01. Children Of The Future – 3:00
02. Pushed Me To It – 0:35
03. You've Got The Power – 0:54
04. In My First Mind (Steve Miller, Jim Peterman) – 7:31
05. The Beauty Of Time Is That It's Snowing (Psychedelic B.B.) – 5:18
06. Baby's Callin' Me Home (Boz Scaggs) – 3:23
07. Steppin' Stone (Boz Scaggs) – 3:00
08. Roll With It – 2:29
09. Junior Saw It Happen (Jim Pulte) – 2:28
10. Fanny Mae (Buster Brown) – 3:08
11. Key To The Highway (Big Bill Broonzy, Charlie Segar) – 6:16
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12. Sittin' In Circles (single A-side,1968) (Barry Goldberg) - 3:03

- Steve Miller – vocals, guitar, harmonica
- Boz Scaggs – guitar, lead vocals (06,07), backing vocals
- Jim Peterman – Hammond organ, mellotron, backing vocals
- Lonnie Turner – bass guitar,backing vocals
- Tim Davis – drums, lead vocals (09,10), backing vocals
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- Ben Sidran – harpsichord (06)

A psychedelic blues rock-out, 1968's Children of the Future marked Steve Miller's earliest attempt at the ascent that brought him supersonic superstardom. Recorded at Olympic Studios in London with storied producer Glyn Johns at the helm, the set played out as pure West Coast rock inflected with decade-of-love psychedelia but intriguingly cloaked in the misty pathos of the U.K. blues ethic. Though bandmate Boz Scaggs contributed a few songs, the bulk of the material was written by Miller while working as a janitor at a music studio in Texas earlier in the year. The best of his efforts resonate in a side one free-for-all that launches with the keys and swirls of the title track and segues smoothly through "Pushed Me Through It" and "In My First Mind," bound for the epic, hazy, lazy, organ-inflected "The Beauty of Time Is That It's Snowing," which ebbs and flows in ways that are continually surprising. The second half of the LP is cast in a different light -- a clutch of songs that groove together but don't have the same sleepy flow. Though it has since attained classic status -- Miller himself was still performing it eight years later -- Scaggs' "Baby's Callin' Me Home" is a sparse, lightly instrumentalized piece of good old '60s San Francisco pop. His "Steppin' Stone," on the other hand, is a raucous, heavy-handed blues freakout with a low-riding bass and guitar breaks that angle out in all directions. And whether the title capitalized at all on the Monkees' similarly titled song, released a year earlier, is anybody's guess. Children of the Future was a brilliant debut. And while it is certainly a product of its era, it's still a vibrant reminder of just how the blues co-opted the mainstream to magnificent success. ---Amy Hanson, AllMusic Review

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A1 	The Gangster Is Back 	2:28
A2 	Blues With Out Blame 	5:41
A3 	Love Shock 	11:43
B1 	Let Me Serve You 	2:26
B2 	Rock Love 	2:28
B3 	Harbor Lights 	4:06
B4 	Deliverance 	9:19

Bass – Ross Vallory
Guitar, Vocals – Steve Miller
Drums – Jack King

Often called "Rock Bottom" by Steve Miller's fans, Rock Love did help to rebound Miller's sagging career at the time. Consisting of Miller and a couple of hired hands, this part live, part studio effort had no hits on it and was generally panned by critics (who may not have realized that Capitol issued this leftovers album without his consent as he recuperated from a motorcycle accident). Time has not made their words sound any kinder, for Rock Love neither rocks nor shows any sort of love within the course of seven tunes. While the title cut is slight but catchy, not much else abounds here to recommend listening more than once. The only way was up for the Steve Miller Band after this sad excuse for an album by, what some deemed a major rock artist. ---James Chrispell, AllMusic Review

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A1 	Sugar Babe 	4:32
A2 	Mary Lou	2:24
A3 	Shu Ba Da Du Ma Ma Ma Ma 	5:40
A4 	Your Cash Ain't Nothin' But Trash	3:14
B1 	The Joker 	4:26
B2 	Lovin' Cup 	2:10
B3 	Come On In My Kitchen	3:58
B4 	Evil 	4:35
B5 	Something To Believe In 	4:40

Vocals, Guitar, Harmonica – Steve Miller
Drums – John King 
Bass – Gerald Johnson
Organ, Clavinet – Dickie Thompson 

