WCSX Classic Cuts : Space Cowboy
WCSX Classic Cuts
Steve Miller Band: “Space Cowboy”
The Hook: Steve didn’t like the track and wanted it off the album, but was overruled.
Album: Brave New World
Year: 1969
Writers: Steve Miller and Ben Sidran
Stats: Not released as a single, but became a staple on early progressive rock radio.
Background: Until his number-one hit with “The Joker” in 1973, the Steve Miller Band had released seven albums without ever having a single get even close the Top 40. What kept the group going was album sales and FM radio airplay. Four of those first seven records landed in the top 40 of the Billboard 200, and tracks like “Living in the U.S.A.” and “Space Cowboy” became staples on early rock radio. Miller tells us that if it was left to him “Space Cowboy” wouldn’t have even been released.
Steve Miller on “Space Cowboy.” OC:…stays on. :16
“I’ll tell you a funny thing, I didn’t like ‘Space Cowboy.’ I didn’t like the track. That was one of those kind of tracks I felt didn’t really have the right feeling to it and we should redo it and everything. And everybody told me I was nuts and I was overridden. I wanted to take it off the record, but, ‘No man, that stays on.’”
