b. 5 October 1943, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. The young Miller was set on his musical path by having Les Paul as a family friend, and a father who openly encouraged music in the home. His first band, the Marksmen, was with school friend Boz Scaggs; also with Scaggs, he formed the college band the Ardells, and at university they became the Fabulous Night Trains. He moved to Chicago in 1964, and became involved in the local blues scene with Barry Goldberg, resulting in the Goldberg Miller Blues Band. Miller eventually moved to San Francisco in 1966, after hearing about the growing hippie music scene, and formed the Miller Blues Band. Within a year he had built a considerable reputation and as the Steve Miller Band, he signed with Capitol Records for a then unprecedented $50, 000, following his appearance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. The band at that time included Scaggs, bass player Lonnie Turner, keyboard player Jim Peterman, and drummer Tim Davis, and it was this line-up that was flown to London to record the Glyn Johns -produced Children Of The Future (1968). The album was a critical success although sales were moderate, but it was Sailor later that same year that became his pièce de résistance. The clear production and memorable songs have lasted well and it remains a critics’ favourite. Miller’s silky-smooth voice and masterful guitar gave the album a touch of class that many of the other San Francisco rock albums lacked. The atmospheric instrumental ‘Song For Our Ancestors’ and well-crafted love songs such as ‘Dear Mary’ and ‘Quicksilver Girl’ were just three of the many outstanding tracks.
Scaggs and Peterman departed after this album, and Miller added the talented Nicky Hopkins (b. Nicholas Christian Hopkins, 24 February 1944, Harlesden, London, England, d. 6 September 1994, Nashville, Tennessee, USA) and Ben Sidran (b. 14 August 1943, Chicago, Illinois, USA) on keyboards for 1969’s Brave New World, which completed a trio of albums recorded in London with Johns. The blistering ‘My Dark Hour’ featured Paul McCartney (as Paul Ramon) on bass, while the epic ‘Kow Kow’ showed off Hopkins’ sensitive piano. The excellent Your Saving Grace (1970) maintained the quality of previous albums and repeated the success. Hopkins once again shone on the epic ‘Baby’s House’ and Miller’s vocal on ‘Motherless Children’ was superlative.
Lonnie Turner and Hopkins left at the end of 1969, and Miller replaced Turner with Bobby Winkleman from local band Frumious Bandersnatch. Number 5 (1970) completed a cycle of excellent albums that hovered around similar chart positions, indicating that while Miller was highly popular, he was not expanding his audience. Number 5 remains underrated yet it contains three classic Miller tracks, notably ‘Going To Mexico’, ‘Good Morning’ and ‘Going To The Country’. Miller decided to change the format for 1971’s Rock Love, by having half of the album live. Unfortunately, he chose to record a live set with probably his weakest band; both Ross Valory (b. 2 February 1949, San Francisco, California, USA; bass) and Jack King (drums) left within a year and the album sold poorly by his standards.
Following a European tour, and in an attempt to reverse the trend of the preceding album, Miller released Recall The Beginning... A Journey From Eden, a perplexing, brilliant and neglected album that showed Miller in a melancholic and lethargic mood; once again, Miller’s fortunes declined further with poor sales even though the album contained three excellent songs; ‘Love’s Riddle’, ‘Nothing Lasts’, and ‘Journey From Eden’. After a gap of 18 months, Miller returned with the US chart-topping single ‘The Joker’, an easily contrived song over a simple riff in which Miller mentioned all references to his various self-titled aliases used in songs over the past years: ‘Some people call me the Space Cowboy (Brave New World), some call me the Gangster Of Love (Sailor), some call me Maurice (Recall The Beginning... )...’ The accompanying album was a similar success, stalling at number 2 in the USA.
Miller’s future had never looked brighter, but instead, he chose to buy a farm and build a recording studio and he effectively vanished. When he reappeared on record three years later, only his loyal fans rated his commercial chances; however, Fly Like An Eagle became his bestselling album of all time and provided a major breakthrough in the UK. This record, with its then state-of-the-art recording, won him many new fans, and finally put him in the major league as one of America’s biggest acts, with ‘Rock ’N Me’ reaching the top of the singles chart. The line-up of the Steve Miller Band at this point revolved around Miller, Turner and Gary Mallaber (b. 11 October 1946, Buffalo, New York, USA; drums), with various session musicians helping out in the studio. Almost as successful was the sister album Book Of Dreams (1977), which featured the uplifting Top 5 hit single ‘Jet Airliner’. Miller had now mastered and targeted his audience, with exactly the kind of songs he knew they wanted.
Once again, Miller disappeared from the scene and a new album was not released for almost four years. The return this time was less spectacular. Although 1981’s Circle Of Love contained one side of typical Miller - short, sharp, punchy melodic rock songs - side two was an over-long and self-indulgent epic, ‘Macho City’. He once again corrected the fault by responding only six months later, with another US number 1, the catchy ‘Abracadabra’. This gave him his second major hit in the UK, almost reaching the coveted top spot in 1982. In the USA, the album climbed near to the top and Miller was left with another million-plus sale.
The momentum was lost over the following years, as a live album and 1984’s Italian X Rays were comparative failures, although poor marketing was blamed on the latter. Living In The 20th Century (1986) contained an excellent segment comprising a tribute to Jimmy Reed, with whom Miller had played as a teenager. Miller opted out of the commercial market with the excellent Born 2B Blue in 1988 (the album was his first ‘solo’ release). Together with his old colleague Ben Sidran, Miller paid homage to jazz and blues standards with some exquisite arrangements from Sidran. Songs including Billie Holiday’s ‘God Bless The Child’ and ‘Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah’ were given lazy treatments with Miller’s effortless voice, but the record was only a moderate success.
In the autumn of 1990, while Miller bided his time with the luxury of deciding what to do next, in the UK Levi’s had used ‘The Joker’ for one of their television advertisements. Capitol quickly released it, and astonishingly, Maurice, the space cowboy, the gangster of love, found himself with his first UK number 1. Wide River in 1993 was a return to Miller’s basic rock formula but it was not one of his better efforts. In 1996, Seal had a major US hit with a version of ‘Fly Like An Eagle’ and k.d. lang recorded ‘The Joker’ the following year. Miller’s collaboration with Paul McCartney on Flaming Pie (1997) was highly publicized. He co-wrote ‘Used To Be Bad’ and played guitar on what many regard as McCartney’s finest post- Beatles work.
Miller’s work in the late 60s for Capitol remains as one of the best examples ever of creative rock from the west coast. The first five albums are vital for any serious collector of this era. His post-Fly Like An Eagle work has also produced a number of high quality pop/rock anthems, and his contribution to rock deserves not to be overlooked. Few artists of the era could both sing like an angel and play guitar like a demon. Although no new albums have been released in more than a decade he tours constantly, giving his audiences a set list of familiar classics.
