Steve Miller Band - Number 5

Sometimes you just need to hear a rock star be a rock star without any pretension, or political spin, or scheming. A guy who can open an album with a psych rock adaptation of "god rest ye merry gentlemen," go straight into blues harmonica, and sincerely write songs about being nice to each other. A guy who by complete coincidence was Les Paul's godchild, decided to stay in San Francisco after spending his last $5 to see Butterfield Blues Band and Jefferson Airplane at the Filmore. A guy who knocked Chuck Berry's ego down to human size by threatening to send him packing. A guy who didn't even actually realize how big a deal it was playing with Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Buddy Guy until after he himself achieved that level of fame. A guy who wanted to play guitar, and just did.

Steve Miller might be the most normal, level headed, guitar god ever created. He's said out loud that his only job is to make people glad they came to one of his concerts, and beyond that he's completely unimportant. He got a ridiculous reputation from being grumpy about his induction into the rock and roll hall of fame. Seriously, read my first paragraph. He was genuinely mad that they wouldn't LET his friend induct him. That friend happened to be Elton John.

"Can my friend Elton present my induction?"

"Hell no, the Black Keys are going to announce you."

"Who? No, seriously. I don't know who those guys are."

This album is Number 5. It might just be the nicest rock and roll album ever created. He dedicated it to NASA, Johnny Cash, Paul McCartney, and Richard Nixon, because Nixon "needed to be loved" as much as anyone else. I have two things in common with Steve Miller: i love playing guitar, and donald trump is way worse than nixon (both jerks). I'm not as nice as Steve Miller.

Actually, number 5 is the Butterfield Blues Band of Steve Miller albums. It's a great album, but no one has anything to say about it. It's not bold or rebellious like the previous 4, but it's not the 70s/80s SMB that "classic rock" was created from either. It's a rock star and his friends making an album in Nashville about being nice to each other. To quote Kurt Vonnegut's Uncle Alex, "if this isn't nice, i don't know what is."

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