1. *What Can I Say
(Boz Scaggs / David Paich)
(What can I say...what can I do)
Three a.m. its me again and wouldn't you know
Things would have to end this way
I did my best the perfect guest knew when to go
Perfect you knew when to stay
Come on tell me that you´re lonely dear
I've been feeling down some too
After all this time now aint it clear
I've been waiting just for you
(What can I say)
Oh to make you know baby
(What can I do)
Oooh show you that I care
(What can I say)
Mmmmm got to have your number baby
(What can I do)
Do...oooooooo
Can´t you see the people just stop and stare
Don't it make you wonder why
I just happened to be standing there
Can't you see it in my eyes
(What can I say)
Ooooh you got me acting like a fool girl
(What can I do)
Oooh stop makin' like a little school girl
(What can I say)
Could be your lucky day baby
(What can I do)
Ooooh... talk to me
Ooooh... talk to me girl
(What can I say)
Oh to make you know baby
(What can I do)
Oooh to show you that I care
(What can I say)
Oooh I´m all down on my knees
Please please please
What can I say
(What can I do)
Oooh what can I do...
What can I say baaaaaaabeeee
2. *Georgia
(Boz Scaggs)
Georgia
I swear I've never seen such a smile
Gorgeous
Enough to make an angels heart run wild
Your lazy eyes and small town lies
Have got me in your spell
Your drive-in boys and backseat noises
Oh you learned so well
Oh oh oh
So how was I to know
You got me you caught me by now
Georgia
Your daddy was high the night he dreamed of you
Georgia
The stars were flying the night that you came through
Christmas in your eyes
Oh what a nice surprise
Oh oh oh
And now I miss you so
But baby
I'm comin' back to you
Georgia
We will be together dear
If they ever let me out of here
They will say that its not true
But I did it all for you
Georgia won't you tell them for me dear
Oooh oooh oooh
Georgia
Girl I never lived through a night like that
Sure enough
Got your loving where I like it at
Moonlight through the pines
Oh oh oh
But how were we to know
That wasn't moonlight
They were searchlights
Oh no
Georgia
We will be together dear
If they ever let me out of here
They will say that its not true
But I did it all for you
Georgia won't you tell them for me dear
Georgia
We will be together dear
Oh my dear
If they ever let me out of here
3. *Jump Street
(Boz Scaggs / David Paich)
Dawn came sneaking like a skinny snake
The harder they go the harder I ache
Get so high
Down so low
Somebody tell me 'bout this debt I owe
West side bomber looked like a comer
Looked like I'll be back at school
Put two on the nose
And look how she goes
Little trained squeeze look like a fool
Rock on..
And I'm gone
Stone gone
Said you can forget about me
And I'm gone
Stone gone
Working girls just tryin to get ahead
Somebody's bound to end up dead
And honey
You better stop coming down on me
On me
Stop
Jump Street
Sally comes creeping at the break of dawn
Can't figure out whose side I'm on
Bomber comes back like a ringin a bell
Knows a good thing and she knows it well
Well enough best left alone
Wish your mamma had kept you at home
Wish your mamma had kept the evidence
Worrying about the Feds has crucified me for dead
She wish I was dead
Well I wish I was dead
But I'm gone
Stone gone
As gone as I can be
And I'm gone
So gone
Don't look much like a Saturday night
Honey don't look for those flashing lights
But baby
You'd better stop coming down on me
Stop coming down on me
I don't need it
Stop coming down.. on me
OW !
Jump Street
And I'm gone
Stone gone
You can forget about me yeah
I'm gone
Stone gone
So long
Workin girls just tryin to get ahead
Somebody's bound to end up dead
And honey
You better stop coming down on me
Stop your coming down
Stop coming down on me yeah
Stop coming down on me
Look out funk........
