{"id":9390,"date":"2020-03-25T14:06:16","date_gmt":"2020-03-25T20:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/?p=9390"},"modified":"2022-04-05T19:05:30","modified_gmt":"2022-04-06T01:05:30","slug":"the-steve-miller-band","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/?p=9390","title":{"rendered":"The Steve Miller Band"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some people call him the Space Cowboy<\/a>.\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 Some call him the Gangster of Love<\/a>.\u00a0 Some people call him Maurice<\/a>.\u00a0 Because he misheard the lyrics to a song<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But I’m listening to my collection of Steve Miller Band albums again, and I thought I’d write out my thoughts on the music he made.\u00a0 I had forgotten just how much I love some of this music.<\/p>\n

I was first acquainted with his music by listening to Classic Rock radio in the early 1990s.\u00a0 The Steve Miller Band was, and still is, a staple of that format.\u00a0 This was before I got sick of the radio, so I took it all in.\u00a0 I bought two of his greatest hits compilations, the well-known multi-million seller Greatest Hits 1974-78<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

and a then-new compilation called The Best of 1968\u20141973<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Both of these came on the cassette format, which was the style at the time.\u00a0 But the thing that made this music have an even more profound effect on me than usual was sleep deprivation.<\/p>\n

That’s right, because of the particular job I had back then, I worked a lot of overtime at certain times of the year.\u00a0 During one very busy period, I came home during a break between shifts, with not enough time to sleep, and to pass the time I listened to that second compilation, the one with songs from ’68 to ’73.\u00a0 Holy shit.\u00a0 I’ve rarely had music hit me emotionally that hard.<\/p>\n

I was already a fan of songs like Fly Like an Eagle, Jet Airliner, and Take the Money and Run.\u00a0 But now I heard the kind of music he was making before he made all that stuff.\u00a0 Wow.<\/p>\n

I should perhaps save my talking about that for the album-by-album run-through, so here we go.<\/p>\n

1968 Children of the Future<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This album is good.\u00a0 It’s a pretty straightforward cross of Blues-Rock and Psychedelia.\u00a0 If that’s your thing, you’ll really like it.\u00a0 Most of the album’s songs run together, and most of side one is played like a big medley, so it’s kind of interesting that way.\u00a0 Oh, if you’re a Boz Scaggs fan, then you probably know that he was also in the band at this time too, on guitar and singing some songs.\u00a0 Drummer Tim Davis also sings a couple of songs.\u00a0 He had a great voice, which was missed when he left the band a few albums later.<\/p>\n

1968 Sailor<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s an album that might just be the best one the SMB made before The Joker came out.\u00a0 I might as well mention album covers too, while I’m at it.\u00a0 This is probably the best album cover a Steve Miller Band album has ever had, just from the concept alone.\u00a0 Look!\u00a0 They sailed to the Moon!\u00a0 But it’s a damn fine album, and it’s worth getting on its own, beyond any compilations.\u00a0 Even if it does end with an obvious re-write of Jumpin’ Jack Flash.\u00a0 This album sounds like the band dropped the “generic” feel that many of the songs on the first album had, and added some of their own individual stamp on things.\u00a0 Nice.<\/p>\n

1969 Brave New World<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here we have the first lineup changes, at least since the records started coming out.\u00a0 Boz Scaggs and the very proficient keyboardist Jim Peterman left, bringing in long-time member Ben Sidran.\u00a0 Steve did most of the guitar work himself on this, and there was some session work by the famous Nicky Hopkins, and some guy named Paul McCartney.<\/p>\n

I remember that this was one of the very last CDs I ever found, being long out of print.\u00a0 This was a recurring theme with SMB music back when I was buying his albums on CD, it seems.\u00a0 Most of the songs on this album are on other compilations, and they’re some of the best songs from that period.\u00a0 The remainders, frankly, aren’t all that good.\u00a0 Kow Kow, Seasons, and Space Cowboy are reasons to get this album, but I’d actually suggest a compilation instead.<\/p>\n

Oh, and speaking of Paul McCartney, he’s credited as “Paul Ramon”, but you can definitely tell it’s him.\u00a0 He sings, plays guitar, and plays drums on the song My Dark Hour.\u00a0 Steve Miller was in Abbey Road to record, and it happened to be when Paul was there too.\u00a0 And it happened to be on the very night of that most acrimonious of arguments<\/a> that led to the breakup of The Beatles – whether or not to sign with Allen Kline.<\/p>\n

