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Steve Miller

Steve Miller gave the crowd some vintage material from various points of his career; intermediate material from The Joker album was nicely sandwiched between early songs like 'Living In The U.S.A.' and current hits like 'Swingtown'.


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With the tragic death of Elvis Presley, it was thought by most that no-one would ever be able to fill the shoes of the King of rock and roll. Little did they know that the heir to the throne had been lurking about since 1967, and that one decade later he is ready to be crowned. The man I am speaking about, of course, is the Gangster of Love himself, Steve Miller.

Elvis in his heyday was a strikingly handsome, vibrant performer who could melt the hearts of all women with just a little twitch of his derriere. Miller, currently enjoying the greatest success of his career, is a boyish looking individual, with low-cut bangs which nearly hide his face and a slightly overweight figure when compared to The Pelv. But now we must consider the equalizer: the music of both of these men.

REWRITTEN THE BOOK

Musically speaking, Steve Miller has rewritten the book of rock and roll in the 1970's. His superb guitar playing and magic writing has made two of the best and fastest selling albums ever, Fly Like An Eagle and Book Of Dreams. There is some unknown quality in his voice which seems to penetrate even the hardest instrumentals on his albums.

The one fact which might keep him from being accepted by all as the new King is his lack of stage magnetism. He just does not have the pizzazz of Elvis, the stage antics of Chuck Berry or the fire of Little Richard. He is, in fact, not much of a stage man as his head remains lowered in intense concentration as his fingers glide up and down the neck of the guitar. However, Miller needs no stage show to be a crowd-pleaser: his impeccable playing more than makes up for any lack of flair. Showmanship was not what the crowd of 17,000 was looking for at Maple Leaf Gardens on October 24.

From the opening song 'Swingtown' onward, Miller proceeded to set the crowd on its collective musical ear. One of the most enjoyable parts of the show was Steve's inclusion of 'Living In The U.S.A.' and 'Space Cowboy' from the days of the Steve Miller Blues Band in the Sixties. 'Take The Money And Run', 'Rock 'N Me', 'Jungle Love' and his many other fiery album tracks kept the concert running in high gear from start to finish. The show was marred only by a lengthy synthesizer solo in which Star Wars lasers shot to and from the stage: Miller didn't need these gimmicks. The second set was even stronger than the first culminating with an encore of 'Jet Airliner' and an outlandish rendition of his 1973 hit 'The Joker'.
This photo was taken at the Hyatt Regency prior to the show; I presented Miller, an avid fisherman, with a Flatfish lure complete with a 'Joker' mask insignia that I had painted.

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