great website ! Steve Miller 1957 Marksmen Combo 1963 The Knightranes Monterey 1967 Steve Miller Band - Fly Like An Eagle vs Book of Dreams
The Sailor was my first Stevie record. Then along came The Joker, which made my girlfriend randy. Then an explosion of radio hits on the next few records. i've seen him a few times in outdoor shows, always a good one.
My favorite album of his, right before he became a mainstream pop star. At Winterland, January 1974 (with ZZ Top and Climax Blues Band on the same bill--what a show!):
The first five are where it's at for me, with Sailor being my fave. I don't mind Fly Like an Eagle or Book of Dreams at all either.
Steve's godfather is the famous musician, inventor, guitar designer and recording innovator Les Paul.
Never saw them at Winterland, but I caught some gigs in the early 90s at The Greek Theater in Berkeley, Cal Expo in Sacto and Laguna Seca in Monterey. I wasn't a big fan, but I had a huge crush a beautiful Deadhead and went to the shows to hang out with her mainly. I really enjoyed the vibe of those shows. Oh, and I saw them with The Who at the Day on The Green in '76.
Sweet. Sounds like we were at a lot of the same Dead shows.... I thought your earlier post was saying you were at that Winterland show in 74... but maybe you were just posting the pic? It is a great one! Going all Jimi, and sh't... Back to Steve though - love all the 60's and 70's material, but he started to sound a bit generic after that, and I lost interest. I am sure there is some worthwhile music in the post-1980 canon, but so far I have yet to explore any of it. I saw a great Steve show at Shoreline around 2002 or so, Gov't Mule opened, likely my first time seeing them. But Steve was great that day. I had good seats down in the 100's so it felt like we were at a much smaller show than it actually was. Norton Buffalo was still around (RIP) and played great that day. I recorded it but one of the mic cables was shorting out so only 1 channel was clean/listenable. Still ok, but in mono it seems kinda flat sounding.... that shouldn't matter, in theory, but I could never really enjoy that tape... sadly, cuz it was a great show!
' Sailor ' was one of the first twenty or so albums I bought. Long gone now but what a terrific record.
Miller played 2 nights. I was at the first night. The video of the second gig is on youtube. You can see the same spot in the show where I took my photo here at 1:39:45 or so:
Very talented. I just don't think his songwriting is up there with the best. I listened to Book of Dreams yesterday and some of that material is quite trite, and seeped, or drenched in effects to make it sound groovy. But I do like the big hits and the key tracks on the old Anthology.
Book of Dreams was one of the first albums I bought as a kid. After that I got Fly Like An Eagle and then went back to pick up the Anthology album - good stuff! I've kept up with him from Circle of Love, the incredibly hooky Abracadabra and Wide River which all contained some bright spots. His most recent run of Bingo and Let Your Hair Down are top notch! Now going back deeper to Brave New World & Sailor for future buys.
Up to 'Book of dreams' and that is it for me the ones after are not too clever.....my word the early ones were superb.
I always heard the radio songs growing up. Never bought anything until a couple of years ago I picked up Sailor. I really liked it and ended up buying 6 others. Brave New World is a great one, as well as Number 5.