1969 Your Saving Grace<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My thoughts on this album are a lot like my thoughts on the one that preceded it.\u00a0 There are some absolutely fantastic songs on this, like Baby’s House, and Your Saving Grace (one of my two favourite SMB songs), but I think that there are some real duds on here.\u00a0 This might have the widest gap in quality between songs on an album by this band so far.\u00a0 There are only a couple of tunes here that weren’t on compilations, and even one that did – Motherless Children – is unspeakably boring.\u00a0 Pick this one up only if you’re a completionist, because you probably got the good songs through a compilation.<\/p>\n

Oh, and I kind of like this album art too, for what it is.<\/p>\n

1970 Number 5<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ah, generic.\u00a0 Generic album title, generic album art.\u00a0 But some of these songs are really expanding what Steve Miller’s music is all about.\u00a0 Going to the Country is a real hoot.\u00a0 There are also a couple of “political” songs on here.\u00a0 Oh yes, the dreaded “political” song.\u00a0 But they’re alright.\u00a0 One of them was included in truncated form on the Steve Miller Box set from 1994, so that’s how I heard parts of it first.\u00a0 It’s called Jackson-Kent Blues, and it’s about the same event that inspired the CSNY song Ohio.\u00a0 Dark topic, but I like Steve’s song way better.<\/p>\n

There are also some really bad songs on here.\u00a0 Hot Chili and Tokin’s might have sounded good in rehearsal, but good god damn, they needed more work.\u00a0 Maybe they should have just come up with better songs, or better lyrics, at least, for those two.<\/p>\n

1971 Rock Love<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At this point, I need to talk a bit about what was going on in Steve Miller’s personal life.\u00a0 From what I’ve been able to read on the (never untrue and always accurate) Interwebs, in 1971, Steve Miller’s band had basically broken up.\u00a0 It was just him and the bass player.\u00a0 Still under contract to Capitol Records, he toured and started to record a new album.<\/p>\n

Then he got in a car accident and broke his neck.\u00a0 You’d think that would be the end of the album project, or at least put it on hold.\u00a0 But you’re not Capitol Records.\u00a0 They put out three “unreleased songs from a live recording they had made, and slapped four studio recordings together that ranged from alright, to unfinished, to rehearsal, and called it an album.<\/p>\n

And it flopped.\u00a0 It almost killed Steve Miller’s career.\u00a0 I’ve been oddly fascinated by this album since I first learned about it, and then found out that it’s never been reissued.\u00a0 (I’m still confused as to whether the CD versions of this and the next album are “official”, so take that with a grain of salt.)\u00a0 But let’s examine what we actually have here, because although it’s the worst Steve Miller Band album, it’s not all that bad.<\/p>\n

Side one is the live side, and it opens with The Gangster is Back, and that would become something of a live favourite for him.\u00a0 It’s an energetic enough opener, and his band isn’t bad or anything.\u00a0 The quality of the live recording is actually really good, so there’s that.<\/p>\n

Blues Without Blame is alright too, though it’s straight blues.\u00a0 So your enjoyment of that track will depend on whether or not you like electric guitar blues rock.\u00a0 Love Shock starts off really well, but it’s over eleven minutes long, so you just know there will be some early 70s rock band fuckery going on, and yes, there is a drum solo.\u00a0 Hey, the audience needs a piss and a smoke break!\u00a0 For an album, we could have done without it.<\/p>\n

Side two is where it gets inconsistent.\u00a0 It starts off alright, with Let Me Serve You.\u00a0 The recording is actually rather poor, but it’s kind of catchy.\u00a0 Rock Love is next, and this is actually a pretty good song.\u00a0 It doesn’t stand up to the best songs on his previous albums though, it’s merely the best song on this album.<\/p>\n

Then comes Harbor Lights.\u00a0 This is obviously an unfinished song.\u00a0 Come on!\u00a0 I would be so pissed if I was making an album and my record company put out an album with something like this on it. The lyrics are interesting, and a bit different than what Steve usually sang about, but I would have preferred to hear a finished version. The last song is obviously a studio jam, and should have also not been released.\u00a0 That’s the theme of the whole album, in fact – should have not been released.<\/p>\n

So there it is.\u00a0 This album sounds like a snapshot of Steve Miller trying to make an album in 1971 and then having to stop because he broke his neck, and the record company cobbling something together anyway despite him.\u00a0 It’s not very good, but then again, it shouldn’t exist – certainly not in this form.<\/p>\n

