“Some people call me the space cowboy
Some call me the gangster of love.”
Those opening lyrics sure sound like an introduction, but Steve Miller wasn’t really introducing himself. He had already been around, as the frontman of the Steve Miller Band, for nearly a decade. The 1973 track from the album The Joker has a story to tell. Sure, most (if not all) songs do, but when it comes to this particular song, it’s kind of a funny story.
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Those two first lines, for example, were references to a couple of his earlier songs. But if you didn’t recognize those allusions, you aren’t alone. The truth is that Steve Miller never had a big hit before The Joker, and it was this song that ended up saving his career.