Children of the Future

by Steve Miller, Steve Miller Band

Overview

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. ~ Amy Hanson

Product Details

Release Date:	08/23/1994
Label:	Capitol
UPC:	0077779124527
Rank:	46957

Tracks

1. Children of the Future
2. Pushed Me to It
3. You've Got the Power
4. In My First Mind
5. The Beauty of Time Is That It's Snowing (Psychedelic B.B)
6. Baby's Callin' Me Home
7. Steppin' Stone
8. Roll With It
9. Junior Saw It Happen
10. Fanny Mae
11. Key to the Highway

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Steve Miller   Primary Artist,Guitar,Vocals,Harmonica,Keyboards,Synthesizer
Steve Miller Band   Primary Artist
Tim Davis   Vocals,Drums,Vocals
Jim Peterman   Keyboards
Boz Scaggs   Guitar,Vocals
Lonnie Turner   Bass,Guitar
Ben Sidran   Harpsichord

Technical Credits

Steve Miller Band   Performer
Jim Pulte   Composer,Composer
Waymon Glasco   Composer
Steve Miller   Composer
Boz Scaggs   Composer
Clarence Lewis   Composer
Barry Goldberg   Composer
Walter Jacobs   Composer
Charles Segar   Composer
Jean-Pierre Peterman   Composer
Morris Levy   Composer
Muddy Waters   Composer
Buster Brown   Composer
Sylvester Stewart   Composer
Big Bill Broonzy   Composer
Jim Peterman   Composer