Customer Reviews

Brave New World

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Before Steve Miller's mainstream breakout with The Joker in 1973 he had a whole other career as one of the pioneers of the San Francisco sound, playing shoulder to shoulder with the likes of the Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead. His early canon, released between 1968 and 1972, consists of seven records starting with Children of the Future. Brave New World from 1969 is the third of these seminal albums. For many Miller fans this was his most important and musically satisfying era - when he was young and bold enough to take musical and conceptual risks (and some LSD, no doubt) and hadn't yet become a brand of the good-time cruisin' middle class.

The songs on Brave New World combine Miller's signature blues influence and distinctive, almost conversational vocal style with a psychedelic hippie sensibility of peace, love, and cosmic adventure in a seamless and satisfying blend. His blues' earthbound grittiness and high and close, double and triple-tracked harmonies evoking new age hope for a better tomorrow might seem at odds with each other. But from the eponymous first track's rocket blast-off sound effects that segue into industrial clanging and chiming guitars, this album takes you on a musical interstellar journey with his Gangster of Love persona trading in his brand-new Cadillac for a spaceship that he hopes will not only help him get the girl, but save humanity along the way.

The sadly under-rated late drummer, vocalist and contributing songwriter Tim Davis and bassist Lonnie Turner, who also pens the occasional tune from this segment of Miller's career, support Stevie Guitar Miller, along with co-producer (with Miller) Glyn Johns. Standout tunes are the Guild 12-string-drenched Seasons by Miller and long-time collaborator Ben Sidran, Celebration song (by Sidran) and Davis's frantically up-tempo Can't You Hear Your Daddy's Heartbeat. The showstopper tune is Miller's anti-war anthem Kow Kow on which The Steve Miller Band displays in full glory its knack for finely crafted, layered sounds that build to a climax of inspirational music and message. Miller's fluid guitar intro to this song sounds like it could have been played by Jimi Hendrix, the better-known psychedelic blues shaman. The album culminates and ties together the preceding songs, bluesy and rock-fueled folksy by turns, with the moderately commercially successful Space Cowboy. Miller has always been a musician's musician as evidenced by his collaboration with Paul McCartney (credited as Paul Ramon) on the album's closing rocker My Dark Hour with Sir Paul on vocals, bass and drums. Miller and McCartney delight in pushing each other to the limits of their talents and then bust through the sound barrier into rock nirvana as they primal scream to their hearts' content.

One of the most enjoyable elements of Miller's long and illustrious career is the way he keeps repackaging his riffs and narrative characters. My Dark Hour is the foundation for his later Fly Like An Eagle. And as noted above, the gangster that appears in many of Miller's songs, introduced in his second album, Sailor, is in full swing on this album turning the tables on "the Man" with his badass blues in order to create a peaceful and loving brave new world.

Although not a strict concept album, Brave New World's underlying theme, as expressed in Kow Kow, is that time is running out for us to turn on our "love lights" to "get things back together like they were before." If there were ever a time for good-hearted people of planet Earth to discover or rediscover this album from the early Steve Miller era, it is now. Brave New World is a satisfying blues-rock good time, sober cautionary tale and optimistic tonic to the post-modern cynicism that permeates society today. All aboard?

This was not my first album as a teenager, by far, but it was my first Steve Miller album. Steve Miller's third album, Brave New World, is among the best rock and roll ever. This album, which I first got when it was originally released, has fueled a 34 year love for his music. In all that time, it still remains my favorite rock and roll album ever.

Though the original vinyl has long since been lost, every time I have rebuilt my music collection as I raised a family, Brave New World was always the first album or CD I purchased.

There are only 9 songs on the album, but there are no fillers - this is all great stuff. I am not sure why it is, but the title track, Brave New World, has never made it into any of Steve's many, many "greatest hits" compilations even though it is one of his best works ever. Of course, 6 songs out of 9 on this album regularly show up in the compiliations: Celebration Song, Kow Kow Calculator, Seasons, Space Cowboy, LT`s Midnight Dream, and My Dark Hour. My Dark Hour, by the way, includes Paul McCartney on guitar as Paul Ramone.

So with 6 out of 9 songs considered to be among his greatest hits - and the other three songs are great music as well - this album belongs in every Steve Miller Band or other classic rock and roll collection, no matter how many versions of The Joker and Fly Like An Eagle you have in the compilations.

