Some people call him The Space Cowboy

October 5, 2010 10:24 AM

Today marks the 67th anniversary of the birth of the legendary musician Steve Miller. Born to parents with a strong interest in music, he was surrounded from an early age by such notables as Les Paul, Mary Ford and T-Bone Walker. He grew into an accomplished musician and took strongly to the blues. Miller immersed himself in the Chicago blues scene of the 1960's, but after several years became disillusioned and left to find a different inspiration.

He would eventually make his way to San Francisco to form the Steve Miller Band, a psychedelic outfit with blues undertones. After a devastating car accident in 1972, in which he broke his neck, Miller spent the next few years recuperating and penning a number of what would become classic tunes. 1976's Fly Like An Eagle, was a giant shift in direction for Miller. It dropped the overt psychedelia, put the blues influence to a background role and focused on catchy riffs and pop influenced structures. Starting with it's mood-setting spacey opener, and following with hits like Take The Money And Run, Rock'n Me and the title track, the album captured a moment in the American consciousness. Its follow up, Book Of Dreams, was another smashing success, charting again with tracks such as Jet Airliner, Swingtown and Jungle Love.

Miller's initial output of the 1980's wasn't as well received, but he found commercial success again with 1982's Abracadabra, with the title track going #1. Miller dropped from the spotlight as music tastes changed through the rest of the 80's, 90's and early 00's, releasing only a handful of albums throughout that time. This June saw the release of Bingo!, his first studio album since 1993 Wide River. Recorded at Skywalker Sound, and embracing more of his early blues sound, it has garnered favorable reviews. Miller is currently touring in support of the album.

Happy birthday to an American legend!

posted by bionic.junkie (138 comments total)

This is weirdly timed for me. Just the other day I heard a Steve Miller tune come on the radio and realized that I had absolutely no idea what the man looked like. He looks pretty much exactly how I imagined.
posted by jquinby at 10:29 AM on October 5, 2010

I recently discovered this live performance of The Joker on YouTube that I've been really digging. The band's style, and Miller's solid performance and stage presence are really awesome. I like the vocals here better than the studio version. And check out the upside down left-handed guitar.
posted by jeffamaphone at 10:30 AM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

I found a DTS-surround rip of the original Quadrophonic version of The Joker recently. It's one of those WTF? kind of discoveries. I actually quite like it. I'll have to play that today in honor of Steve's birthday. He created a lot of the music I grew up with on radio, but he's a lot deeper talent than his radio hits suggest. Happy birthday, Steve! You midnight toker, you.
posted by hippybear at 10:31 AM on October 5, 2010

Nobody can speak of the pompetous of love like Steve.
posted by entropicamericana at 10:31 AM on October 5, 2010 [8 favorites]

Boz Skaggs sang on some of his early work.
posted by Devils Rancher at 10:35 AM on October 5, 2010

Wow, thorough post. Lots of links to check out this afternoon.

Some Steve Miller rotated through the iPod/car stereo recently and led my husband and me to dissect the similarities and difference between Abracadabra and Fly Like an Eagle. The core of the differences, which it pained us to admit as children of the 80s (or at least Gen Xers whose taste was formed then), was that the themes and motifs of the 70s, both lyrical and musical, just did a lot better for Miller. As in: Fly Like an Eagle is actually about things, and Abracadabra isn't even lyrically impressionist, just kind of bad cliches and catchphrases strung together.
posted by immlass at 10:35 AM on October 5, 2010 [2 favorites]

As a child of the 70s and 80s, I think people my age were legally required to own his Greatest Hits 74-78 album.

Texas
Taxes
Facts is

Brilliant.
posted by bondcliff at 10:37 AM on October 5, 2010 [7 favorites]

Just the other day I heard a Steve Miller tune come on the radio and realized that I had absolutely no idea what the man looked like. He looks pretty much exactly how I imagined.
posted by jquinby at 12:29 PM on October 5

I wonder if this is a common thing. I kinda grew up listening to Steve Miller and, until pretty recently, had never seen a photo of the man.
posted by kingbenny at 10:39 AM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

"They caught Jed in a lineup! Don't carry me too far away. Oh, they caught Jed in a lineup! And it's here that I'll have to stay."
posted by abc123xyzinfinity at 10:40 AM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

He deliberately blurred his face/joker makeup/etc. on his albums so he wouldn't be recognized and hassled on the street. Or so I heard as a young'un...
posted by Windopaene at 10:41 AM on October 5, 2010

I have never forgiven him for those cheesy synthetic hand-claps on Take the Money and Run.
posted by Danf at 10:41 AM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

One of my favorite Letterman Top 10 lists, regarding potential sequels to the first Tim Burton Batman movie, said that the next one would have the Smoker and the Midnight Toker as villains. Heh.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:45 AM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

Happy birthday, Steve.

P.S. "The Joker" may be the worst song ever.
posted by maxwelton at 10:45 AM on October 5, 2010 [5 favorites]

Honest to God, I thought it was "Big ol' jet got a hard on" well into the 21st century.

The opening guitar riff on that song is epic, though.
posted by elmer benson at 10:45 AM on October 5, 2010

Honest to God, I thought it was "Big ol' jet got a hard on" well into the 21st century.

Oh hell, I'm never going to hear that song the same again.
posted by kingbenny at 10:48 AM on October 5, 2010

Whenever anyone says "El Paso," I always clap fast 4 times. Usually good for a laugh.

I actually grew up on his early albums. Children of the Future, Sailor & Brave New World got heavy rotation on my parent's turntable. The cover of the first one was really great.

P.S. "The Joker" may be the worst song ever.

Eh, it's no We Built This City.
posted by Devils Rancher at 10:51 AM on October 5, 2010 [2 favorites]

Big ole jet airliner, don't carry me too far away...
Big old jet airliner, cos it's here that I've got to stay...

Memories of transistor radios...and the goofy innocent carefree 70s...disaster films and crap clothes....

THere are parts of that song listening noe that remind me of Wilco and the last Meat Puppets album.
posted by Skygazer at 10:52 AM on October 5, 2010

Metafilter: just kind of bad cliches and catchphrases strung together
posted by Threeway Handshake at 10:52 AM on October 5, 2010 [4 favorites]

I have heard that Steve Miller used to like to bicycle through the concert parking lot before a show, and not have people recognize him.

