The Joker – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

I’m getting into this pre-fame hits, Steve Miller. The music was a little more edgier and deeper. I think Miller’s hits have been a huge victim of radio overplay and I realize that is not his fault…doesn’t mean “Jet Airliner” is not any good…we have sometimes heard those songs too much. I have songs like that…but give it some time and I can listen to them again.

In the first line of this song, he references his first real hit, Living In The USA, and he even brings in some musical elements from it. I like the bottom-end riff that drives this song. He would recycle riffs and phrases at times. The phrase “Some call me the Space Cowboy” would later be referenced in Miller’s massive 1973 hit, “The Joker”. This era of the Steve Miller Band should have received more attention in real-time. The talent he had in that band was outstanding.

The music on this album could be labeled as blues and psychedelic in some ways considering the era it was recorded in. The title itself was partly because of the countercultural movement, space exploration going on that year, and free-thinking of the American West.

His earlier songs have more of a blues feel. The former members of his band have included Boz Scaggs, Nicky Hopkins, Doug Clifford (CCR drummer), Ross Valory, Lonnie Turner, and about a page more of many more names.

The song was on The Steve Miller Band’s 1969 album Brave New World, which peaked at a respectable #22 on the Billboard Album Charts and #38 in Canada. This is the same album that featured My Dark Hour, a collaboration between Miller and Paul McCartney.

Glyn Johns produced this album and four albums altogether for Steve Miller. They worked great together. Glyn was a busy man at the time. While he was finishing up this album he would go and work on Let It Be and also cross the hall at Olympic and work on the Stones album Let It Bleed as a sound engineer. He also helped George Harrison produce an album by Billy Preston…all of these projects were at the same time.

Glyn Johns: I returned to California to start the Steve Miller Band’s third album, Brave New World. We were getting on fine until I got a call from The Beatles, asking if Steve would let me go for a couple of weeks, to return home to London to do some sessions for what became Abbey Road. They made him an offer he could not refuse, saying they would pay all the expenses incurred by the delay to his recording schedule. So the band got to hang out in a hotel in L.A. courtesy of The Beatles, while I disappeared back to London for what proved to be a somewhat grueling few days.

I went straight from the plane to Apple for a couple of days, and then to Olympic Studios for an all-night session with the Stones till six a.m. Then to Apple again in the afternoon before going on to the Albert Hall that evening to record Jimi Hendrix in concert.

Space Cowboy

I told you ’bout living in the U.S. of A.
Don’t you know that I’m a gangster of love
Let me tell you people that I found a new way
And I’m tired of all this talk about love
And the same old story with a new set of words
About the good and the bad and the poor
And the times keep on changin’
So I’m keepin’ on top
Of every fat cat who walks through my door

I’m a space cowboy
Bet you weren’t ready for that
I’m a space cowboy
I’m sure you know where it’s at
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

I was born on this rock
And I’ve been travelin’ through space
Since the moment I first realized
What all you fast talkin’ cats would do if you could
You know, I’m ready for the final surprise
There ain’t no way around it
Ain’t nothing to say
That’s gonna satisfy my soul deep inside
All the prayers and surveyors
Keep the whole place uptight
While it keeps on gettin’ darker outside

I’m a space cowboy
Bet you weren’t ready for that
I’m a space cowboy
I’m sure you know where it’s at
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

I see the show downs, slow downs, lost and found, turn arounds
The boys in the military shirts
I keep my eyes on the prize, on the long fallen skies
And I don’t let my friends get hurt
All you back room schemers, small trip dreamers
Better find something new to say
Cause you’re the same old story
It’s the same old crime
And you got some heavy dues to pay

I’m a space cowboy
Bet you weren’t ready for that
I’m a space cowboy
I’m sure you know where it’s at
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

…

Cool hideout, Cool theme, Cool uniforms, Hot Batgirl and the Coolest car. The Batman TV series ran from 1966-1968 with 120 episodes. This was a fun campy show…not a dark drama searching for the reasons why Batman is a vigilante.

I was in the generation after this aired but I loved watching the reruns. Back in the mid-seventies, I was 8 and under the impression that Batman, Gilligans Island, and The Monkees were still making these fun shows. Batman was so colorful and expressive with it’s POW, BOOM, ZAP comic book play. The campiness played great in this show.

Adam West played the campy Batman perfectly and his ward…Burt Ward was just as good with his part. One of the great things about Batman was the villains. Cesar Romero did a great Joker. He may be my favorite Joker. Burgess Meredith as the Penguin and Frank Gorshin as the Riddler was also perfectly cast. I always liked Catwoman played by Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt. Last but certainly not least Bat Girl played by Yvonne Craig.

Lee Meriwether acted as Catwoman in the movie. Yes, there was a movie that they made in 1966! Like the series, it’s just as fun! It has the infamous bat-shark repellent in the movie.

The Batmobile! I loved that car. It started life as a 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car. George Barris did his magic and turned it into what we now know as the Batmobile. My personal favorite of all the Batman cars.

The cool theme song was composed by Neal Hefti.

I want to thank blainerestaurantreport for suggesting Batman to write about… He also told me that Burt Ward got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame…naturally beside Adam West. Congrats Burt!