This year, it’s the 50th Anniversary of “The Joker”, the Steve Miller Band’s commercial breakthrough single. Before then, Miller and his crew were a blues / psychedelic rock outfit that released five pretty well regarded albums from 1968 through 1970 (that’s how it was done in those days), and they charted reasonably well and got time on FM radio. The band soon became a revolving door though, and Miller himself was out of commision in 1971 after an accident.
Capitol Records, who had signed Miller for $860,000 (in 1968 money) for five years, had to get some product out there to recoup their investment, so they released a half-assed half-live half-outtake album that caused Miller to lose a lot of critial cred. In 1972, Miller regrouped and released Recall the Beginning…A Journey to Eden which really didn’t help his reputation. Capitol released an collection in 1972 and it seemed that 1973 was make or break for Miller.
Sensing (wisely) that the psychedelic stuff had played out, he went right for the blues-based rock audience for his next album. Trimming his band to himself, a bassist, a keyboard player, and a drummer, he de-cluttered his sound. Still short on material, there were nine tracks, but two were live, and another two were blues and R&B covers. However, he found his commercial mojo, as “Shu Ba Da Du Ma Ma Ma Ma” became a concert favorite, and then the title track was “The Joker” - the one song that comes to mind if you mention to the Steve Miller Band to normies.
That track, with its laid back sound and sing-along chorus that everyone knows, was justifiably huge. Yet it’s the first verse, where Miller introduces himself. However, many, especially those who had no idea who Steve Miller was when they first heard the track, didn’t know that “The Joker” was self-referential to other Miller tracks, not just spouting his nicknames.
Let’s take a look:
“Some people call me the Space Cowboy” - In 1969, Miller’s Brave New World album contained the track “Space Cowboy”, which became one of his best known radio tracks then, and a concert favorite for at least a decade. Yet, “Space Cowboy” told people that Miller told them about “Living in the USA”, which was the Steve Miller Band’s first hit and gave them a place on radio and in stores. He also mentioned he was the “Gangster of Love”, which leads us to….
”Some people call me the Gangster of Love” - Sailor was the Steve Miller Band’s second album, released in 1968 to critical acclaim, and also saw the band start to splinter apart, with Boz Scaggs going solo soon after. In the middle of the second side, there’s a short track (a snippet) that’s a cover (ish) of Johnny “Guitar” Watson’s “Gangster of Love”, a 1957 single that blues fanatics (like Miller) knew. Watson also released “Space Guitar” in 1954, which also inspired Miller. The cover is short, and changes up the lyrics a bit, as Miller name-checks himself and it ends in giggles. A minor trifle showcasing fun in the studio, but the name stuck for him.
“Some people call me Maurice” - This was a reference to the lead track of his last album “Enter Maurice”, which was a 50’s-style throwback where Miller, or Maurice, declares himself the best thing his girl ever had, and she shouldn’t walk out that door.
”Cause I speak of the pompitous of love” - In “Enter Maurice”, Miller says that the girl should come close so Maurice can whisper “sweet words of epistmetology in your ear and speak to you about the pompitous of love”. Miller brushed that off as ‘jive talk’. But it wasn’t…not really.
You may know in 1996 there was an indie movie called The Pompatous of Love (I watched it. It was blah even though it had Jon Cryer, Mia Sara, Jennifer Tilly, and Kristen Scott Thomas). In that there was debate (a whole movie’s worth, yeesh) about what that word meant.
Earlier, some music buff realized that the old R&B track by the Medallions, “The Letter” had the singer Vernon Green sang words that were close to epistemtology and pompitous. Cryer learned about the song, and mentioned it during a TV interview that Green happened to be dozing in front of. Green then contact Cryer, and Green said the words were actually ‘pizmotality’ and ‘puppetutes’, which was also jive.
It wasn’t a stretch that Miller knew that song (that was his record collecting wheelhouse) and heard epistmetology and pompitous instead of what the lyrics really were.
Mystery solved. All the references tracked down.
That’s not quite the end of the references Miller kept making at that time.
In “The Joker”, Miller sings “lovey dovey lovey dovey all the time”. The Clovers released a song called “Lovey Dovey”, and Miller definitely knew that one.
The other most interesting rip from this time frame is from himself. About this time, in concert, he played a prototype version of his huge hit “Fly Like an Eagle”. It was a version that started with a lot of echo and instead of going into the chorus right away, it started with a verse, then into the chorus. However, the distinctive guitar lick is there, at first under the echo, but you can hear it.
On his Brave New World record, the last cut was “My Dark Hour”, a song he recorded with Paul McCartney (as Paul Ramon). Miller was in Abbey Road and McCartney was there, and so they just recorded the track together. McCartney playing drums and bass with backing vocals.
Well, the pre-chorus of the song had the same guitar lick rhythm as what turned up in “Fly Like a Eagle”. Maybe not the exact notes, but the very distinctive pattern. Once you hear it, you can’t not hear it again.
“My Dark Hour” was one of his best early tracks, and and FM radio standout back in the day. And that lick is definitely worth recycling.