Steve Miller Band - Children Of The Future (1968/2018) [Hi-Res]

Children Of The Future is where it all started for Steve Miller. Originally released in 1968, this debut, chock full of unpredictable acid blues, is very different from the mainstream rock sounds of the '70s that brought Miller fame and fortune. Although few of these songs are ever featured on the radio or performed at Miller's concerts, Children Of The Future remains one of Miller's more interesting and challenging releases.

Miller and his band (which included future solo star Boz Scaggs) specialized in the unconventional. All the songs on the album's first half are segued from one to another, while several musical styles are touched upon, such as in the lively rocker "The Beauty of Time Is That It's Snowing," the R&B of "Key to the Highway," and the spacey ballad "In My First Mind."

"A psychedelic blues rock-out, 1968's Children of the Future marked Steve Miller's earliest attempt at the ascent that brought him supersonic superstardom. Recorded at Olympic Studios in London with storied producer Glyn Johns at the helm, the set played out as pure West Coast rock inflected with decade-of-love psychedelia but intriguingly cloaked in the misty pathos of the U.K. blues ethic. Though bandmate Boz Scaggs contributed a few songs, the bulk of the material was written by Miller while working as a janitor at a music studio in Texas earlier in the year. The best of his efforts resonate in a side one free-for-all that launches with the keys and swirls of the title track and segues smoothly through "Pushed Me Through It" and "In My First Mind," bound for the epic, hazy, lazy, organ-inflected "The Beauty of Time Is That It's Snowing," which ebbs and flows in ways that are continually surprising. The second half of the LP is cast in a different light -- a clutch of songs that groove together but don't have the same sleepy flow. Though it has since attained classic status -- Miller himself was still performing it eight years later -- Scaggs' "Baby's Callin' Me Home" is a sparse, lightly instrumentalized piece of good old '60s San Francisco pop. His "Steppin' Stone," on the other hand, is a raucous, heavy-handed blues freakout with a low-riding bass and guitar breaks that angle out in all directions. And whether the title capitalized at all on the Monkees' similarly titled song, released a year earlier, is anybody's guess. Children of the Future was a brilliant debut. And while it is certainly a product of its era, it's still a vibrant reminder of just how the blues co-opted the mainstream to magnificent success."

Steve Miller, guitar, lead (1–5, 7, 8, 11) and backing vocals, harmonica
Boz Scaggs, guitar, backing and lead (6, 7) vocals
Lonnie Turner, bass, backing vocals
Jim Peterman, Hammond organ, mellotron, backing vocals
Tim Davis, drums, backing and lead (9, 10) vocals
Additional personnel:
Ben Sidran, harpsichord on "Baby's Calling Me Home"

Recorded Early 1968 at Olympic Studios, London, England
Produced by Glyn Johns

Digitally remastered