The Greatest Gifts

Paul McCartney: Another Day

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A fresh batch of greatest hits compilations hit record stores in November of 1978, just in time for the Christmas rush. Not yet the music snob who disdained greatest hits records, I would have put Wings Greatest at the top of my list for the singles I didn't own like "Another Day", "Hi Hi Hi" and "Juniors Farm". I never got it.

Here's the memorable ad for the album:

The Steve Miller Band's Greatest Hits 1974-78 is culled from three albums, the title track from The Joker and the rest from Fly Like an Eagle and Book of Dreams. No bonus tracks. Nevertheless, it has sold 14 million copies.

Steely Dan's Greatest Hits is a double album with one bonus track, the forgettable "Here In The Western World", which was originally recorded during the Royal Scam sessions.

The Best of Earth Wind and Fire Volume 1 arrived with three bonus tracks: the Grammy winning "Got To Get You Into My Life" for those who didn't buy the Sgt Pepper soundtrack; "Love Music" and the Top 10 hit, "September", surely one of the best singles of the year.

Barbra Streisand's Greatest Hits Volume 2 came with "You Don't Bring Me Flowers", her #1 duet with Neil Diamond. Diamond and Streisand had each recorded the song for separate albums, but radio DJ Gary Guthrie  spliced their versions together as a going away present form the wife he was divorcing. When Columbia Records got wind of the sensation the sing was causing they convinced Diamond and Streisand to go into the studio and cut a real duet. They'd surprise Grammy viewers in 1980.

Ridin' High

   

Steve Miller Band : Jet  Airliner

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Paul Pena : Jet Airliner

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In May of 1977 Steve Miller Band released its tenth album. Book of Dreams was recorded at the same time as Fly Like an Eagle, and, like its twin,  contains just as many radio friendly hits and synthesizer noodlings .  Naturally it went triple platinum in the United States.

It is interesting to me that the first single, the US Top 10 hit "Jet Airliner", isn't an original Steve Miller song but a cover of a four year old tune by keyboardist Ben Sidran's buddy, Paul Pena. Royalties from the single were sometimes Pena's only source of income for the rest of his life.

Rolling Stone's Frank Rose wrote this positive review of Book of Dreams:

There are so many nice things you could say about the new Steve Miller album. You could say, for instance, that it sounds great turned way up loud, with its full-tilt rhythms propelling you into some kind of bright crystal space. You could talk about how open the sound is, how porous and rich, and how sunny and downright friendly Miller's voice sounds. You could rap endlessly about the skillful use of modern recording technique to achieve exciting textural effects. But the important thing to say, and it ought to be done straightaway, is how dazzlingly appropriate this music would be if it were coupled with some videotape of West Coast hang gliders used for a Pepsi commercial. 

 To those who have been dismayed by the progress of the Beach Boys' more or less grotesque attempts at a creative comeback, the recent commercial success of such journeymen survivors as Peter Frampton, Fleetwood Mac and Steve Miller is a heartening sign. It means that laid-back rock and no-thought lyrics can still be had in something other than the dude-ranch space-out of such L.A. hustlers as Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles. What is at stake is the future of open-highway rock. The success of Frampton, Mac and Miller -- especially Mac and Miller -- means the genre is not being abandoned to the cosmic cowpokes

This is important for variety's sake, and also because the cowpokes' vision of life as some sort of sun-drenched avocado sandwich seems essentially wrong. With the Beach Boys unsteady on their lurch toward reality, it's up to people like Miller to attempt the mindlessly breezy music the whole world wants and not even Paul McCartney can deliver every time. But this is tricky business; you can't just retread the old Beach Boys stuff. They preached fun to a generation that was opening up; Miller has to preach fun to a generation that's closing in.

 Miller has a strong nesting instinct. His idea of fun is apparently a combination of rural isolation and independence and happy domesticity. As the title of an album that's mostly filled with songs about love, his Book of Dreams is not much different from a hope chest. In "Swingtown," he coos, "Come on and dance/Let's make some romance." In "Jet Airliner" and "My Own Space" (neither of them his own compositions, it's true) he sings about the need for a home and the pain of leaving it. Then there's "True Fine Love," in which he really alters his pitch: "So come on pretty baby," he sings this time, "we're going to raise a family."

This pretty well sums up what Miller has to say. Most of his energies have apparently gone into the sound, and with good results. At its best, Miller's music has always been rich, clipped and characterized by a powerful forward momentum not unlike Fleetwood Mac's. At its worst -- when he was hampered by a schizoid image, a revolving-door band and the all-too-apparent absence of any purpose to his work -- it was sloppy, aimless and dull. But Miller began to pull himself out of his slump with The Joker in 1973, and thereafter he took steps to ensure that things went right. 

