Customer Reviews

Your Saving Grace

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Steve Miller is probably the world's most underated guitarist. He is also very underated as an artist. Your Saving Grace is no exception. The title track is heavy with emotion and while not writen by Miller, shows off the talent of Tim Davis who was the backbone of the early stuff. The forcefull lovesong "Little Girl" and the civil rights motif "Don't you let nobody" are solid rock tracks with a hint of blues and a lot of attitude. "Baby's House" shows off the piano skills of Nicky Hopkins as well as Miller's strength as a vocalist. If you have Miller's box set you are missing out on the full version of this awesome song. "Motherless Children" has a blues twing and a solid emotional base that makes it a classic. While the album is short, it is a good buy. For the Miller enthusist it is well worth it. If not, you might want to start off his early stuff with Antholgy.

Gave this album to an associate who was familiar with Fly Like an Eagle, and he was really surprised that it sounded so different, and that it was good "I mean, REALLY GOOD!" This band was putting out something like two or three albums a year at this time, yet the writing is really good. A really solid album.

This is Steve's magnum opus of space rock and soul. Feel so Glad and Baby's House are among his best ever. Tim Davis performs his best song, the title song.
Why why why is it still out of print and there is a reason why it sells used for $94, it's that good.

For his first three albums, Steve Miller & his band provided some of the most psychedelic (yet least druggy) blues-rock of the time without making so much as a dent into the mainstream. After 1968's SAILOR though, the band went through the first of what would be many personnel changes with guitarist Boz Scaggs departing to go solo (and thus leaving most of the guitar work to Steve himself), and taking keyboardist Jim Peterman with him. Peterman had to have been rather aghast to see himself replaced by, not one, but two keyboard players in the form of another future soloist Ben Sidran and legendary sessionman Nicky Hopkins.

The latter two made their debut on 1969's BRAVE NEW WORLD, which was just as trippy as its two predecessors, but by now, the psychedelia was bordering on parody, and thus indicative that perhaps the blues-happy Boz knew when to abandon a potentially sinking ship. Maybe Steve recognized this as well, and decided to make his second album of the year YOUR SAVING GRACE a little more earthbound and bluesy. For the most part, it succeeds, but does not quite match the rarefied greatness of 1968's CHILDREN OF THE FUTURE and SAILOR.

"Little Girl" continues the tradition of Steve Miller album openers that could have made it as singles in a more perfect music world. Power pop had not been officially invented per se, but this song was as close to perfect both in melody and lyric as one could get. Again, if Capitol Records had taken a short break from promoting the Beatles in this era, they could have devoted some elbow grease towards Steve & his group, with this being their true breakthrough.

"Just A Passin' Fancy In A Midnite Dream" is a little inscrutable, but perhaps that can be attributed to the fact that it is co-written by Ben Sidran, who was more influenced by Van Morrison and Mose Allison, especially by their idiosyncratic songwriting styles. Maybe one can call this psychedelia without the phasers and Leslie cabinets, but that does not make the song any less hallucinogenic, if not as trippy as, say, the side one suite of CHILDREN OF THE FUTURE.

"Don't Let Nobody Turn You Around" is another song that could have helped get Steve some long overdue commercial attention, but it would take 5 more years of grunt work for that to happen. As for the song, it is his attempt at creating a Delta blues tune for the modern era, for it sounds like it is coming straight out of the South, but its subject (speaking out against racism and inequality) is one that still haunted the region & continues to this day. The fact that the song comes from a White musician makes it even more potent.

"Baby's House" closes out side one with a 9-minute trip to dreamland that is again rather light on the psychedelics, but has enough of them in smaller doses to give the listener a relaxing, woozy feeling. Co-written by Nicky Hopkins, his fingerprints are all over this song with him inserting some subtle classical measures into his piano work. He may have preferred the comforts of the studio to the stage, but I can guess that songs like this made fellow San Franciscans Quicksilver Messenger Service want to snare Hopkins up for their band, and they did.

"Motherless Children" is a return to traditional blues standards after an absence of them on BRAVE NEW WORLD. After 9 minutes of music that kept the listener occupied, the subsequent 6 minutes of near-flatlining stripped-down blues actually borders on the somnambulant. Eric Clapton would tackle this song 5 years later, and give it a much-needed dose of testosterone. Until then, Steve slipped up by giving his version an overdose of Dramamine.

"The Last Wombat In Mecca" brings things back to life slightly with bassist Lonnie Turner's second volume in his combination of acoustic blues with psychedelic lyrical imagery. Sounding like it was recorded live in the studio in one take (listen to the studio chatter at the beginning), it is mindless fun if anything else, although maybe someone other than Steve could have handled the vocals (it was Lonnie's song after all).

"Feel So Glad" is another blues- and jazz-soaked slow-burn with more excellent piano playing by Hopkins (a session musician who deserved to go headliner, if ever there was one). It is amazing that on this album the original material with a blues bent was more successful than the one that came straight from the source (an anonymous one). But that just indicates how good Steve was at appropriating blues influences and tailoring them to his own ideas, rather than become a slave to them like most other musicians of the time did.

It all closes out with the title track that comes from drummer Tim Davis, who tends to be the lowest-key member of the band in this time. After the slightly pedestrian "Can't You Hear Your Daddy's Heartbeat" on BRAVE NEW WORLD, Davis had improved as a writer to be allowed the title track on the band's next album, and although it may be just me, I hear a small bit of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" in the arrangment of this sociopolitical song (or at least, the sound of what was to come). One can wonder if Marvin had indeed given this song a listen while creating that magnum opus. He would depart shortly after this album's follow-up, but it is clear that Davis was the rare sign of stability for Steve early on as his band went through more personnel shuffles than a fast-food chain.

