SCARCE LIME 1969 ORIG ACID BLUES =- STEVE MILLER BAND "SAVING GRACE" SF PSYCH

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            The STEVE MILLER BAND

              "YOUR SAVING GRACE"

             USA - (LIME GREEN) CAPITOL LABEL - SKAO 331 

100% Original 1969 first pressing in the old style unipack gatefold cover and on the rare lime green Capitol label ... one of the most underestimated of the early Steve Miller Band albums...this has the BRAVE NEW WORLD line up + Nicky Hopkins... produced by the legendary GLYN JOHNS

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 session-man Nicky Hopkins.

The latter two made their debut on 1969's BRAVE NEW WORLD, which was just as trippy as its two predecessors which was followed by "Your Saving Grace" which is just as powerful and contains truly emotional and explosive tracks (see: "Don't Let Nobody Turn You Around")

Here's an overview of this remarkable album:

"Little Girl" continues the tradition of Steve Miller album openers that could have made it as singles in a more perfect music world. Catchy power-rock-pop grooves 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 more influenced by Van Morrison and Mose Allison. 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" amazing blistering head groover, really turned on... and yet 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. Top Lp highlight and highly infectious!

"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 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 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 gave his version an overdose of Dramamine.

"The Last Wombat In Mecca" is an upbeat groove 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 keyboards 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 great "Can't You Hear Your Daddy's Heartbeat" on BRAVE NEW WORLD, Davis had improved even further as a writer to be allowed the title track on the band's next album.
The works within are produced iby the master producer Glyn Johns at the helm, BRAVE NEW WORLD and YOUR SAVING GRACE cannot be overlooked for they BOTH are as finely-crafted and timeless (even while remaining of its time) as CHILDREN OF THE FUTURE and SAILOR. YOUR SAVING GRACE has its own vastly underrated place in Steve Miller's catalog as a time-marker, when emerging from the '60s, the band somewhat scaled back on the hallucinogens, and then they simply rocked-out in the best way they could.

• Steve Miller – guitar, harmonica, lead vocals
• Lonnie Turner – bass guitar, guitar, background vocals
• *guest Nicky Hopkins – organ, electric piano
• + grand piano on "Baby's House" & "Feel So Glad"
• Tim Davis – drums, background vocals, lead vocals on "The Last Wombat In Mecca" & "Your Saving Grace"
• Glyn Johns (producer) background vocals "Your Saving Grace"

1. "Little Girl" 
2. "Just a Passin' Fancy in a Midnite Dream"
3. "Don't Let Nobody Turn You Around" 
4. "Baby's House" 
5. "Motherless Children" 
6. "The Last Wombat in Mecca" 
7. "Feel So Glad" 
8. "Your Saving Grace"

              

 

CONDITION: The cover: rated: "EX" (excellent), very nice in unipack gatefold ...only very slight visible past use, still remains with a fresh appearance, no delete marks, no split seams, no bends, and no writing  ... VERY collection worthy rarity ... 46 years old first printing

The vinyl: Rated: M- TOP COPY - ALL Clean and glossy with very enjoyable CLEAN audio  ...NO distracting surface problems ...  both Capitol labels are clean

      A cool addition to anyone's music library!

 

SEE: SELLERS OTher items for similar cool sounds for "head" people...

 

EFFICIENT/CAREFUL GRADING

All imperfections are noted both cover & record

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