Steve Miller Band - The Joker Live In Concert, album review

Really love your peaches, want to shake your tree

The Steve Miller Band in its earliest incarnation was a psychedelic rock outfit with extended jams and general faroutness musically speaking. The Joker release in 1973 changed that, introducing very radio-friendly tracks and memorable pop hooks on top of the rock foundations, that rock element contained in the guitar work of Miller himself, though always tightly contained unless played live.

This new live performance of that album, collated over recent concerts, is therefore no replacement for the original, but it is a fine and current live embrace, though largely a showcase for Miller himself, the distinctive vocal as strong as ever. This recording is as much fun as the original album - music to cheer and prompt a sing-along, especially the rhyme-heavy lyrics but also the guitar-talk on the title track:

'Cause I'm a picker, I'm a grinner
I'm a lover and I'm a sinner
I play my music in the sun

I'm a joker, I'm a smoker
I'm a midnight toker
I sure don't want to hurt no one