Steve Miller in the early '80s

i saw some early 80s steve miller vid on vh1 classics the other day - 'live' clips with freeze frames of steve Rocking out - overbite, grimace, springsteen jumps; the song was pretty great, a bit delirious. steve miller's someone i had no time for when i was a teenager but the passage of years and accumulation of wisdom has shown me the error of my ways. i can't be the only person here who thinks he made a better collaborator for mccartney than elvis costello.

Easy! He kept existing!

steve miller's someone i had no time for when i was a teenager but the passage of years and accumulation of wisdom has shown me the error of my ways.

otm

"Heart Like a Wheel" is more trad rock, but is AWESOME if I recall correctly.

I need to listen to that LP copy of Circle of Love I found at the flea market. "Macho City!"

What a cover:

http://home.new.rr.com/photos1/photos/steve%20miller%20band%20-%20circle%20of%20love.JPG

i've never listened to side one of that LP. lemme know how it is

I kept expecting "Macho City" to be this Lost Masterpiece. It isn't.

That's too bad. I love his voice and his groove. I'd like to hear more.

The last three minutes, though -- raindrops, strummed guitar -- are really nice, though.

What a strange career he had. Pasted from Wikipedia, never knew this:

"In this first period Miller established his personae of the "Gangster of Love" (from Sailor) and the "Space Cowboy" (from Brave New World), which were reused in later works. In 1972, Miller recorded the album Recall the Beginning, A Journey from Eden, in which a third persona, "Maurice," was introduced in the tune "Enter Maurice.""

I've probably heard the opening line of "The Joker" 500 times and I never once bothered to think what it might mean. I guess that's the beauty of Steve Miller.

It's his pompatus of love.

"Macho City" isn't a masterpiece but it is still good fun.
Love for "Bongo Bongo" seconded!

So I finally shelled out $1 for a copy of Circle Of Love last month; not sure what took me so long. Had never actually heard "Macho City," which is insanely awesome, before (at least not its 18 minute version, and maybe at all), though I'd been hearing about it since Disco Not Disco. And now I'm curious, because it seems like such a bizarre anomaly in Miller's career (unless there are similar tracks I don't know about, in which case somebody please tell me) -- did he ever play it live? Did his fans react as if it was Metal Machine Music? Did he ever discuss it interviews, or say what inspired it? Queen had gone #1 with "Another One Bites The Dust" the year before, so I'm thinking maybe that (though they didn't stretch it out for anywhere near so long!); I'd be real surprised if he hadn't also been listening to some early rap 12-inches, maybe ones that did stretch out for almost that long. (The giveaway about the rap influence, obviously, is his goofy talked current-events rhymes at the beginning, maybe inspired also by Reagan's election?) First Was (Not Was) album, which this sort of reminds me of, was 1981, too; not sure what month it came out, though -- Joel Whitburn says Circle didn't chart til November, so maybe Miller had heard that, too. (Other side of the LP, fwiw, is just cute and seemingly tossed-off summertime pothead bubble-rock hackwork -- Beach Boys and Chuck Berry and maybe Three Dog Night steals, and a nice lush guitar solo toward the end. Nothing remotely inspired, but pleasant ehough to play once or twice.)

I mean, other veteran AOR guys were getting spare and funky around then, maybe having seen the hip-hop (and dance-oriented new wave) writing on the wall and thinking it'd be fun to try it out themselves -- the Stones with "Emotional Rescue," J. Geils with "Flamethrower," ZZ Top on El Loco, whatever -- but I can't think of anybody else who took it to the extreme that Miller did in that one track.

Also, Circle Of Love peaked at #26 in Billboard, his lowest peaking album between 1973 and 1982. But what's crazier is how his chart action completely fucking plummets after Abracadabra, which went #3 in '82: '83 live LP #125, '84 Italian X-Ray #101, then the next three studio LPs at #65 and 108 and 85.

maybe the boys inspired him:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73c6-cuObGc

i actually don't think macho city is that weird a move. sounds like maybe he was listening to some frank zappa and some p-funk, but other than that it's spacey and funky and steve miller-y when you get right down to it. he WAS the space cowboy after all.

Yeah, he was always a pretty funky guy, I know. But I gotta say I don't hear much P-Funk in it -- it's too spacey for that, too new wave disco or something. And way too funky for Zappa (unless Zappa has stuff that funky I've never heard, which is possible). And as much not-disco as disco. But right, maybe he was just shuffling a bunch of weird influences. The weirdest move, to me, is the album-side-long length of the track as much as the obsessive rhythm and all the blackouts and false endings and rainstorm sound effects. Do his early, pre-pop-star LPs have any songs that long? I wouldn't put it past him. But I swear, for a rock guy in 1981, it's got to be unheard of. (Even when Yes made their hip-hop move with "Owner Of Lonely Heart" a couple years later they saved the long version for 12-inch singles.)

{Or shuffling less-weird influences into something weird. Though P-Funk and Zappa are pretty weird in the first place, obviously -- and those influences do make sense, I guess, if he merged them in the way that Was Not (Was) was merging them then.} (Also, George Clinton was starting to sound more new wavey himself come the early '80s, I guess, though Computer Games/"Atomic Dog" wasn't 'til a year later.)

The Police had that dubby guitar space sound too circa 1980-1981

Yeah, good point. "Voices In My Head" got plenty of Electrifying Mojo airplay in Detroit, and older AOR guys like Rush were clearly listening to them. But again, they weren't stretching out like Miller does here. (Don't recall Mojo playing "Macho City," btw, though maybe I missed it.)

Related thread:

why did so many prog rock bands thrive during the New Wave boom?

There's another thread somewhere about AOR bands actually making new wave moves in the early '80s (maybe specifically 1983), but I can't find it.

Was about 70's AOR bands waving-out in 1981. Was thinking about that thread while reading yr posts on the Steve Miller tune, which I now wanna hear.

maybe Miller was hip to the way tracks were being mixed ultra-extended in discos like the Paradise Garage ... he certainly got play there.

Seriously, though: "Bongo Bongo". WTF. A little less studio polish and this could totally be something that somebody's uncle composed in five minutes on one of the display keyboards in a K-Mart electronics department. And I mean that in the best way possible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd1b7d7vj04

I get "Shangri La" stuck in my head often. From Italian Xrays. If Chaz Jankel turned up in the credits it wouldn't surprise. Doesn't appear to be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI17MnURWqU

COMMUNICATE! with the one you really love!

Old Lunch, I'm glad you understand the wonderful weirdness of "Bongo Bongo."

"Bongo Bongo" is one of the greatest gifts ilx ever gave me

I love how every single Steve Miller album can be understood as this guy playing around with some new toys he just got