Oh, and Jet Airliner deserves a shout-out to its author, Paul Pena.
posted by fings at 10:54 AM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

Clarification: Kirk Kirkwood sounds vocal wiswwise like Steve Miller, which is a freaky development, but I guess it sort of makes sense.

Also forgot to mention The Joker has the most retarded lyric of all time in Really love your peaches want to shake your tree.

I dare you to find a stupider lyric. Anyhow, I bet that must have been one hell of a fun band to be in...
posted by Skygazer at 11:00 AM on October 5, 2010

Skygazer: "Really love your peaches want to shake your tree."

For years, I heard this as "...love your beaches" which somehow seemed a little more poetic.
posted by jquinby at 11:03 AM on October 5, 2010

Nobody can speak of the pompetous of love like Steve.

I believe it's pompatus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompatus

Too bad there's no Greek or Roman connection to ancient space cowboys.
posted by uraniumwilly at 11:03 AM on October 5, 2010

Nice post, bionic.junkie!

A crate of papayas to you, Steve.
posted by applemeat at 11:07 AM on October 5, 2010

Boz Skaggs sang on some of his early work.

Their history together goes way back.

They both met at St. Mark's private school in Dallas.

At 15 y.o. Scaags was the singer in their high-school band , The Marksmen. They attended University of Wisconsin and played together in a couple of bands there -- The Ardells and The Fabulous Knight Trains. Later Scaggs did indeed appear on Steve Miller Band's first two albums -- 'Children of the Future' and 'Sailor.'
posted by ericb at 11:07 AM on October 5, 2010

Ah, the 70s. All it took was a simple phased wash with a synthesizer to send stoned listeners into a trance. "Fly Like an Eagle" will always be a good song, though.
posted by Burhanistan at 11:08 AM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

Really love your peaches want to shake your tree.

I dare you to find a stupider lyric.

JFK, blown away, what else do I have to say?

See, I'm fine with Steve Miller, because I'm reasonably sure Steve Miller knew full well he was writing a cornball pop tune, and all he wanted to do was be the Space Cowboy up on stage with a crowd at his feet shrouded in a THC haze and grooving and a summer breeze blowing though, making a fine ole night of it. Whereas Billy Joel actually thought he was writing history, you know?
posted by gompa at 11:08 AM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

I dare you to find a stupider lyric.

You've never heard R. Kelly or Michael Jackson, I take it.
posted by The World Famous at 11:13 AM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

Psychedelic rock.
posted by ericb at 11:13 AM on October 5, 2010

I have also heard that Steve sometimes gets on stage at karaoke bars to sing his own material. Because no one knows what he looks like he leaves folks with the impression that he does and excellent impersonation of Steve Miller. Genius.

When I was attending college in the mid-90s and doing some DJing at parties and what not there continued to be regular requests for Steve Miller Band's greatest hits. This was during the Height of Grunge and also of West Coast Rap, so the juxtaposition was always odd to me. Perhaps he made the ultimate music for white midwest kids to drink and smoke out to. Curious to know if Steve is still in rotation on the college scene . . .
posted by quadog at 11:14 AM on October 5, 2010

Whereas Billy Joel actually thought he was writing history, you know?

I really like Billy Joel. (I also really like Steve Miller, and think the aforementioned lyric is just fucking right, and would like to suggest pistols at dawn for naysayers.) But holy shit, "We Didn't Start the Fire" is one of the worst things ever to happen. Ever.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:15 AM on October 5, 2010

I heard him on NPR recently, talking about his teaching stint at USC, and he came across as pretty pompous (no, not pompatous) and out of touch.

Don't have much use for Steve Miller. I'd confuse him with Bob Seger as far as useless 70s white 'bluesy' guys goes, but at least Seger's early psych records were kind of cool.
posted by anazgnos at 11:15 AM on October 5, 2010

His name is Stevie Guitar Miller. Expect y'all to get it right next time.
posted by bfootdav at 11:15 AM on October 5, 2010

Happy Birthday Steve Miller. I hate your music with mutherfucking passion, with Ishouldseeashrinkaboutit passion. Holy.
posted by Rumple at 11:21 AM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

Really love your peaches want to shake your tree.

Ah, put away the pistols....I meant, stupid in a really really really good retardo stoner way. Every kid 10 or older has a very clear image in his mind of those err..."peaches."
posted by Skygazer at 11:26 AM on October 5, 2010 [2 favorites]

We never get to have awesome duels around here.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:30 AM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

I know what he looks like because I remember about 1993 Night Flight had a little mini-documentary on him and his music.

I loved that show.

And I loved Abracadabra as a kid, though I don't like it so much now.
But Fly Like an Eagle? Cheesy, yeah. But damn...
posted by symbioid at 11:31 AM on October 5, 2010

(I also really like Steve Miller, and think the aforementioned lyric is just fucking right, and would like to suggest pistols at dawn for naysayers.)

Bonghits at dawn for naysayers would be better.
posted by Skygazer at 11:31 AM on October 5, 2010

Really love your peaches want to shake your tree.

I dare you to find a stupider lyric.

Um.... dude. The final lyrics to "The Joker" are a quote from The Clovers' 1954 hit "Lovey Dovey".
posted by hippybear at 11:31 AM on October 5, 2010 [4 favorites]

Also? uncleozzy? Everytime I see your username, I see "un-cleozzy" not "uncle-ozzy" And I always think "what is cleozzy?"
posted by symbioid at 11:36 AM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

I don't know, Skygazer, I'm not sure I can put away my pistols when The Cars once sang:

Since you`re gone I miss the peak sensation.
Since you`re gone I took the big vacation.

I don't own a single Steve Miller track. I sing my fricken' guts out to his songs whenever they come on the radio. I feel like my failure to purchase his music says more about my failings as a human being than anything else.

Keep on rockin' me, Stevie.
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:38 AM on October 5, 2010

I can no longer hear The Joker in anything but Homer Simpson's voice.
posted by bondcliff at 11:38 AM on October 5, 2010 [2 favorites]

Devils Rancher: Boz Skaggs sang on some of his early work.

ericb: They both met at St. Mark's private school in Dallas.

Indeed they did! Other famous attendees include Tommy Lee Jones, the Wilson brothers (Luke and Owen), and yours truly.

