Abracadabra

Well now Zoo Freaks, the Zoo Crew has got that little bit of magic spinning on the turntable right now, and it is none other than Abracadabra from the Steve Miller Band off that album of the same name. You know the one, that catchy little number that still makes folks reach out and grab whoever is dancing closest. The story behind this track is pure rock and roll alchemy, the kind of tale we love spinning between the deep cuts.

Steve Miller has told the story in more than a few interviews over the years. He had the music cooked up as this gypsy blues kind of instrumental, written on a classical guitar, something he would pick up and mess around with. The problem was the lyrics were downright atrocious, as he put it himself. He even recorded a version with those bad words and almost stuck it on an earlier album, but at the last minute he pulled it. He remembered something Paul McCartney once said about wishing he had spent more time polishing certain tunes, so Miller held the track back for three whole years. Those lousy lyrics just would not leave his head, and he knew the music deserved better.

Then one day he was out skiing in Sun Valley, Idaho, and who comes zooming down the mountain but Diana Ross. She takes a spill right in front of him, bodyguards appear out of nowhere, and later he spots her again having lunch. That encounter lit the fuse. Miller had shared the stage with Ross and the Supremes way back on the Hullabaloo show in the mid sixties, and the memory of their style came flooding back. He went home, sat down, and in about twelve or fifteen minutes the new lyrics poured out. He could just see the Supremes singing that reach out and grab ya line. Three years and fifteen minutes, that is how he sums it up. Capitol Records hated the finished song at first, said radio was not calling and it was no good. Miller basically told them to get lost, canceled his American tour, and headed to Europe where the record was already number one nearly everywhere except the States and Japan. When he got back, it climbed to the top here too, becoming the biggest hit of his career, spending two non consecutive weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 back in 1982.

Years later the song found new life when Eminem reached out about using it for his track Houdini. Miller listened to what they had, liked it, and even sent over the original stems so the rapper could work with the real parts. He has said it feels good that someone from a different generation found something magical in that old piece of music. The whole thing shows how a song can sit around waiting for the right spark, then take on a life of its own.

Speaking of how things get started, the man behind the magic, Steve Miller, came up the old school way, steeped in the real stuff. Born in Milwaukee back in 1943, he grew up in a house full of jazz and blues. His folks were close with Les Paul and Mary Ford. Les Paul, the guitar legend and inventor, was actually Miller's godfather, and he taught the young kid his first chords and a whole lot about recording tricks. The family moved to Dallas when Steve was a youngster, and there T Bone Walker, the blues great, became a regular visitor. Walker showed him how to play guitar behind his back and other stage moves that stuck with him. By age twelve Miller had formed his first band, the Marksmen, right there at St. Mark's School. He taught his buddy Boz Scaggs some guitar so the kid could join in, and they played parties and dances all through high school.

College at Wisconsin did not hold him. Near the end he told his parents he wanted to go play the blues in Chicago. His dad thought he was crazy, but his mom slipped him a hundred bucks to help him get going. In the Windy City he fell in with the real deal, sharing stages and learning from Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, and the rest of the Chicago blues masters. He saw Paul Butterfield getting record deals and realized maybe a white kid from Milwaukee and Dallas could make a go of it too. After a couple years soaking it up, the call of the California scene pulled him west. He landed in San Francisco just as the psychedelic wave was cresting, formed the Steve Miller Band, and played the Monterey Pop Festival. Those early albums like Children of the Future and Sailor mixed the blues roots with the new sounds floating around the Haight. From there the hits started coming, from The Joker through Fly Like an Eagle and on to this Abracadabra magic we are spinning for all you Zoo Freaks.

That is the long road from a kid learning chords from Les Paul to filling arenas with songs that still light up the radio. Over at THE ZOO we keep the freeform rock rolling, the deep cuts and the big hits side by side, just like the old days when the Zoo Crew first hit the air. If you want to dig deeper into the man's world, head over to the official site at Steve Miller Band where they still talk about the records and the road. You can also catch the official updates on Facebook, follow along on Instagram, and check the latest from the band on X. Those are the places where the real fans gather and the music keeps rolling. So settle in, Zoo Freaks, let that Abracadabra cast its spell, and we will be right here spinning the next one when the groove calls for it.