When I made the decision at the beginning of this year to listen to one album per day I set up a handful of self-imposed guiding principles to guide the process. The primary one was (and remains) to avoid Greatest Hits compilations– the spirit of this whole experience is to focus on a greater appreciation for the artistic achievements found inside a full album, especially in a world that has commoditized the art of making music.
Which brings us to Steve Miller Band’s Greatest Hits (1974-78), which is most certainly a greatest hits album.
When I was growing up my dad had a burgundy red 1982 Toyota Corolla that he drove around in the mid-90’s. It was loaded with all the creature comforts that I’m sure were a huge deal when they rolled off the lot in the early 80’s– a clunky but reliable stick shift, crank handles to roll down the windows, power steering (read: your forearms felt pretty powerful after making a successful U-turn), and a “sunroof” that was pretty much a 3×2 cutout on top of the car that poured sunlight onto the front seat driver’s head and not much else.
But the crowning achievement of this car was its cassette player. What a damn fine cassette player it was. I think my dad kept all his cassettes in the glove compartment (even at that time the term felt antiquated), but it didn’t really matter because my younger brother and I only wanted one cassette to be spinning in that player at all times.
It was the cassette that featured the uptempo classics like “Jungle Love” and “Take The Money And Run”, the jangly “The Joker”, the spacey “Fly Like An Eagle”, and the psychedelic ballad “Wild Mountain Honey”. It was the earliest voice of rock and roll in my childhood, the epitome of cool, the soundtrack to the cinema that is staring out the backseat window and watching trees blow past in a blur as you take an innocuous trip somewhere not fully appreciating the magic that is present in that moment until years later when you have your own children. And as you watch your own kids staring out the window, watching the world go by in a blur, you realize that a simple drive to the park on a Sunday afternoon may mean something a whole helluva lot more to them one day as well.
So on those Sunday afternoons my brother and I would pile into the backseat of that old ’82 burgundy Corolla, crank that window down, open up that little sunroof to let the sun in, and like clockwork we’d say “Play the horsey album, dad.”
And play the horsey album he did.
Standout Songs: “Jungle Love”, “Take The Money And Run”, “The Joker”, “Fly Like An Eagle”, “Jet Airliner”, “Wild Mountain Honey”
Matthew. 