My Sister's Records
Between 1975 and 1977 my sister went from worshipping the Bay City Rollers and the ground they walked on to thinking The Clash were the greatest thing since sliced bread. That's quite a big leap from "Shang-a-Lang" (or "Shag-a-Slag" as we called it – what wits we were!) to "White Riot" but she didn't make it in one bound. In between the two she had a fling with The Steve Miller Band and their "Fly Like An Eagle" album which she bought because she liked the "Take The Money and Run" single from it. There's no logical connection between Scottish teenyboppers, American soft rockers, and guttersnipe London punks but we probably all have these "stepping stone" records as we mature and go looking in all directions for new experiences as restless teenagers are wont to do. My sister's fellow Rollermaniac friend Sue had a dalliance with Nils Lofgren before diving headlong into punk, orange hair and bondage trousers, and I got from ELO to The Jam via Bruce Springsteen.
"Fly Like An Eagle" is actually a pretty good album, a mix of catchy, Fleetwood Mac-esque soft rock and trippy electronics - what Miller called "space blues" – held together by a lazy, hazy vibe which suggests everyone got very high making the record. My favourite track "Wild Mountain Honey" is a very pretty ballad that floats along sprinkling fairy dust as it goes. Listening to it is like sinking into a warm bubble bath. The title track is fairly well known but this is the longer album version with the dreamy "Space Intro" beginning which is all electronic bleeps and wooshes that wouldn't sound too out of place on a Tangerine Dream album. Its spacey groove makes it sound very modern today, though back then they probably used steam-powered synthesizers.
Download: Wild Mountain Honey - Steve Miller Band (mp3)
Download: Space Intro/Fly Like An Eagle - Steve Miller Band (mp3)
Buy: "Fly Like An Eagle" (album)
4 Comments:
nice one, just what i needed. Don't know if it is gonna be stepping stone. Stepping stoned might work though
Interesting - haven't heard these before, my own stepping stones (also to The Jam) having been mostly 60s pop and ABBA (yay!). It certainly does sound as if the odd 'jazz Woodbine' may have been smoked during these sessions.
My missus loves Nils Lofgren long time.
This track reminds me of the huge impact drug culture had on music [making] at the time. I probably haven't heard that intro since some smoke fill car somewhere in the seventies.
Thanks.
The story of Steve Miller, the guitar prodigy, is an interesting one, in terms of the promise fulfilled.
ZZTop took me from ELP to the New York Dolls.
Posting Nils as we speak.
Hmm I went from Elvis to Deep Purple and then all over the bloody place which I am pleased about although i did spend a small fortune on music back then. But, Bruce Springsteen, I tried I really did bit never got it. Steve Miller Band, All I gotta say is Mach City, I heard it on the radio once (luckily i was recording when Muriel Gray was standing in for John Peel) I was stunned a great track.
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