dimanche 14 juillet 2013

The Steve Miller Band - 1972 Recall The Beginning... A Journey From Eden - 1973 The Joker (Great us classic rock - wave)


After the resounding critical drubbing for 1971's lackluster Rock Love, Steve Miller's worst-received release at that time, he rebounded a year later with this eclectic and much stronger set. It's his seventh album and last as a cult artist before the commercial breakthrough of 1973's The Joker. The album, dedicated to Mahalia Jackson and Junior Parker, is split into two distinct sections. Side one (or the first six songs) dips into '50s doo wop with "Enter Maurice," acoustic folk-blues ("High on You Mama"), upbeat down-home pop ("The Sun Is Going Down"), and good-time R&B blues-rocking with horns ("Somebody Somewhere Help Me") that predates Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes' similar style by about five years. But side two -- the last four tracks -- is where Miller really hits his stride with beautiful, somewhat psychedelic folk-rockers that add his blues and rock roots to the string-enhanced acoustic ballad "Nothing Lasts," the haunting "Love's Riddle," and the shimmering closing title track, certainly one of his most endearing compositions and the only selection to make the cut from this collection for his first career recap released later that year, 1972's Anthology. Nick De Caro's string arrangements are beautifully and expertly integrated into these songs and previous Steve Miller Band member Ben Sidran's production is sympathetic and spacious, as is veteran Bruce Botnick's (the Doors) engineering. 

Tracklist
01 Welcome – 1:18
02 Enter Maurice – 3:53
03 High on You Mama – 3:42
04 Heal Your Heart – 3:22
05 The Sun Is Going Down – 1:37
06 Somebody Somewhere Help Me – 2:37
07 Love's Riddle – 3:25
08 Fandango – 3:57
09 Nothing Lasts – 4:08
10 Journey from Eden – 6:45

Personnel
Steve Miller – guitar, vocals
Gerald Johnson – bass guitar
Ben Sidran – keyboards
Dick Thompson – keyboards
Jim Keltner – drums
Roger Allen Clark – drums
Gary Mallaber – drums
Jack King – drums
Jesse Ed Davis – guitar on "Heal Your Heart"
Nick DeCaro – strings, horns




I'll admit up front, "The Joker" was the first song by the SMB I ever heard on the radio. Little did I know (it took a while to grow on me) that Steve Miller would become one of my favorites in the music biz. Stripping his repertoire down to R&B, this was Miller's most "pop"-style album at the time-- but it was only a foreshadowing of things to come. My faves include "Sugar Babe" (why wasn't THIS a big hit?), "Mary Lou" (some girls are just BAD news!), "Shu Ba Da Du Ma Ma Ma Ma" (Be-Bop reinvented for the 70's?), "Your Cash Ain't Nothin' But Trash" (a novelty tune that refers back to the previous "Gangster Of Love" and "Space Cowboy"--shades of Cab Calloway) and "The Joker" (which in a more musical way does the same while adding "Enter Maurice" and its twisted lyrics to the mix). FUN stuff! A great example of how persistence pays off-- it "only" took 8 albums before SMB really hit it BIG! 

Tracklist 01. Sugar Babe 
02. Mary Lou 
03. Shu Ba Da Du Ma Ma Ma Ma 
04. Your Cash Ain't Nothin' But Trash 
05. The Joker 
06. The Lovin' Cup 
07. Come On In My Kitchen 
08. Evil 
09. Something To Believe In

Credits
Steve Miller - Vocals, Guitar, Harmonica
Gerald Johnson - Bass
John King - Drums
Dickie Thompson - Organ, Clavinet 
Lonnie Turner - Bass on "Evil"  
Sneaky Pete Kleinow - Pedal Steel Guitar on "Something To Believe In"

01
02

The Steve Miller Band - 1970 Number 5 - 1971 Rock Love (Great us classic rock - wave)


Steve Miller, the first master of the old echo unit, the Echoplex, lets it shine here. With his producer, Glyn Johns, they set out to create a trippy, countrified psychedelia landscape. Listen to Matthew Sweet's album "Girlfriend" from 1992 and you'll see where he got all his ideas from. The sound quality and studio production is incredible; very hard to believe the album was put together in bits and pieces during a tour of the south. All of the songs are masterpieces and full of commentary about the times. Perhaps on this album, Miller makes his boldest political statements to date, especially on songs entitled "Jackson - Kent Blues" and "Industrial - Military Complex Hex." Both tracks are lyrically powerful and are Miller's take on the shooting of students by national guardsmen and the connection between the industry of war and the economy. Miller lets it open up a couple of times with fresh and upbeat perspectives on tracks like "Goin' to the Country", "Good Morning" and "Tokin's." Studio tape manipulation abound due to the genius of Glyn Johns who provides some incredible sounds that may have been inspired by Hendrix's "Electric Ladyland." As a whole, the album is solid. If you have headphones or really good speakers, you'll have fun listening to this album front to back.

