By Susie Salva
When you think of the Steve Miller Band you undoubtedly think of one of the most recognized guitar riff ever for the song “Fly Like An Eagle.” It’s hard to believe that the Steve Miller Band has been around for four decades. Capitol/EMI releases the deluxe “Fly Like An Eagle: The 30th Anniversary Edition” by the Steve Miller Band. It not only includes the entire original album, but demo recordings for the album’s biggest hits, a 5.1 surround sound mix of the album, and bonus DVD featuring an interview and recent concert performances by theSteve Miller Band. Miller brings together a mix of jazz, blues, rock and electronic music to his repertoire.
The DVD was filmed in September 2005 at Mountain View’s Shoreline Amphitheater, the concert video was taken straight from the live recording made for the giant screen concert close-ups the night of the show. The filming of the concert has the feel to it like you are actually in the audience. The result is an undoctored snapshot of the current day Steve Miller Band with Miller making some of the best music of his life.
Miller’s hometown guests that night of the concert included guitar whiz Joe Satriani and rock ‘n rolling George Thorogood, but lesser known musicians such as Paraguayan gypsy fiddler and harpist Carlos Reyes and classical composer Nolan Gasser, who accompanied Miller on the piano for the old Nat King Cole hit, “Nature Boy,” which Miller had performed the night before as guest of the John Handy Quintet at the Monterey Jazz Festival.
All his shows in the Bay Area qualify as something of a homecoming for Miller. Although he was born in Milwaukee, raised in Dallas, went to college in Madison and cut his teeth in the Chicago blues scene, the Steve Miller Band was first formed in the psychedelic era of San Francisco music scene and he played all his early dates at the Avalon Ballroom and Fillmore Auditorium before signing with Capitol Records in 1968. The Steve Miller Band became a staple in the burgeoning field of underground FM radio and the group was a solid concert attraction at small halls across the country.
Miller is a perfectionist producing and recording his 1973 album, “The Joker,” in nineteen days at Capitol Tower and earned his first No. 1 hit with the title track. He spent six months scrupulously overdubbing the tapes (he installed a state-of-the-art eight track recording studio in his living room) and emerged with enough material to finish two albums. He mixed the first album in two days at Seattle’s Kay-Smith Studios and delivered the finished master tapes with a slide containing the album cover artwork personally to the president of Capitol Records.
“Fly Like An Eagle,” which was released in May 1975, went on to produce three hit singles, sell more than four million copies, and send Miller’s career spiraling upward. When tracks from the two albums were collected on a single disc for the album, “Greatest Hits: 1974-78", the resulting record sold more than 13 million copies and continues to be one of the biggest-selling catalog pieces in the industry to this day.
“Fly Like An Eagle: The 30th Anniversary,” edition also contains early versions of key songs from the album such as “Take the Money and Run,” “Rock’n Me” and “Fly Like An Eagle.” Miller worked for years on “Fly Like An Eagle,” until he perfected it when he came across the burbling synthesizer line that tied the track together. That draft version gave a clear insight into Miller’s creative process.
From the very start, when classic rock radio emerged in the late ‘80s as the most popular music format on the dial, these Steve Miller recordings were cornerstones of the programming. His recordings were freshly introduced to new listeners daily and he barnstormed the county to capacity crowds all through the ‘90s. His music is still a staple of classic rock these days.
Back in action, with the latest edition of his band playing the song at Shoreline, guest guitarist Joe Satriani and Miller pushed the track beyond the twenty-minute mark, “Fly Like An Eagle: The 30th Anniversary,” shows the song to be living, thriving, growing piece of music, as vital today as the moment it was first unleashed on the original album. This disc is definitely one for your collection. Be sure to check out the interview as Miller reminisces over his career-spanning hits.
His first guitar teacher was none other than Les Paul and Mary Ford taught him to harmonize. They were friends of his family. Jerry Garcia liked him and he opened for the Grateful Dead for years… he confessed later that he hated the Dead.
and hello my dear sweet Jane and remember to write every article like its the last one anyone is ever going to let you write!!!
Great article!