 Although his first nine albums had been crowded into a six-year span, he took his time recording a followup. When he finally released Fly Like an Eagle 13 months ago, it went crazy in the record stores -- Top Ten for months, almost triple platinum, three Top Ten singles. The record was so big that Book of Dreams, which tentatively had been scheduled for release as early as last December, had to be kept on hold for months. Now it's shipped gold; a repeat success appears inevitable

This is logical. Fly Like an Eagle and Book of Dreams are essentially twin albums, mostly recorded during the three-year period that followed The Joker. Fly Like an Eagle is maybe a little stronger -- several of the songs on Book of Dreams were written by current or former Steve Miller Band members -- but even that is debatable. There's the same steady self-assurance here, the same easy confidence that made Fly Like an Eagle so easy to enjoy. Miller obviously knows exactly what he's doing. Every production decision -- as usual, he's produced himself -- was made to maximize the dramatic impact of the deep, easy roll that powers most of these songs. The producer's touch is light and sure; it brightens the sound and stretches its spatial dimensions. Miller's voice, open and adolescent as ever, comes through fresh and bouncy. All this gives songs like "Swingtown" and "True Fine Love" and "Jet Airliner" the kind of simple-minded but irresistible appeal that's so essential to Miller's style. 

What Miller gained during his three-year absence from the music scene was the security to drop his masks. Fly Like an Eagle was the first album on which he did not hide behind the kind of persona he ridiculed and apparently laid to rest with The Joker. What's emerged instead is the image of a "real" Steve Miller -- a jocular outdoorsman who's thinking about giving up his Ferrari (according to People) for a tractor. The real Steve Miller just wants to settle down and raise kids and live in bucolic splendor and have it seem as much fun as hang gliding. So do millions of his peers. It's nice they're getting together.

40 Year Itch : Serenade From The Stars

Steve Miller Band : Serenade

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    What Fly Like an Eagle lacks in originality, it makes up for in state of the art studio wizardry. I mean, sure, the title cut borrows its guitar hook from a seven year old song Steve Miller recorded with Paul McCartney called " My Dark Hour". ( Just go 14 seconds deep into the video below)

   Also you can actually sing the lyrics of "Sweet Home Alabama" to "Take the Money and Run". And -point taken- those lyrics are clunky.("Billy Mack is a detective down in Texas /You know he knows just exactly what the facts is")

  And even Miller had acknowledged that the #1 US hit from the album, "Rock'n Me", owes a tip of the hat to Free's "All Right Now".

  That said, Fly Like An Eagle just sounded damn good on the stereo in 1976. One of my dad's friends, an architect, cranked it up for us at his house and the "Space Intro" filled the great room in a way that made us feel we were about to lift off ! When it flows into "Fly Like an Eagle" you can understand why four million people bought the album.

    Three years in the making and inspired by Pink Floyd, Miller and engineer Jim Gaines spent 14 to 20 hour days at Kaye Smith Studios in Seattle experimenting with synthesizers, vocal effects and transitions. Then they recorded the rest of the album at CBS Studios in San Francisco, Miller's old stomping grounds. His band had actually come up with enough songs for a double album,  but Miller held back the rest of the tunes ( including "Jet Airliner" and "Jungle Love") for 1977's Book of Dreams. That worked in Miller's favor financially. Both album sold four million copies. But artistically, Fly Like an Eagle peters out two tracks into the B side, leaving a poor aftertaste. 

    Still, Fly Like an Eagle provided "lift off" for the Steve Miller Band, who became one of the biggest rock acts in the world.

40 Year Itch: The Midnight Toker

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On the January 25th episode of The Midnight Special Steve Miller  performed his #1 hit "The Joker", which had just peaked a week earlier before being overtaken by Ringo Starr's "You're Sixteen". Miller followed up his smash hit with an early, psychedelic seven-minute version of his future 1976 hit "Fly Like An Eagle".



His final tune was "Sugar Babe", another tune from The Joker. Miller introduces the band, including the late James "Curley" Cooke who would go on to found Pacific Northwest Blues in the Schools, a musical outreach program for troubled kids.



Also performing on the show: Cub Koda's Brownsville Station whose "Smokin In The Boy's Room" peaked at #3 on the Hot 100.

40 Year Itch: Really Love Your Peaches Wanna Shake Your Tree

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The story of The Joker, the album that finally broke the Steve Miller Band, begins a year earlier, in 1972, when Steve Miller broke his neck in a car accident on the way to the airport, where he was heading on yet another big tour to support a moderately selling album.

 He told me: 

 I fractured a vertebrae.I'm dealing with it right now. I got like three numb little fingers right here and kind of a bad arm over here. 

 Steve spent the next year house bound in Dallas, living with his parents. He had a lot of time to himself and eventually wrote a three chord song looking back over his career. The song refers to the Brave New World track "Space Cowboy" , "Gangster of Love from Sailor and "Enter Maurice..." from Recall the Beginning...A Journey to Eden.

He called the tune "The Joker". 

 All of a sudden, finally, ...last chance: got a big huge number one hit.

The song topped the Billboard charts in early 1974. I got the feeling I wasn't the first person to ask him the meaning of "The Pompatus of Love":

"The Pompatus of Love" is just, you know. I can't tell you man. If I told you I'd ..I just can't do it.

Riding on the success of the #1 single, The Joker peaked at #2 on the charts despite mixed reviews including this one from Rolling Stone's Bud Scoppa:

The Joker, is a lazy slide back into the empty posturing that has marked the second half of Miller's career.



Here's the rest of my Steve Miller interview

March 1972 : When The Blues Meet The Boogie

All of these albums were released in March of 1972


[Buy Smokin']

With co-founder Peter Frampton off seeking solo glory, Clem Clemson comes aboard to play some smokin' guitar on this Top Ten hit. Humble Pie is Steve Marriott's band now. He produces the album and actually collapses from nervous exhaustion during recording. The album's best known for "30 Days In The Hole" but "You're So Good To Me" is one of 1001Songs fave songs of the 70's. You can almost see The Robinson brothers of Black Crowes fame sitting together furiously taking notes.

[Buy Roadwork]

The live double disc follow-up to White Trash, Roadwork - which hit number 23 on the album charts- plays like a rock soul blues and gospel revue. Like his blues guitar playing brother Johnny, Edgar is a Texas albino with enormous talent as a keyboardist, saxophone player and vocalist. About halfway into the show Johnny comes onstage to play on Rick Derringer's "Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo" . Later in the year, Winter will release They Only Come Out At Night featuring his #1 monster hit "Frankenstein" and the #14  "Free Ride".

[Buy D and B Together]

Atlantic Records exec Jerry Wexler wasn't thrilled with Country Life, the last Delaney and Bonnie album the duo recorded, so he added a few cuts ( some, like "Comin Home" and "Groupie" dating back to 1969) and changed the running order. It's a sign of  Delaney and Bonnie's popularity among musicians that they were able to get Eric Clapton, Tina Turner and Billy Preston, among others, to play on the album. The couple divorced in 1973.

[Not Available]

Featuring both his Derek and the Dominos band mates and Delaney Bramnlett, Bobby Whitlock's self-titled debut album is full of similar whiskey drenched southern blues rock . George Harrison and Klaus Voorman also play on this, the opening track. Criminal that this is out of print.

[Buy Recall The Beginning A Journey From Eden]

The last album Steve Miller would release before hitting his commercial stride with 1973's The Joker, Recall has a brilliant second side featuring one of Miller's best songs ever -- "Journey From Eden".  

Six Degrees of Separation: James Brown to The Grateful Dead

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1. In 1973 James Brown records "Down and Out in New York City" among other funky tracks for the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film Black Caesar. His backing vocalist, "funky soul siren" Lyn Collins, sings lead on another track, "Mama Soul".

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2. A year earlier, Lyn Collins --nicknamed "The Female Preacher"--had a Top 10 hit composed by James Brown called "Think ( About It)". The part where JB shrieks "Yeah!Woo! " (heard over and over again  in the 1988 Rob Base &  DJ E-Z Rock hip hop hit "It Takes Two" ) is probably the most sampled section.

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3. In fact De La Soul samples "Yeah!Woo" for "Jenifa Taught Me ( Derwin's Revenge)" for their 1989 debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising.

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4. Another track sampled on "Jenifa" is the "hoo hoo hoos" from "Take the Money and Run", a Top 20 Single by the Steve Miller Band in 1976. (You know, the one you can sing "Sweet Home Alabama" to.) Steve Miller wrote all of his biggest hits except for one.

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5. Steve Miller took this 1973 unreleased five minute jam from blind guitarist Paul Pena and condensed it into a Top Ten hit in 1977. One of music entrepreneur Albert Grossman's gross misdemeanors was preventing the release of Pena's brilliant second album New Train, which featured musical contributions from Steve Miller Band keyboardist Ben Sidran ( who turned Miller onto "Jet Airliner"), The Persuasions and Jerry Garcia.

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6. That same year, 1973, Garcia's band The Grateful Dead release the first Dead album on their own label. Wake of the Flood features 1001Songs's favorite Dead song "Eyes of the World".

Interview ( and jam) with Steve Miller

Steve Miller, wearing a blue blazer with jeans, looks a lot like Bill Murray these days. Rumpled. Cool. Mellow. That good time vibe you hear in all those songs? That's the vibe you get from Steve.
    1001Songs met him disembarking from his yacht, the ABRACADABRA, on a pier leading to his estate on one of the San Juan Islands.

   Steve showed me around the yacht. He and some friends has gone out into deeper waters the night before to jam. As I was about to learn, Steve Miller --the man who provided the soundtrack to my 70's--will jam with just about anyone.
  But first, we broke the ice by talking about how he wound up in the San Juans shortly after "Abracadabra" hit #1.

I took a break from 82 to 88 and went boating .That's exactly what brought me here. The idea that you could get on a boat and go to Alaska. Wow! So I started doing it and I never stopped.


To meet Steve Miller is to shake hands with the history of rock and roll. Steve learned his first guitar chords from the inventor of the electric guitar: Les Paul, a family friend.

I got the whole future of how music was going to be produced from the guy who invented the tools and it was an absolutely amazing thing.


Steve's father--a doctor--was an amateur recording engineer. All kinds of musical guests came by the house.
Among them, blues legend T Bone Walker.

When I was 9 he taught me how to play lead guitar behind my back and do the splits. So  I was surrounded by talented people as a young kid.



The blues have always been a  part of the Steve Miller sound. He moved to Chicago and jammed with Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. Then in the late 60's, he left for San Francisco where he hooked up with his old high school buddy Boz Scaggs and formed The Steve Miller Blues Band. Together they recorded a series of critically lauded acid blues albums.
  The 1969 lp Brave New World featured  "My Dark Hour", a song recorded with Paul McCartney during a break in The Beatles Let It Be sessions.

I thought "Boy, I've got a hit now"
We just put it out in the States and it was just like dropping something down the mail chute of the Empire State building. It just disappeared, you know.




When I pointed out that he resurrected the guitar licks for "Fly Like An Eagle" seven years late, he didn't seem too keen on that observation.
    But back to 1969: it was not his best year. Under pressure to create a hit song, Steve was on the verge of quitting the music business. He'd seen, first-hand, the toll the rock scene had taken on friends like Jimi Hendrix.

The last show I played with Jimi Hendrix he had a bunch of mafia guys around him when he arrived.

and  Jimi was so drugged out, he was full of heroin, full of speed, he just looked like he was going to die that day.


In 1972, Steve broke his neck in a car accident.

I fractured a vertebrae. I'm dealing with it right now. I got like three numb little fingers here and kind of a bad arm over here.

Steve spent the next year house-bound and living with his parents. He had a lot of time to himself and eventually wrote a three chord song looking back over his career. He called it "The Joker".

All of a sudden ...finally...last chance... got a big huge number one hit!





"The Joker" hit #2 in 1974. I got the feeling I wasn't the first person to ask him about the meaning of the mysterious "pompatus of love" lyrics.

"The Pompatus of Love" is just you know I can't tell you Man. If I told you I'd...I just can't do it.

Steve took three years to follow up The Joker with Fly Like an Eagle. Inspired by Pink Floyd, Steve and engineer Jim Gaines spent 14 to 20 hour days at Kaye Smith Studios in Seattle experimenting with synthesizers, vocal effects and transitions. His band had recorded enough songs for a double album but held tthe rest of the tunes for  for the 1977 lp, Book of Dreams . Both sold four million copies. The Steve Miller Band was one of the biggest rock n roll acts in the world.

In a very short amount of time we went from doing nothing to doing laser sculptures over football stadiums.

They played 200 cities a year. A grind that became unbearable.

We were so tired we couldn't see straight.





1982's "Abracadabra" would be Steve's last big hit. When synthesizers and hair bands took over radio, Steve Miller took off... for The San Juans.

But it hasn't been a quiet retirement. His classic rock albums still sell a million copies a year and thanks to advent of the "Classic Rock" radio format, Steve is in demand to play a bunch of "sheds"-- as he calls amphitheaters-- every year.

Steve Miller never has to pick up a guitar again but he loves playing so much he'll jam with almost anyone. Even me. He pointed to a guitar I could strap on and, I have to admit, I got so nervous I couldn't even tune the damn thing. So there stood Steve Miller tuning my guitar for me.

"OK you go ahead." He said. "Let me hear how you're going to play it."

"I was going to play it like this." I said. I had this blues riff in a minor key that I'd been fiddling with recently at home.

Steve probably thought that was a little strange but he starting solo-ing over the chords I played. He sounded great. Then he nodded at me to take a solo. I shook my head. He nodded again and I shook my head again.

Forget what you've heard about rock stars. Even those who've sold millions of records can still act as humble as they were at the beginning.
Steve sums it all up...laughing.

It's amazing how far you can go with three chords
E, A and D