The story we used to hear at school about Steve Miller (before my time) was that he would come in every day exhausted from playing gigs the night before and frequently sleep through his classes, and that at one point a teacher got so sick of it that he told the headmaster "Either the space cowboy goes, or I do." And that's where the name came from.

Now you know the (apocryphal) rest of the story...
posted by albrecht at 11:39 AM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

I dare you to find a stupider lyric.

I believe, pound for pound, the song Good Morning Starshine is the stupidest song ever written. It transcends genre and creates its own musical sub-category I've deemed "Hippie Retarded." Whether it's the made-up glivvy gloovy language of the singer's "early morning singing song" or the point in the song where he just keeps singing "sing-a-song, song-a-sing, song-song-sing-sing-song-sing-sing-singy-songy-songy-song!"

In fact, just about all of Hair is stupid lyrics. And nudity.
posted by cottoncandybeard at 11:40 AM on October 5, 2010 [5 favorites]

@Devil's Rancher - "Whenever anyone says "El Paso," I always clap fast 4 times. Usually good for a laugh."


It's a five count clap dude. Get it right.
posted by stenseng at 11:41 AM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

"Big old Jed and Elijah, don't carry me too far away" (Jena!!! and I always finish this with "You bad boys, you).

Also, I love "Take the Money and Run," but when you listen to the lyrics, Billy Joe and Bobby Sue aren't the cool Robin Hood-inspired anti-heroes you'd think; they basically shot a guy to death after they broke into his house. Frankly, while I admit our justice system has its faults, I also think it'd be better for society in the long run if Sherriff Joe had in fact brought them to justice.
posted by infinitywaltz at 11:42 AM on October 5, 2010

Also? uncleozzy? Everytime I see your username, I see "un-cleozzy" not "uncle-ozzy"

I do this as well. He's not very cleozzy at all.
posted by Devils Rancher at 11:43 AM on October 5, 2010

Am too.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:45 AM on October 5, 2010 [2 favorites]

Also, Living In The USA is a badass jam.
posted by stenseng at 11:46 AM on October 5, 2010

Can't believe no one has piped up with this:

Go on take the money and run.... AROOOOOOOOOOGA

I'd make that blink if I wasn't sure it would get modded out.

Nice post! Happy Birthday Mr. Guitar Miller!
posted by cavalier at 11:51 AM on October 5, 2010 [2 favorites]

they basically shot a guy to death after they broke into his house

Billy Joe shot a man while robbing his castle

Till this very minute, I thought that "gasso" was short for gas-station, and that that was what Billy Joe robbed.
posted by not_that_epiphanius at 11:59 AM on October 5, 2010 [4 favorites]

I am so glad I followed my brother's advice and did not use my real name when we hooked up. On the other hand, if there is a class(y) action lawsuit I am screwed again.
posted by Postroad at 11:59 AM on October 5, 2010

Wild Mountain Honey. actually worked out a non sucking dulcimer version of this. I think this calls for a bong.
posted by timsteil at 12:00 PM on October 5, 2010

Happy birthday, Steve.

First heard about you from Boz, way back in wayback.
Did I ever tell you about that time?

Yes
posted by jan murray at 12:07 PM on October 5, 2010

I want Laibach to do a Steve Miller cover of The Joker.

And that is all I have to say about Steve Miller.
posted by everichon at 12:16 PM on October 5, 2010 [2 favorites]

Devils Rancher, you should be clapping 5 times, not 4.

:)
posted by ChrisLee at 12:25 PM on October 5, 2010

You wanna stop and drop right down on your knees... And say baby

posted by TWinbrook8 at 12:26 PM on October 5, 2010

timsteil, I had the hippies around the campfire singing along to my ukulele version of "The Joker" this past weekend.
posted by MrMoonPie at 12:28 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

A while back I put Jungle Love on my mp3 player, I expected to listen to it a couple of times, get bored and replace it with something else, but there is something strange about that song; surrounded, as it is in a playlist with lots of angry industrial, metal, and other blood pumping music, whenever it comes on, it's like a cool breeze through my soul.

I can't explain it. I've always liked Miller, and that song was always "pretty good", but there's something about its proximity to the stuff around it that just makes it more, I don't know... sublime than normal.
posted by quin at 12:34 PM on October 5, 2010

All right! That was lynrd Skkynrd with Freebird and before that Stairway to Heaven by Led Zep. You're listening to KMETA The Snark! Now Steve Miller with Abracadabra - I want to reach out and grab ya!
posted by pianomover at 12:46 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

> Now Steve Miller with Abracadabra - I want to reach out and grab ya!

And the obligatory adolescent version about boners: "It's gonna reach out and stab ya."
posted by Burhanistan at 12:47 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

For some reason I always thought the lyric was "Jet outta 'lina" as in North Carolina or South Carolina. I have no idea why I thought this as no one as far as I know has EVER said "'Lina" to refer to either state.
posted by josher71 at 12:47 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

"Honest to God, I thought it was "Big ol' jet got a hard on" well into the 21st century."

A friend of mine, a talented musician no less, thought it was "Big ol' Jed and Delilah."
posted by bz at 1:05 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

All you folks getting the lyrics to Jet Airliner wrong, did the name of the song not clue you in?

All I know is that was the first song I ever knew that contained a swear word and I felt like the biggest badass playing it for the girls next door.

"Play the 'funky shit' part again!"
posted by bondcliff at 1:10 PM on October 5, 2010

No, no, no: it's "Big Ol' Jed in a Lineup."
posted by grubi at 1:12 PM on October 5, 2010

Skygazer: “I dare you to find a stupider lyric.”

Dude, that's not even the stupidest lyric in that song. At least 'really love your peaches, wanna shake your tree' is obviously just sexual innuendo. Heck, it's even mildly witty.

Somehow I really like that song. It reminds me of growing up. And yes, it must've been fun to be in that band.
posted by koeselitz at 1:13 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

Skygazer: “I dare you to find a stupider lyric.”

I think the whole of "Take The Money and Run" is stupider.
posted by bz at 1:15 PM on October 5, 2010

“I dare you to find a stupider lyric.”

