Steve Miller broke his neck in 1971 and was a changed man. This is the only way I can explain how an album like this could be the work of the same guy who gave us feel-good classic rock hits like "The Joker" and "Take the Money and Run". Whereas those songs are breezy and lightweight, early Steve Miller is a good deal more complex. I'd probably heard "Space Cowboy" here and there through the years, but my first proper introduction to this album was its appearance in the fabled Classic Midnight Album spot on K-Fox back when I was in high school.
1969 is the sweet spot of space rock, with the not-so-obvious participants in the movement. Steve Miller wasn't the only one to start his album with a blast-off sound effect. Witness the Moody Blues' To Our Children's Children's Children of the same year, extolling the same whimsy optimism of the post-moon landing era in the echoes of a launchpad roar. It was the year that birthed Hawkwind, too. It seemed like everyone was getting on the space train, only to promptly get off it the next year, except for the self-avowed space rockers (Hawkwind, UFO, etc. and so forth). Even Steve Miller was looking for the exit probably somewhere in mid-recording of the album, which is includes a few frisky blues workout numbers and pastoral odes.
The big selling point of the third Steve Miller Band album, which I feel falls a little short of Children of the Future and Sailor (and not because of the absence of Boz Skaggs), is the "special surprise guest" Paul McCartney, who figures prominently on the final track, "My Dark Hour" and apparently on "Celebration Song". Of course, Paul was still with the Beatles, so if all you had to go by was the LP sleeve, then you would be thinking, "For Paul Ramon of Liverpool....opportunity knocks!" (apologies to George Harrison for that one). Other than recycling the riff for "Fly Like an Eagle" in 1976, this collaboration remained dormant until Miller resurfaced on Paul's 1997 solo album Flaming Pie.
I picked my way through the rest of the Steve Miller Band catalog, and, unless you measure strictly in dollars, things just didn't improve over the years. The band went into a serious tailspin in the early 1970's (and the broken neck was just the beginning!) before being reinvented as a classic rock cornerstone. I couldn't name a single song after "Abracadabra" (1983), however, as the band plunged into obscurity and (probably) county fairs. I guess not everyone can be the Rolling Stones, but even that band hasn't given us an album, let alone a really good one, in over 10 years.
By the way, a big congratulations to Steve Miller for his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (formerly the "Hall of Lame", but with Deep Purple's induction all is forgiven)! I'm sure in April there will be a lot of rocking out to the aforementioned staples of classic rock, but maybe we can get a little "Space Cowboy" or "Living in the USA" slipped into the setlist just to keep things interesting.
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