Back in the prehistoric pre-internet days, when my mother used to hang wet clothes on a line using bird beaks and Dad powered the family car with his feet, listening to music was a crucial part of my social life. Everybody I knew had a stereo, everybody had records or tapes to play, a handful of friends didn’t even own a television. Every vehicle had a cassette or 8-track player, and we all played our newest tapes and LPs for each other. Listening to music was a shared experience, not unlike pre-cable network television. Granted, I occasionally lent somebody a record or tape that never quite found its way back to me, but my collection had a few that ended up with me the same way, so it was pretty much a wash.
Those times ended when the next generation of artists and fans came along and my tribe started to marry off and start families. Most of my peers willingly embraced the Classic Rock radio format, convinced we had lived through a golden age of music, the likes of which the world would never see again. A golden age that ended sometime in the early 1980s. A smaller number of us pushed forward, not willing to lose the plot on the bands we loved, and kept looking for new ones to give our hearts to.
For better or worse, most of our classic rock favorites kept plugging away after huge chunks of their demographic abandoned them, often on smaller record labels and in smaller concert venues. Some continued to make excellent, creative new music for a much smaller audience, others tried to hang onto their market share by recycling old ideas and sounds. What Happened Next? is intended to get former fans up to speed on the rest of the story for artists who once rocked our world and let them know if there’s a latter-day album or two (or several) worth their time and bandwidth.
Steve Miller / The Steve Miller Band – “Some people call me the space cowboy.” As soon as that opening lyric hit the airwaves, Steve Miller and his sly, bluesy band were a massive hit. After years of regional success as a NoCal psychedelic blues combo, they shifted toward the radio-friendly and hit the jackpot. After The Joker went platinum, the band solidified its stranglehold on the world market by releasing Fly Like an Eagle and Book of Dreams, both spewing out smash hit singles and generating sales in the rarified air of their multi-platinum peers like Fleetwood Mac and Boston. Circle of Love in ’81 was where we can start to see the generational droop (side 2 was a one-song “suite” his fans pretty much rejected) and he would never be as popular again. 1982’s Abracadabra was a decent commercial rebound, mainly because the title song was a major earworm-worthy hit, but none of the other singles from it made a dent in the public consciousness and it proved to be Steve’s last visit near the top of the charts.
What happened next:
• Live! (1983) – A low-energy, poorly recorded recreation of his big hits. Pass.
• Italian X-Rays (1984) – Steve turns to synths and digital effects to sound “modern.” It didn’t work. At all. It was scorned by his fans and ignored by everybody else. Pass.
• Living in the 20th Century (1987) – More new wave-sounding digital nonsense. That ubiquitous mid- to late-80s compressed drum sound was a crime against music. Pass.
** Born 2 B Blue (1988) – A sharp left turn for Steve. He hired some heavyweight jazz players and made an album of cover songs in a very easy listening, jazz-pop style. His great comeback? Not so much, it’s all pretty slight stuff. But it’s also rather pleasant in a playing-in-the-background-on-Sunday-morning kind of way.
• A couple more unnecessary live albums (2002 & 2008) – Pass and pass.
**** Bingo! (2010) – 22 years after Born 2 B Blue, Steve got serious about making records again. Lots of great guitar, hooks, and vocal harmonies, with more blues in the mix than you might remember from his big pop hits of the 70s. He didn’t write any original songs for the album, they’re all covers of big-time blues artists like Otis Rush, B.B. King, and the immortal Jimmy Reed, but fans of SMB’s classic albums will recognize the airy sound and bag full of hooks. This one should have been the big comeback, but not many fans were still listening by this point. Highly recommended.
*** Let Your Hair Down (2011) – Bingo! actually (barely) cracked the U.S. Top 40 album chart, so the next release was more from the same recording sessions. Still enjoyable, but less successful artistically and commercially than the previous LP. Obviously, the best of the tracks were cherry-picked for Bingo!, but this one is also well worth a spin or two. Steve’s last studio album, at least to date.
**** The Joker Live in Concert (2015) - A latter-day pleasant surprise. Released to commemorate the 40th anniversary of The Joker (albeit a couple years late), Steve combed his band’s concert recordings from the 2000s and put together an all-live version of the record. The running order is different from the original, but he and his touring band definitely had their groove on and the record’s a delightful listen. The cover photo is a creepy close-up of the bug-man mask Steve wore on the cover of The Joker, so bonus.
There have been a few more live releases from his tape vaults in recent years, as well as a couple of major greatest hits packages. You may care about them, but I don’t. A few key Steve Miller Band members have passed, including the great Norton Buffalo in 2009. There’s no indication that Steve is planning any more studio albums, but he is still touring.
A final note:
Steve was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016. He didn’t accept the honor gracefully, to put it mildly. He wanted Elton John to give his induction speech, but the HoF turned down his request, assigning him the Black Keys instead. Steve didn’t know the Black Keys and made it very clear he didn’t want to. He nearly cancelled his appearance but showed up to give a sour acceptance speech that took the HoF to task for the way they pick the nominees and the significant cash the ruling committee rakes in by licensing the artist’s appearances and performances. The guys from the Black Keys left the building following the speech and have said several times they regret being part of Steve’s induction. Elton wisely stayed out of the whole mess.
EARWORM: "The Joker" (1973) - Lots and lots of great songs, but I love the quirkiness of the one that made him a star.
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