Sampling Steve Miller Band: A Listener’s Guide

Given their entrenched position as a classic-rock-radio staple, the Steve Miller Band don’t immediately register as a trailblazing band. But in addition to their creative use of synthesizers, which propelled classic tunes such as “Jet Airliner,” “The Joker,” “Take the Money and Run,” “Abracadabra” and “Jungle Love,” they were also one of the very first rock bands to incorporate samples into their sound. “Space Cowboy,” from 1969, refurbishes the signature riff from the Beatles’ “Lady Madonna.” Miller and Co. replicated the intro to Free’s “All Right Now” for “Rock’n Me,” as a tribute to Paul Rodgers’ old outfit. Their version of Sam Cooke’s “You Send Me,” off 1976’s Fly Like an Eagle, contains dialogue from “Championship Wrestling” from Cheech & Chong’s Wedding Album. Meanwhile, elements of “Regiment” off David Byrne and Brian Eno’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts found their way into the 16-minute “Macho City,” which closes out 1981’s Circle of Love.

Likewise, the Steve Miller Band have seen their own music creatively repurposed, not only as a popular source for hip-hop since its late Eighties–early Nineties Golden Age, but also within the realms of dance music and even folk. As longtime SMB fans rejoice over the singer’s overdue induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, we review some of the more inventive infusions of this legendary and innovative group’s material into other artists’ songs.

“Quicksilver Girl” (Sailor, 1968) > “My First Lover” by Gillian Welch

This fan favorite from alt-folk great Gillian Welch’s 2001 LP Time (The Revelator) contains the genius lyric ” I do not remember any goin’ wrong/Just a record playin’ that old Steve Miller song,” after which Welch and guitarist David Rawlings break into the refrain from this key track off SMB’s most out-there record, naturally blending it with the hypnotic fingerpicking of their own magnificent song. 

“Lucky Man” (Sailor, 1968) > “Praise You” by Fatboy Slim

Most might remember Fatboy Slim’s most popular hit for that goofy dance troupe–flash mob in the Spike Jonze video. But those paying attention noticed that Norman Cook had built his massive “Praise You” beat around a sturdy SMB epicenter: the funky Fender Rhodes groove buried beneath the Deep Purple lite of the song that directly follows “Quicksilver Girl” on Side Two of Sailor, which Slim kicked into high gear right at the drop of the best damn song of 1998.