Steve Miller – Living In The U.S.A.

We’re living in a plastic land
Somebody give me a hand, yeah

I really like the organ in this song as well as the race car that’s revving up… it’s so vibrant. Miller also sets the mood with the harmonica he is playing. It’s too bad his earlier albums get lost in the shuffle because of his success from The Joker on. Those albums show a different Miller than the masses know from his big hits.

This song was released in 1968 on the Sailor LP which was the Steve Miller Band’s second LP. The album peaked at #24 on the Billboard Album Charts and #27 in Canada. Although the song was popular in the late 1960s, it truly gained a resurgence on rock radio in the late 1970s due to the success of the Fly Like an Eagle album.

Out of all Steve Miller songs…this one may be my favorite. This song peaked 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: 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
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

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

40 thoughts on “Steve Miller – Living In The U.S.A.”

      1. Paul….I never heard that before…I’m listening to it now…it DOES sound like that….or the other way around. That is my area code!

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      4. Here is some what I wrote about them –

        “Area Code 615 were a sort of country, mainly instrumental session musician supergroup. Several of their eleven members had backed Bob Dylan on both Blonde On Blonde and Nashville Skyline.

        They only released two albums and this was their second, a largely instrumental piece of work that tapped in to the whole laid-back but also lively country rock thing that was so popular in the 1968-1972 period. The sound is wonderful as is the virtuosity on display, the album is a pleasure from beginning to end. It is not a completely country album, either, far from it – with just as many rock sounds in there – fuzzy guitar, strong bass and drums and bluesy harmonica.

        Stone Fox Chase needs no introduction for aficionados of BBC TV’s The Old Grey Whistle Test, as it was the theme song, played over those hippyish kicking man graphics. It is full of infectious harmonica and percussion, although the little-heard bass-xylophone?-drum interplay bit is just as good as the instantly recognisable main part. It is simply one of rock’s great instrumentals. Great memories for anyone of a certain age.”

        It comes recommended.

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      5. I know the theme song for the Old Grey Whistle Test…that is really cool!
        I’m looking them up as well… Kenny Buttrey….he was a great drummer. I’ve NEVER heard this before…”American progressive country rock band” what the hell? Oh yea…I’m going to listen to these guys!
        Thanks Paul…I love Old/New music that I missed…this sounds interesting.
        Yesterday CB told me about The Streetwalkers and Family…I’ve been listening to them.

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      7. I’m listening now…love the guitar…this is what I was talking about on Dave’s site today….not Family but the thrill of finding music I missed.

        Like

      8. They are progressive but on the other hand…they stay within rock limits…at least what I’ve heard. I like his singing also…this track’s guitar is wonderful.

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  2. I wish I could say I heard Steve Miller back in his student days but I discovered him after he moved to San Francisco. How many left-handed bassists are there? And is Miller playing a left-handed guitar but right-handed? After leaving the Steve Miller Band, Tim Davis, the drummer, returned to Wisconsin and led a band called Watermelon. Other local connections: Tracy Nelson wrote her song “Down So Low” about her breakup with Steve Miller; and Ben Sidran (keyboards) went on to a long career in jazz after returning to Madison, WI. His son is now a musician in New York and occasionally returns home for gigs with dad.

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    1. I have to admit…when you said Tracy Nelson my first thought went to the actress…I’m watching the musician Nelson now do that song on Austin City Limits…really cool sounding.
      Tim Davis…I’ve heard of him…a song called Take Me As I Am…if it’s the same one.
      This is probably the first song I heard by Miller.

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  3. I didn’t realize this went back that far nor that Boz was on it. I’m not very much of a Miller fan but this isn’t a bad single, seems a bit better than some of his bigger hits but maybe that’s just because some of them have been so overplayed.

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    1. He had some good songs at this time. I’ve listened to the Sailor album and it’s really good. He also made a song with Paul McCartney in 1969 and both of them played all of the instruments.
      This was the first song I ever heard by him. I always liked it. It didn’t get worn out. I don’t know why his earlier stuff isn’t played.

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      2. At a ball game…I always ask for a dog and a beer…
        He did…some pure blues….it made me appreciate him a lot more by listening to the earlier stuff. CB…it’s night and day in a lot of ways compared to his later period.

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      3. His early stuff is like early/later Fleetwood Mac in comparison. Two different styles. Always gets two different sets of listeners. I think we’ve touched on this before.
        My daughter, Princess Falda just went to a nooner ball game. Vancouver Canadians. Great little park and atmosphere. She’s not a sports person but loved it. Living In Canada. Sounds like a song. “Someone get me a bacon cheese burger”

        Liked by 1 person

      4. …in paradise as Buffett would say. Of course minor league baseball IS paradise.
        That is a good comparison…completely changes the game around 73 or so with The Joker.

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    1. Yes…I love the intro to that…and Randy it’s just like movies now…they don’t build the plot anymore…it’s right to the action..same as music. It’s probably the first SM song I heard…

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  8. Interesting about his early 60s days. It sounds like he was primed to do politically charged protest songs but we wound up with ‘Take The Money And Run.’ I like this early one, I’ll listen to ‘Sailor.’

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      1. It was Bryan Adams headlining with Steve Miller/ Extreme and Sass Jordan. Back in September/92. Miller just ploughed through the Greatest Hits album back then before everyone started following his lead. Take a bow a Gene and Paul! lol

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