I submit a line from Third Eye Blind's "Semi-Charmed Life" that has bothered my ears in both composition and execution ever since I first heard it:

Do ever what you wanna do

WHO THE FUCK TALKS LIKE THIS
posted by grubi at 1:20 PM on October 5, 2010 [4 favorites]

WHO THE FUCK TALKS LIKE THIS

Meth addicts.
posted by josher71 at 1:23 PM on October 5, 2010 [2 favorites]

I vividly remember an insert in our Mass bulletin in the early 70s raging about the evils of today's rock music lyrics and citing "Fly Like An Eagle" as an example. Imagine being so apoplectic about the devil's music that you look past, oh, EVERY OTHER SONG in order to bring down the wrath of the parish on Steve "Shoot the children, with no shoes on their feet" Miller.

Of course, if that's what they heard, that is pretty disturbing. I mean, the poor kids are barefoot.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 1:24 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

WHO THE FUCK TALKS LIKE THIS

Me, now.
posted by everichon at 1:25 PM on October 5, 2010 [2 favorites]

Yeah, some of Steve Miller's lyrics are pretty mundane & pedestrian, but jeez, people. Don't make me start quoting Sammy Hagar.

also: El Paso- *clap,clap,clap,clap,clap!*

/innumerate
posted by Devils Rancher at 1:25 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

Of course, if that's what they heard, that is pretty disturbing. I mean, the poor kids are barefoot.

Here's a poem I wroted for youse.

Steve Miller:
Orphan Killer.
posted by grubi at 1:31 PM on October 5, 2010

Skygazer wrote: “I dare you to find a stupider lyric.”

This was the first Nickelback song I checked:

If everyone cared and nobody cried
If everyone loved and nobody lied
If everyone shared and swallowed their pride
We'd see the day when nobody died

Makes very little sense when you really think about it... Maybe they are called Nickelback because you have to give back all 5 senses to enjoy it.
posted by any major dude at 1:32 PM on October 5, 2010 [5 favorites]

Once upon a time, many many years ago, my brother (now a respected member of his community and the father of two wonderful daughters) went to a party at a friend's house. His friend told the party-goers repeatedly that his mother was in another part of the house with a boyfriend, and that they should keep it down; but the party, as such gatherings will, got out of hand, and my brother was more out of hand than most. After a particularly raucous moment, an angry man in a pair of shorts appeared on the staircase, demanding that "you little bastards keep it down." My brother took offense, behaved offensively, and was cold-cocked and bum-rushed onto the front lawn. He came around to the voice of another friend hovering over him: "Hey, you know that dude that just kicked your ass? That was STEVE MILLER!"

Maybe it was, and maybe it wasn't; but "Space Cowboy" is an incredible song...
posted by steambadger at 1:35 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

I almost forgot re: stupider lyrics, the song Summer Girls by LFO, which includes the following couplets:

'You're the best girl that I ever did see,
The great Larry Bird Jersey 33

When you take a sip you buzz like a hornet
Billy Shakespeare wrote a whole bunch of sonnets

Fell deep in love, but now we ain't speaking
Michael J Fox was Alex P Keaton"

It's like a love story interrupted by vague pointless pop-culture factoids.

Anyhow, on topic: Steve Miller used to be one of those guys/bands that I lumped with groups like Grateful Dead, Eagles and Jimmy Buffett, for whom I could not work up any interest based on experiences with super-fans. But, at least for Mr. Miller and his eponymous band, I've grown to appreciate the music and I don't automatically hit scan when Fly Like an Eagle or Swingtown comes on the radio.

Also, Michael J. Fox was Alex P. Keaton.
posted by cottoncandybeard at 1:43 PM on October 5, 2010 [6 favorites]

I have suffered so much Steve Miller in my life. Living in dorms, working in factories, stuck at parties thrown by people I don't like...if I never hear about the children with no shoes upon their feet again it will be too soon.
posted by Jimmy Havok at 1:46 PM on October 5, 2010

All I know is that was the first song I ever knew that contained a swear word and I felt like the biggest badass playing it for the girls next door.

Oh I think you mean the funky kicks going down in the city.
posted by kingbenny at 1:55 PM on October 5, 2010

Yeah, some of Steve Miller's lyrics are pretty mundane & pedestrian, but jeez, people. Don't make me start quoting Sammy Hagar.

This.
I offer for your perusal "Your Love is Driving Me Crazy", which contains the lyric "So sublime, hot, sweet cherries on the vine."
Maybe I'm being U.S.-centric, but here in the USA, cherries grow on trees.

I mostly changed the station when Steve Miller came on, for 30+ years. Then suddenly about 2 months ago, I decided he was the coolest thing ever. I have no idea what happened. Although it was right around the same time that I gave up caffeine. Hmmm....
posted by MexicanYenta at 2:00 PM on October 5, 2010

I have never forgiven him for those cheesy synthetic hand-claps on Take the Money and Run.

or "abra abra cadabra, I wanna reach out and grab ya."

Yea Steve? I wanna punch you in the face!
posted by stormpooper at 2:06 PM on October 5, 2010

Good Morning Starshine is the stupidest song ever written

Just seeing its name put me in an ecstatic trance. I didn't realize how many songs that I loved came from Hair until I saw the movie.
posted by Jimmy Havok at 2:11 PM on October 5, 2010

"Shoot the children, with no shoes on their feet"

Um, Shoe the children, with no shoes on their feet?

What is it with Steve Miller and misheard lyrics? Me Go on Jet Airliner was how I heard it. Also, I thought he spoke of the Properties of Love. Must be the pot.

Anyway, Steve Miller rocks. And I honestly cannot stomach the Eagles or Skynrd or Allman Brothers or any of that other crappy biker rock from the 70s. But there's something different about Miller. I don't know why I like him, but I does.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 2:18 PM on October 5, 2010

Bet you weren't ready for that!
posted by not_on_display at 2:24 PM on October 5, 2010

I have almost 60 GBs of music on my hard drive, roughly 1000 LPs and approximately 250 CDs, but the only music I own that my wife violently dislikes...Steve Miller. Personally, I don't have strong feelings about him one way or the other (although, yeah, "The Joker" blows), but I do find it kind of odd that out of all the weird-ass music in my collection it's Steve Miller that gives her fits.
posted by The Card Cheat at 2:49 PM on October 5, 2010

Oh, and my vote for The Stupidest Song Ever Written goes to "My Humps." One time I typed "My Humps lyrics" into google and my computer crashed. When I rebooted it a window popped up and made me promise I'd never do that again.
posted by The Card Cheat at 2:56 PM on October 5, 2010 [7 favorites]

I am so glad I followed my brother's advice and did not use my real name when we hooked up. On the other hand, if there is a class(y) action lawsuit I am screwed again.
posted by Postroad at 11:59 AM on October 5 [+] [!]

what
posted by r_nebblesworthII at 2:58 PM on October 5, 2010

It's "light on!" Big Ol Jed Had a Light On!

up next, CCR with "There's a Bathroom On The Right"
posted by chaff at 3:00 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

Skygazer wrote: “I dare you to find a stupider lyric.”

