Steve Miller Sets Scene For ‘J50’ Box With A Cappella ‘Mama Church’
The new track is one of eight previously unissued songs that will be part of the 50th anniversary set.
Steve Miller has shared another unreleased song in the lead-up to the release this coming Friday (15) of the much-anticipated J50: The Evolution of The Joker. The new track is “Mama Church (A Cappella),” one of eight previously unissued songs that will be part of the boxed set celebrating the 50th anniversary of the album and documenting its creative evolution.
The guitar hero recorded “Mama Church (A Cappella)” on a four-track tape machine in a hotel room on April 21, 1972. This was soon after the release of the Steve Miller Band’s seventh studio album Recall the Beginning…A Journey from Eden, as Miller set out on the path that would lead to the release of the career-elevating, platinum-certified The Joker in October 1973.
Sailor/Capitol/UMe’s J50: The Evolution of The Joker will be available in 2xCD and 3xLP + 7” editions, as a digital download and on all DSPs and streaming services. The vinyl version contains a limited edition lithograph and an exclusive reproduction of a vintage The Joker iron-on patch.
Says Miller, reminiscing about the genesis of the hit album: “The most important rule that every kid out there who wants to make a record should remember is: When you go into the studio, be ready to do the whole performance the first time you do it, because that’s going to be the best time you do it. The whole thing is to capture the first performance. That’s a lot of what The Joker’s about. It was all first takes, and first takes are always better than perfect takes.
“To make a hit record, I thought it was best to have five hooks,” he goes on. “Not one, not two, not three, not four, but five, if you really wanted to deliver a hit. Like if you take ‘The Joker.’ ‘Some people call me the Space Cowboy.’ What the hell was that? Then it continues and it gets your attention again: the slide guitar, the chorus, the harmony, the wolf whistle. It all adds up. All of these things are just elements of writing. You learn those elements, and you’re always playing with them.”
Pre-order J50: The Evolution of The Joker, which is released on September 15.
