If you ask anyone who loves vinyl, most will agree that just seeing the jacket of an album can evoke an emotion in you, usually a nostalgic one. I personally love those moments when you are digging through the crates at your local record store and you come across that artist that just makes you smile. I was flipping though the cheap stuff at Som Records last week when it happened. Every time I see the Steve Miller Band, I can’t help but smile.
The main reason for this is because 1976’s Fly Like an Eagle was one of my favorite albums when I was a kid. The catchy rock songs grabbed me instantly, and I love the album to this day. Whether it was the spacey, just-a-little-psychedelic title track or the exciting adventures of Billy Joe and Bobbie Sue on “Take the Money and Run,” this album was one of the first that I actually wore out and had to get another copy. I use the term “wore out” somewhat loosely—I was young, and like most youngsters, didn’t handle my vinyl with the delicate care that we have learned as adults.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lclU-5uG3w4
Recently, I realized that I had ignored the first half of the Steve Miller Band’s catalog, with the exception of the one early hit, “Living in the U.S.A.” I have been on somewhat of a mission, exploring the early material and acquiring the earlier albums on vinyl. The first few were a bit of a surprise to me, as I wasn’t expecting the different sound of the earlier recordings.
Number 5 was the band’s fifth album in the first three years of its career, having released two albums each year in 1968 and 1969. I consider Number 5 to be something of a “bridge” album, an in-between record when a band is changing its sound. In the case of the Steve Miller Band, this album is midway between their beginnings as a bluesy, psychedelic rock band, and the run of more mainstream hits that began with 1973’s The Joker. “Going to Mexico,” co-penned by Boz Scaggs, sounds like a cut from an early ZZ Top album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atC-QsMJGPE
One oddball on the record is the quasi-Mexican track “Hot Chili.” The lyrics are laughably dumb: “Hot chili is groovy… after a movie or watchin’ tv…” The song only gets goofier from there. Steve even toyed with country elements on a few songs. “Tokin’s” is a banjo-tinged accessible rock song, and gives a little foreshadowing to the later part of Miller’s career, lined with radio-friendly numbers.
“Going to the Country” features well-known Nashville session musician Buddy Spicher on fiddle throughout which itself sounds like something the Grateful Dead could have recorded.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5tGEBLzsmI
Others on the album, like “I Love You,” and “Never Kill Another Man” just never seem to go anywhere. Drawn-out, aimless vocals and instrumentation, like a too-loud harmonica and a string section, just leaves the listener scratching their head.
Overall, Number 5 is the awkward teenager of Steve Miller’s catalog—pimple-faced, voice-cracking, and hitting weird growth spurts. This is a sound caught between a band’s energetic, wild younger days and its fully realized era of maturity.
