The Steve Miller Band on cd

As you know from last weeks entry I do like music, visiting a record shop on my hols which is a bit of a ritual that goes back to around 1977 and 78 when I first got interested more in buying albums being just in my teens than singles.

One group I like is the Blues Rock group, The Steve Miller Band who've been going from about 1968 and in 1990 the British arm of Capitol Records issued this jolly useful compilation of that early work which included Livin' In The U.S.A and The Joker from the 1973 album of the same name.

That was one of the cd's I bought used last week.

The biggest selling compilation of theirs is Greatest Hits 1974-1978 which has hits from the Fly Like an Eagle and Book Of Dreams albums of 1976 and 1977 respectively plus some earlier recordings which was issued by Capitol in the U.S.A and Mercury in the UK/Europe in 1978.

One criticism that can be made of the original lp and cd was the didn't use the original stereo mix tapes but copies often edited for the singles versions.

In 1997 a man called Steve Hoffman who has a music forum I joined this April remastered this compilation for the specialist cd re-issue company DCC Classics in California from those original tapes to great effect.

I recent bought a new old stock sealed version of that cd which sounds much better than my Mercury one I bought way back in March 1987 providing me with great versions of Fly Like an Eagle, Jet Airliner and Swingtown.

This was another I picked up while away although I hired it in 1987 shortly after release from a cd lending service I belonged to and recorded a lot of the songs from it but that tape doesn't play too well anymore.

There is a bit of over lap with the 1974-78 Greatest Hits set but this is good for having songs from 1981's Circle of Love, 1982's Abracadabra and 1984's Italian X-ray Eyes so we get Give It Up, Shangla La and Abracadabra plus a few more tracks from Fly Like an Eagle and Book Of Dreams sounding very good on this 1987 cd. 

This selection of discs gives me great sounding versions of many of the Steve Miller Bands greatest hits and notable album tracks.