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Growing Up With Steve Miller

#21
SirMjac28 said:
Never been a fan of Miles he pretty much gave everyone as much grief as he could.
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That's COMPLETE bull poopie based on Ignorance (capitalized). Miles didn't suffer fools gladly, and he was super sensitive, so he overcompensated, but None of us know what it was like to be a black jazz musician in the 50s and 60s and get no respect. If you were genuine (Miles hated pretense and could smell it out) and had any talent he was your friend and he might have you over to the house and make you a great salad. He DEMANDED respect (how dare he?) but he was actually a sweetheart. Bill Evans isn't around to speak but listen to what Santana said or Wallace Roney
 
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#23
Bunk McNulty said:
Yeah, he flunked out of Charm School.:D
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Miles charmed more people (including women) than anyone on this forum. He charmed every Great musician that ever worked with him and Gave Them the freedom to move the band's direction. He let those guys play and was never critical if they were being authentic. He didn't have time for idiots or talking heads or people who wanted to use him without a willingness to hear him. In Today's world he would have been regarded as normal/eccentric maybe people would hear how Funny he was, maybe some of his battles already won and put to rest. Prince, another intuitive genius Gemini loved Miles and Miles loved him.
The band Miles brought to The Fillmore was a few years after Bitche's Brew and it included Aieto, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, Keith Jarrett, Steve Grossman (sax) & Chick Corea and he put his girlfriend on the cover. That's a Latino, English white as white can be, black, who knows what Keith is, another white guy, and I know Chick is a good smaht Massachusetts boy.
PS I saw Steve Miller with Ben Sidran at the Orpheum in the 90s and loved it.
 
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#24
BassBrass said:
Miles charmed more people (including women) than anyone on this forum. He charmed every Great musician that ever worked with him and Gave Them the freedom to move the band's direction. He let those guys play and was never critical if they were being authentic. He didn't have time for idiots or talking heads or people who wanted to use him without a willingness to hear him. In Today's world he would have been regarded as normal/eccentric maybe people would hear how Funny he was, maybe some of his battles already won and put to rest. Prince, another intuitive genius Gemini loved Miles and Miles loved him.
The band Miles brought to The Fillmore was a few years after Bitche's Brew and it included Aieto, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, Keith Jarrett, Steve Grossman (sax) & Chick Corea and he put his girlfriend on the cover. That's a Latino, English white as white can be, black, who knows what Keith is, another white guy, and I know Chick is a good smaht Massachusetts boy.
PS I saw Steve Miller with Ben Sidran at the Orpheum in the 90s and loved it.
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All true. And he took a lot of abuse from certain quarters for hiring white players. But there are quite a few stories about his, um, brusque side. Ian Carr tells a story about some hapless rube walking up to Miles with his hand out to shake. Miles looked at him and hissed "I never liked you."
 
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#25
Bunk McNulty said:
All true. And he took a lot of abuse from certain quarters for hiring white players. But there are quite a few stories about his, um, brusque side. Ian Carr tells a story about some hapless rube walking up to Miles with his hand out to shake. Miles looked at him and hissed "I never liked you."
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Just on the surface of it that's incredible. Fascinating. 1. sometimes you have to pass Cerberus at the gate. All hero myths have it. If that guy had laughed in joy at the gift of Miles' sting, he could have turned the whole thing around. But That guy (who Miles probably knew as type) failed the test and got hurt wah wah. People used to understand this about Masters, although some sadists took advantage. 2. But maybe Miles did know him from a previous life or from a dream. Talk about Intuition! 3. In today's world we allow people some space if they need it, or we're supposed too. This boob thought he had a right to enter Miles' orb because he was in a public space. Wrong. I'm sorry, I find no fault at all until I have more information.
Look, Miles was profound because he was not all lightness, he was real life, the hard stuff included. Like pepper in potatoes, the spice. Gemini with moon in Scorpio, without the stinger you don't even know it's there. Which part of the man do you want to cut out? They're both essential.
 
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#26
Bunk McNulty said:
I dunno about that.:eyebrow:

How The Electric Guitar Was Invented

"Many people think that Les Paul was the inventor of the electric guitar, but he wasn’t. The credit for this goes to George Beauchamp, a musician, and Adolph Rickenbacker, an electrical engineer, who are rightfully considered to be the people who created the first commercially viable modern amplifiable electric guitar."
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Exactly. Les Paul’s contribution is pretty much limited to licensing his name to Gibson. Gibson was all about hollow body guitars created by skilled luthiers and didn’t see why anyone would want a solid body guitar.......... until they took note of the sales of solid body electric guitars from that guy called Leo on the west coast.
 
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#30
BassBrass said:
Just on the surface of it that's incredible. Fascinating. 1. sometimes you have to pass Cerberus at the gate. All hero myths have it. If that guy had laughed in joy at the gift of Miles' sting, he could have turned the whole thing around. But That guy (who Miles probably knew as type) failed the test and got hurt wah wah. People used to understand this about Masters, although some sadists took advantage. 2. But maybe Miles did know him from a previous life or from a dream. Talk about Intuition! 3. In today's world we allow people some space if they need it, or we're supposed too. This boob thought he had a right to enter Miles' orb because he was in a public space. Wrong. I'm sorry, I find no fault at all until I have more information.
Look, Miles was profound because he was not all lightness, he was real life, the hard stuff included. Like pepper in potatoes, the spice. Gemini with moon in Scorpio, without the stinger you don't even know it's there. Which part of the man do you want to cut out? They're both essential.
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I would not want to leave the impression that I'm somehow disagreeing with anything you've said here. Miles Davis, from the middle of the 20th Century, did more to define and re-define jazz than anyone else. More than Armstrong, more than Parker, more than Coltrane. And he was a very human being, capable of many varieties of behavior.

I'm kinda sorry that the thread is turning into a referendum on Miles. I posted this in the first place because I really didn't know much about Miller's life in music. Funny, I've jammed with Jim Peterman, who was Steve's keyboard player back in the "Sailor" days. He lives in North Carolina now and plays with a guitarist/songwriter, Shane Pruitt. I never asked him anything about his days with Miller, and now wish I had.
 
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#32
Going back to the subject of the original thread... I was weaned on Steve Miller Band music.
These hits were huge when I was 13.

My first "rock concert," was the first ever at Meadowlands (where the NY Giants and Jets played) back in June of 1978: Beach Boys, Steve Miller Band and Pablo Cruise.

In a lot of ways, as I grew up - SMB stuff seemed trite and dumb with repeated listenings, but if you listen critically these hits and even some of the more obscure and better stuff from the Steve Miller Blues Band was fantastically well recorded and sounds layered, complex and interesting with headphones on.
 
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#35
A friend of a friend of mine who played with Edie Brickell and New Bohemians bought his old house, and was describing the garage that Steve had used as a rehearsal space, it had all kinds of phone numbers written in laundry marker on the walls, including Mick Jagger and other huge names.
 
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#35
What struck me about the article was Miller's sense of his own liabilities and the need to WORK and stay constantly up on his playing, singing and his business. He's not settled down but rather, has stayed engaged and seems to keep exploring new connections to continued relevance. He also seems incredibly humble in a very cruel environment; the entertainment industry.

We can understand why entertainers can be so coarse and our surprise when some turn out to be so welcoming and friendly. Especially to those who really can't do much for them; their near anonymous fans that come & go.

I've dug Steve Miller's music since, Your Saving Grace, Livin' in the USA, and of course The Joker LP and his very, very popular stuff. The guitar tone on Jungle Love is wickedly cool. The bass playing on Your Cash Ain't Nuthin' but Trash, DAMN!
 
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