I find the "Take the money and run" lyrics about as bad as they come, but even so, it can't beat "Hey there fella with the hair colored yella" line in Skynards otherwise brilliant opus.
posted by cccorlew at 3:12 PM on October 5, 2010

I'm pretty sure the Nickelback lyrics have something to do with..Christianity/God...So with that in mind, those lyrics make perfect sense.

I'm not defending them, their "one song" sound is pretty boring after all. But if you follow the lyrics you can totally see the influence.
posted by ill13 at 3:14 PM on October 5, 2010

...Allman Brothers or any of that other crappy biker...

Ahem. Is this your gauntlet here on the ground?
posted by Devils Rancher at 3:16 PM on October 5, 2010

Steve Miller primarily interested me for the challenge he presented to his video directors of how to camouflage his rotundity.
posted by Joe Beese at 3:35 PM on October 5, 2010

ill13, I don't think they are a Christian rock band, I think that the people that handle them noticed they were developing a large following among fundamentalist degenerates and threw together some overly formulaic lyrics together with the word Amen to lead the sheep to the nearest Sam Goody.
posted by any major dude at 3:36 PM on October 5, 2010

"Hey there fella with the hair colored yella"

Right, but it's a song testifying to the cowardice of the singer. I always took him referencing his 'yellow-ness' as to be part of the joke.
posted by quin at 3:37 PM on October 5, 2010

And, to the best of my knowledge, Steve Miller never wrote a lyric worse than "Don't Dream It's Over" - which makes so little sense that it might as well be sung in Esperanto.
posted by Joe Beese at 3:41 PM on October 5, 2010

As a child of the 70s and 80s, I think people my age were legally required to own his Greatest Hits 74-78 album.

My parents took my brother and me to the mall to buy Christmas presents. I got my brother Greatest Hits 1974-78. When we exchanged gifts I opened my present from him: Greatest Hits 1974-78.

Awesome.
posted by kirkaracha at 3:48 PM on October 5, 2010 [5 favorites]

At least 'really love your peaches, wanna shake your tree' is obviously just sexual innuendo.

Not only that, but it's an innuendo that goes back decades in popular music, back to the blues, and is probably centuries old.
posted by kirkaracha at 3:55 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

Not only that, but it's an innuendo that goes back decades in popular music

Yes, but those lines in that particular song are specifically quoting a specific song. Seriously. I'm not making this up. Why Miller is quoting these specific lines from this specific song, I have no idea, but it's verbatim, and quite obvious. The Clovers - Lovey Dovey.
posted by hippybear at 4:10 PM on October 5, 2010 [2 favorites]

The source of "pompetus (puppetutes) of love":

The Letter -- The Medallions (1954)

The (proximate) source of "you're the cutest thing I ever did see", "I really love your peaches wanna shake your tree", and "lovey dovey all the time":

Lovey Dovey -- The Clovers (1954)

posted by Herodios at 4:21 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

Steve Miller never wrote a lyric worse than "Don't Dream It's Over" - which makes so little sense that it might as well be sung in Esperanto.

Hey now, hey now! One man's existential angst being assuaged by the possibility of love is another man's gibberish, I suppose.
posted by Devils Rancher at 4:32 PM on October 5, 2010

they basically shot a guy to death after they broke into his house.

Sounds like it was influenced by Terrence Malick's Badlands.
posted by ovvl at 4:37 PM on October 5, 2010

I was introduced to Steve Miller primarily through "Abracadabra," which was ubiquitous on MTV and was really the last (albeit incredibly cheesy) decent song he ever recorded, but it was hard to escape the 1974-1978 hits in college. Most of those were brilliant four-minute masterpieces of concision and punchiness. They've been swiped and sampled to death, which kinda helps put the lie to the haters.

As for stupid lyrics, you don't even have to wander out of the 1970s to find lyrics that are way stupider than his. "Baby, I'm-a want you/Baby, I'm-a need you"? "And all the beads we made by hand/Are nowadays made in Japan"? "She's 41 and her daddy still calls 'er 'baby'/All the folks 'round Brownsville say she's crazy"? It's an endless treasure trove of dumb.
posted by blucevalo at 4:47 PM on October 5, 2010

I dare you to find a stupider lyric.

"Water, fire, air and dirt
Fucking magnets, how do they work?"

Low hanging fruit...
posted by MikeMc at 4:56 PM on October 5, 2010

My nominee for Worst. Lyric. Ever. comes courtesy of the country fried hip hop stylings of Nellie. (Or Nelly. Or, fuck, I don't know Knehlleee.) But anyway, 'It's getting hot in here / so take off all your clothes' is an idiotic line, but whatever, it's a dance track. It's the next line, sung by a female, that reaches the level of neuron apoptosis: 'I am getting so hot / I'm gonna take my clothes off.'

It sounds like an ESL lesson for procurers and date rapists, and I have long wondered if that was ever actually written down.

And re: the Airliner song: "We get down, Carolina" would be the way that I have heard and sung it. I had no idea it was about an airliner, and couldn't have told you what the song was about if asked.

Happy birthday, man. Now 'scuse me while I kiss this guy.
posted by palindromic at 4:58 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

Till this very minute, I thought that "gasso" was short for gas-station, and that that was what Billy Joe robbed.

Me too, I guessed we both learned something today. Local angle: Steve was born in Milwaukee and his parents were the best man and maid of honor at the wedding of Les Paul and Mary Ford.
posted by MikeMc at 5:08 PM on October 5, 2010

Today marks the 67th anniversary of the birth of the legendary musician Steve Miller.

Also know as a birthday.