Updated: Just for the record, track 5 is not Kow Kow. It is Kow Kow Calculator. While the track was called Kow Kow on some of the compilations later on, the original name, as it was on the LP and still is shown on this CD, is Kow Kow Calculator.

Brave New World, the third offering by the still-new Steve Miller Band, was released in 1969. Can't you tell? References to celebrations and tripping abound, making this one of the sunniest, trippiest album of the psychedelic era. (Even the album cover is sunny yellow!) The opening of the title track (and the album) is a blast - literally, a bomb blast which hearalds the start of both a fresh, enjoyable tune and a bright new beginning for the world at large. Then, great drumming by Tim Davis kickstarts "Celebration Song," another wonderful vision of a world at play. "Got Love 'Cause You Need It" sounds like it's sung by Miller's infamous Gangster of Love character, full of danger and seduction, while "Seasons" is a gorgeous acoustic ballad, as heartfelt a track as Stevie Guitar has ever recorded. Nice! "Space Cowboy," of course, is the albums BIG HIT, complete with Moog synthesizer space sounds, and a rare, excellent guitar solo from Steve M! (The primary focus of Brave New World is on the material, not solos.) Literally too, too far out! "LT's Midnight Dream" is a fantasy feast, with lyrics like "got a bulldog in my learjet, gonna teach him how to fly"! Too much! Paul McCartney of the Beatles contributes drums, bass, and vocals to the blues-rock "My Dark Hour," (he is billed as Paul Ramon; yes, that is where the band The Ramones got their name!), while "Can't You Hear Your Daddy's Heartbeat?" is a love song in double-quick time and "Kow Kow" (also known as "Kow Kow Calqulator" on the anthologies) combines more fantasy lyrics with quotes from Bobby Blue Bland's "Turn on your Love Light". Outasite!! So, if your looking for something of Steve Miller's beyond the usual, well-crafted 70's material, give Brave New World a listen or two. You may want to start your own celebration!!!

Brave New World, Steve Millers third album defines his era of "just off the beaten path" american pop music. 1969, the year it was released was the beginning of space exploration; the album kicks off with a blast of rocket engine noise that segues into the album's title track. As always, lush harmonies abound; showing the quality time he put into his studio work. "Seasons" another track of the album is an elegantly beautiful acoustic track with Lonnie Turner (bass) and Tim Davis (percussion) adding support. The song is also testament to the studio wizardry of Glyn Johns, making the acoustic guitar track sound gorgeous and full, with just the right amount of echo. "Space Cowboy" is the real rocker on this album. Strange and dissonant harmonies are panned full left and right on the mix with odd Moog synthesizer gurgling sounds (go figure). The prize with this song is the raw sound of Miller's over the top guitar. I can't think of too many tracks that he's done where he just bashes away with such tone. Great solo too.

Steve Miller is one of those rare musicians that is known to fans of all ages. But the songs that come to mind when one hears his name are most likely #1 hits like "The Joker", "Rock'n Me", and "Abracadabra". Or you'll hear the occasional mention of "Fly Like An Eagle", "Jet Airliner" or "Take The Money & Run". Interestingly, those songs were hits even while containing elements of earlier Steve Miller material. That has been the way of doing things throughout his career, and albums like BRAVE NEW WORLD are pretty much the foundation for songs that would eventually be on the tip of most people's tongues. The opening guitar lick on "Fly Like An Eagle" is one of the most well-known and imitated in rock history, but one only needs to hear "My Dark Hour" on here to see its origins. The figure is an integral part of this song that features a contribution by fellow Capitol Records artist Paul Ramon (a.k.a. McCartney). The most obvious reminder of things to come on BRAVE NEW WORLD is "Space Cowboy", which is not only referenced in "The Joker", but the title has been used for songs by Sly Stone and Jamiroquai, as well as for Clint Eastwood's latest motion picture. While Steve Miller may not exactly be original, he still creates some of the most infectious music ever committed to tape. The soaring title track is one of the biggest should-have-been-a-hits of the decade. But the downfall of BRAVE NEW WORLD for the most part is that it contains all the things from the '60s that have gone on to become punchlines more than practices. The blues-rock boogie of songs like "Can't You Hear Your Daddy's Heartbeat" and "Got Love 'Cause You Need It" are catchy, if not earth-shattering. The ethereal "Seasons" and "Celebration Song" has "'60s hippie dream" written all over it. The most psychedelic song on the album is really "LT's Midnight Dream", written by Steve's then-bassist Lonnie Turner, which is an interesting concotion of psychedelia and rockabilly. But BRAVE NEW WORLD's most memorable moment is on the oddly-titled "Kow Kow". While the title may imply this song is nonsensical, which in a way it is, it's still a great showcase for the talent of legendary session pianist Nicky Hopkins, who was much in-demand for a great deal of '60s and '70s recordings. He may not have had success outside the confines of the studio, but the closing coda on "Kow Kow" is a perfect testament to Hopkins' contribution to pop music. Even today, Steve Miller remains one of the most omnipresent personalities in music, although he hasn't recorded anything new since 1993's WIDE RIVER. But with his many classics still being played regularly on the radio, Miller should be swimming in royalties until he's on his deathbed. And early albums like BRAVE NEW WORLD are worth checking out to see how some of the later songs that did become famous actually came about.

