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Children Of The Future 1968
While the Steve Miller Band eventually made its mainstream breakthrough in the mid-‘70s with tightly constructed pop-rock, in 1968 its leader and namesake was more interested in exploring, like many of his San Franciscan brethren, the outer reaches of blues-rock and psychedelia with songs that leisurely segue from one another in musical if not conceptual thrust. The title track quickly funnels into two quick-takes that last less than a minute (“Pushed Me To It” and “You’ve Got the Power”) before the cascading, solemn and emotive organ rolls that open “In My First Mind” set the brooding tone, which is gently sent further into space with the calling-from-another-time-zone musical interlude, “The Beauty of Time Is That It’s Snowing,” which finished what was once the first side of the album. Singer Boz Scaggs helped balance Miller’s space-travel forays with his own astral projected pop in the otherworldly “Baby’s Callin’ Me Home” and the organ-blitzed blues of “Steppin’ Stone” (not the Monkees hit) and “Junior Saw It Happen.” It’s a period piece from a bizarre, adventurous and exciting period.
