Inside The Song #1
-Lido Shuffle by Boz Skaggs
In mid 1968 after finishing the recording of their second album Sailor, singer and guitarist Boz Skaggs left The Steve Miller Band to pursue a solo career. He released the album Boz Skaggs in 1969 for Atlantic Records and when that underperformed he switched labels to Columbia.
Four years and four albums later, Skaggs finally produced a hit single with the song Lowdown from his album, Silk Degrees. But it was the second single, released nearly a year later that finally put Boz Skaggs on the musical map. That song served as the lynchpin that drove Silk Degrees to platinum status five times over.
Written by Skaggs and legendary session musician David Paich, Lido Shuffle was ubiquitous on '70s FM rock radio. Its driving shuffle beat and ear-wormy lyrics made it a great dopey pile of fun and it still gets buckets of airplay on classic rock stations decades later.
David Paich, Jeff Porcaro and David Hungate who anchored Silk Degrees, joined with fellow session players Steve Lukather, Steve Porcaro and Bobby Kimball to form the band Toto in 1977. Skaggs' next two albums, Down Two Then Left and Middle Man both went platinum, cementing his status as a rock legend. However, to date he has never re-captured the magic that made Lido Shuffle one of the great classic rock songs.
Lido Shuffle by Boz Skaggs
