(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please CLICK HERE)
Steve Miller Band - "Rock'n Me"
Hit Number 1: November 6, 1976
Stay at Number 1: 1 Week
The Knebworth Festival is an outdoor concert that happens during the summer in Knebworth, England. Some pretty big acts played there in the past, but the festival had only been around a couple years when the Steve Miller Band played in it for the first time in 1975. Miller said how one time he was getting ready to go on, and knew that he was going to perform before Pink Floyd, a musical juggernaut throughout the late '60s and into the '70s. (They'll appear in this blog later on) Thing was, Miller had a feeling that the crowd wasn't having that fun of a time. He remembered how the sun was going down, making it cold out and there wasn't even any lights on the stage. In Miller's exact words, he knew it would be a "lousy time." But he thought he'd do something about that. He thought he'd find a way to get the crowd going and get some life back into the festival again. He wrote a song called "Rock'n Me" right on the spot, a very radio-friendly sounding song about struggling to find a consistent job and constant traveling. It was only supposed to be a song to help get the festival going, but as we all know, it became more than that.
Of course, Steve Miller wasn't some nobody in 1975, but I wouldn't have called him a star just yet. (He had a #1 hit in 1974 with "The Joker") He was just a guy that people knew, and it wasn't like he had some insane catalogue of banger songs to play at the Knebworth Festival. "Rock'n Me" was the beginning of the change though for Miller. He found a way to put together songs that the radio would love, and people would remember. These are songs that I like to call very "hook heavy." And this was something Miller became insanely good at. "Rock'n Me" was eventually released on the Fly Like an Eagle album in 1976, and it wasn't the only song on that album that got radio airplay. The title track would make it to #2 in 1977, and another single, "Take the Money and Run," made it to #11 earlier in 1976. (The former is a 9, the latter is a 7) Rock'n Me is not the greatest song on the album, as it doesn't have the weird, hypnotic musicianship that "Fly Like an Eagle" has, but it's still a very fun song.
Immediately we're introduced to the narrator, who tells us right away he's looking for a job but it "just keeps getting tougher every day." I hate to say that I'm familiar with that feeling (that first job right out of college is way tougher than it should be to get), but this makes the song relatable, and I for one want to know what else this dude has to tell us. What we end up knowing about this guy is that he can't keep a consistent job, and he has to keep moving around the country. This is all while trying to satisfy "his baby," who keeps getting randomly mentioned throughout the song. But "Rock'n Me" really isn't that original of a song either. Miller admitted that he got heavy inspiration from Free's 1970 garage-rock banger "All Right Now" for the guitar intro/riff on "Rock'n Me. (That song made it to #4 in that same year. It's a 9) But that's a big part of why "Rock'n Me" works so well, and why it continues to circulate today. "All Right Now" is, again, a total banger. It's got hooks upon hooks, and still sounds great on the radio today. "Rock'n Me" might not rock out quite as hard as "All Right Now," but it's still got an equal amount of hooks. The song is enormously catchy, and it will lodge itself in your head for a while.
I think I kind of like how simple the song is too. It's got a good, but not a great guitar riff, and Miller, who isn't known for having a wide vocal range to begin with, doesn't steal the show with his voice or anything. "Rock'n Me" lives on its hooks, and how cheerfully catchy the thing is. The chorus just repeats "Keep on rock'n me baby" four times. There's nothing that'll blow you away here, but the song is so simple and very catchy. It still keeps people rock'n today.
"Rock'n Me," along with the rest of the Fly Like an Eagle album, is what turned Miller into a star, and he wasn't done making those radio-friendly songs either. He released his Book of Dreams album in 1977, with even more of these types of songs on there. (The best one, in my opinion, is "Jet Airliner," which made it to #8 in 1977. It's an 8) But I think that's enough about Miller's catalogue for now. We'll get a chance to go over that even more later on, cause he'll appear in this blog again.
GRADE: 8/10
10 ALERT!!!:
Heart's wicked, mysteriously vague "Magic Man" peaked at #9 behind "Rock'n Me." Try to understand, try, try, try to understand that it's a 10.
(Heart will eventually appear in this blog)
IN POP CULTURE:
I guess "Rock'n Me" is so simple that it's never appeared much in pop culture. I'm struggling to find anything to put here. So like I always do when I can't find something to put here, here's the Steve Miller Band performing "Rock'n Me" live sometime around 2009.
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