Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Steve Miller like most very successful musicians has a pedigree. At the tender age of five years old, the first chords that he ever learned to play were taught to him by the legendary Les Paul. His father was a doctor who was a jazz fan. Not surprisingly his mother was a jazz singer. Suffice it to say the Millers were great friends of Les Paul and Mary Ford.

Later on Steve taught Royce (Boz) Scaggs how to play guitar in high school. Boz Scaggs played in a band with Steve for a short period of time. Originally the Steve Miller Band was called The Steve Miller Blues Band.

It was only when Steve changed his musical focus to more pop oriented rock that he became very successful. Boz Scaggs rejoined Steve for a couple of albums before he embarked on his own successful recording career.

There are at least a couple of Steve Miller tunes that most people could hum or perhaps even sing a bar or two. Let's hear your thoughts about this great artist?

My older brother had The Joker when I was very young and it scared the **** out of me for some reason. All those creepy masks.
I might like his music and appreciate his playing if I could get past his horrible lyrics. Alas, I can't, so I don't listen.

Sorry.

Agreed. Some of his lyrics were corny as can be but the musicianship on his songs was first class. Just listen to the band track in "Big Jet Airliner" It was very tastefully done and there were some great hooks.

I've always liked his stuff, both the older blues stuff and the more pop stuff. He's a good guitar player too and gets some great tones. He's a great guy too, and he joined in a benefit concert for a local blues artist, Curtis Salgado, when Curtis had to get a liver transplant a couple years ago. For some of you who don't know, Curtis met John Belushi when Animal House was being filmed in Eugene, Oregon in the 70's, and Belushi used Curtis's stage act as the inspiration for his Blues Brothers character. Curtis was fronting the Robert Cray band at the time, and Robert Cray left his tour of Europe with Eric Clapton to join in the benefit concert too. Curtis is a very good harp player and a great singer that leaves the hairs standing up on your neck quite often.

Greg

I'm a huge fan of Steve Miller...just an all around excellent writer and performer. My favorite "buried treasure" is "Wild Mountain Honey".

I always thought his recording production was top notch. Nothing else sounded like his albums...maybe until Tom Petty met Jeff Lynne...something about how they achieve an absolute clarity of vocals, perfect separation and perfect unity all at once.

Good observation Mark. I wonder how he achieved such a great sound in the recording studio. No one else seemed to have reached that high bar at the time, at least as far as I recall.

There were two Steve Miller's for me - the one with the well-packaged hits "The Joker," "Fly Like an Eagle," "Rock'n Me," "Abracadabra" etc. and the earlier one that produced "Space Cowboy" Living In The USA" "Jackson-Kent Blues." The earlier one is my favorite remembrance and the songs that I visit from time to time. These are much more interesting songs, lyrics & solos and was a real contribution to the music of that time. I have Lonnie Turners 1968 Gibson EB-3. The case has "Steve Miller Band" stenciled.

Mike you make a very good point, I liked both incarnations. I view what he did to be very similar to the change the Fleetwood Mac went through. Bands that are led by people like this never really lose sight of their roots though. Their roots do manage to peek through the fabric of their music, even if they are emulating a different genre.

Here's a pretty darn good Steve Miller interview. Why do I know about it? Because this thread piqued my interest! Brian Medway strikes again. Thanks for a great, great forum. This sort of thing was missing from our Net Diets...

http://mixonline.com/recording/intervie ... ve_miller/

That was an incredible read. Thanks very much Mark. It's actually contributions like this that make this place interesting in my view. Thanks for the sentiments expressed too. I am not so sure that I deserve them though. I only share my love of music from my relatively insignificant vantage point, the people who contribute here color the picture and make it really interesting.

Writing lyrics is easy when you invent words to fit the meter of the line!

Wild Mountain Honey..Great Tune,
Mercury Blues, Sweet Maree, The Window ....the whole Fly Like An Eagle Album is great!

How about Space Cowboy, Living In The USA, Come In To My Kitchen...

Thanks now I've got to pull out the old tracks and give 'em a listen.

How about the Circle of Love guitar solo ? Sweet.

Another Steve Miller classic is the acoustic tune "Journey from Eden" from back before 1970... very mysterious lyrics and a foreboding melody.

On the subject of lyrics --- If you study the fantastic lyrics for "Your Saving Grace" I have to wonder what ever happened to the SMB bass player (was it Lonnie Turner?) who wrote such a great song ?? He is really a good song writer. Surely he must have had some other stunning poetic pieces ....

Cordially
Rich F.

alanz wrote:Writing lyrics is easy when you invent words to fit the meter of the line!

Right I'm still puzzled by `THE PONTENENCE OF LOVE` .....,

Also, he had some plagerism issues with among others `TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN`vs. `SWEET HOME ALABAMA`.

tamborineman wrote:
Right I'm still puzzled by `THE PONTENENCE OF LOVE` .....,

That'd be "pompatus" - http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_065.html