*Lives in the USA. Jokes. Smokes. Midnight Tokes. Abracadabras. Reaches out and grabs ya*
posted by jonmc at 5:09 PM on October 5, 2010

Never, never could stand Steve Miller's music. And I went to high school through the 1970's. Horrible stuff.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 5:09 PM on October 5, 2010

I always have to stop and perform a mental check when Steve Miller is mentioned: "Miller, Miller, Miller. Is that the bar-rock American from the 70s or that pub-rock Brit from the 70s who looks like that American pop-rock guy from the 70s who looks like that British glam-rock guy from the 70s?"
posted by maudlin at 5:12 PM on October 5, 2010

Also: "The Joker?" Overplayed? Definitely. Bad? No. And "Livin' In The USA," "Quicksilver Girl" and "Space Cowboy" are all nice tunes.
posted by jonmc at 5:22 PM on October 5, 2010

For you folks arguing about the dumbest lyrics ever, I have six and a half words for you:

'cept for the Pope maybe in Rome.

What do I win?
posted by bondcliff at 5:26 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

Steve Miller is possibly the worst lyricist I'll ever love, but he is a near-permanent fixture on my mp3 player for reasons other than scintillating musical craftsman. To be sure, he's good player, a reasonable melodic writer, and has a smooth, masculine voice that still makes me think of lush late-seventies hippie hair, blowing in the wind as the rough boys rode their CB350s down to the dead end on Scaggsville Road to smoke pot and talk shit.

My sunday school teacher, in the next moral panic after explaining how there was this cult called "The Way" in the area distributing LSD to kids on what looked like temporary tattoos, sat us down and had a frank talk about child molesters. I was twelve, precocious already in matters of sex, if not particularly well informed about how things were really supposed to work, and when he held up a picture cut from the paper of a local guy arrested for inappropriately touching a number of boys my age, I had to shift nervously in my seat.

I wasn't a greenhorn. My grandmother had warned me about mashers and child murderers, but in her lurid tales, they were always in their mid-sixties and savage, bloated, liver-spotted men in long coats, and she'd set me free on the streets of Baltimore with a warning.

"Joe-B," she'd say, pausing to take a drag on a menthol ultra. "If anyone out there opens their coat, I want you to run back here as fast as you can. There's mashers out in Clifton Park this summer, according to Miss Carrie."

"I'll run back," I said, and headed for the wild streets.

So my teacher held up this slightly crinkly newspaper article and the picture made me swoon. The guy was in his twenties, with a dangerous smirk and the kind of mustache that smirky guys loved back then, with a little droopy tip at each corner of his mouth, highlighting his perfect, dimpled cheeks, and I sat there, sliding around in my chair like a bus driver bouncing around on the spring-loaded seat of a city bus, trying to distract myself from the clarity of absurd twelve-year old desire.

"Some of the boys he molested are on the verge of suicide," my teacher intoned, with the kind of solemnity I was meant to accept with fear and anxiety, but I had a different thought entirely.

Some kids are so lucky.

"So what's the lesson here?" asked my teacher, leaning back and resting the article on the desk, next to his white presentation edition bible with a thousand raggedy bookmarks. "The lesson is to be awake and be aware, right?"

He made us say it out loud.

"Be awake and be aware," I mumbled, but I was already awake, in a certain way, and was preoccupied with coming up with thoughts that would allow me to step away from the table without my genitalia twanging on the table edge like a ruler.

I started spending more time around the rough boys. Some of them lived a few doors down, and they pretty much spent the summer there, working on their cars, smoking pot, talking redneck talk, drinking the shittiest beer in the world, and slipping off to the side of the barn to take a leak.

The music was, by my standards, pretty awful.

"What are you doin'," I'd ask, sidling up from the back yard to watch the neighbor, Trev, as he bent into the open engine compartment of his Camaro with loud music blasting from his incredibly groovy sunshine yellow Weltron.

"Listenin' to Tull, tryin' to get this fuckin' carb set right."

I did not care for Tull, but fortunately, Trev's girlfriend didn't care for Tull, either, so the eight-track would be swapped for Steve Miller Band - Greatest Hits 1974-78 in her presence, and, being an eight-track tape, it just looped and looped and looped all afternoon, cutting sinuous synthesizer pathways into the folds and recesses of my brain.

Trev's hot chick found me cute, goofy, and consistently amusing, so I was allowed to stay on, even as things heated up at times. The talk was almost unbearably insipid, just endless banter on the social set of Scaggsville, and excursions on themes of who thought they were cool and who actually was cool, and the music would roll around and around and around and around and it would come back to "Wild Mountain Honey," which is almost certainly the sexiest tune ever created for the concrete purpose of having a bra-less seventeen-something pull her tube top down.

I'd make myself indispensable, offering to take on all the tasks that bored Trev into looking for another beer, and I spent a lot of afternoons polishing the acres of chrome on that Camaro, or carefully de-coking a cylinder head with a scaling tool, and when things worked out just right, Trev and the hot chick would start to fall victim to "Wild Mountain Honey," dancing slowly between the car and the tree where Trev and his brothers would hang deer carcasses to drain before cutting them up for venison.

"Joe-B, are you still working on that bumper?" Trev asked, a little out of breath.

"Yeah."

"Keep on it, 'kay. I wanna see that thing shine."

"Sure."

"Joe-B? Just stay down there for a minute."

Something about his tone was just impossible, just so lush and lurid, and I heard the driver's seat flop forward, then back, and the driver's door closed from inside. I was on my back under the front bumper with a rag made out of an old t-shirt and a bottle of chrome polish, and the car just started to rock, ever so slightly, creaking on its springs.

I rolled out from my place, then got into a crouch and rose slowwwwly, silently, appearing over the crest of the hood like a puppet. Trev was facing away from me, his tangled mop of hair beside the hot chick, and she had her head back, eyes closed, and as I got more and more daring, rising almost to my feet, I could see Trev's backside, framed by his half-shirt and the little tuft of sun-bleached fuzz just over his crack, and I was completely, utterly mesmerized.

Hot chick opened her eyes, just to slits, and I could see them fix on me, then open in a series of little twitching movements. She looked out, across the hood, and I looked back, and she smiled the kind of smile the Mona Lisa might have smiled if her tube top had been pulled down, and winked at me.

I dropped to the ground, picked up my rag, and acted like nothing at all had happened. Steve Miller had moved on to "Jungle Love," and I was shaky and frustrated, wondering just what a guy had to do to get molested in this town, but nothing was said. The hot chick called me a "cutie" and gave me a hug as she headed home, and the Tull came back.