Tracklist
01 Good Morning (Bobby Winkelman) – 2:48
02 I Love You (Steve Miller) – 2:45
03 Going to the Country (Miller, Ben Sidran) – 3:47
03 Hot Chili (Tim Davis) – 3:30
04 Tokin's (Davis) – 4:23
05 Going to Mexico (Miller, Boz Scaggs) – 2:29
06 Steve Miller's Midnight Tango (Sidran) – 2:40
07 Industrial Military Complex Hex (Miller) – 3:54
08 Jackson-Kent Blues (Miller) – 7:18
09 Never Kill Another Man" (Miller) – 2:42

Credits
Steve Miller – guitar, vocals
Lonnie Turner – bass guitar
Bobby Winkelman – bass guitar, vocals
Ben Sidran – keyboards
Nicky Hopkins – keyboards
Tim Davis – drums, vocals
Charlie McCoy – harmonica
Lee Michaels - organ on "Going To Mexico"
Buddy Spicher - fiddle on "Going to the Country" (unattributed)



Rock Love is the sixth album by American rock band The Steve Miller Band, released in 1971. It featured Ross Valory (a future member of Journey) on bass. The album consists of three blues-rock tracks recorded live, including lengthy jam-style Love Shock which lasts nearly 12 minutes and includes an extensive drum solo, and four studio tracks. The first song starts with the words I'm going to play you some blues 'cos I know you like that, but the critics didn't like it at all and criticising the album's songs as generic white-boy blueisms. Added to the recording's lack of production and poor overall sound quality, it is not surprising that, unlike Miller's previous five albums and the ones to follow, this album was a commercial failure.

The critics at the time panned this album, but I always loved it and was glad to get it on digital. I saw Stevie guitar Miller back in the days and thought this album to be a good example of his pre-bubble gum stuff. He can lay out out the licks ala Stevie Ray or Jimmie. Check this album out if you like the blues rock side of what Steve Miller was about.

Tracklist
01"The Gangster Is Back" – 2:28
02"Blues Without Blame" – 5:41
03"Love Shock" – 11:43
04"Let Me Serve You" – 2:26
05"Rock Love" – 2:28
06"Harbor Lights" – 4:06
07"Deliverance" – 9:19
All tracks written by Steve Miller
Track 2 was recorded live in Hollywood, Florida.
Track 3 was recorded live in Pasadena, California.

Credits
Steve Miller – guitar, vocals
Ross Valory – bass guitar
Jack King – drums

01
02

The Steve Miller Band - 1969 Brave New World - 1969 Your Saving Grace ( Great us classic rock - wave)


Brave New World, the third offering by the still-new Steve Miller Band, was released in 1969. Can't you tell? References to celebrations and tripping abound, making this one of the sunniest, trippiest album of the psychedelic era. (Even the album cover is sunny yellow!) The opening of the title track (and the album) is a blast - literally, a bomb blast which hearalds the start of both a fresh, enjoyable tune and a bright new beginning for the world at large. Then, great drumming by Tim Davis kickstarts "Celebration Song," another wonderful vision of a world at play. "Got Love 'Cause You Need It" sounds like it's sung by Miller's infamous Gangster of Love character, full of danger and seduction, while "Seasons" is a gorgeous acoustic ballad, as heartfelt a track as Stevie Guitar has ever recorded. Nice! "Space Cowboy," of course, is the albums BIG HIT, complete with Moog synthesizer space sounds, and a rare, excellent guitar solo from Steve M! (The primary focus of Brave New World is on the material, not solos.) Literally too, too far out! "LT's Midnight Dream" is a fantasy feast, with lyrics like "got a bulldog in my learjet, gonna teach him how to fly"! Too much! Paul McCartney of the Beatles contributes drums, bass, and vocals to the blues-rock "My Dark Hour," (he is billed as Paul Ramon; yes, that is where the band The Ramones got their name!), while "Can't You Hear Your Daddy's Heartbeat?" is a love song in double-quick time and "Kow Kow" (also known as "Kow Kow Calqulator" on the anthologies) combines more fantasy lyrics with quotes from Bobby Blue Bland's "Turn on your Love Light". Outasite!! So, if your looking for something of Steve Miller's beyond the usual, well-crafted 70's material, give Brave New World a listen or two. You may want to start your own celebration!!! (By chris meesey Food Czar)

Tracklist
01 Brave New World (Steve Miller) – 3:27
02 Celebration Song (Miller, Ben Sidran) – 2:33
03 Can't You Hear Your Daddy's Heartbeat (Tim Davis) – 2:30
04 Got Love 'Cause You Need It (Miller, Sidran) – 2:28
05 Kow Kow (Miller) – 4:28
06 Seasons (Miller, Sidran) – 3:50
07 Space Cowboy (Miller, Sidran) – 4:55
08 LT's Midnight Dream (Lonnie Turner) – 2:33
09 My Dark Hour (Miller) – 3:07

Credits
Steve Miller – guitar, harmonica, lead vocals
Glyn Johns – guitar, percussion, backing vocals
Lonnie Turner – bass guitar, guitar, backing vocals
Ben Sidran – keyboards
Tim Davis – drums, lead vocals on "Can You Hear Your Daddy's Heartbeat?" & "LT's Midnight Dream".
Nicky Hopkins – piano on "Kow Kow"
Paul McCartney (as "Paul Ramon") – drums, bass guitar, backing vocals, on "My Dark Hour"




Your Saving Grace is a much more earthy collection of tunes when compared to the band's previous three long-players. While there are distinct psychedelic remnants of the Boz Scaggs (guitar/vocals) and Jim Peterman (keyboards) era, the addition of keyboardists Ben Sidran and Nicky Hopkins -- which began on the Steve Miller Band's previous effort, Brave New World -- adds a jazzier facet to this second incarnation of the group. Harking back to the band's blues roots, Your Saving Grace includes a couple of distinct blues originals -- such as the up-tempo and gospel-doused "Don't Let Nobody Turn You Around" and a somewhat uninspired arrangement of "Motherless Children," which sounds more synchronous with the Sailor or Brave New World albums. The funky "Little Girl," the elegantly pensive "Baby's House," and the title track -- which is oddly programmed as the LP's final cut -- are among the highlights of this disc. Once again, the production is handled by Glyn Johns, whose contributions here are more subdued, yet no less noticeable. This is especially true of Miller's crystalline slide guitar licks on Lonnie Turner's cryptically titled "The Last Wombat in Mecca." The same upfront clean sound holds true on the laid-back and bluesy "Feel So Glad" -- which is punctuated by some inspired and unmistakable ivory tickling by studio wunderkind Nicky Hopkins. Although the album is not as thoroughly solid as earlier efforts, Your Saving Grace and the follow-up, Number 5, are definite bridges between the early trippy montages prevalent on Children of the Future and the direction that Miller would take on his much more successful mid-'70s discs.(By Lindsay Planer)

Tracklist
01. Little Girl (Steve Miller) - 3:20
02. Just A Passin' Fancy In A Midnite Dream (Miller/Ben Sidran) - 3:37
03. Don't Let Nobody Turn You Around (Miller) - 2:26
04. Baby's House (Miller/Nicky Hopkins) - 8:48
05. Motherless Children (Trad. arr. Miller) - 6:01
06. The Last Wombat In Mecca (Lonnie Turner) - 2:54
07. Feel So Glad (Miller) - 5:19
08. Your Saving Grace (Tim Davis) - 4:46

Personnel:
Steve Miller - guitar, harmonica, synthesizer, vocals
Lonnie Turner - bass, guitar, vocals
Ben Sidran - organ
Nicky Hopkins - piano, harpsichord, organ
Tim Davis - drums, electronics, vocals
+
Glyn Johns - producer, tambourine, electronics, vocals
Barnes Ensemble - vocals (horus) on 4
Minor Wilson - guitar on 7
Curley Cooke - guitar on 8 


The Steve Miller Band - 1967 Children Of The Future - 1968 Sailor (Great us psychedelic rock - wave)



A psychedelic blues rock-out, 1968's Children of the Future marked Steve Miller's earliest attempt at the ascent that brought him supersonic superstardom. Recorded at Olympic Studios in London with storied producer Glyn Johns at the helm, the set played out as pure West Coast rock inflected with decade-of-love psychedelia but intriguingly cloaked in the misty pathos of the U.K. blues ethic. Though bandmate Boz Scaggs contributed a few songs, the bulk of the material was written by Miller while working as a janitor at a music studio in Texas earlier in the year. The best of his efforts resonate in a side one free-for-all that launches with the keys and swirls of the title track and segues smoothly through "Pushed Me Through It" and "In My First Mind," bound for the epic, hazy, lazy, organ-inflected "The Beauty of Time Is That It's Snowing," which ebbs and flows in ways that are continually surprising. The second half of the LP is cast in a different light -- a clutch of songs that groove together but don't have the same sleepy flow. Though it has since attained classic status -- Miller himself was still performing it eight years later -- Scaggs' "Baby's Callin' Me Home" is a sparse, lightly instrumentalized piece of good old '60s San Francisco pop. His "Steppin' Stone," on the other hand, is a raucous, heavy-handed blues freakout with a low-riding bass and guitar breaks that angle out in all directions. And whether the title capitalized at all on the Monkees' similarly titled song, released a year earlier, is anybody's guess. Children of the Future was a brilliant debut. And while it is certainly a product of its era, it's still a vibrant reminder of just how the blues co-opted the mainstream to magnificent success.(By Amy Hanson)

Tracklist

01 Children of the Future – 2:59
02 Pushed Me to It" – 0:38
03 You've Got the Power" – 0:53
04 In My First Mind" (Miller, Jim Peterman) – 7:35
05 The Beauty of Time Is That It's Snowing (Psychedelic B.B.)" – 5:17
06 Baby's Callin' Me Home" (Boz Scaggs) – 3:24
07 Steppin' Stone" (Scaggs) – 3:02
08 Roll with It" – 2:29
09 Junior Saw It Happen" (Jim Pulte) – 2:29
10 Fanny Mae" (Buster Brown) – 3:11
11 Key to the Highway" (Big Bill Broonzy, Charlie Segar) – 6:18

Credits

Steve Miller – vocals, guitar, harmonica
Boz Scaggs – guitar, backing vocals; lead vocals on "Baby's Calling Me Home" & "Steppin' Stone"
Lonnie Turner – bass guitar, backing vocals
Jim Peterman – mellotron on side one, Hammond organ on side two, backing vocals
Tim Davis – drums, backing vocals, lead vocals on "Junior Saw It Happen" & "Fannie Mae"



Tracklist
01 Song for Our Ancestors (Steve Miller) – 5:57
02 Dear Mary (Miller) – 3:35
03 My Friend (Tim Davis, Boz Scaggs) – 3:30
04 Living in the U.S.A. (Miller) – 4:03
05 Quicksilver Girl (Miller) – 2:40
06 Lucky Man (Jim Peterman) – 3:08
07 Gangster of Love (Johnny "Guitar" Watson) – 1:24
08 You're So Fine (Jimmy Reed) – 2:51
09 Overdrive (Scaggs) – 3:54
10 Dime-a-Dance Romance (Scaggs) – 3:26

Credits
Steve Miller – guitar, harmonica, lead vocals
Boz Scaggs – guitar, backing vocals, lead vocals on "Overdrive" & "Dime-A-Dance Romance"
Lonnie Turner – bass guitar, backing vocals
Jim Peterman – keyboards, background vocals, lead vocals on "Lucky Man"
Tim Davis – drums, backing vocals, lead vocals on "My Friend"

Sailor, Miller's second album in 1968, bends from his trippy first album "Children of the Future." Still with the same band, his focus seems to be more on the 3 1/2 minute song as opposed to the suites he composed before. What he did retain was his love of sound effects to create a musical landscape. This album puts you somewhere, down by some bay on a gray, overcast morning. Seagulls, boats and foghorns open up the album with the track "Song for our Ancestors." An interesting journey with tremolo guitars and pulsating Hammond B-3 organ. "Quicksilver Girl" and "Dear Mary" are his most psychadelic on the album, giving way to the undeniable heaviness of tracks like "Livin in the USA" and "You're so Fine" "Livin in the USA" was the track that, many years ago, kicked the door open for me with the music of the SMB. I was so jacked up with the organ "cha-chucks" that accompany Miller's harmonica. Jim Peterman's B-3 playing has so much much thickness to it, it just rockets the song along. Scaggs and Miller also turn in great rhythm playing on this and every tune on the album. This album is trippy, yet greasy in a great way. Great late night party music. Yahoo!

01
02