Jump Street.... etc
4. *What Do You Want The Girl To Do
(Allen Toussaint)
So you think the girl is crazy
To eat up your lies
Like it's good
(Your lies like apple pie)
(She don't even cry)
She is not a fool
She's just tryin to do
What her heart says do
To love you
And as you take to the wind
(to the wind again she breaks down)
And as she breaks down within
(within within)
She waits for you patiently
Hoping that some day you'll see
All she really wants to be
Is yours and yours alone
Eternally
What do you want the girl to do
Don't you know you're breaking the child in two
What do you want the girl to do
All she really wants is you
She knows what you are
Still she'll be your queen
If you'll let her
(Just say the word today)
Oh if you'll let her
(Build the world around her)
Now and then you'll promise
All the way-out things you're going to get her
(You will see you will see)
Maybe she knows better
(So damn glad you found her found her)
As she watched you come and go
(For your show)
And as she watched your promises erode
She waits for your patiently
Hoping that some day you'll see
All she really wants to be
Is yours and yours alone
Eternally
What do you want the girl to do
Can't you see you're breaking the child in two
What do you want the girl to do
All she really wants is you
What do you want the girl to do
Don't you know you're breaking the child in two
What do you want the girl to do
Oh no
Can't you see you're breakin' the child in two
5. *Harbor Lights
(Boz Scaggs)
[Sometimes to get a start on a song I'll look for images in everyday places. On this day I looked at a racing form in the sports section and saw the names of horses running that day: Harbor Lights, Shot in the Dark, One Way Ticket, Sailor's Dream and Sailing Shadows. What more could you ask for in imagery ? And I was off...]
Son of a Tokyo Rose
I was bound to wander from home
Stranger to whatever I'd awaken to
Spun the wheel
Took a shot in the dark
One way ticket and a runaway heart
A Sailors dream came true
The night I dreamed of you
Through the neon doorways
Down the stony streets I fell
All hands high side
All eyes a wreck I followed
Sailing shadows reds and blues
Curtains drawn but I saw through
The window to your soul
And I found you
Woah oh oh oh
The harbor lights of Venus
Shining through the breeze
That brings me back
To you my love
To you my love
To you my love
Oooooh ooh ooh
My eyes must be betrayin'
But that lonesome jukebox playin'
Somethin' 'bout the harbor lights
Is calling me
Back to some Jamaican bay
Doesn't seem so far away
Keep the change
But I'll repay these memories
Dawn came in this morning
Like some old junked out melody
The words she spoke as we awoke still haunt me
"What you feel too
Won't reveal you
Let me steal you for my life"
Woah oh oh oh
The harbour lights of Venus
Shining through the breeze
That brings me back
To you my love
To you my love
To you my love
Woah oh oh oh
The harbour lights of Venus
Shining through the breeze
That brings me back
Oh to you my love
To you my love
To you my love
Ooooh oooh oooh
Ooooh oooh oooh
6. *Lowdown
(Boz Scaggs / David Paich)
[When Paich and I were at the piano, and as he vamped on the basic two chords, the E minor and A, I started singing along "ooo-whoo-I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder who". And that became the basis of the melody and lyric, the refrain for someone who might be getting a little outta touch with what's going on around the house and around the block.]
Baby's into runnin round
Hangin with the crowd
Puttin your business in the street
And talkin out loud
Sayin you bought her this and that
And how much you done spent
I swear she must believe
Its all heaven sent
Hey boy
You better bring the chick around
To the sad sad truth
The dirty lowdown
(Oooh oooh, I wonder wonder wonder wonder who)
Taught her how to talk like that
(Oooh oooh, I wonder wonder wonder wonder who)
Gave her that big idea
Nothing you can't handle
Nothing you ain't got
Put your money on the table
And drive it off the lot
Turn on that old lovelight
And turn a maybe to a yes
Same old schoolboy game got you into this mess
Hey son
You better get on back to town
Face the sad old truth
The dirty lowdown
(Oooh oooh, I wonder wonder wonder wonder who)
Put those ideas in your head
(Oooh oooh, I wonder wonder wonder wonder who)
Yeah
Come on back down to earth 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's boy
