STEVE MILLER BAND - Fly Like An Eagle @320

This was Steve's first new album since the 1973 album The Joker put him on the map thanks to that album's title cut becoming a hit. However, after almost eight years of being on the road, Steve burned himself out and he retired and bought a farm in Medford, Oregon and didn't record for almost two years. Then in spring of 1975, whilst writing songs and demoing, Steve got a call from Pink Floyd asking him to open up for them at Knebworth Park in England to 125,000 people. Steve upstaged Pink Floyd (whose set was marred by technical problems that day) and premiered the song Rock 'n Me which he wrote as a showstopper and a hit. With the momentum going from his concert with Pink Floyd, he went in the recording studio with bass player lonnie Turner and drummer Gary Mallaber and recorded 20 plus tracks in 12 days. That could have made a double album but Steve played it safe and put out Fly Like an Eagle and then Book of Dreams a year later. Album begins with winds ala echo-plex and the synthesizer laced Space Intro which was a great intro. Then the echo-plexed winds segue into the album's title cut which was a Top 5 hit in early 1977. The song developed from when it was called In the Ghetto in the early 1970s. The song has a great riff, great vocals and superb synthesizer effects which go throughout the track and the synthesizer echoed ending was superb and the beeps at the end were from the master tape. Next is Wild Mountain Honey which is a nice relaxing number which doesn't change key during the song but doesn't bore one. Next is the rocker Serenade which is a great rocker and had Steve singing all of the harmonies and just rocks. We then have the country-ish Dance Dance Dance which is country to the core and features some great acoustic work from Steve and dobro from John McFee. This track was not on the mid-1980s reissued LP or cassette for some reason but appeared on the original album, cassette(and the 1991 cassette reissue), 8-track and CD(remastered CD version as well). Next is a rockified version of Mercury Blues which is a great rocking version of the blues standard about the car and Steve made the track his own. The album's second half starts with the rocking first single Take The Money And Run which was a Top 10 hit in the Summer of 1976. The song was a story of a man and woman trying to rob some cash and the song was chosen as a single after kids at an elementary school liked what they heard. The #1 hit Rock 'n Me follows and is a great rocker. Next is the remake of the late Sam Cooke's ballad You Send Me. This remake is superb with excellent electric guitar playing and harmonies all from Steve. This track, like Dance Dance Dance, was not on the mid-1980s reissued LP or cassette version for some reason but appeared on the original album, cassette (and the 1991 cassette reissue), 8-track and CD (and remastered CD) versions. The second of two instrumentals Blue Odyssey is next and is called a poor man's Space Intro but with great synthesizer work and the synthesizer used was ironically an ARP Odyssey synthesizer, hence the name. Then the echoplexed induced wind segues into the bluesy Sweet Maree which featured the legendary James Cotton on harmonica and staccato acoustic guitar with limited lyrics from Miller and is a showcase for Cotton's harmonica and Miller's bluesy electric guitar soloing. The album ends with the spacey ballad The Window which has a great synthesizer riff, excellent vocals and ends like the album began with a collage of echoplexed synthesizer and wind effects.

Fly Like an Eagle went all the way to #3 on the Billboard chart and sold 4.5 million copies, went Platinum right when released. - Terrence Reardon "The Pink Panther of classic rock"

Tracks

1. Space Intro

2. Fly Like An Eagle

3. Wild Mountain Honey

4. Serenade

5. Dance, Dance, Dance

6. Mercury Blues

7. Take The Money And Run

8. Rock'n Me

9. You Send Me

10. Blue Odyssey

11. Sweet Maree

12. The Window

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