Obscure Titles Not in the Song: Hard Times (#10)

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Don’t tell me, I’m late. I know. I stayed up late last night (celebrating my whopping $10 earnings in the tournament), then did a lot of things this morning that precluded me lounging in bed and myLotting. Shame on me. I’ll make it up to you, partially, with another song that doesn’t have the title in the lyrics. There’s a country song forthcoming, so that’s where the “partially” comes into play. But this isn’t country, so enjoy! #10: Hard Times - Boz Scaggs The Boz man!!!! He just celebrated his 76th birthday back on June 8, so why not wish him a happy belated birthday by using one of his songs! I have this in the “obscure” section for a reason. Although you’ve heard of Boz Scaggs (“Lido Shuffle” and “Lowdown”), you’ve probably not heard this song. It was a single; however, it, as well as its parent album (1977’s Down Two Then Left) didn’t do anything compared to the runaway success of Silk Degrees. As a result, most of the things from that album (this and “Still Falling for You” were the singles) are forgotten. Except for one thing, which I have never forgotten: the opening of the Rolling Stone review for Down Two Then Left. Boz has always been a “critics’ darling” of sorts (he’s based in San Francisco, as was Rolling Stone; and, Boz’s son, Austin, writes for RS now!), so they couldn’t bring themselves to say that Scaggs had mad a bad album. So the album review began thusly: Boz Scaggs is a little like sex and rock and roll: when he’s good, he’s great; and when he’s bad, he’s not all that bad. I think that was supposed to be a compliment. No, DTTL wasn’t the follow-up everyone was hoping for (but, as I’ve said before, multitudes of follow-ups to “breakthrough” albums fit that bill), but it did have some good songs on it. This was one of them. No relation to the Stephen Foster song with the same title. Hard Times Written by Boz Scaggs Recorded by Boz Scaggs From Down Two Then Left, 1977 In the sea of confusion: