Steve Miller - C/D?

Steve Miller Band - Classic or Dud

No! It's crap!

As it turned out, I was expecting it to be the song "Space Cowboy" by the Jonzon Crew that I heard on the R&B station earlier that week.

(am i dating myself or what?)

But he did Savoy Brown better. This year's been a
watershed for stealth Savoy Brown references.

Not only is there that new Atlanta Pop thing, but there is also that Stonybrook 2cd from a couple months back on their own mail-order label, which has an 11 minute "Blue Sky"! drool. I still need to get them both, but they're on the list. It's a motherlode of archival Allmans!

And Living in the USA - I still think is a great song.

Too bad it's not really Steve Miller.

CLassic beyond belief ... doesn't get more classic

silly stoner who "got it" w/r/t/ blues music. good for him. most did not. His first eight albums are right there for the pot smokers. Then everybody else got on board.......

love him so much

'Rock Love' is the all time LP

ok, the 'sailor' album is rather ace.

a perfect example of late 60s west coast psych excess.

love it.

i take it that this release was a one off for steve miller, or, should i dig in further for more ...

i'd check out 'children of the future' and 'brave new world' as well.

I'll have to give the catalog another close listen, but I would assume some dance aficionados partake of Steve Miller.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/steve-miller-this-whole-industry-is-f--kin-gangsters-and-crooks-20160411

Do you think about recording any new albums?
No. I don't think about it at all. There is no record business. I record a lot of things. There is no record business. There's no reason for me to spend any money producing stuff that a record company... All the people that were sitting in the front row tonight, like the guy that came from my record company, I wanted to pull him by his necktie and kick him in the nuts.

Really?
Yeah. He's made a billion dollars off my work over the last 50 years and the motherfucker just came over and introduced himself tonight. That cheery little thing. You know he won't do any contract work, he won't clean anything up, he won't get anything done.

This whole industry fucking sucks and this little get-together you guys have here is like a private boys' club and it's a bunch of jackasses and jerks and fucking gangsters and crooks who've fucking stolen everything from a fucking artist. Telling the artist to come out here and tap dance.

I came out here for my fans. I came out for the people who take it seriously. And if the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame wants to be taken seriously, they need to put their books out in the public. They need to fucking become transparent. They need to stop lying. They need to stop all the bullshit and they need to clean it up and they need to expand it. They need to include a lot more people. And the most important thing is the fucking board of this organization really needs to enlarge their gene pool. I think you understand.

Expect something similar when Ian MacKaye gets inducted.

Right on, Steve Miller!

eh fuck this guy

You don't agree with what he said?

damn, no new steve miller albums ...

i did actually love this write-up of "macho city" from a few months back: http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2015/09/steve-miller-band-macho-city-key-tracks

tbh I've kinda grown into appreciating his omnipresent hits recently

Made Black Keys uncomfortable

RS: Was there anything he said to us or backstage that rang true?
Listen, I just want people to know that he's allowed to say whatever he wants, of course. But he does not speak for me. He does not speak for Pat. And some of the things he said is just [pauses, sighs] I don't know. I really don't know. It's weird. He called the whole thing "a boys' club." The Steve Miller band has had 35 members and no women. It was just very disappointing. And I'm not looking for anything, really. I just wanted people to just know how Pat and I felt. That's all

"35 Members and no women" is like 99% of the groups that are inducted, dude.

... and with that, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame closed its doors ... forever.

They should have arrived to the ceremony late so Steve would have to go on first, and then when the Black Keys got there, they could've smoked the motherfucking place and have everybody dig it, including Bill Graham.

long story short, the black keys believe in the positive power of music and the idea of a rock canon that should be officially canonized, and they're real shook after a dude stood up, looked around, and was all "ugh fuck this noise"

The Black Keys are the new Mike Myers

not really sure why steve miller bothered to show up though

Was afraid people would consider him a "No-showing up motherfucker" in addition to a "No-playing" one, iirc.

haha

Seriously, has anyone asked him about the Miles autobio? It seems odd that no interviewer has tried to get his perspective on that. (but I dunno how you'd bring it up..."Steve, none other than Miles Davis called you a 'non-playing motherfucker'...your thoughts?")

it's funny, i remember reading that the steve miller band almost signed with Impulse originally.

black keys perpetually having low-stakes beef w/ other musicians i give even less of a shit about than i give about the black keys

lol

part of black keys beef too was like "he didn't even know who we are" lol

the black keys are dopes. nwa should have smoked their asses with their gats and nines and all that.

black keys are gonna get into the RNRHOF i bet. in on the Foos clause, "well they're certainly a rock band and they sell some records and we don't have many of those left do we?"

i can only imagine how much money Capitol made off of steve miller. maybe not a billion dollars but a whole lot.

I was in a private karaoke room a few Friday nights ago (happy birthday, jaymc) and wondered how much someone like Steve Miller or Capitol gets in karaoke royalties any given year.

Steve Miller has unexpectedly become my new personal hero

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CfkPC6kXIAAuR3W.jpg

i hope the black keys get jumped by some steve miller band fans

cranky old man waves fist at industry

They should have arrived to the ceremony late so Steve would have to go on first, and then when the Black Keys got there, they could've smoked the motherfucking place and have everybody dig it, including Bill Graham.

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat)

dying

The internet says Steve Miller has $40 million. Whether that is exactly accurate or not, I think he's doing pretty well for someone whose best known song includes the line, "I really love your peaches, want to shake your tree."

The music industry has definitely fucked some artists over, but Steve Miller is not one of them.

I think Steve Miller Band's Greatest Hits is still the best selling compilation album of all time in the US (if it no longer is, it was for quite a while). He's good.

He's good (moneywise).

The internet says Steve Miller has $40 million. Whether that is exactly accurate or not, I think he's doing pretty well for someone whose best known song includes the line, "I really love your peaches, want to shake your tree."

he wrote and produced the songs and was the manager, so I've no trouble thinking hes a 1 percenter. In one of those Billboard books of #1 hits some guy is quoted saying he saw Miller receive the biggest royalty check he'd ever seen.

"I really love your peaches, want to shake your tree."

This lyric is lifted from "Lovey Dovey" by The Clovers btw

.. All the time..

I just heard Ella Fitzgerald sing that lyric the other day, it goes back further than the Clovers. Just googled and found discussion under Lyrics rubric here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitting_on_Top_of_the_World

The peaches part. The "lovey dovey" part I guess Ahmet Ertegun earned his songwriting credit for that.

far be it from me to defend the black keys, but this seems like a simple matter of steve miller just kind of being an ungracious jerk in person

speaking of miles...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6vVOXztFW4

a steve miller mashup...

this is fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLCwJbJyjQY

far be it from me to defend the black keys, but this seems like a simple matter of steve miller just kind of being an ungracious jerk in person

I agree.. but the way the black keys whined about it was.. dumb.

otm

Steve Miller Band's Greatest Hits is still the best selling compilation album of all time in the US

ahead of the Eagles? or Legend? no way

the eagles greatest hits vol 1 is the second greatest selling album of all time in the us. stever miller band's greatest hits is not #1.

same diff?

Indeed. First 5 Steve Miller Band albums-produced by Glyn Johns. Most of Eagles Their Greatest Hits-produced by Glyn Johns.

steve miller records much more entertaining to me than eagles records. it's scary to think of how many times i've heard those songs. thousands of times since the 70's.

I've heard, like, four Steve Miller songs in my life. The ones from that Greatest Hits album that got the most radio play, and "Abracadabra," which I used to like when it was on American Top 40.

OK, looking at the track listing for the Greatest Hits album, I've actually heard seven Steve Miller songs including "Abracadabra."

Yeah, me too, which is amazing, given I have never listened to him on purpose. Though "Fly Like an Eagle" is all time. Who is the drummer on that one?

Ah, Gary Mallaber! Session-rific.

eh, fuck Gary Mallaber he can pony up $10,000 to see the show like the rest of us

"Fly Like an Eagle" was really cool I remember discovering that song right when the Deion Sanders song came out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMdBCMpAlSM

i've probably heard as many Black Keys songs as Steve Miller songs and none of the former has ever made an impression on me.

whether or not steve miller is rich or not is beside the point, the industry was (and is) crooked as hell, for every million he made the labels made 10, that's just facts

"I'm going to wrap you up" = tot fuckin great

the industry was (and is) crooked as hell,

remember when the internet was gonna fix this? good times.

lol no i don't. did anyone ever make that claim?

Prince did, iirc.

abracadabra is a truly creepy song

Midnight tokers ugh: https://wp.me/pzXeC-7Hg

lol christ the black keys are such enormous fucking dorks.

I want to say "do you even know what makes a song good?" but it's you. So I guess idgi. This song is a ton of fun even while it grossly offends any reasonable person's sensibilities

challops: somehow i've got a copy of the "Best of 1968–1973" and i think i like it more than the "1974–78" comp

but tbh prob bc of the latter's irritating ubiquity

STEVE MILLER: The Black Keys have two members, and they're both women!

DON: Well, yeah.

I want to say "do you even know what makes a song good?" but it's you. So I guess idgi.

- I am Larry Bird I always make the trey (rip van wanko)

I don't. Does anyone? Miller's other hits are more tolerable.

Well that's subjective and I don't personally agree. Big Ol Jet Airliner or whatever it's called is my kryptonite. Same hokey lyrical sensibility and never gets it's hooks in me

Steve Miller and I were kicked out of the same high school! #funfact

Alfred, I just don't know how you give a pass to "Take the Money and Run" — a song that rhymes taxes with Texas — over the American "Rock On".

'taxes' and 'facts is' as well.

I like how vague a story song "TTMAR" is--he sets the scene, introduces the main characters and their antagonist whom they never encounter, throw in a quickly resolved twist, and it's over.

he sets the scene, introduces the main characters and their antagonist whom they never encounter, throw in a quickly resolved twist, and it's over.

Oh right, "Pine Barrens."

a song that rhymes taxes with Texas

but the two go together!

*clap clap clap clap clap clap*

What's your opinion of this zygote?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu7FBcyyUqw

Still think this song secretly invented the Stone Roses
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELcTJZLxhFU

dude likes to shout out his previously recorded tunes

/when you unthinkingly reflexively bookmark a thread, just out of habit

Don’t know if this has been posted already on another thread: https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/young-musician-growing-up-with-steve-miller/

The hand claps can’t come fast enough in Take the Money

such a weird song.

The lyrics don't rhyme. The handclaps don't happen on specific bars, just when he ever makes a Texas reference. Just a mess, but worth it just for that opening drum roll.

The handclaps don't happen on specific bars, just when he ever makes a Texas reference.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ5Di_7ZpW0

Still think this song secretly invented the Stone Roses

― Elvis Telecom, Saturday, May 5, 2018 3:50 PM (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Nah, it probably invented Smash Mouth tho

That opening bass line and tone does have that thing Smash Mouth kinda captured in their big hit. Could be a bit of both bands though as Steve Miller band was a SF psych blues/pop band, first gen.

I know fuck all about Steve Miller beyond what I know from classic rock radio, and that my first exposure to him was the song "Abracadabra," which sucks, but he's Monday's guest on WTF so I'm brushing up on the real early stuff and...it's good?? Okay then.

Yeah! First five albums are all sick!

I'm not the biggest Steve Miller fan, but those first two albums are excellent, the only two I listen to from start-to-finish. Beyond that, Anthology (covering the early stuff except, strangely enough, the debut, possibly because it's tough to break up into individual tracks) and the mega-selling Greatest Hits 1974-1978 are all the Steve Miller I'd ever need and then some.

Recently came across his Wikipedia page...had no idea about any of this:

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Miller received his first exposure to music from his mother, Bertha, whom he described as a remarkable jazz-influenced singer, and his physician father, George, known as "Sonny" who, in addition to his profession as a pathologist, was a jazz enthusiast and an accomplished amateur recording engineer. Guitar virtuoso Les Paul and his musical partner Mary Ford were regular visitors at the Miller house. The Millers were best man and matron of honor at the December 1949 Paul/Ford wedding. Paul became Steve's godfather.[4] Les Paul heard Steve, who was six, on a wire recording made by Dr. Miller, "banging away" on a guitar given to him by his uncle, Dr. K. Dale Atterbury.[5] Paul encouraged Miller to continue with his interest in the guitar... and "perhaps he will be something one day."

In 1950, the family relocated to Dallas, Texas. Many distinguished musicians came to the house to record, and Steve absorbed much from "greats" such as T-Bone Walker, Charles Mingus, and Tal Farlow.

...

Upon his return to the United States, Miller moved to Chicago where he immersed himself in the city's blues scene. During his time there, he worked with harmonica player Paul Butterfield and jammed with blues greats Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Buddy Guy, all of whom encouraged the young guitarist to pursue music.

Oh yeah, they ended up talking about a lot of that on WTF today.

The production really is outstanding on all his stuff.

Still think this song secretly invented the Stone Roses

― Elvis Telecom,

well.

i think this brilliant 10+ minute edit by soundhog totally underlines this theory

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsSo0BMLLpI

I heard Jet Airliner for the first time in like 20 years during the credits of Anchorman 2 the other day and I’m partly convinced it is some 70s rock pinnacle.

Also, he brings the goods live for a no-playing motherfucker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJZQLFHEdVU

Ha. Well spotted by Elvis and Mark E. back in 2021!

Duff Disco - Eagle Flight (2010)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQUhArf9Zos

one of the great american songwriters imo. the fact that the early psych records are fun is icing on the cake

Not sure if anyone saw the Genghis Blues documentary, but Paul Pena wrote "Jet Airliner" and Steve's cover helped keep Paul keep some food on the table for a little while:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dnGj5YF8F0

I had no idea, wow

“I went from phoenix az all the way to Tacoma “

Philadelphia Atlanta la

northern california where the gorls are worm

Steve’s vocals are underrated, guy had such a sweet mellow voice

it's a kind voice.

^
f
unky sh1t vs funky kinks

He bought me a crate of papaya once

calstars otm

also Paul Pena's picking without a pick technique in the Conan clip above is so, so good. it's like an electric fingerstyle. awesome to watch

funky kicks

Don’t get suspicious

I saw him at a festival in the late 90s and he brought a rapper out for a verse in fly like an eagle

"I need a man meal sandwich, yes I need Manwich"

could we hear more about this crate of papaya

You know he knows just what the facts is

“Wild mountain honey” is a lullaby

My woman is a friend of mine

Billy Joe
Bobbie Sue
Billy Mack

Now don’t be suspicious
Babe you know you are a friend of mine

texas
facts is
justice
taxes

detective

https://i.postimg.cc/0Qf6Kw9C/IMG-2845.jpg

that’s a good friday night

Apropos of nothing, there's an upload on Youtube of a New York radio show from mid-1986 that, despite being on cassette, sounds really good. It has "West End Girls", "Mad About You", "Glamorous Life" and so on, and they sound really punchy.

Someone in the comments mentioned that radio stations back then used something called an Orban Optimod, which was a compressor designed to make music sound really loud on car speakers. They cost a fortune on the used market. That led me to this, which makes the song sound as if it's being played on the radio:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRevP3A5QnY

“They headed down /
To ooh old El Paso”

So glad Billy Joe and Bobby Sue killed that guy while robbing his house. Serves him right for hassling them. His widow and young children were probably ecstatic to be rid of his sorry ass. And fuck that public servant, using MY HARD-EARNED TAX DOLLARS to track them down. Leech.

true dat

tbf Bobbie Sue didn’t have anything to do with the shooting

Someone in the comments mentioned that radio stations back then used something called an Orban Optimod, which was a compressor designed to make music sound really loud on car speakers.

I have noticed this sound so often before, and always assumed that, welp, I was listening to an aircheck recorded in 1985 on magnetic tape, being played through an analog player, possibly at a slightly higher speed.

It's not a bad sound! Reminds me of pool parties.

"So glad Billy Joe and Bobby Sue killed that guy while robbing his house."

This is why I've always been unwilling to publicly criticise Steve Miller. He's seen things. He knows things. The abyss blinked first. There's a stereotype that he's a cheerful blues-rock guitarist who wrote some decent songs and was willing to at least try to change his image.

But, to paraphrase the film, the greatest trick the devil pulled was persuading people that he didn't exist. They didn't call him "the butcher of Metcalfe Park" short pause. The following are actual true facts about Steve Miller:

- According to Wikipedia he's "the founder and only remaining original member of the Steve Miller Band" - but he has never been arrested for either of these things.
- He was a known associate of Chuck Berry (on Live at Fillmore Auditorium).
- Sean Coombes is currently on trial for racketeering, sex trafficking, and transportation across state lines. Steve Miller? A free man.
- He developed an entire arcane language that included and admittedly consisted entirely of the word "pompatus".

On a more serious level it's amusing how the coves of his 1960s and 1970s albums all follow contemporary trends, a bit like Spinal Tap. The band starts off as retro cowboy rock, then they're War-style psychedelic elevated consciousness, then they're a serious concert band, then they're epic prog, then glam, then what can only be described as yacht rock, then New Wave. The sales drop-off from Abracadabra to Italian X Rays is something. And then bizarrely his most recent album, from 2011, is absolutely vintage 1970s Hipgnosis. It has visual puns! And it's slightly naff.

Philly
ATL
LAx

No finer 15 seconds in all of music than the beginning of “take the money”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGZGi80wzss

funky

What is it about “rock n me” that makes it so meditative

claps claps claps claps claps

The near-rhyme of Arizona and Tacoma is criminally underrated.

Clearly this is the go-to guy when you need a rhyme relating to Western American geography. I mean, he easily dealt with "El Paso," sure. A master at the top of his game. I remember thinking that could not be topped, and yet he casually throws in a line ending in "Texas." How will he get himself out of this, I wonder? With some justice. Miller-style.

There is a little snippet going around of a live version of "The Joker" with the supertitle "bro never played the same way twice."

It is an excerpt from about 1:15 to 1:40 of the show linked below and I think the memer has a point. If you are only familiar with the vocal melody of the radio cut, you will be surprised by the subtle way he mixes things up and there are some really nice little vocal riffs in this version. Elegant yet relaxed. Recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Kgjfw4_5Ug

He has really nice tone and pitch.

Texas taxes

Facts is

heh yeah

That greatest hits tape/cd was still a popular drinking soundtrack in the late 80s when I lived in the dorms. Lots of those region and NJ frat dead people loved the Gangster of Love in kegger situations.

I like in that clip that both times he does the "woo-woo" guitar sound, he mouths along with the sound

I'm more curious why he's playing a LH strat upside-down...?

If you have to ask…

If I remember the lore correct, I believe that might have been an actual left handed strat that was ordered by Jimi Hendrix at Manny's in NYC but never picked up (because he died).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFu-vAqr--4

what even is this? AI nonsense that they're claiming is a new band album made by a bunch of dead ppl? blurb says "a work of uncommon pedigree" ok so what is the date of the recording, who produced it, what's the name of the record company, etc etc

pretty sure it's legit? i think the producer started working on this in 2009

FWIW, he may have canceled his tour, but he's still putting on shows: just announced another one for Jazz at Lincoln Center.

btw not only is that reggae version legit, but Steve Miller actually laid down the guitar for it.

prove it

It's in the liner notes!

https://i.imgur.com/txqUGoX.jpeg

Written by David Katz

What's next? tapdancing?