Just ain't where it's at
Ah ha
You gonna come back around
To the sad sad truth
The dirty lowdown
(Oooh oooh, I wonder wonder wonder wonder who)
Got you thinking like that boy
(Oooh oooh, I wonder wonder wonder wonder who)
I wonder wonder wonder wonder who
Said I wonder wonder wonder wonder who
Oh look out for that lowdown
That dirty dirty dirty dirty lowdown
I wonder wonder wonder wonder who
Ooooh hooo
I wonder who got you thinking like that......etc
7. *Its Over
(Boz Scaggs / David Paich)
Best of friends
Never part
Best of fools has love forever
From the bottom of his heart
So why pretend
This is the end
You'll have to find out for yourself
Go on ask somebody else
Why can't you just get it through your head
It's over
It's over now
Yes you heard me clearly now I said
It's over
It's over now
I'm not really over you
You might say that
I can't take it
I can't take it
Lord I swear
I just can't take it no more
(Go away)
Go away
(Far away)
So far away
It's too late to turn back now
And it don't matter anyhow
Cos you were right
I'm to blame
Can't go on the same old way
Can't keep up the same old game
Why can't you just get it through your head
It's over
It's over now
Yes you heard me clearly now I said
It's over
It's over now
I'm not really over you
You might say that
I can't take it
I can't take it
Lord I swear
I just can't take it no more
(Why can't you just get it through your head
It's over it's over now)
Yes you heard me clearly now I said
It's O O O O
Why can't you just get it through your head
It's O O over
Yes you heard me clearly now
Clearly now
So clearly now
8. *Love Me Tomorrow
(David Paich)
You say
That you love me anyway
But I know
Its not in your eyes
You say
You can take it night and day
But I know
Its an alibi
Dejon
Where did we go wrong
You said that you'd be mine
Till the end of time
Love me tomorrow
Love me tomorrow
Love me tomorrow
Love me tomorrow
I say
Its a sad sort of play
When you never
Get to my lines
You say
That I'm better off this way
But I know
It's all in your mind
Dejon
Where did we go wrong
You said that you'd be mine
Till the end of time
Love me tomorrow
Love me tomorrow
Forget all your sorrow
Love me tomorrow
Dejon
Where did we go wrong
You said that you'd be mine
Till the end of time
Love me tomorrow
Love me tomorrow
Forget all your sorrow
Love me tomorrow
Ah ooooh hooo hooo hooo hooo hooo
Ah ooooh hooo hooo hooo hooo hooo
Ah ooooh hooo hooo hooo hooo hooo
9. *Lido Shuffle
(Boz Scaggs / David Paich)
[Well, he's some hell-bent kid flying by the seat of his pants, trying to keep up with a fast shuffle.]
Lido missed the boat that day
He left the shack
But that was all he missed
And he ain't comin back
At a tombstone bar
In a juke joint car
He made a stop
Just long enough
To grab a handle off the top
Next stop Chi town
Lido put the money down
Let em roll
He said one more job ought to get it
One last shot 'fore we quit it
One for the road
Lido..
Whoah oh oh oh
He's for the money
He's for the show
Lido's waitin for the go
Lido..
Whoah oh oh oh oh oh
He said one more job ought to get it
One last shot 'fore we quit it
One more for the road
Lido will be runnin'
Havin' great big funnin'
Till he got the note
Sayin' tow the line or blow it
And that was all he wrote
He'll be makin' like a bee line
Headin' for the border line
Goin' for broke
Sayin' one more hit ought to do it
This joint aint nothin to it
One more for the road
Lido..
Woah oh oh oh
He's for the money
He's for the show
Lido's waitin' for the go
Lido..
Woah oh oh oh oh oh oh
One more job ought to get it
One last shot then we quit it
One more for the road
Lido..
Woah oh oh oh
He's for the money
He's for the show
Lido's a waitin' for the go
Lido..
Woah oh oh oh oh oh
One more job ought to get it...
10. *We're All Alone
(Boz Scaggs)
[I saw this title as having an intimate as well as a broader theme, and struggled to find the words to express both at once. The song had been arranged, recorded and orchestrated to a working melody from an ad-libbed vocal - and I had procrastinated and put off for weeks delivering the final vocal because I hadn't found the words. Driving to the studio on the inevitable mother of all deadline days, I was sweating bullets - praying for red lights, writing lines waiting for the light to change, and at the studio even scribbling new lines while I was there on mic between tape rewinds. The meaning of the song is still being revealed to me.]
