Steve Miller Band Live!
	production credits unknown
	Released on April 1983
	US CHART POSITION #125 . . . UK CHART POSITION #79
	Find it at GEMM
CDP 7 91315 2 cover [high resolution scan]

T hey might as well have called this Steve Miller Band’s Greatest Hits Live. They could have even kept the exclamation point at the end, since this disc is in desperate need of one. I mean, this is the first official live album from Steve Miller Band, right? It deserves some sort of fanfare, a damn sight more than ten tracks and no liner notes, which is what you get with the 1988 CD reissue. The performances themselves are fine, if nothing to get excited about. The less familiar tracks get better readings, perhaps because Steve isn’t playing them for like the billionth time: “Gangster of Love,” “Living In The U.S.A.,” “Mercury Blues.” And honorable mentions go to faithful versions of “Take The Money And Run” and “The Joker” (that sweet seducer of souls). But too much had changed since Book of Dreams, with too much time taken off and too little to show for it. After all, if Abracadabra had been a great album, wouldn’t the labels have trotted out more than the title track? (I notice I’m writing in the past conditional today; it must have been the daffodils.) Perhaps I put too much credence in the concert photos from Greatest Hits; it seemed like a party to me, Live! feels like work. The little squalls of lead guitar slipped into “Jet Airliner” or “Jungle Love” just don’t matter. And so another legend dies, another contract with the devil goes sour. Still, fans will demand some sort of document, even if it pales to images borne by Book of Dreams or Eagle. Eulogist be disappointed is all.

CDP 7 91315 2 back sleeve

TRACK LISTING

1. GANGSTER OF LOVE    (Johnny "Guitar" Watson)
2. ROCK 'N ME    (Steve Miller)
3. LIVING IN THE U.S.A.    (Steve Miller)
4. FLY LIKE AN EAGLE    (Steve Miller)
5. JUNGLE LOVE    (Greg Douglass/Lonnie Turner)
6. THE JOKER    (Steve Miller/Ertegun/Curtis)
7. MERCURY BLUES    (K. Douglas/R. Geddus)
8. TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN    (Steve Miller)
9. ABRACADABRA    (Steve Miller)
10. JET AIRLINER    (Paul Pena)

CREDITS

BYRON ALLRED --
NORTON BUFFALO --
GERALD JOHNSON --
KENNY LEE LEWIS --
GARY MALLABER--
JOHN MASSARO --
STEVE MILLER --

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