Anyone with a sense of musical history should know Steve Miller – his first album was released in 1968 and by the time of ‘Fly Like An Eagle’ he had developed his career through Chicago, San Francisco and Memphis and built a body of work that owed favours to no-one. This, along with ‘Abracadabra’ and ‘Book Of Dreams’, was one of the biggest selling and most revered albums of all time and sounds as fresh today as it did in ’76.
I have to admit a certain sense of surprise – I expected it to sound twee and dated but the electronics were cutting edge at the time and used sparingly enough that now they sound retro and the songs are simply brilliant – there is hardly a filler track among them.
‘Fly Like An Eagle’ itself starting with spaceship sounds and the haunting “Tick Tock a do do dodo – Time keeps on slippin’ into the future” opening has a sense of space and wonderment and itself slips into the wondrous pop of ‘Wild Mountain Honey’ on the rolloing rill of the organ and synth pairing that set this aside from most Blues based albums of the time – it also grooves like a Chemical Brothers chillout.
Just about every track on here is a classic – ‘Wild Mountain Honey’ is as sweet and mellow as the title sounds while ‘Serenade’ has a furious riff and the urgent tone of a prayer to the earth. ‘Dance, Dance Dance’ is a simple bit of country hokey but lifts the heart and has been a feature of his live set for thirty years. ‘Mercury Blues’ is a hard Blues paean to the Mercury automobile (interestingly he was on Mercury records at the time) and ‘Take The Money And Run’ is a great story-Blues about the exploits of Bily-Joe and Bobby-Sue, ”two young lovers with nuthin’ better to do than sit around the house, get high and watch the tube”. ‘Rock’n Me’ is a classic track and ‘You Send Me’ is simply the sweetest bit of acapella. ‘Sweet Maree’ starts off with heavy electronics and then suddenly becomes a bit of harmonica Blues. Finally he gives you ‘The Window’, a strangely downbeat lovesong that leaves you gasping for more.
This being an anniversary edition you have to have the obligatory demo tracks at the end but you also get a DVD of the band live in Mountain View in 2005 – as near as dammit his current live set and a brilliant show that includes ‘Abracadabra’, ‘Swingtown’, ‘Jungle Love’ and ‘The Joker’ as well as a 5:1 version of ‘Fly Like An Eagle’.
All told a great package of a great album and artist.
I have to admit a certain sense of surprise – I expected it to sound twee and dated but the electronics were cutting edge at the time and used sparingly enough that now they sound retro and the songs are simply brilliant – there is hardly a filler track among them.
‘Fly Like An Eagle’ itself starting with spaceship sounds and the haunting “Tick Tock a do do dodo – Time keeps on slippin’ into the future” opening has a sense of space and wonderment and itself slips into the wondrous pop of ‘Wild Mountain Honey’ on the rolloing rill of the organ and synth pairing that set this aside from most Blues based albums of the time – it also grooves like a Chemical Brothers chillout.
Just about every track on here is a classic – ‘Wild Mountain Honey’ is as sweet and mellow as the title sounds while ‘Serenade’ has a furious riff and the urgent tone of a prayer to the earth. ‘Dance, Dance Dance’ is a simple bit of country hokey but lifts the heart and has been a feature of his live set for thirty years. ‘Mercury Blues’ is a hard Blues paean to the Mercury automobile (interestingly he was on Mercury records at the time) and ‘Take The Money And Run’ is a great story-Blues about the exploits of Bily-Joe and Bobby-Sue, ”two young lovers with nuthin’ better to do than sit around the house, get high and watch the tube”. ‘Rock’n Me’ is a classic track and ‘You Send Me’ is simply the sweetest bit of acapella. ‘Sweet Maree’ starts off with heavy electronics and then suddenly becomes a bit of harmonica Blues. Finally he gives you ‘The Window’, a strangely downbeat lovesong that leaves you gasping for more.
This being an anniversary edition you have to have the obligatory demo tracks at the end but you also get a DVD of the band live in Mountain View in 2005 – as near as dammit his current live set and a brilliant show that includes ‘Abracadabra’, ‘Swingtown’, ‘Jungle Love’ and ‘The Joker’ as well as a 5:1 version of ‘Fly Like An Eagle’.
All told a great package of a great album and artist.
