Silk Degrees

Silk Degrees is the album that finally broke Boz Scaggs into the mainstream, selling several million copies upon initial release. A perfect melding of Scaggs’ many influences and interests — pop, R&B, New Orleans, blues, soul — Silk Degrees remains one of the finest albums of the 1970s, an essential mix of creative artistry and commercial firepower. Scaggs came of age with ambitions to somehow retain the intense soul of the ‘60s Stax-Volt catalog while adding a modern dimension. Slow Dancer, his previous release, with Motown producer Johnny Bristol, was a brilliant modernization of soul music but Silk Degrees’ effortless grooves (listen to the glide of “Georgia”) put it in a realm of its own. “Lowdown” and “Lido Shuffle” (both co-written with keyboardist David Paich) were the album’s biggest hits and stand among the era’s most definitive tracks. However, the blues-slide of “Jump Street” and the sea-breeze optimism of “What Can I Say” are every bit the perfect compliment to the well-known hits.