Boz Scaggs – Lido Shuffle

I have always liked this song. It was forever before I knew the name. Lido Shuffle peaked at #11 in the Billboard 100, #5 Canada, #13 in the UK in 1977.

Boz Scaggs met Steve Miller in 1959 and they played in various bands together. He then traveled to London, Sweden, and San Francisco and hooked back up with Miller again and played in the Steve Miller Band for their first two albums.  He signed with Columbia Records in 1972. This song was on his platinum album Silk Degrees released in 1976 which peaked at #2 in the Billboard album charts.

Boz Scaggs wrote this song with David Paich, who was also his co-writer on “Lowdown.” Scaggs said: “‘Lido’ was a song that I’d been banging around. And I kind of stole… well, I didn’t steal anything. I just took the idea of the shuffle. There was a song that Fats Domino did called ‘The Fat Man’ that had a kind of driving shuffle beat that I used to play on the piano, and I just started kind of singing along with it. Then I showed it to Paich and he helped me fill it out. It ended up being ‘Lido Shuffle.'”

From Songfacts

The song is about a drifter looking for a big score. Scaggs and Paich were both very good at crafting songs with intriguing storylines using words and phrases that don’t often show up in a lyric: “A tombstone bar,” “makin’ like a beeline…”

The name Lido is very unusual as well. From the perspective of songcraft, it’s very versatile, allowing the singer to get clear vocal sounds and follow with the “whoa-oh-oh-oh” hook. Kenny Loggins did something similar on his song “Footloose,” writing the character “Milo” into it (“Woah… Milo, come on, come on let’s go”).

The last single from Silk Degrees, this wasn’t released until about a year after the album was issued. The first single, “It’s Over,” peaked in May 1976; “Lido Shuffle” didn’t reach its chart peak until May 1977. The Silk Degrees album was a slow burner, gradually gaining momentum and selling over 5 million copies.

The song’s co-writer David Paich played keyboards on this track. Scaggs played guitar, bass was handled by David Hungate, and Jeff Porcaro played drums. Paich, Hungate and Porcaro would soon form the band Toto.

Lido 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’ toe the line or blow it and that was all she 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 ain’t nothin’ to it
One more 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
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 waitin’ for the go, Lido
Woah oh oh oh oh oh
One more job ought to get it

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all. View all posts by Badfinger (Max)