1972 Recall the Beginning…A Journey from Eden<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When we last checked in with our hero Steven Haworth Miller, he had just been screwed over by Capitol Records.\u00a0 And now for no reason at all I would like to mention the literary device known as foreshadowing.<\/p>\n

At this point, I need to talk a bit about what was going on in Steve Miller’s personal life.\u00a0 From what I’ve been able to read on the (never untrue and always accurate) Interwebs, in 1972, Steve Miller had recovered from his car accident, requisitioned his groove back, and put together a new band.\u00a0 Shout out to the shockingly underrated Gerald Johnson, who played bass on this and three other Steve Miller albums.\u00a0 Damn it Wikipedia<\/a>, what do you mean he’s not notable!\u00a0 Listen to all them notes!<\/p>\n

So the new and improved Steve Miller Band wrote and recorded an actual album, not some thrown-together monstrosity fastened with tape and staples.\u00a0 And how does it sound?\u00a0 It’s… good.\u00a0 It’s a mixed bag, to be honest.\u00a0 Side one has a few duds, like High on You Mama, and The Sun Is Going Down.\u00a0 But side two is really strong, start to finish.\u00a0 The album closer and title track is actually my favourite Steve Miller song of all time.\u00a0 And the sound quality is much improved over Rock Love because this album was, you know, actually finished.<\/p>\n

Or was it?\u00a0 You see, it’s really hard to find out information about this album, and why it too was never reissued (see previous disclaimer).\u00a0 I can see and hear why Steve doesn’t like Rock Love, and didn’t want it to be reissued.\u00a0 But this?\u00a0 This is better than Number 5, if you ask me.\u00a0 This is a really enjoyable album.\u00a0 I like it very much.\u00a0 So why no reissue?\u00a0 Why no CD?\u00a0 Why no Cassette?\u00a0 Why no 8-track?<\/p>\n

Over the years I’ve read that it’s because 1) Capitol Records overdubbed strings and female singers on some tracks without Steve’s knowledge or permission.\u00a0 or 2) Capitol records asked a different guitarist to finish a song because Steve broke his hand in a motorcycle accident.<\/p>\n

I really don’t know how much of that is true, or if any of it is.\u00a0 I just don’t know.\u00a0 But the fact remains that when all of his albums came out on CD in the 1990s, this wasn’t among them.\u00a0 And it’s a shame, because it’s a very good album.\u00a0 It’s not his best, but it’s actually almost completely skipped over by compilations.\u00a0 So if you just pick those up, you’re going to miss out on these songs.<\/p>\n

1972 Anthology<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You know what this means.\u00a0 Compilation albums usually mean that the contract is up, the band is done, the career is over, the artist is run dry, etc.\u00a0 We know this wasn’t the case with Steve Miller, so maybe it was just Capitol Records who thought so.\u00a0 The previous album didn’t sell much better than Rock Love, so they might have seen the writing on the wall.<\/p>\n

But this is a good compilation if you can get it.\u00a0 It makes a nice bookend to the more famous and widely available Greatest Hits 1974-78 collection.\u00a0 But I’ll always prefer that other compilation I mentioned.<\/p>\n

1973 The Joker<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Now this is a hit record.\u00a0 But oddly, only one song from this album gets much recognition these days, and that’s the title track.\u00a0 It’s one of his most famous songs, of course, but this whole album is absolutely fantastic.\u00a0 There are no bad songs on this album.\u00a0 And if you happen to get a compilation that only has The Joker off of this, get this album in its entirety.\u00a0 Otherwise you’ll miss about eight great songs that you need to hear.\u00a0 And damn, listen to Gerald Johnson on the bass!<\/p>\n

1976 Fly Like an Eagle<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So, I can’t really talk about this album or the next, unless I mention the 13-million selling elephant in the room, which is Greatest Hits 1974-78.\u00a0 This is, of course, the point in Steve’s career where he became Mr. #1 selling radio superstar, co-head-lining with the Eagles in 1978.\u00a0 And he was at the top of his game musically.\u00a0 He could sing circles around anyone else, and that vocal acrobatic style was all over his music.<\/p>\n

But this album came not-so-hot on the heels of The Joker, which was released three long years before.\u00a0 Three years is a long time in the music industry, and when he told his record company he was taking some time off after the success of The Joker, they were stunned.<\/p>\n