I took a pair of scissors to my cut-off jeans before I went back, cutting them off so high that the white fabric of the pockets hung out past the ragged fringe.

"Jesus, Joe-B," Trev laughed. "What the hell is up with those shorts?"

I looked down. I was Olive Oyl back then. Olive Oyl in ludicrous homemade shorts with pockets hanging out, just gangly and awkward and apparently unworthy of molestation, even with all the polishing I'd done over the weeks. My god, I am a fool.

"By the way, kid—I feel bad, havin' you do all that work for free. You really got her shinin' good," he said, and handed me a worn five dollar bill that was soft as cloth.

"Thanks, Trev," I said.

Rethinking my intentions, I made an excuse, then took the money and ran.
posted by sonascope at 5:27 PM on October 5, 2010 [16 favorites]

What do I win?

An all expenses paid trip to see Joan Osborne in concert, plus exclusive VIP backstage passes!
posted by A dead Quaker at 5:31 PM on October 5, 2010

elmer benson: "Honest to God, I thought it was "Big ol' jet got a hard on" well into the 21st century."

One of my friends thought it was: "Big ol' Jed ate a lion."
posted by bwg at 6:36 PM on October 5, 2010

late-seventies hippie hair, blowing in the wind as the rough boys rode their CB350s down to the dead end on Scaggsville Road to smoke pot and talk shit

OK who has been hanging out in my memories...
posted by alfanut at 7:04 PM on October 5, 2010

The stupidest lyric of all time:

Really love your peaches , want to shake your tree....


Hippybear: Um.... dude. The final lyrics to "The Joker" are a quote from The Clovers' 1954 hit "Lovey Dovey ".


I stand corrected, that's actually awesome in a subversive homage of a subversive song from the 50s sorta way....

Thanks for the context.
posted by Skygazer at 7:08 PM on October 5, 2010

All you folks getting the lyrics to Jet Airliner wrong, did the name of the song not clue you in?

Nope, because I heard Steve Miller sing it way more times than I heard the shouty AM DJ holler the name of the song sofastyoucouldn'ttellwhatthehellhewashollering.
posted by goofyfoot at 8:22 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

El Paso- *clap,clap,clap,clap,clap!*

i can't find a copy online, but back then there were some tacatacataco bell commercials with the same clapping in them - it's steve's idea of a joke
posted by pyramid termite at 8:35 PM on October 5, 2010

A MetaFilter member that I admire once made a funny comment about Steve Miller, but I see he's not around to point it out right now.
posted by Curious Artificer at 8:49 PM on October 5, 2010 [2 favorites]

Every time I come home to Boston by airplane, I think "Touching down in New England town" as the plane lands.
posted by cadge at 10:02 PM on October 5, 2010

AROOOOOOOOOOGA

AOOOOOOOOOOLAWD, surely.

Bonghits at dawn for naysayers would be better.
Broadswords in a pit. Have we really fallen this far?
posted by kirkaracha at 10:47 PM on October 5, 2010

When I was younger, I thought the line in "Fly Like an Eagle" was "Shoot the children, for those shoes on their feet." I thought the song was describing some desperate, post-apocalyptic future (and "flying like an eagle" represented the the narrator's desire to leave it).

Also: The story behind "pompatus" and "really love your peaches, wanna shake your tree."
posted by dhens at 12:05 AM on October 6, 2010

I see Hippybear beat me to the "peaches/tree" reference. Oh well.
posted by dhens at 12:08 AM on October 6, 2010

Don't forget Circle Of Love, with its 16-minute epic track, "Macho City," that bombed pretty heavily in 1981, prompting Steve Miller to crank out Abracadabra a year later to prove he still "had it." That goddamned spinning ball from the title track's video seemingly aired every day on the early MTV, oddly placing Steve Miller in heavy rotation with Asia and Duran Duran (and possibly Trans-era Neil Young, but I don't think he made videos for that album...did he?).

The 80s Steve Miller album that stood out for me was Living In The 20th Century, a 1986 release that garnered tons of airplay on rock stations like the Loop in Chicago and KSHE in Saint Louis (what, you thought I was going to say Italian X-Rays?). Its title track made its way to an episode of "Miami Vice," which in its own way was more cool than being on MTV...or at least it was more cool than MTV to the teenaged version of me.
posted by stannate at 12:27 AM on October 6, 2010

I have a friend from college who swore that the lyric was in fact 'Big Ole Aunt Jemima' which when she revealed to us led to merciless taunting every breakfast when pancakes were served.

palindromic I'll only slightly defend your Nelly lyric with the additional one in Hot Heere "What good is all the fame if you're not f*cking the models". The first time I figured that out (which was actually in the Tiga remix, the video of which involves a disturbing puppet) I laughed my head off.

I grew up in what I affectionately call the "Hair Metal Belt" - there are acts that sell out around these parts that don't bother to even tour anywhere else. Other cities may complain about drivers blaring pumping bass in traffic, it's more common here to hear Poison or G&R at top volume on a hot summer day. Not that I'm complaining. The Steve Miller concert was an annual event for my social circle through most of high school and college - his music was innocuous enough that any underage drunk could sing along and have a great time. Every summer the outdoor ampitheater would sell out, some years multiple shows. Reminiscing about it now as an adult, the years and the shows all blur together save for the opening act (if we weren't still out in the parking lot tailgaiting). One year I managed to tag along to the concert with a long term serious high school crush. This wasn't a secret crush, pretty much everyone who knew me knew my affection for the boy I sat next to in Trig, including him. The sky opened up that night and our little group stood in the downpour, drenched to the bone, belting out Jungle Love along with the rest of the fools in the mud. And then a high school miracle happened - my crush, the popular football player, kissed me. In public. As my exboyfriend (who dumped me) walked past. It was the perfect confluence of events. So every time I hear Steve Miller, I get an enormous shit eating grin on my face and can't help but sing along. So happy birthday Mr. Miller, and thank you for making a little bit of high school awesome.
posted by librarianamy at 5:31 AM on October 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

Skygazer: "stupider lyric"

That honor goes to Warren Zevon:

Yes, he really worked me over good
He was a credit to his gender
He put me through some changes
Lord, sorta like a waring blender

"Waring blender???"
WTF??OMG!!!LOL!!!
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 5:38 AM on October 6, 2010

I went to high school in Dallas at a rival all-boys school. On his faebook page he mentiones that he was kicked out of St. Mark's. Legend has it that it was for riding a motorcycle down the hallway.
posted by chillmost at 6:14 AM on October 6, 2010

Sometime in 1993, I discovered a music topic folder on AOL that covered subjects all over the musical map. One of the forum moderators, a guy named Andre (from Corvallis), who called himself Dr. Dre, eliminated that folder early in 1994 as a result of flame wars over artists the likes of Kenneth Gorelick.

