One of the few Steve Miller hits that is not worn out by radio. This song was released in 1968 and charted at #92 and then charted again at #49 in 1974. It wasn’t a big hit but it did get played on FM radio. Boz Scaggs was in Miller’s band at this time and sang harmonies.
Steve Miller interview about Living in the USA
I had come out of a radical environment at the University of Wisconsin in the early ‘60s. I had been a Freedom Rider in the Civil Rights campaign and then I got involved in the Vietnam War demonstrations and debates. That was all going on, and then I ended up out in California where the psychedelic revolution was taking place. So when you combine those things, it was very powerful [creatively].
“Living in the U.S.A.” was put together with the idea of playing at the Democratic National Convention in 1968 in Chicago. That was the one where the cops beat everybody up—Mayor [Richard] Daley brought out the Chicago police. So it was a political tune. It came out, and it was kind of a hit. Then it went away, and then about five or six years later it sold 100,000 copies in a week in Philadelphia for no reason whatsoever.
Living In The U.S.A.
Stand back, stand back
Stand back, stand back
Stand back, stand back
Doot do do do do doot doot
Living in the U.S.A.
Doot do do do do doot doot
Living in the U.S.A.
Where are you goin’ to
What are you gonna do
Do you think that it will be easy
Do you think that it will be pleasin’, hey
Stand back, what’d you say
Stand back, I won’t pay
Stand back, I’d rather play
Stand back
It’s my freedom
Ah, don’t worry ’bout me, babe
I got to be free, babe
Hey
Doot do do do do doot doot
Living in the U.S.A.
Doot do do do do doot doot
Living in the U.S.A.
Stand back, dietician
Stand back, television
Stand back, politician
Stand back, mortician
Oh, we got to get away
Living in the U.S.A.
Come on baby, Owwww
I see a yellow man, a brown man
A white man, a red man
Lookin’ for Uncle Sam
To give you a helpin’ hand
But everybody’s kickin’ sand
Even politicians
We’re living in a plastic land
Somebody give me a hand, yeah
Oh, we’re gonna make it, baby
Oh, we’re going to shake it, baby
Oh, don’t break it
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Come on baby, hey
Hey, hey
In the U.S.A., babe yeah
Doot do do do do doot doot
Living in the U.S.A.
Don’t worry ’bout me, babe
Doot do do do do doot doot
Living in the U.S.A.
Living in the U.S.A.
Doot do do do do doot doot
Living in the U.S.A.
I got to be free
Doot do do do do doot doot
Living in the U.S.A.
Come on try it, you can buy it, you can leave it next week, yeah
Somebody give me a cheeseburger
PowerPop... An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture 
My favorite Steve Miller song- maybe because it is underplayed.
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This along with Heart Like a Wheel are the two that I like…because of what you said.
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yesterday on the car radio- The Joker… enough!!!
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not a bad song, like you guys say, one that’s not heard too frequently. Gotta admit, as a youth, I liked all those Steve Miller Band hits of the ’70s. But – just to my ears- they’ve aged worse than almost any other AM radio hits of that era, particularly ‘The Joker’ and “take the Money and Run’ which I remember Dave Barry nominating as one of the worst songs of all-time due to its theme, celebrating the robbers, the horrible attempts at rhyming (like ‘Texas’ and ‘justice’) and its overall annoyingness. But to all the fans of him and his band, to each his own. The differences of musical opinion are what keep things interesting!
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I listened to his early 60s stuff in the past few years… when he went pop/rock…he went head first. The song that bugs me the most is Fly Like An Eagle…because it just goes on and on.
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