchant because I couldn't find them here. How I wish I still had all those vinyl records with me. I know they're worth quite a bit now.



Anyway, the main thing I wanted to say here, before I started reminiscing and rambling, is that Slow Dancer has aged like the finest of fine wines. I actually appreciate it more now as a more mature person than when I was 16. I am feeling Boz and his music in a different way. I also feel very blessed that, even as a 16 year-old, I had enough of a discriminating taste for such wonderful talent as Boz Scaggs. I could never possibly outgrow Boz and his music. Whether I'm in my teens or in my 40s, I'll always love Boz's voice and music. I'm really glad he's back in my life."