But Steve had gotten Hepatitis while he was touring, so he needed to rest.\u00a0 He moved back home to Texas to recover.\u00a0 Then he put a new band together with some old members returning, and built a recording studio in his home.\u00a0 Over the next couple of years, he wrote and recorded Fly Like an Eagle and Book of Dreams.<\/p>\n

And the music speaks for itself.\u00a0 It’s part of the reason why Classic Rock exists as a genre.\u00a0 These songs are almost as popular with some people today as they were in the late 70s.\u00a0 I remember going out drinking in the 1990s, and hearing Swingtown and Rock’n Me on the jukebox, no matter what bar I walked into.<\/p>\n

Despite the sheer overwhelming number of hits on this album and on Book of Dreams, there are a couple of real stinkers – specifically You Send Me and Blue Odyssey\/Sweet Maree.\u00a0 I’ve read that the dumbass talking over You Send Me is supposedly from a Cheech & Chong film, but it doesn’t make it suck any less.<\/p>\n

1977 Book of Dreams<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

See above.<\/p>\n

Nah, I have to say more about this one.\u00a0 It’s packed with hits too, and actually doesn’t have a song as terrible as You Send Me on it.\u00a0 But overall, I think it’s slightly less brilliant than Fly Like an Eagle.<\/p>\n

There’s also a funny story I read in the Box Set from 1994, about how Steve paid thousands of dollars for a synthesizer, and spent all kinds of time painstakingly setting it up to make the intro sound to Jungle Love.\u00a0 Then a few months after the album came out, you could buy a toy raygun that made the exact same sound.<\/p>\n

1981 Circle of Love<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I already mentioned the Greatest hits collection that came out in 1978, so on to his next album.\u00a0 You may have noticed that this came out in the 80s.\u00a0 I’ll come out and say it, the era of great Steve Miller music is over.\u00a0 There will be really good songs from now on, and even really great moments in those songs, but there are no more great Steve Miller albums from this point on.\u00a0 Oh well.<\/p>\n

This here is an album that I personally think should not exist.\u00a0 Sorry, Steve.\u00a0 The production on this album is absolutely terrible.\u00a0 Sorry again, Steve.\u00a0 And that guy singing is out of tune!\u00a0 Ouch!<\/p>\n

Seriously, this is the same guy who became one of the pantheon of rock gods in the late 70s?\u00a0 And he’s churning out bland paint-by-the-numbers shuffle and boogie rock for the 80s?\u00a0 The one decent track on this album, were it recorded and mixed well, is Circle of Love, and even that is just a shabby re-write of Something to Believe In from The Joker album.<\/p>\n

And what is this on side 2?\u00a0 It’s a 16\u00bd minute song about US politics, which is actually just two repeating riffs and then a bunch of sound effects… and oh yeah… Steve Miller rapping.\u00a0 I’m not making this up, have a listen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hear Steve Miller rapping<\/p>\n

His flow is whack<\/p>\n

We must eject this and<\/p>\n

Send him back<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Honest to god, he raps like a grade 10 student reading a book report in front of the class.\u00a0 And I just can’t wrap my head around the way this album is mixed.\u00a0 The drums are way too quiet, and Steve’s voice and guitar are way too loud in the mix.\u00a0 And there’s horrible use of audio compression all over this album, especially the first song.\u00a0 It sounds bloody awful.<\/p>\n

But let’s say something good about it, because it is actually better than Rock Love.\u00a0 Um… okay, there you go.\u00a0 This album is better than Rock Love.<\/p>\n

1982 Abracadabra<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Okay, now this is better.\u00a0 This might just be the best album that Steve Miller put out in the 80s, although that’s not saying much.\u00a0 Steve actually sings in tune again, the album’s production isn’t shit, and the songs (mostly) don’t suck.\u00a0 The song Abracadabra was even a hit for Steve, and I think it was his biggest 80s hit.\u00a0 But don’t go looking for any deep meaning in the lyrics.\u00a0 The lyrics might just be the dumbest he’s ever written.\u00a0 I read in the Steve Miller Band box set liner notes from 1994 that it took him about 10 minutes to write these lyrics.\u00a0 I believe that.<\/p>\n

The opening track Keeps Me Wondering Why is actually a really, really great song too.\u00a0 I’m not sure if such a thing exists as a Steve Miller Band 81-93 hits collection, but that would be a great way to get these good to great songs without all the chaff.\u00a0 But if you cant find or assemble such a collection, this would be the 80s SMB album to get.<\/p>\n

1983 Steve Miller Band Live!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There’s a band that called one of their live albums “Greatest Hits Played Faster”, because the running joke is that’s all live albums really are.\u00a0 Well, listen to this one, if you’re in doubt as to why.\u00a0 It’s basically 80% bona fide hits, with two perennial concert favourites.\u00a0 The band is professional throughout, without any surprises, except for the “New Wave” take on some of the parts and passages here and there.\u00a0 And honestly, it makes the record sound dated.\u00a0 Norton Buffalo shines though, and it’s nice to hear a virtuoso on the harmonica when he goes to town.<\/p>\n

But these hits really are played faster.\u00a0 The first few times I listened to it, there was something “off” about it.\u00a0 Then I realized that this album (ripped directly from compact disc) is too fast.\u00a0 The pitch and speed are wrong on at least my release, giving everything a slight case of the chipmunk effect.\u00a0 I fixed that with my audio editor, and cleaned up and EQ’d the sound, but this is still not a great live set.\u00a0 There are live performances from the 70s that are much more worth listening to.\u00a0 This would only be for completists.<\/p>\n

1984 Italian X Rays<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Look at that cover.\u00a0 Look at it.\u00a0 Accept it before it destroys you.<\/p>\n

Steve Miller invented the vaporwave aesthetic.<\/p>\n

Now that we have that out of the way, as you can probably guess, this album is full 80s.\u00a0 And I mean FULL fucking 80s.\u00a0 Synths, samples, hell, this was apparently one of the first all-digital albums to ever be recorded.\u00a0 The digital recording console came from Japan, with instructions in Japanese, and took a very long time to figure out.\u00a0 At least that’s what Steve claimed in the liner notes to that 1994 box set.<\/p>\n

So how does it sound?\u00a0 Have you ever been shopping in a store, and heard an airy, inoffensive, bright and breezy Steve Miller song about a bumble bee making honey?\u00a0 That’s from this album.\u00a0 That song is called One in a Million, and it’s… I honestly don’t know why it became a hit.\u00a0 It’s alright, I guess.\u00a0 Out of the Night is a better song, and the last one Steve Miller wrote with Tim Davis.\u00a0 There are some more inoffensive “Adult Contemporary” type muzak songs on here, a couple of short synth instrumentals like on his late 70s albums, and… oh god… Bongo Bongo.<\/p>\n

Some things should never leave the studio.\u00a0 That is a seriously cool album cover though.<\/p>\n

1986 Living in the 20th Century<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking of cool album covers, this one is another great one.\u00a0 I’ve noticed Steve likes horses<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And this album is something of a return to form for him.\u00a0 Steve started off as an electric blues musician, so this album takes him back to that style – but it’s still steeped in a mid 80s style, and it sounds like it came out of 1986, that’s for sure.\u00a0 There are indeed some throw-away generic blues moments, but there are some really great songs on here that are definitely among the best he released in this decade.<\/p>\n

Slinky, Maelstrom, and Behind the Barn are worth checking out.\u00a0 I remember immediately liking them from the 94 box set, and they fit in well on this album.\u00a0 And then there’s the hit from this album, I Want to Make the World Turn Around.\u00a0 It is for my money, the best song Steve recorded and released during this entire decade.\u00a0 That’s even considering the appearance of Kenny G on sax.\u00a0 I think his sax solo in this song is pretty damn great, to be honest.\u00a0 It’s not cloyingly maudlin like the other fluff I’ve heard from him.<\/p>\n

So maybe if you’re looking for another Steve Miller Band album from the 80s, get this one too.<\/p>\n

1988 Born 2 B Blue<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA MY EARS!!!!!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I don’t know why I got this album.\u00a0 There were three prominent warning shots on the 1994 box set.\u00a0 Did I pay heed?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 I have no one to blame but myself.<\/p>\n

I don’t know why this is a “solo” Steve Miller album, and not a Steve Miller Band album.\u00a0 It was his band, his name was on the outside of the building, so to speak.\u00a0 Oh well.\u00a0 In any case, this is thoroughly skippable, unless you are upset right now at what I’m saying about the genre of “Easy Listening”, or at what I said about that little goblin Kenny G a few paragraphs ago.<\/p>\n

1993 Wide River<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So half a decade passed, and we all heard from the mighty Steve Miller Band again.\u00a0 There are some great songs on this album, and the title track got a lot of radio play from what I remember.\u00a0 I also remember Steve started touring again, and this was when the whole “Classic Rock” revival was happening, so it was good to have him back.\u00a0 I like this album.<\/p>\n

But I do have to complain about some glaring flaws that it has.\u00a0 Remember when I said that Steve was singing out of tune in 1981?\u00a0 Yeah… he got out of practice with his voice again since 1988 it seems.\u00a0 And this album is even worse for him singing out of tune.\u00a0 He’s multi-tracked out of tune with himself on several songs, and oh god… I wish he had spent some more time in rehearsals.<\/p>\n

The guitar playing is great though, but the way this album is mixed, that’s almost all you get.\u00a0 Steve’s voice and guitar are loud and proud in the mix, and the drums might as well be on the forthcoming album.\u00a0 This album is mixed even worse than Circle of Love, I’m afraid.<\/p>\n

I’ve always hoped that there would be a professional and enthusiastically done proper remix (not just remaster) of this album.\u00a0 If I had the resources and access to the master tapes, I would cut the reverb on the drums, mix the drums louder, mix the guitars and vocals quieter, and I would autotune Steve’s vocals.\u00a0 Not to make him sound like T-Pain, but the way autotune was intended to be used on singers when it was invented.\u00a0 Because it really needs to be done.<\/p>\n

But I don’t think that’s ever going to happen.\u00a0 So enjoy this album if you can get past the guy singing way too loud out of tune, and the hint-o-drums effect that some times accompanies the tracks.<\/p>\n

2010 Bingo!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

AKA “Old Men Got The Blues Volume 1”.<\/p>\n

Some people really like the blues.\u00a0 Some people really like the shit that they play on the radio these days, so there’s that too.\u00a0 But I personally find straight up blues to get really boring after a while.\u00a0 And 40 minutes of straight up blues is about 30 minutes too much for me.<\/p>\n

But your mileage may vary.\u00a0 The incarnation of the Steve Miller Band you can hear on this album is actually really, really, really good.\u00a0 I’d say they haven’t been this tight of a band since Abracadabra.\u00a0 And this album sounds a lot better production-wise than the last one, or any since Abracadabra, really.\u00a0 Steve’s voice has matured and lowered, and he’s in key again throughout, thankfully.\u00a0 But oddly, he had his touring vocalist Sonny Charles sing about half the vocals on this album.<\/p>\n

Though it seems odd to me, it gives this album immediate similarities to the first several Steve Miller Band albums, with their blues rock sound, and the vocal presence of Tim Davis.\u00a0 That’s kind of nice, and it definitely makes this collection of songs sound more like the Steve Miller Band than plenty of the albums released in the 80s.<\/p>\n

But there are no original compositions at all to be found here.\u00a0 These are all covers.\u00a0 So weigh all that of you’re considering getting this.\u00a0 The audio quality sounds great, the playing is professional, and Steve’s guitar and voice are in top shape again.\u00a0 It’s just an album of blues covers.<\/p>\n

2011 Let Your Hair Down<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

See above.\u00a0 But how bout that pun!\u00a0 Huh?\u00a0 Huh?<\/p>\n

This album was recorded at the same time as Bingo!, and released a year later, kind of like what Steve did with Fly Like an Eagle and Book of Dreams.<\/p>\n

2002 King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents the Steve Miller Band<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I have to talk about this one too, even though it’s out of print.\u00a0 You might be able to find the same audio content under the title “The Sessions”, which was released in 2007, but without all the great liner notes in the CD booklet.<\/p>\n

It’s really sad that this is out of print, because the two live concerts here are incredible documents of Steve Miller in his prime.\u00a0 The first one is from 1973, to support the album The Joker.\u00a0 The second performance is from 1976, after Fly Like an Eagle had been released.<\/p>\n

Unlike his “official” live album from 1983, these are more-or-less complete shows that show a great performing band doing what they did best.\u00a0 The live versions of songs are usually changed up in interesting ways, making this not just a retread of what you hear on the albums.<\/p>\n

So if you can find this at all, get it.\u00a0 Unless it costs you $369.13, like I saw on Amazon.\u00a0 Maybe hold out for a sale, or something.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some people call him the Space Cowboy.\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 Some call him the Gangster of Love.\u00a0 Some people call him Maurice.\u00a0 Because he misheard the lyrics to a song. But I’m listening to my collection of Steve Miller Band albums again, and I thought I’d write out my thoughts on the music he made.\u00a0 I had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[184],"tags":[592,591,161,593],"class_list":["post-9390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","tag-albums","tag-reviews","tag-steve-miller","tag-steve-miller-band"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9390"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12100,"href":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9390\/revisions\/12100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}