Kenny Loggins

Songwriter: Kenny Loggins

Producer: Kenny Loggins

Early morning
Looking tired and worn
Looking out
For the enemy

You made all the
Way to Hudson Bay
But you're right
Back here with me

Trying to run away
(Where you running, my baby)
Your lips are sealed, a runaway
(Where you running, my baby)

Tell me, baby
What you want me to do
Giving my love for you
(Mama, don't you know)
Now you're living
Like a runaway

Sunday dawn
You met a gypsy woman
On a road to Tennessee
She told you a lot
About the world to come
But did she tell you
Why you couldn't tell me

Like a runaway
(Where you running, my baby)
How one by one, you run away
(Where you running, my baby)

Tell me, baby
What you wanted me to do
Giving my love to you
(Mama, don't you know)

It's gonna be
A hard leaving
You're gonna need
A strong reason
'Cause I ain't
Gonna start believing
That you're out of my life

You bet you better
Do your fast talking
Before you do
Your last walking
It's gonna be
A hard, hard leaving

(Talk to me)
Vox humana
Sounds just like
Your voice to me
Vox humana
I wanna feel the
Power of speech

Vox humana
Sounds so right
So real to me
Vox humana

You gotta say
What you oughta say
Don't try to run away
Darling, I'm letting you know

Gonna be
A hard leaving
You're gonna need
A strong reason
'Cause I ain't
Gonna start believing
That you're out of my life

You bet you better
Do your fast talking
Before you do
Your last walking
It's gonna be
A hard, hard leaving

A hard leaving
You're gonna need
A strong reason
'Cause I ain't
Gonna start believing
That you're out of my life

You bet you better
Do your fast talking
Before you do
Your last walking
A hard, hard, woo
Hard leaving

You're gonna need
A strong reason
'Cause I ain't
Gonna start believing
You're walking out
Of my life

You bet you better
Do your fast talking
Before you do
Your last walking
Gonna make it hard
Hard leaving

Vox humana
Sounds just like
Your voice to me
Vox humana

Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Kenny Loggins has enjoyed more than three decades of success in the music business, as a songwriter and performer, mostly in a soft rock vein. He was born Kenneth Clarke Loggins in Everett, WA in early 1948, and the family later moved to Detroit, and finally to Alhambra, CA when he was in his teens. He initially turned to music as a way of compensating for his extreme shyness, and found that he was, indeed, a talented guitarist and had a voice. For a time in the late ‘60s he was based in Pasadena, studying at Pasadena City College. At the end of the decade, Loggins passed through the lineup of a band called Gator Creek, who were good enough to get signed to Mercury Records. The group recorded one self-titled album, which was issued in 1970 and included an early version of “Danny’s Song,” a track that he later recorded again as part of Loggins & Messina. He also spent time with a short-lived group called Second Helping, and was a member of the stage incarnation of the Electric Prunes during a later phase of that group’s history.

Loggins was proficient on the guitar and piano, but it was his songwriting that allowed him to make his first lasting impression on the music industry. He took a job as a staff writer for Wingate Music, for $100.00 a week, and later that year four of his songs ended up on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy. This event was particularly fortuitous, as that album was the first release by the newly reconstituted version of the group, and included what proved to be their biggest hit, “Mr. Bojangles.” The presence of the latter helped make Uncle Charlie one of the group’s biggest selling long-players; and the exposure generated a second hit in the form of Loggins’ own “House at Pooh Corner.”

The success of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s recordings brought Loggins to the attention of former Poco member Jim Messina, who was working as a staff producer at CBS. It was Messina’s intention to produce Loggins' debut album, but he also ended up playing and singing on the record, and it worked out so well that the two ended up in a duo. Loggins & Messina were among the most popular folk-based soft rock acts of the first half of the ‘70s and enjoyed a four-year string of successful albums.

more tracks from the album

The Essential Kenny Loggins

From the albums

Vox Humana (1985)
The Essential Kenny Loggins (2002)

Kenny Loggins popular songs

Vox HumanaKenny Loggins

Kenny Loggins

The Essential Kenny Loggins