It was perhaps inevitable that after two wonderful first albums, Steve Miller would hit a rough patch on the next two. Even with a master producer like Glyn Johns at the helm, BRAVE NEW WORLD and YOUR SAVING GRACE cannot be considered as finely-crafted and timeless (even while remaining of its time) as CHILDREN OF THE FUTURE and SAILOR. It could be because of the game of musical band members or the fact that psychedelia was on the way out in a post-Woodstock world. Nevertheless, YOUR SAVING GRACE has its own place in Steve Miller's catalog as both a time-marker and an instance that, when the right occasion arose, they could scale back the hallucinogens and simply rock out as best they could.

Your Saving Grace is the only one of the first five Steve Miller Band CD's to have gone out of print. It makes it's reentry into the CD market with this Japanese reissue. However, this is NOT REMASTERED! None of these Japanese pressings are. They sound identical to the domestic releases that have been available for over a decade.

Yes, this is the cd from Japan. It definitely is a much better sound then the USA out of print cd that sell for big bucks. Crisp and clear w/solid bass and much better mid & high frequencies all around. The cd does not come in the standard cd case, so you will have no problem finding it amoung all those standard cases. It does have a seperate sheet with the words and a full replica of the old LP cover. I would recommend purchasing this cd made in Japan before getting an out of print US reversion. I got this cd for only eight buck$ more then a mint LP, which I would have to put on a disk to listen to. Oh, you can pay alot less, for this cd, if you buy it on Amazon.com. Enjoy! (-:

Your Saving Grace has always been a favorite....and the remastered version provides great sound quality!

Inexplicably, "Your Saving Grace" has been unavailable in the domestic US Steve Miller catalog for some time.

However, if you're about to spend big bucks on an OOP copy of this 1994 release, be advised: The audio has been supplanted on a new 2007 remastered Japanese mini-sleeve CD.

The first five albums in the Steve Miller catalog were included in this new Japan issue.

The '07 'sleeve audio has increased volume and better clarity, particularly in the percussion, where the high-hat and symbols are much more prevalent.

The audio on the Japan editions are also superior to that on the Steve Miller box set.

And, as always, the exact replica of the original LP album cover is great to have.

As all 'sleeve releases are limited edition, do not delay in getting yours, as they will probably sell out quickly.

However, be advised that Amazon's availability always trails the release dates in Japan by at least two weeks, so pre-ordering mini-sleeves on Amazon is never a guarantee you will actually receive them. Also, Amazon's mini-sleeve prices are nearly double the Japan street prices (before shipping, of course).

Links to the 2007 Japan mini-sleeve remasters:

Children Of The Future
Sailor
Brave New World
Your Saving Grace
Number 5

WHAT IS A JAPAN "MINI-LP-SLEEVE" CD?

Have you ever lamented the loss of one of the 20th Century's great art forms, the 12" vinyl LP jacket? Then "mini-LP-sleeve" CD's may be for you.

Mini-sleeve CDs are manufactured in Japan under license. The disc is packaged inside a 135MM X 135MM cardboard precision-miniature replica of the original classic vinyl-LP album. Also, anything contained in the original LP, such as gatefolds, booklets, lyric sheets, posters, printed LP sleeves, stickers, embosses, special LP cover paper/inks/textures and/or die cuts, are precisely replicated and included. An English-language lyric sheet is always included, even if the original LP did not have printed lyrics.

Then, there's the sonic quality: Often (but not always), mini-sleeves have dedicated remastering (20-Bit, 24-Bit, DSD, K2/K2HD, and/or HDCD), and can often (but not always) be superior to the audio on the same title anywhere else in the world. There also may be bonus tracks unavailable elsewhere.

Each Japan mini-sleeve has an "obi" ("oh-bee"), a removable Japan-language promotional strip. The obi lists the Japan street date of that particular release, the catalog number, the mastering info, and often the original album's release date. Bonus tracks are only listed on the obi, maintaining the integrity of the original LP artwork. The obi's are collectable, and should not be discarded.

All mini-sleeve releases are limited edition, but re-pressings/re-issues are becoming more common (again, not always). The enthusiasm of mini-sleeve collecting must be tempered, however, with avoiding fake mini-sleeves manufactured in Russia and distributed throughout the world, primarily on eBay. They are inferior in quality, worthless in collectable value, a total waste of money, and should be avoided at all costs.

This is another reason not to by foreign products. Some people like to collect CD's. The only thing I am bent on collecting is the real jewel. What is it?? Why the Vinyl LP ofcourse and not some mini-bootleged version of it on a CD format. I think some people actually think buying a mini-lp sleeved cd makes them think they are getting a better product. This is bunk. Many of these foreign made cd's are 2nd generation pirate cd's merely copied from the original source and then they package it pretty in a mini-lp sleeve. Many of these cd's come from Russia. If you want pictures and pretty art work then just buy a good conditioned LP record of this record. When it comes to quality in music you should think of sound and not sight. You should never confuse these mini-lp boot pictures with the art on the actual record. My advise is get the best remastered version of this cd (not the mini-lp) and if you need to look at pictures of the old record to reminisce in the past then just look at the art work online while you are listening to the remastered version. Don't be one of the candy's that confuse sight with sound. Do you buy a car just for the way it looks??