I have not heard this album on CD. My dad gave me all of his records earlier this year when my parents split up and this album just happened to be in the box of records with artists ranging from 10cc to the Alan Parsons Project. Elvis Costello's "Truth" album was my favorite until I pulled this one out. "Brave New World" turned out to be one of my favorites as I listened to the songs go by. I never finished listening to it until a while later when I pulled out my "Flaming Pie" CD booklet and read that Paul McCartney and Steve Miller had been real good friends. I showed that to Dad and the book mentioned that Paul had played on "My Dark Hour" which turned out to be the last track on this album so I had to listen to it. By then I was convinced this was the best of my records and had to listen to it from start to finish. "Brave New World" became my favorite song of all time next to "Let It Be" and "Mr. Bojangles" and the rest of the album was incredibly strong with songs like "Space Cowboy" and "Kow Kow". All I can really say is buy the CD or if possible the album on vinyl. This album will not disappoint anyone who likes the Steve Miller Band!

Great early disc by steve miller. Had this on vinyl. Hard to find, great music. Great price, delivery on time

Yes, SM was introduced to "Paul Ramon" one evening in the first week of May '69 through the now legendary Glyn Johns (then an engineer for both bands) at Olympic (not EMI) studios in London. PM/PR was in the midst of the Get Back and Abbey Road sessions and had recently emerged from a fight with the other three of the "Fab Four" over having Allen Klein as manager and, apparently, proceeded to take out his frustations on the tom-toms, guitar, vocal mike, et al. Hence, "My Dark Hour." (See: Barry Miles, Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now, Secker & Warburg, 1997, p. 548; and Mark Lewinsohn, The Beatles' Recording Sessions 1962-70, Harmony Books, 1988, p. 165.) My Dark Hour's 'guitar duel' with PR/SM at the end reminds me of the last part of "Abbey Road's" second side, when John, Paul and George have dueling guitars -- do others think so? Also, PR/PM's vocal reminds me of "I'm Down" and others where he seems to want to shred his vocal chords, with SM staying right there with him. Again, what do others think?

LTF: I hung out a bit w/SM in the early '70's and he claimed to have had to tune the guitars (occasionally) of various members of the Jefferson Airplane and other "legendary" SF bands in the mid- to late-60's when he opened for them because they were too stoned, drunk, or incompetent to do so themselves. Any witnesses? Anyone else hearfd this story? Wouldn't surprise me.

Bonus question for the few: What other songs/artists has PM/PR either written for or played with (or both), usually, w/o acknowledgement, during his six-decade career?

Brave New World is 30 minutes of the best music the trio of Steve Miller Lonnie Turner and Tim Davis ever produced. Paul Ramon (Paul McCartney) guest stars on My Dark Hour.

I recently realized I LOVE the title song "Brave New World". Way back then my favorite songs were My Dark Hour and his simpler driving rock songs. It's a beautiful album in my opinion. I've been a big fan of SM's for decades.

This, Number 5, Sailor, and Children of the Future are in my opinion his best albums. Oh, and also Your Saving Grace! I have all the vinyls of these and some of them are well used. Now I'm going to get CDs of them.