Children of the Future
	Produced by Glyn Johns
	Released on April 1968
	US CHART POSITION #134
	Find it at GEMM
SN-16262 cover [high resolution photo]

I f you’re wondering what Steve Miller Band is doing on a web site about progressive rock, I direct your attention to Children of the Future. This, the first official SMB album, opens with a side of joined songs (some less than a minute) that culminates with the sort of mellotron-rich spire chasing (“In My First Mind”) since synonymous with prog. Reference points along the way include The Mothers, Barclay James Harvest and Utopia, not the sort of bands you usually lump in with Steve Miller. The first side closes with the spooky “The Beauty of Time...,” which could be seen as a restrained megaphone of destiny or tenth revolution I suppose. Strange, strange stuff from a band that’s better known for keeping things straight and simple, but we all had to start off somewhere. Side one is essentially the brainchild of Steve Miller, though it mushrooms into a muddy vision of Something Big before it’s all over. If you were counting on the Blues, don’t flip out, just flip it over. Side two sticks to psychedelic blues rock, led by a pair of strong Boz Scaggs tunes. (He and Miller had a certain Mason/Winwood dynamic going that resulted in the sort of eclecticism found on the early Traffic records.) Honestly, the songs on side two aren’t necessarily any better than “Pushed Me To It” or “You’ve Got The Power,” just longer. The album closes with a trio of bluesy covers, and it’s here that the band’s strengths seem focused: pretty good singing, energized playing and some sharp guitar playing. The last two tracks introduce harmonica into the setting, and by album’s end things have come full circle from defining the future to honoring the past. Though fans generally rank this with Steve Miller’s better efforts, Children of the Future is often odd-man-out when compilation time comes. There’s no hit single, no defining moment, and excising songs that were meant to exist together has proved intimidating. But, like The Mothers’ We’re Only In It For The Money on a more modest scale, Children of the Future is an interesting look at a talent that wouldn’t be contained by the studio.

SN-16262 back cover

TRACK LISTING

1. CHILDREN OF THE FUTURE    (Steve Miller)    2:58
2. PUSHED ME TO IT    (Steve Miller)    0:36
3. YOU'VE GOT THE POWER    (Steve Miller)    0:55
4. IN MY FIRST MIND    (Steve Miller/Jim Peterman)    7:31
5. THE BEAUTY OF TIME IS THA IT'S SNOWING (Psychedelic B.B.)    (Steve Miller)    5:23
6. BABY'S CALLIN' ME HOME    (Boz Scaggs)    3:24
7. STEPPIN' STONE    (Boz Scaggs)    3:02
8. ROLL WITH IT    (Steve Miller)    2:29
9. JUNIOR SAW IT HAPPEN    (Jim Pulte)    2:29
10. FANNY MAE    (B. Brown)    3:11
11. KEY TO THE HIGHWAY    (B. Broonzy/C. Segar)    6:18

CREDITS

TIM DAVIS --
STEVE MILLER --
JIM PETERMAN --
BOZZ SCAGGS --
LONNIE TURNER --
Ben Sidran -- harpsichord (7)

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