STEVE MILLER’S HEAVY BREATHING, AND ANTI-BLACK RACISM

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Confession: This blog bit is really just a stalling tactic, or stopgap, while I try to find the time to compose a couple more “legitimate” blog bits.

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My friends and I were sick and tired of a certain someone appearing front and center on my ‘Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends’ home page, so I decided I had to post something – anything! – just to bump the previous posts down a notch. And what appears below is all I could throw together with about an hour’s worth of thinking. And, unfortunately, what appears below doesn’t really fit the themes of this blog: Politics (and by extension, religion / spirituality) and Product Reviews.

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Oh well. Sometimes you just “don't want to get caught up in any of that funky shit kicks goin' down in the city”.

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It was recently stated by a certain someone that I am a “loser”; and she later seemed to imply I don’t have original ideas of my own. Well, on one hand, she was right: I am a loser (but not for the reason she said). BUT... I most definitely do have original ideas of my own, as this blog and my defunct blog ‘Stuffs’ will attest. Here comes an original thought of my own, as I never heard anyone mention it before:

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I have often referred to Rock musician Steve Miller as “The Chameleon” (not “The Joker”) because his music, stylistically, seemed all over the map to me. He had a lot of hits but a lot of them sounded like completely different artists to my ears:

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‘Abracadabra’ probably wouldn’t be out of place on a RICK JAMES album; ‘Winter Time’ probably wouldn’t have been out of place on a YES album; ‘Dance, Dance, Dance’ sounds like JOHN DENVER; ‘The Joker’ sounds like STEALERS WHEEL; ‘Swingtown’ and ‘Jungle Love’ sounds like STEVE MILLER; and ‘Fly Like An Eagle’ sounds like IT’S OVERPLAYED TO FREAKIN’ DEATH! Please, DJs, no more ‘Fly Like An Eagle’ – PLEASE!

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But now comes an original thought from me (for the one who thought I never thought one). Be FOREWARNED, what I am about to point out to you regarding the Steve Miller hit ‘Jet Airliner’ is something that, once you’ve heard it, you will never be able to “unhear”. If you like the song and don’t want it ruined for you, you should click off this page NOW.

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Still here? OK, then this is on your own head.

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I noticed decades ago, at the time ‘Jet Airliner’ was a #8 hit (1977) that Steve Miller can often be heard inhaling heavily (“HUuh!”) as he prepares to sing the next line. Once I noticed it, I was never again able to “not hear” it. The song was pretty much ruined for me from that point on. Now all I can hear is Steve going “HUuh!”

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You won’t need to listen to more than just the first verse of this song to hear what I’m yakking about. In fact, you’ll hear the first “HUuh!” just before the first word he sings, and you’ll hear it frequently throughout the rest of the song:

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Jet Airliner | Steve Miller Band

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlFXhigvTvM

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If anything, the song ‘Wild Mountain Honey’ is even worse! (And also right from the start of it.) If you are a woman and heard this guy over the telephone you’d protly call the cops! Then again, maybe that pronounced inhaling sound is just “The Joker” transforming himself into the “Midnight Toker” (Dude! Don’t bogart that joint!)

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The Steve Miller Band "Wild Mountain Honey"

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh_0oaJcMgY

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Recently, I was listening to an old music cassette I’d put together many years ago which included a #8 hit from 1974 by a One-Hit Wonder called REUNION. Their song was titled ‘Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me)’. I remember the song as an AM hit, but I didn’t appreciate it then like I do now. Now, I simply can’t hear it just once; I always replay it two or three times.

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You know that song by Johnny Cash, ‘I’ve Been Everywhere’? Did you think that was fast singing? You ain’t heard nuttin’ yet! Wait 'til you hear Reunion singing ‘LIFE IS A ROCK’.

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A person at YouTube posted the following comment:

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LMAO! Had the lyrics right here in front of me to read and still could not keep up with what he was singing! [I] remember when this song first came out and heard it on the radio, what a fun time that was trying to figure out what was being sung! Great song though and one of the classic tongue-twisters of all time!

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I can’t help wondering how long it took the lead singer, Joey Levine, to memorize all the lyrics and how many takes were required before he got through the entire song flawlessly. I also can’t help wondering what Steve Miller’s breathing would sound like if he ever attempted to sing ‘Life Is A Rock’. (An interesting side note: Johnny Cash is mentioned in the lyrics.)

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Life Is A Rock - Reunion - Full Lyrics

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myZ_Dqwfd-8

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A great song; I really LOVE it. But what’s up with all the White people mentioned in ‘Life Is A Rock’? Yeah, alright, Ray Charles is included, as is Smokey Robinson And The Miracles. But most of the others “name-dropped” were White. In fact, ‘The Beach Boys’ had four (count ‘em: 4) song titles mentioned, and it just doesn’t get any Whiter than ‘The Beach Boys’!

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Why weren’t more famous multi-major-hit Black artists mentioned, such as ‘Blood, Sweat & Tears’, ‘Three Dog Night’, ‘Rare Earth’, and ‘The Doobie Brothers’?

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~ Stephen T. McCarthy

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YE OLDE COMMENT POLICY: All comments, pro and con, are welcome. However, ad hominem attacks and disrespectful epithets will not be tolerated (read: "posted"). After all, this isn’t Amazon.com, so I don’t have to put up with that kind of bovine excrement.

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