The 500 - #445 - Steve Miller Band - Fly like an Eagle

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

My plan (amended). 

• One record per week (ish) and at least two complete listens.
• A blog post for each, highlighting the important details and, when possible, a background story that relates to the record.
• No rating scale - just an effort to expand my appreciation of diverse forms of music.
• Listen to Josh and his guest on The 500 podcast to gather additional information and insights.

Album # 445

Album Title: Fly Like An Eagle
Artist: Steve Miller Band
Released: May, 1976
My age at release: 10
How familiar was I with it before this week: Very
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix:  Wild Mountain Honey  (selected by my chum, musician Cam Grant)
Great Lyric:
"This here's a story 'bout Billy Joe and Bobbie Sue
Two young lovers with nothing better to do
Than sit around the house, get high, and watch the tube
And here's what happened when they decided to cut loose"
(Take the Money and Run)

My first high school was in the small Ontario town of Kingsville located along the shores of Lake Erie, not far from the Windsor/Detroit border. The high school library was remarkable because it boasted an impressive collection of albums that students could borrow for two nights at a time.

Suddenly, some of the most important or commercially successful records of the past decade were readily available to me. This, along with my friendship with schoolmate Andrew Harris (who had access to his older brothers' collection), was my introduction to great music. Indeed, many of the records on Rolling Stone's list were in one or both of these collections.

Album #445 Fly Like An Eagle by Steve Miller Band and Greatest Hits (1974 - 1978) were two records I borrowed and listened to many times on my parents' stereo system in the back room of our home. To this day, any song from these two discs transports me immediately to lazy evenings, stretched out on the carpeted floor absorbing the sounds and while devouring the album cover content and liner notes, likely while avoiding homework.

Steve Miller has been pigeonholed as Dad Rock during the past few decades and his music has become a staple of soft and classic rock radio stations. However, he is an exemplary guitar player and a first-rate songwriter. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016. The induction was, however, marred by controversy. Miller was introduced by musicians Dan Auerbach and Pat Carney of the band The Black Keys who are 35 years his junior. The pair grew up as fans of Miller but the experience that evening was horrendous for them. As Auerback put it in this interview in Rolling Stone Magazine.

We got a really uncomfortable feeling when we first met Steve. He had no idea who we were. No idea. The first thing he told us was, "I can't wait to get out of here." He knew that we signed up to do this speech for him. And he made no effort to even [laughs uncomfortably] — he didn't even figure out who we were. I don't live in New York City. This is like three days out of my life flying from Nashville and leaving my kids at home.

It seems that Miller has become a curmudgeon in his senior years and the speech he made following the induction was a profane tirade leveled at the music industry and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He may have had legitimate points but, this was the wrong place and time to vent.

This saddens me. I am always a little disheartened when an artist I've admired turns out to be unkind, mean-spirited or unable to show simple decency. Unfortunately, that moment on the stage in 2016 may be a lasting part of Miller's legacy rather than the fantastic music he created during my youth.