This year, Every Sunday Evening, Album Rock WXYG, The GOAT will be featuring a full album at 8:00 PM from the halcyon musical days of 1976. 1976 was one of the top Years in Album Rock history. Another year of tough choices every week. So many great ones to choose from. After 52 Weeks of featuring so many of the great albums that debuted in 1975, next Sunday we will be moving on to another amazing year of ALBUM ROCK EXCELLENCE, 1976.
Tune in at 8:00 PM, Next Sunday Evening, November 1st for “Fly Like an Eagle”, the ninth studio album by the Steve Miller Band, released on May 15, 1976, by Capitol Records in the United States, Canada and Japan and Mercury Records in Europe. The album was a giant success, spawning three hit singles: the title track, "Take the Money and Run" and "Rock'n Me", and was later certified 4× Platinum.
Steve Miller had started to essay his classic sound with The Joker, but 1976's Fly Like an Eagle is where he took flight, creating his definitive slice of space blues. The key is focus, even on an album as stylishly, self-consciously trippy as this, since the focus brings about his strongest set of songs (both originals and covers), plus a detailed atmospheric production where everything fits. Its very essence has never aged, as "Fly Like an Eagle" drifts like a cool breeze, while "Take the Money and Run" and "Rock 'n Me" are fiendishly hooky, friendly rockers. The rest of the album is Steve Miller at his peak, there aren't any duds, as "Wild Mountain Honey" and "Mercury Blues" give this a comfortable backdrop, thanks to Miller's offhand, lazy charm. This is an album that transcends its time and certainly is an album rock landmark of the mid-'70s and its best moments are classics of the format.
The title song, and best of all, “Mercury Blues” are the tracks that elevate this to near perfection. After years of releasing really good albums, Miller put it all together here. Even more impressive is the fact he recorded enough material to fill Eagle and its follow-up, Book Of Dreams, at the same time.
Tune In and Turn On next Sunday evening, November 1st, at 8:00 PM for The GOAT'S "The Long Play with Al Neff”.