The Joker is, without question, the turning point in Steve Miller's career, the album where he infused his blues with a big, bright dose of pop and got exactly what he deserved: Top Ten hits and stardom. He also lost a lot of fans, the ones who dug his winding improvs, because those spacy jams were driven by chops and revealed new worlds. The Joker isn't mind-expanding, it's party music, filled with good vibes, never laying a heavy trip, always keeping things light, relaxed and easygoing. Sometimes, the vibes are interrupted, but not in a harsh way -- the second side slows a bit, largely due to the sludgy "Come in My Kitchen" and "Evil," the two songs that were recorded live but lacking any kinetic energy -- but for the most part, this is all bright and fun, occasionally truly silly, as on "Shu Ba Da Du Ma Ma Ma Ma." This silliness, of course, alienated old fans all the more, but that sense of fun is both the most appealing thing about The Joker and it set a touchstone for the rest of his career. Here, it's best heard on the terrific opener "Sugar Babe" and, of course, the timeless title track, which is sunny and ridiculous in equal measure. If nothing else is quite up to that standard in terms of songs -- certainly, it's not as jammed-pack as its successor, Fly Like an Eagle -- The Joker nevertheless maintains its good-time vibe so well that it's hard not to smile along...provided you're on the same wavelength as Miller, of course. ---Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic Review

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1 	Living In The U.S.A. 	
2 	Space Cowboy 	
3 	Don't Let Nobody Turn You Around 	
4 	The Joker 	
5 	Gangster Of Love 	
6 	Lovin' Cup 	
7 	Quicksilver Girl 	
8 	Your Saving Grace 	
9 	Motherless Children 	
10 	Mary Lou

Steve Miller - guitar, harmonica, keyboards, synthesizer 
Boz Scaggs – guitar, vocals on tracks 1, 5 & 7
Glyn Johns – guitar, percussion, vocals on track 2
Lonnie Turner – bass guitar, vocals on tracks 1–3, 5, 7–9
Gerald Johnson – bass guitar, vocals on tracks 4, 6 & 10
Jim Peterman – keyboards, vocals on tracks 1, 5 & 7
Ben Sidran – keyboards on tracks 2, 3, 8 & 9
Dick Thompson – keyboards on tracks 4, 6 & 10
Tim Davis – drums, vocals on tracks 1–3, 5, 7–9
John King – drums on tracks 4, 6 & 10

Living in the USA is not an official Steve Miller Band album -- it's a compilation assembled by CEMA Special Markets that draws highlights from his earliest albums. There are a couple of hits here -- namely, "Living in the USA" and "The Joker" -- plus a handful of album rock favorites like "Gangster of Love," but there is also a bit of filler on the album. Consequently, it's not as entertaining or valuable as the classic The Best of the Steve Miller Band, nor should it be seen as a cheap substitute for that collection. Instead, Living in the USA is an uneven sampler of an uneven era, and it offers almost as many misses as hits. For a budget-priced collection, that's actually a pretty good ratio, but casual fans should stick with the well-known hits collection, not this sampler. ---Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic Review

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A1 	Song For Our Ancestors	6:00
A2 	Dear Mary	3:35
A3 	My Friend	3:30
A4 	Living In The U.S.A.	4:05
B1 	Quicksilver Girl	2:45
B2 	Lucky Man	3:00
B3 	Gangster Of Love	1:30
B4 	You're So Fine	2:55
B5 	Overdrive	3:55
B6 	Dime-A-Dance Romance	3:25

Steve Miller – Guitar, harmonica, lead vocals
Boz Scaggs – Guitar, background vocals, lead vocals on "Overdrive," "Dime-A-Dance Romance"
Lonnie Turner – Bass, background vocals
Jim Peterman – Keyboards, background vocals, lead vocals on "Lucky Man"
Tim Davis – Drums, background vocals, lead vocals on "My Friend"

Most definitely a part of the late-'60s West Coast psychedelic blues revolution that was becoming hipper than hip, Steve Miller was also always acutely aware of both the British psychedelic movement that was swirling in tandem and of where the future lay, and how that would evolve into something even more remarkable. The result of all those ideas, of course, came together on 1968's magnificent Sailor LP. What was begun on Children of the Future is more fully realized on Sailor, most notably on the opening "Song for Our Ancestors," which begins with a foghorn and only gets stranger from there. Indeed, the song precognizes Pink Floyd's 1971 opus "Echoes" to such an extent that one wonders how much the latter enjoyed Miller's own wild ride. Elsewhere, the beautiful, slow "Dear Mary" positively shimmers in a haze of declared love, while the heavy drumbeats and rock riffing guitar of "Living in the U.S.A." are a powerful reminder that the Steve Miller Band, no matter what other paths they meandered down, could rock out with the best of them. And, of course, this is the LP that introduced many to the Johnny "Guitar" Watson classic "Gangster of Love," a song that would become almost wholly Miller's own, giving the fans an alter ego to caress long before "The Joker" arose to show his hand. Rounding out Miller's love of the blues is an excellent rendering of Jimmy Reed's "You're So Fine." At their blues-loving best, Sailor is a classic Miller recording and a must-have -- especially for the more contemporary fan, where it becomes an initiation into a past of mythic proportion. ---Amy Hansen, AllMusic Review

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