A few stalwarts--but especially me and a Berklee instructor--revived the folder in 1994 under the name Music Abominations, whose Patron Saint was (and is) Stevie "Guitar" Miller. That folder still exists now as a Facebook group (and as a largely unusable forum on my own hosted page), and Stevie Miller is still roundly excoriated for his lyric choices, especially from the Fly Like an Eagle album onward (rhyming El Paso/hassle & Facts is/Taxes)

If you check my last.fm history, you'll find plenty of Steve Miller especially the first five LPs--these are cemented in my mind as part of that period. "Your Saving Grace" & "Living in the USA" are a large part of the sounds of the times for me.

I saw Miller on TV not that long ago-not surprisingly he can still play guitar like the master he is, but for me, our parting of the ways began with the fourth and fifth album. I still enjoy parts of "The Joker" as fun novelty bits, but when he disappeared for a couple of years in the eearly 70s, he had changed and so had I. We parted friends.
posted by beelzbubba at 7:21 AM on October 6, 2010

Skygazer: “stupider lyric”

KevinSkomsvold: “That honor goes to Warren Zevon:

Yes, he really worked me over good
He was a credit to his gender
He put me through some changes
Lord, sorta like a waring blender

‘Waring blender???’
WTF??OMG!!!LOL!!!”

I think you are confusing "stupid" with "brilliantly awesome" here. If you can't see the hilarious genius in that line, you shouldn't be listening to music.
posted by koeselitz at 7:43 AM on October 6, 2010 [2 favorites]

I dare you to find a stupider lyric.

"Pink, it's like red but not quite."
posted by Partial Law at 7:50 AM on October 6, 2010

KevinSkomsvold: I have no opinion on those lyrics, but I thought I would point out in case you didn't know that Waring is a brand of blender.
posted by entropicamericana at 8:00 AM on October 6, 2010

Miller is a guilty pleasure of mine. Based on all the other things that I love, I should hate him and his music, but his greatest hits CD filled out my "10 CDs for 1 cool penny" deal from BMG in 1990, so... I've got some kind of attachment to those songs. As a guitar player, I appreciate his use of the "out of phase" pickups on his stratocaster. Really neat sounding rhythm playing. Especially the driving, simple, playing on Take the Money and Run.

His guitar also always just sounded so pure, like he was playing in the room with you. Not the whole production, just his guitar. Sounded like someone playing along with the record in the room. It's really disassociated from the tracks. I've don't get that vibe from other records.

I'm inexplicably fascinated by Steve Miller.
posted by JBennett at 8:06 AM on October 6, 2010

I would totally own a Waring blender, just because of Mr. Zevon's endorsement. He doesn't call out those weak-assed Osters for good reason!
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:13 AM on October 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

The classic Waring Blenders are actually Waring Blendors, so that's another thing he got wrong.
posted by Rumple at 9:30 AM on October 6, 2010

Re-listening to Steve Miller, I gotta say, if you don't dig these tunes... well, I don't know what to say. This is great, fun rock and roll. Perfect for road trips and singing along loudly with friends.

His guitar also always just sounded so pure, like he was playing in the room with you. Not the whole production, just his guitar.

Yeah! If I could get that Steve Miller sound in my recordings, I'd be very very happy.
posted by grubi at 10:00 AM on October 6, 2010

"Yes, he really worked me over good
He was a credit to his gender
He put me through some changes
Lord, sorta like a waring blender"

Pretty sure that's the Linda Ronstadt version of Poor Poor Pitiful Me, Warren's version had a female as the protagonist.
posted by e1c at 12:01 PM on October 6, 2010

Somebody give me a cheeseburger.
posted by cogneuro at 6:34 PM on October 6, 2010 [1 favorite]

One hot summer day in Toronto about fourteen years ago I was walking up Bay Street with three friends when somehow the conversation shifted to Steve Miller. One friend, let's call him "Mark" (because that's his name) started loudly proclaiming that Steve Miller was terrible and people only listened to Steve Miller ironically. 'That's not true,' I told him. 'I enjoy Steve Miller and own the Greatest Hits album.' 'But you only listen to it ironically,' he said. 'No I don't. I really like a lot of those songs.' (Maybe being from Dallas, Texas has something to do with it). This went back and forth, Mark refusing to believe I actually enjoyed listening to Steve Miller, my other friends backing me up, all of us hung over and hot and exhausted, me getting aggreviated and frustrated with Mark's refusal to concede that some people actually like Steve Miller's music to the point where I was getting angrier and angrier and fantasizing about pushing Mark into oncoming traffic. Then I realized how this would sound at the police station: "I had to push him, officer. He was dissing Steve Miller." If I was lucky the arresting officer would also be a Steve Miller fan, and I would be free to go. Luckily I didn't push my friend into traffic. Instead he and I and our other friends found a nice quiet patio and cooled off by drinking our weight in beer and soon we were all laughing, buddies again. Moral of the story: when you want to kill someone because they're dissing Steve Miller, it's best to step back and cool off.
posted by Fuzzy Monster at 7:40 PM on October 6, 2010 [2 favorites]

Oh, and my personal favorite Stupid Lyric comes from the song 'Tiger' by Fabian:

Got my heart a-jumpin' like a kangaroo
floatin' like an onion in a bowl of stew

What? Is the kangaroo floating like an onion? Is it his heart? Is his heart jumping or floating? Either way, that's not very romantic phrasing. "Darling, you make my heart float like an onion in a bowl of stew." Somehow I think those lyrics were tossed off right before lunchtime. "Poochy okay with you?" "Yeah... it's good."
posted by Fuzzy Monster at 7:45 PM on October 6, 2010

Steve Miller + Geto Boys = Gangster of Love
posted by stinkycheese at 2:15 PM on October 7, 2010

Please don't tell Aunt Delilah! Getting some good closure here on the other mondegreens.
posted by stevil at 8:51 PM on October 16, 2010