The Steve Miller Band

Certain Songs #2483: The Steve Miller Band – “Swingtown”

November 9, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Book of Dreams
Year: 1977

Unlike the other mid-1970s Steve Miller Band singles I’ve been writing about — as well as the two I didn’t write about, “Fly Like an Eagle” and “Jungle Love” — I didn’t really hear “Swingtown” a zillion times on the radio. And when I did, it felt a bit abstract and unknowable to me, like I was hearing it from another room, even if I was in the same room where it was on.

Certain Songs #2482: The Steve Miller Band – “Jet Airliner”

November 8, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Book of Dreams
Year: 1977

. . .

So I never bought any Steve Miller Band albums, so it wasn’t until I did my usual half-ass research for this post that I realized that two out of the three singles from Book of Dreams were covers. One of those was the ebullient “Jungle Love,” and the other was “Jet Airliner,” which is second after “Take The Money and Run” for my favorite Steve Miller Band song.

Certain Songs #2481: The Steve Miller Band – “Rock ‘n Me”

November 7, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Fly Like an Eagle
Year: 1976

. . .

One of the more interesting things about Steve Miller’s big mid-1970s singles is how sparse they are. Except for the organ on the spacey white soul prog “Fly Like an Eagle” and the synths on “Swingtown,” they’re all just guitar, bass, and drums. And most of the time, Miller doesn’t even bother overdubbing a second guitar.

That the sparsest of all, 1976’s “Rock ‘n’ Me”, was a hit at all is a bit of anomaly for the times, given that in late 1976, the lusher productions of disco were beginning to top the charts, so it was competing with the likes of Rod Stewart’s “Tonight’s The Night,” Chicago’s “If You Leave Me Now” and The Bee Gees “You Should Be Dancing” and Elton John’s and Kiki Dees “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.” Whatever you might think of the merits of those songs, they were full-blown productions.

Certain Songs #2480: The Steve Miller Band – “Take The Money and Run”

November 6, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Fly Like an Eagle
Year: 1976

. . .

It must have driven the folks at Capitol Records absolutely insane that it took Steve Miller over two years years to put out a follow-up to The Joker the album, which had peaked at #2 on the albums chart, especially given that the single that followed-up the surprise #1 “The Joker” the song, “Your Cash Ain’t Nothing But Trash,” stiffed at #51, and a second attempt to turn FM staple “Living in the U.S.A.” into a hit single didn’t work, even if it did have the incandescent “Kow Kow” as the b-side.

It was probably even more frustrating because Miller had put out eight — eight! — albums between 1968-1973, and when just when they needed a new record was when he took his damn time. It all seemed to be a set-up for Miller to be a prototypical one-hit wonder.

Certain Songs #2479: The Steve Miller Band – “The Joker”

November 4, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Joker
Year: 1973

. . .

I mean, this fucking thing. I don’t even know where to start with it.

So let’s start with me!! And how I fucking hated this song when it was an utterly inescapable single in that 1973-1974 period when all I did was listen to 13 KYNO-AM, who played it approximately 10,886 times a day.

Certain Songs #2478: The Steve Miller Band – “Kow Kow”

November 3, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Brave New World
Year: 1969

. . .

Before he had all of those hits in the mid-1970s, Steve Miller had already established himself as a recording artist: 1973’s The Joker was the eighth studio album from The Steve Miller Band. Eighth!! And he started in 1968! Imagine that happening today: an artist having seven albums, none of which chart higher than #22, while their highest-charting single — 1970’s spritely “Going To The Country” — topped out at #69. Which is nice and all, but his record company, Capitol, kept funding him. Maybe because he was Les Paul’s godson?

Anyways, Miller had come out of the San Francisco scene, riding a psychedelic blues-rock vibe and some minor radio hits — I remember hearing “Living in the USA” and “Space Cowboy” occasionally, but I’d never even remotely bothered to check out his early records until a couple of years ago. And for the most part they were fine, and all had some really good songs.