After learning guitar at the age of 12, Scaggs met Steve Miller at St. Mark's School of Texas in Dallas. In 1959, he became the vocalist for Miller's band The Marksmen. The pair later attended the University of Wisconsin together, playing in blues bands like The Ardells and The Fabulous Knight Trains. Leaving school, Scaggs briefly left Texas to join the burgeoning rhythm and blues scene in London. After singing in bands such as The Wigs and Mother Earth, he recorded his first solo album Boz in 1965, which was not a commercial success. He traveled to Sweden as a solo performer and did a brief stint with the band The Other Side with fellow American Jack Downing and Brit Mac MacLeod.
Returning to the US, Scaggs promptly headed for the booming psychedelic music center of San Francisco in 1967. Linking up with Steve Miller again, he appeared on the Steve Miller Band's first two albums Children of the Future and Sailor, which won over critical reviews. After being spotted by Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner, Scaggs secured a solo contract with Atlantic Records in 1968. Despite good reviews, his first Atlantic album was met with lukewarm sales, as were followup albums on Columbia Records. In 1976, he linked up with session musicians who would later form Toto and recorded his smash album Silk Degrees. The album reached number 2 on the US charts and number 1 in a number of countries across the world, spawning three hit singles: "Lowdown", "Lido Shuffle", and "What Can I Say", as well as the MOR standard "We're All Alone", later a hit for Rita Coolidge. A sellout world tour followed, but his follow-up album, the 1977 Down Two Then Left, lacked the cohesion of Silk Degrees.
Scaggs' 1980 album Middle Man would spawn two top 20 hits, "Breakdown Dead Ahead" and "Jojo," and Scaggs would enjoy two more hits over 1980 and 1981 ("Look What You've Done to Me" from the Urban Cowboy soundtrack, and "Miss Sun" from a greatest hits set).
Scaggs continued to record and tour sporadically throughout the 1980s and 1990s, although he semi-retired from the music business and turned owner of the San Francisco nightclub Slim's. His lengthy hiatus from the music industry slowed his chart career down dramatically.
Scaggs recorded Other Roads in 1988, took another hiatus, and then came back in 1994 with Some Change. In the late 190s he released Come On Home, an album of blues, and My Time, an anthology. He garnered good reviews with Dig, although the CD, which was released on September 11, 2001, was lost in the post-911 melée. In May, 2003, Scaggs released But Beautiful, a collection of jazz standards that debuted at number 1 on the jazz charts.
In 2013 he released the album Memphis
Funny
Boz Scaggs Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
All she needs is love
And this Sony light
Is all there is tonight
Oh yeah
Funny
She dreams about his touch
And where her own begins
She moves through shadows
Bathes in the lush
Luxurious hush alone
Ever alone
Miss Lonely
Needs company
As she breathes this room
Of deepest blue perfume
Love's where you find it
Open your heart
You've lived in the dark too long
Too long alone
Miss Lonely
Open up your heart
Let the morning light
Fill your sky tonight
Funny
All she needs is love
And this Sony light
Is all there is tonight
Yeah right
Feeling so alone tonight
So inside
So deep inside
In Boz Scagg's song "Funny," the artist vividly describes the emotions of a lonely woman yearning for love. The artist starts by painting a picture of the lady's environment: all she has is a Sony light with no company. The lyrics imply that the lady is dreaming of touching and feeling the warmth of a man she desires beside her. The woman moves through shadows and bathes in the lush luxurious hush, feeling lonely and yearning for a romantic partner. She breathes the room of deepest blue perfume, indicating that she may have been left alone for some time.
The artist then encourages Miss Lonely to open up her heart and let love light up her world. He suggests that love can be found anywhere; one only needs to open their heart to find it. He also acknowledges that she has been living in the dark too long, implying that she has probably been lonely for a long time, but she can change that by being open to love. The artist closes by repeating that all Miss Lonely needs is love, and the Sony light will not keep her warm.
In summary, "Funny" by Boz Scaggs is a heartfelt song that speaks to the yearning of the heart for love. The lyrics describe the feelings of loneliness and the need for a companion. The artist encourages the lonely lady to open up her heart and let the morning light fill her life with love.
Line by Line Meaning
All she needs is love
She desires love more than anything else in her life.
And this Sony light
The only light she sees around her is emanating from a Sony product in the room.
Is all there is tonight
Apart from the light from the Sony product, everything else around her is darkness.
Oh yeah
An expression of longing for love and companionship.
She dreams about his touch
She longs for intimate contact with a man.
Where his skin must end
She imagines the exact point of his physical boundaries.
And where her own begins
She is curious about where her own physical limits lie in comparison to his.
She moves through shadows
She navigates through the darkness in her environment.
Bathes in the lush
She finds comfort and pleasure in the luxurious aspects of her surroundings.
Luxurious hush alone
She is in a peaceful, quiet environment all by herself.
Ever alone
She feels perpetually lonely with no one to share her company.
Miss Lonely
A reference to the nickname given to her by the singer.
Needs company
She is longing for someone to be with her.
As she breathes this room
She feels the weight of her loneliness in the space around her.
Of deepest blue perfume
The room has a scent that is reminiscent of sadness and melancholy.
Love's where you find it
Love can be discovered in unexpected places.
Open your heart
Be receptive to new experiences and emotions.
You've lived in the dark too long
She has been lonely for far too much of her life.
Too long alone
She has gone through so much of her life without love or companionship.
Open up your heart
The singer implores her to bare her heart and be vulnerable.
Let the morning light
Once she opens her heart, she will be able to see things in a new, hopeful light.
Fill your sky tonight
Her darkened atmosphere will be illuminated with possibilities of love and partnership.
Yeah right
An expression of disbelief or sarcasm directed at the idea of finding true companionship.
Feeling so alone tonight
She is overwhelmed by the depths of her loneliness and isolation.
So inside
She feels trapped within her innermost thoughts and feelings.
So deep inside
She is buried in her own feelings of loneliness and despair.
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: MARCUS MILLER, WILLIAM R. ROYCE SCAGGS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind