The result is a temporary increase to Odyssey entries, although once I am not driving out to clean out my office this will slacken. For now, I'm enjoying the variety.
Disc 271 is...Greatest Hits 1974-1978
Artist: The Steve Miller BandYear of Release: 1978
What’s Up With The Cover?: It isn't a picture of Steve Miller (thankfully) but instead some stylized drawing of a horse, with a star in its eye, and flaming hair. Also, the horse's neck has the image of either a guy with a guitar or a pregnant woman. This is not a good representation of seventies cover art - it looks like it would be better suited for the wall of a 13 year old girl's room.
How I Came To Know It: I have some Steve Miller Band on record, but this particular purchase was Sheila's. She grew up with SMB as well (in her case, through a teacher that played it in class) and had some nostalgia for the music.
How It Stacks Up: This is a 'best of' so it doesn't stack up - that would be against the laws of nature and good taste.
Rating: not applicable - no ratings for 'best ofs'!
As I noted above, I've known the Steve Miller Band for a long time - as long as I can remember in fact. I even have some on vinyl - my brother's hand-me-down copy of 1976's "Fly Like An Eagle", which must've been a pretty big record, since six of its twelve tracks made the Greatest Hits album.
The Steve Miller Band is one of those seventies acts that was a victim of video. While they are talented musicians, the Steve Miller Band are not a terribly comely lot and the sad state of modern music is you have to look either pretty or weird to get noticed like you deserve. The Steve Miller Band was doomed from the start - they don't even look weird.
The music is pretty straight forward guitar driven rock and roll, with a bit of southern harmony thrown in. Everyone my age or older knows Steve Miller Band as many of these songs were pretty huge as we were growing up.
Consequently, I spent a lot of the time I should have been bending a critical ear to this CD instead singing along in the car. Steve Miller is made for sing-a-long time, whether it is clapping your hands just so after he sings "Billy Mac is a detective down in Texas" in "Take The Money and Run" or rhyming off the cities in "Rock N' Me" - ("I went from Phoenix, Arizona all the way to Tacoma, Philadelphia, Atlanta, LA"). And yes, I just typed that line from memory - such is the deep impression of early childhood memory.
Most of the tracks are very short, and I expect this helped get airplay in the mid-seventies when a lot of acts were rebelling against mainstream radio by putting out deliberately long rock songs. In places, I find myself wishing SMB would expand some of their stuff as well, but maybe the charm in their songs is partly their brevity.
Also, is it just me or is the riff on "Jet Airliner" almost exactly the same as the Eagles' "Life in the Fast Lane"? If so, Don Henley's got some 'splainin' to do, because "Jet Airliner" came out in 1974, and "Life In the Fast Lane" is off of "Hotel California - which came out in 1976.
Musical conspiracy theories aside, this was an enjoyable little walk down memory lane. These songs wont' set the critical world on fire, but they are a fun time in the car.
Best tracks: Take The Money and Run, Rock N' Me, The Joker, Fly Like an Eagle, Dance Dance Dance
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