It was just a little over two weeks that I'd made up the ROY article for Boz Scaggs' "Lowdown", and now I've got "Jojo" on the board. As with "Lowdown", "Jojo" was another song that I was able to hear on the radio for years although since I was never a lyrics guy, I hadn't been aware that this was all about a pimp on Broadway; the title had struck me as being about a French clown on Broadway.
Even to this day, I'm still picking up information about "Jojo" which was originally a track on the smooth-singing star's "Middle Man" LP released in April 1980, according to Wikipedia. For one thing, "Jojo" was created not only by Scaggs but also by David Foster and singer-songwriter David Eldon Lasley. For another, in the recording booth, joining the singer on guitar was Ray Parker Jr., while Steve Lukather and Jeff Porcaro from TOTO were on lead guitar and drums respectively, and then there Foster and Lasley themselves on keyboards and backing vocals respectively. All that musical goodness rolled up in one song!
Later in September of that year, Chikara Ueda & The Power Station（上田力&パワーステーション）released "Flying Easy" and one of the tracks just happened to be an instrumental cover of "Jojo" with the horns coming into play here (I swear, though, that I've heard those series of six horn blasts in the intro on various TV programs in Japan). I miss the smooth Boz vocals but still, Ueda's take on the soulful AOR classic is worthy of merit especially with some talented guitar. Incidentally, jazz drummer and record producer Harvey Mason was on those drums for the entire album.
It was also about a year ago that I first wrote about Ueda & The Power Station through their "Twilight Shadows".
Hello J-Canuck,
ReplyDeleteYes, Jojo was one of those songs you waited to hear on your local hits and/or R&B station. During its run it was one of the few songs I could never get tired of.
I came across the Chikara Ueda & The Power Station totally by accident a week or so ago before you wrote this article. New J-Channel had played an entirely different song from this album. While looking through the track listing I saw their version of Jojo and immediately went to Youtube.
Good album by the way.
Needless to say Boz Scaggs was a big hit around my household. I remember my mother had his Silk Degrees album...on 8 Track for crying out loud!
Interestingly enough she did not buy the album that this song was from...
Another song from Boz called Miss Sun was another one that was smoky smooth that I also still love.
And yes, I will comment on your article regarding that album as well. I am sorry I haven't commented because I was still having problems signing into comment under my handle.
It seems most modern browsers I use have an issue with this feature. They only one that seems to work so far is Microsoft Edge (PC). But I am usually on my phone (Android) or laptop (Mac) the majority of the time.
Thanks
Hi, Chasing Showa. Good to hear from you again after a while.
DeleteI do remember the 8-track very well since my parents once lugged home an 8-track karaoke machine (which could also handle regular audiotape) from their Japan trip decades ago. Never personally got into the format, though.
Too bad that you've had trouble getting through to the Comments because of the browsers. One would think that after so many years, this wouldn't be an issue.