Outside the rain begins
And it may never end
So cry no more
On the shore a dream
Will take us out to sea
For ever more
For ever more
Close your eyes ami
And you can be with me
'Neath the waves
Through the caves of hours
Long forgotten now
We're all alone
We're all alone
Close the window
Calm the light
And it will be all right
No need to bother now
Let it out
Let it all begin
Learn how to pretend
Once a story's told
It can't help but grow old
Roses do
Lovers too
So cast your seasons to the wind
And hold me dear
Oh hold me dear
Close the window
Calm the light
And it will be all right
No need to bother now
Let it out let it all begin
Alls forgotten now
We're all alone
All alone
Close the window
Calm the light
And it will be alright
No need to bother now
Let it out
Let it all begin
Throw it to the wind my love
Hold me dear
All's forgotten now my love
We're all alone
11. *What Can I Say (Live)(Boz Scaggs / David Paich)
(What can I say...what can I do)
Its three a.m. and me again and wouldn't you know
Things would have to end this way
I did my best the perfect guest knew when to go
Perfect you knew when to stay
Come on tell me that you´re lonely dear
I've been feeling down some too
And after all this time now aint it clear
I've been waiting just for you
(What can I say)
Oh to make you know baby
(What can I do)
Oooh to show you that I care
(What can I say)
Say I got to have your number girl
(What can I do)
Do...ooooooooh eee
Can´t you see the people stop and stare
Don't it make you wonder why.. why
I just happen to be standin here
Can't you see it in my eyes
(What can I say)
Ooooh what can I say baby
(What can I do)
You got me acting like a little fool
(What can I say)
Stop you're makin like a little school girl
(What can I do)
Do oooh oooh oooh
Oh oh oh oh oh talk to me girl
(What can I say)
Oh what can I say baby
(What can I do)
Yeah what can I do
(What can I say)
See I´m all down on my knees babe
Please please please please please
What can I say
Oooh what can I do...
12. *Jump Street (Live)
(Boz Scaggs / David Paich)
[This is about what happens when you don't leave those little downtown girls or boys alone]
Dawn came sneakin'
Like a skinny snake
The harder they come
The harder I ache
I get so high
Get so low
Somebody tell me 'bout this debt I owe
Westside bomber
She looks like a comer
I wish she'd stayed back at school
Put two on the nose
And watch how she goes
The A train scream
Is laying one squeeze on me.. yeah
So I'm gone
Oh I'm gone
Stone gone
You can forget about me
I'm gone
So long
Workin' girls just tryin' to get ahead
And somebody's bound to end up dead
And baby
You don't stop coming down on me
Oh honey you better stop your comin' down
On me
Woah look out
Sally came creepin' at the crack of dawn
She can't figure out whose side I'm on
The Bomber she came back ringin' a bell
Knows a good thing and she knows it well
Well enough with best left alone
Wish her mamma could have kept her at home
Wish her mamma could have heard the evidence
They're gonna crucify me
Woah what can I say
But I'm gone
Woah I'm gone
Stone gone
You can forget about me
I'm gone
Aint much like a Saturday night
Don't come round me with your red flashin' lights
Baby
You've got to stop comin' down on me child
Oooh baby you've got to stop your comin' down
On me
And I'm gone
Stone gone
You can forget about me
I'm gone
So long
So long
Workin' girls just tryin' to get ahead
Somebody's bound to end up dead
Baby..
You don't stop comin' down on me
Stop comin' down on me
Stop comin' down on me
Stop comin' down on me
Yeah, Oh baby
You'd better stop that comin' down girl
13. *Its Over (Live)
(Boz Scaggs / David Paich)
[This is when its all over folks]
Best of friends
Never part
Best of fools has love forever
From the bottom of his heart
So why pretend
This is the end
You'll have to find out for yourself
Go on ask somebody else
Why can't you just get it through your head
It's over
It's over now
Yes you heard me clearly now I said
It's over
It's over now
I'm not really over you
But you might say that
I can't take it
I can't take it
Lord I swear
I just can't take it no more
(Go away)
Go away
(So far away)
So far away
It's too late to turn back now
And it don't matter anyhow
Cos you were right
Ha !
