30th Anniversary of Fly Like an Eagle

[Steve Phelps (Shoeless)]

I watched a 90 minute documentary on VH-1 Classic last night about the making of Fly Like and Eagle. Apparently Steve Miller made this and Book of Dreams simultaneaously. He and the bassist and drummer (I didn't catch their names) laid down all the rhythm tracks in about 11 days. And then Steve Miller spent a year on his home recording system, living alone, finishing them up. He turned in the albums together and had it written in his contract that he had 100% artistic control. The albums definitly couldn't have been made today under those circumstances. He was in the right place at the right time, knew what was lacking on FM radio and knew what he wanted to hear, and ejoyed doing just that.
It was really interesting hearing all the demo versions of stuff. He even talked about how, in some cases, 1 song's vocals were on another song's music and vice versa. He really took the time to experiment and tweak it all out the way he wanted.
Very informative show about someone I really didn't know all that much about.

[Paul DAngelo]

I'm not sure if he's the drummer in the documentary, but the drummer on "Fly Like an Eagle" was Gary Mallaber.

Of course, he was the drummer on  http://garymallaber.net/gary_discography.html] LOTS  of music from the 70's.

[Steve Phelps (Shoeless)]

That's it. He said he was his go-to guy. He was the guy to hire when you needed stuff fixed.

[Matt Self (Gaddabout)]

The one song should put the guy in the drummer HOF. You just can't get away with playing stuff like that for the radio anymore.

[dizz]

I love the drums on Fly Like an Eagle.  Wonderful groove and chops :)

[Mark Counts]

I got to see Steve Miller in Cincinati Ohio on that late 70's tour and the Light show, Keyboard solo and music was one of the best concerts I have ever been too. The music on both of those albums was some of his best work IMO. I would like to have seen that show on VH1.
What is Steve Miller doing now?
                                      Nutty

[JeepnDrummer]

I caught Steve Miller, along with War, in September of 2005.  I really like a lot of Miller's songs and was excited about this concert.  None of the songs were poorly executed during this performance, but for whatever reason they were just flat.  It didn't help that the sound wasn't as good as it should have been.

+ I wanted to hear Space Cowboy and he didn't play that tune.  >:(

[Roger Beverage]

I got to see Steve Miller in Cincinati Ohio on that late 70's tour and the Light show, Keyboard solo and music was one of the best concerts I have ever been too. The music on both of those albums was some of his best work IMO. I would like to have seen that show on VH1.
What is Steve Miller doing now?
                                      Nutty

He is currently on tour, just did a show in Maine last night. Sorry, didn't catch it, I had a gig with the big band. :-\

Roger