Boz Scaggs · 1980 · Behind the Songs
“Jojo” (1980) comes from Middle Man, Boz Scaggs’s follow-up to the Silk Degrees years, and it shows him leaning back toward rock.
“Jojo” (1980) comes from Middle Man, Boz Scaggs’s follow-up to the Silk Degrees years, and it shows him leaning back toward rock. Written by Scaggs, the song is faster, sharper, and more guitar-driven than his smoothest ballads, with a title character who gives the track its storytelling spark.
The recording balances polish with bite. The rhythm section drives the song forward, the guitar adds edge, and Scaggs’s vocal is more assertive than on “We’re All Alone,” matching the song’s streetwise tone. The production remains clean, but the feeling is less late-night and more daytime: a rock-soul number built for movement rather than reflection.
In Scaggs’s story, “Jojo” matters because it showed that Middle Man was not simply a repeat of Silk Degrees. Scaggs was still interested in rhythm and melody, but he was also willing to turn up the rock influence and let his band play with more force. The song helped define the 1980 phase of his career as a separate chapter, not just an echo of 1976.