(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 - "The Joker"
Hit Number 1: January 12, 1974
Stay at Number 1: 1 Week
Some people call him the space cowboy. Some call him the gangster of love. Some people call him Maurice cause he speaks of the pompatus of love. Steve Miller's first #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 is complete gibberish, and is one of the most meaningless songs to ever top the chart. But all of the little stupid things that Miller says in the song come from different songs, with a good amount of those songs being his own. Space cowboy, gangster of love and Maurice are all references to obscure Miller songs, and pompatus is a mishearing by Miller. The actual word is puppetutes, a word that came from a Medallions song, which was supposed to mean a paper-doll erotic fantasy figure. But Miller's mishearing ended up being one of the most identifiable things about "The Joker". It's just a song about, well, nothing. Just a bunch of goofy words from songs that Miller grouped together cause he thought they sounded good together.
Miller said that he first got the idea to write the song while sitting on the hood of a car at night, playing his guitar. He remembered looking up at the stars and suddenly came up with "I'm a joker, I'm a smoker, I'm a midnight toker," which he knew would be the chorus to a song of his. As you might have already guessed, yes toker is also a world that doesn't really exist, and yes it comes from a song. It came from the Brewer & Shipley hit "One Toke Over the Line", a song that dealt with being intoxicated from drug use. (It was easily the most commercially successful song that "The Joker" references. It made it to #10 in 1971. It's a 7) Because of the song using the word "toker" and the overall meaningless lyrics of it, it became somewhat of an anthem for stoners. I bet many people back in 1974 got high to this song.
One trivial fact about "The Joker", and I couldn't talk about it without bringing this up, is that it was the first #1 song of 1974. Why is that significant? Well, cause according to some people, 1974 is the worst ever year for music. I'm not sure how much I agree with that, as looking ahead, sure, there are some pretty bad/mediocre songs that await me this virtual year, but there's mediocre music that comes out every year. I guess we'll see. Either way, that doesn't start with "The Joker". "The Joker" is an increasingly stupid song that makes me feel dumber just listening to it, but that's honestly the appeal of it. I love the wah wah guitar effects along with the lighthearted vibes the song gives off. The lyrics are just placeholders for a fun sing along. The real appeal of the song begins and ends with the funky guitar parts that Miller plays. In that sense, "The Joker" is just a fun experiment that ended up being a huge hit. I doubt Steve Miller's complaining about that. We'll hear from him and his band again later on in this series.
GRADE: 8/10
コメント