A groupie gal is running around telling everyone she's Boz's girlfriend. She has no tact, and takes the gifts for granted – as if they will be getting married. “Hey boy”, is his rational-self saying that he really should tell her the sad truth, that she is just a fling.
He's rich and on top of the world – can pay cash. Can turn on the charm and get what he wants with ease.
But doing that gets him at odds with the girl, and life. But like the groupie girl, he too is taking his success for granted, and needs better grounding.
Get on back to town – means stop traveling the world (London, Sweden, etc.) and get back closer to his more humble roots back in his hometown. It's figurative and literal. Enjoy normal life.
Being a highfalutin rock star (or joining the rat-race in general) vs. being a relatively normal person – the latter being preferable. Who gave him that idea? Rhetorical question – can't be answered.
At first glance I assumed lightly that it was a white boy more or less critiquing from afar obscure pimp hooker dynamics in an urban blight ridden city – but reading the lyrics carefully and knowing a scant bit about Scaggs, I think it was simply about his own situation at the time. (He and David Paich actually.) Lowdown was the band's favorite song of that breakout album, but no one ever thought it would become a single, much less win the Grammy for best song in 1976.
I'd like to think Joe Walsh's, Life's Been Good (1978), was inspired a bit by the lyrics.
@MarshalStack
"At first glance I assumed lightly that it was a white boy more or less critiquing from afar obscure pimp hooker dynamics in an urban blight ridden city"
@MarshalStack
"At first glance I assumed lightly that it was a white boy more or less critiquing from afar obscure pimp hooker dynamics in an urban blight ridden city"
I think that's exactly what it is. A 3rd person commentary on a pimp and his hooker ("put your business in the street, talking out loud")
"Got to have a Jones for this Jones for that
This running with the Jones boy
Just ain't where it's at" -
Heroin, drug addiction. Jonesing was a slang term for the craving for IV drugs, especially back in the 70's....
>
I think that's exactly what it is. A 3rd person commentary on a pimp and his hooker ("put your business in the street, talking out loud")
"Got to have a Jones for this Jones for that
This running with the Jones boy
Just ain't where it's at" -
Heroin, drug addiction. Jonesing was a slang term for the craving for IV drugs, especially back in the 70's.
Boz is the 3rd person commentator, and he says that they are blinded by their fast money into thinking they got it made. Cars in paid cash, clothes, jewelery, presents, but even the pimp who things he's on top can never escape the TRUTH behind the denial and rationalization that what they are doing with their lives is just headed for something very negative.
A groupie gal is running around telling everyone she's Boz's girlfriend. She has no tact, and takes the gifts for granted – as if they will be getting married. “Hey boy”, is his rational-self saying that he really should tell her the sad truth, that she is just a fling.
He's rich and on top of the world – can pay cash. Can turn on the charm and get what he wants with ease. But doing that gets him at odds with the girl, and life. But like the groupie girl, he too is taking his success for granted, and needs better grounding.
Get on back to town – means stop traveling the world (London, Sweden, etc.) and get back closer to his more humble roots back in his hometown. It's figurative and literal. Enjoy normal life.
Being a highfalutin rock star (or joining the rat-race in general) vs. being a relatively normal person – the latter being preferable. Who gave him that idea? Rhetorical question – can't be answered.
At first glance I assumed lightly that it was a white boy more or less critiquing from afar obscure pimp hooker dynamics in an urban blight ridden city – but reading the lyrics carefully and knowing a scant bit about Scaggs, I think it was simply about his own situation at the time. (He and David Paich actually.) Lowdown was the band's favorite song of that breakout album, but no one ever thought it would become a single, much less win the Grammy for best song in 1976.
I'd like to think Joe Walsh's, Life's Been Good (1978), was inspired a bit by the lyrics.
@MarshalStack "At first glance I assumed lightly that it was a white boy more or less critiquing from afar obscure pimp hooker dynamics in an urban blight ridden city"
@MarshalStack "At first glance I assumed lightly that it was a white boy more or less critiquing from afar obscure pimp hooker dynamics in an urban blight ridden city"
I think that's exactly what it is. A 3rd person commentary on a pimp and his hooker ("put your business in the street, talking out loud") "Got to have a Jones for this Jones for that This running with the Jones boy Just ain't where it's at" - Heroin, drug addiction. Jonesing was a slang term for the craving for IV drugs, especially back in the 70's....
>
"Got to have a Jones for this Jones for that This running with the Jones boy Just ain't where it's at" - Heroin, drug addiction. Jonesing was a slang term for the craving for IV drugs, especially back in the 70's.
Boz is the 3rd person commentator, and he says that they are blinded by their fast money into thinking they got it made. Cars in paid cash, clothes, jewelery, presents, but even the pimp who things he's on top can never escape the TRUTH behind the denial and rationalization that what they are doing with their lives is just headed for something very negative.