Steve Miller
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Children Of Future (1968), 7/10
Sailor (1968), 7/10
Your Saving Grace (1969), 5/10
Brave New World (1969), 6/10
Number Five (1970), 4/10
Rock Love (1971), 4/10
Recall The Beginners (1972), 6.5/10
The Joker (1973), 6/10
Fly Like An Eagle (1976), 6/10
Book Of Dreams (1977), 6/10
Circle Of Love (1981), 5/10
Abracadabra (1982), 4/10
Italian X Rays (1984), 4/10
Living In The 20th Century (1987), 4/10
Born 2B Blue (1988), 4/10
Wide River (1993), 4/10
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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)

(Translated from my original Italian text by Ornella C. Grannis)

Steve Miller was part of the great hippie season of San Francisco, but in reality he was a blues man who played elegant and refined blues-rock. When the acid-rock fashion died, Miller revealed his true mission: writing muzak that was both atmospheric and relaxing.

Raised in Texas, leader of a blues band in Chicago with Barry Goldberg, Miller arrived in San Francisco in 1966 and formed the Steve Miller Band. At his side was singer, rhythm guitarist and childhood friend Boz Scaggs.

The sound of Children Of the Future (Capitol, 1968) is by all means hallucinogenic, but without sacrificing the structure of the song, and best of all, preserving all the aggressive boogie riffs of a well disciplined blues band. The album is stylistically divided in two sides. Side One is relatively traditional, the domain of the impeccable Scaggs, with blues cuts perturbed by solos a la Hendrix, ecstatic choruses and acid keyboard, as in Roll With It and Baby's Callin' Me Home. Side Two is experimental, as the times demanded, a multi-part suite for ecstatic voices, Jim Peterman's church organ and wild guitar. Fantastic melodies are enriched by cosmic overtones, with a spirited country flavor in Children Of The Future. Instrumentals, psychedelic and celestial, are placed in the middle of an epic and symphonic "Pink-Floydian" blues in the seven minute In My First Mind. Short intervals of turbulence and dissonance punctuate The Beauty Of Time, with its mantra-chorus grand finale.

Frequent use of electronic effects weakens the guitars' voice on Sailor (Capitol, 1968), albeit conferring to the music a wilder character. The opening song Song For Our Ancestors features a sustained organ in crescendo, mimicking the rhythm of an air raid siren. Living In The USA and Overdrive are catchy blues rock songs; Dime-a-dance Romance is Scaggs' best ballad.

Your Saving Grace (Capitol, 1969) and Good New World (Capitol, 1969) are complementary albums. The first is a collection of soft rhythm and blues ballads like Your Saving Grace, Baby' s House, Feel So Glad. The second is a dynamic red-hot album, with a series of insistent blues rockers like Space Cowboy, My Dark Hour and Brave New World. After Scaggs and Peterman's departure the sound became progressively more manneristic and less bluesy.

Number Five (Capitol, 1970) is a roots-rock album, in a year when many were turning to country. More than anything, it is a pretext to span many stylistic fronts, from Going To Mexico, to Going To The Country, to Midnight Tango, always with grace and gentleness.

In 1973 Miller reorganized and aimed at a more polished studio sound, with wasted horns and calculated keyboards. Starting with The Joker (1973) the move yielded excellent commercial success in soft rock, with Rockin' Me (1976), Fly Like An Eagle (1977), Jet Airliner (1977), and Abracadabra (1982), as well as in the disco suite Macho City (1982), a festival of velvety electronics.


(Original text by Piero Scaruffi)

The live/studio album Rock Love (Capitol, 1971) was largely disposable, but the brief, 35-minute album Recall The Beginners (Capitol, 1972) contained some of his best material, including Lover's Riddle, Fandango, and culminating with the closer, Journey from Eden.

The line-up kept changing and Miller went through serious health problems. When he was ready to return to the studio, the world had changed. Miller's solution was to adopt a more soulful sound and enhance his ballads with slick arrangements of strings and horns. The result was The Joker (Capitol, 1973), that yielded the hit single The Joker, besides Sugar Babe and Something To Believe In. Miller became a master of soft-rock.

Miller's state of grace was proven with Fly Like An Eagle (Capitol, 1976), that contained the hit singles Rock And Me, Fly Like An Eagle and Take The Money And Run, and Book Of Dreams (Capitol, 1977), that contained more hit singles (Jet Airliner, Jungle Love, Swingtown). Few artists were producing so many hits in just two years. But somehow those two prolific years drained Miller's inspiration. He moved to Oregon and seemed to retire from music.

Greatest Hits 1974/78 (Mercury, 1978) is the anthology of the classic period.

Miller staged a mediocre comeback with Circle Of Love (Capitol, 1981), an album that attempted to bridge his old patented muzak (Circle Of Love, Heart Like A Wheel) with the electronic funk of Giorgio Moroder's disco-music (the side-long suite Macho City).

Abracadabra (Capitol, 1982) included the hit Abracadabra and Italian X Rays (Capitol, 1984) tried to further simplify his commercial funk-soul style.

Living In The 20th Century (Capitol, 1987) marked a return to his blues roots and Born 2B Blue (Capitol, 1988) is a tribute to jazz. Wide River (Polydor, 1993) was the first serious commercial enterprise since 1984 and offered more faceless Steve Miller muzak.

Bingo (2011) is a cover album.

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