I'm to blame
I can't go on the same old way
I can't keep up the same old game
Why can't you just get it through your head
It's over
It's over now
Yes you heard me clearly now I said
It's over
It's over now
I'm not really over you
You might say that
I can't dig it
I can't dig it
Lord I swear
I just can't dig it no more
(Why can't you just get it through your head)
Its ooo
(Yes you heard me clearly now I said)
Oooh oooh
Why can't you just get it through your head
Ooooh girl
Yes you got me clearly now I said
Ooooh oooh
(Why can't you just get it through your head)
Oh baby baby
Yes you heard me clearly now
So clearly now
Why can't you just use... your head
Yes you got me clearly now I said
Its over baby..... |
Boz's pages from the liner notes:
The approach was basically to leave San Francisco for a shot on my own in Los Angeles. I'd recorded there on my previous record, "Slow Dancer", with Johnny Bristol, a CBS staff producer out of Detroit. He'd called in a stellar cast of musicians, Mowtown transplants for the most part, and turned my demos into fully fleshed out work. It was an amazing process that awakened in me a world of possibilities. It was then that I met Joe Wissert, out of Philly, another CBS staffer who had brought Earth, Wind and Fire to the company and produced them. Joe had deep roots in urban R&B, and I felt I had an ally in him for my next album. The plan was to put together a section and try a few tunes. I owe a credit here to drummer Jim Keltner who was my first call and who said to me that he couldn't make it but that I should call Jeff Porcaro in his place and that he, Jeff, had a hardcore little section that was gonna cover me. "Great call", says Joe, because he knew the cats and thought they were "terrific". A very Joe word. We set a date.
The "trio" consisted of David Paich, who played keyboards and arranged; Jeff Porcaro, drums; and David Hungate, bass. All three prodigious talents, but as a unit, sensational indeed. To round out the core section were two guitarists: Louis Shelton, a formidable producer in his own right; and Fred Tackett from Little Feat. They were a superb section, presided over by Joe and Paich, and recorded by Tom Perry in a sleek new studio in the Valley called Davlen.
Mostly I wrote my share of the music on piano, an instrument that I don't play well, but can bang out rhythms and chords on with enough harmonic information for Paich to turn into an arrangement. Otherwise, he and I collaborated from "starts" - snatches of ideas. As noted, there's a sole author song by David, "Love Me Tomorrow", and the only outside tune, "What Do You Want The Girl To Do", is by Allen Toussaint, one of my favourite songwriters and one I'd gone to in the past.
Imagine. L.A., warm, evening. A breath of a breeze. Your new friends take you through the door and surprise ! There she is - Ferrari convertible - red. Engine at a low rumble. Door open. You get in, way down low - hip level - feel her leather, close the door and touch the pedal. "Cool", she whispers. And off you go. That's what it felt like making that record, playing with those cats.
If it had been my first record, I could have gotten real spoiled by the success that followed, but alas I'd been disappointed more than once by high expectations in that department and all I wanted was someone to take the load of managing my career off my back, some new tyres for the truck, and more gigs. That all came. Slowly. Irving Azoff, dynamic young manager of The Eagles, called me, dug the record and took off with it. The "trio" became my new rhythm section and gigs-r-us! Word was getting around. Months passed. We worked. Radio had been not too bad, but it was not great. Then R&B radio got on "Lowdown" and it was all over. Not just for what followed - the big sales, the Grammy for "Best R&B Song" - but for what we knew was already there since that night back at Davlen Studios, the night we finished the backing vocals on "Lowdown" - although that was probably the least likely track to see the light of day on Top 40 radio, that because it was the first thing Paich and I put down together when we first met, and that the groove he and Jeff and Hungate hit and the way Louis and Freddy smoked the guitar parts - that this was the shit. And that if radio ever did get to it, well then, we were gonna have a whole bunch of people grooving to us. We knew that. It just seemed to be in the air.
I still enjoy playing some of these songs. They've been through all sorts of arrangements and been played by a lot of players, and they keep on giving it back. Those who contributed to the making of this record gave a lot, not blood and sweat, I can assure you. We'd all paid those dues elsewhere. This one was joy. It was a time and a place - a confluence of some sort. I always wish that wonderful Ry Cooder album title had been mine: "Paradise and Lunch". | 
