Oh, Nancy, I love Steve Miller! Saw him and the band at an outdoor all-day concert festival in N.C. when I was in college. They are still terrific-gotta love old rockers. :)

Will have to think back...waaay back...to influences. I have a couple of guesses. There was a certain Blues Band playing that day in the 70s, too. I think he was an influence for sure, especially with the harmonica playing! I need to pick between two famous bluesmen. Can't decide. Will be treading water until you give us more clues.

I have been playing songs on You Tube ever since I first looked at this question. So much fun!!!! Right now listening to a relatively recent live version of Fly Like an Eagle. Amazing. Hasn't lost a step-makes me so happy!

Cynthia

I don't know if it will handicap me or not, but the Steve Miller Band never really caught on with me. Don't know why, exactly --- age, maybe. I actually can't name even one of their songs, other than Fly Like An Eagle, thanks to Cynthia.

Are we looking to name several of their friends, or just the name of another band?

Will need hints for sure.

TM

Miller always plays a Gibson guitar. This is his preference - he owns about 450 guitars in all. As a teen, he taught his older brother to play bass guitar (he had a driver's license for gigs) and taught another schoolmate, Boz Scaggs, to play as well. He once said, "Growing up in Dallas, being part of that phenomenal music scene. I found a way to do what I really wanted to do, which is so important for a kid. Near the end of college, my parents said, 'Steve, what are you going to do?' I said, 'I want to go to Chicago and play the blues.' My father looked at me like I was insane. But my mom said, 'You should do it now.' So I went to Chicago. And that was a special time. I played with Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. I got to work with adults and realized music was what I wanted to do, what I loved." The names I am looking for are even bigger. Hmmm....

Nancy.

I love Steve miller! I gave my husband one of his albums when we were in HS. I think it was the Joker. or it had the joker on it.We played the album just about every day after school.
I had no idea he knew Boz scaggs. I love that whole tie in.
As for the question...Not a clue.
lol
:) Laura

Well, jeepers. I was thinking of Muddy Waters as one of the influences. Still holding onto my other idea, but Gibson brings another name to mind as well.

My favorite moments are when he is jamming and gets really bluesy. I did know of the Boz Scaggs connection. He is a favorite, too.

Cynthia

lol. That is kinda cool - he sort of knew everybody. When they made Anthology, they rerecorded many of the songs - great, imho. Boz came back and sat in on some, and Sir Paul McCartney, as well!!

for one (or two) of the influences, think to the timing of his childhood, and what his Father did.....this man was most influential in the development....
As for the 2nd big influence, he was a guitarist in Bob Dylan's band on the Rolling Thunder Revue. He also produced artists such as Roy Orbison, Lisa Marie Presley, John Mellencamp, Los Lobos, Counting Crows, Elton John & Leon Russell, Elvis Costello and his wife Diana Krall, Natalie Merchant and The Wallflowers as well as Tony Bennett and k.d. lang on the A Wonderful World album. He won Grammy Awards for the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack and for his work with Alison Krauss and Robert Plant. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his songwriting contribution to the film Cold Mountain, and won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "The Weary Kind" from Crazy Heart. Whew, heavy man. One of the adults, indeed.

My Roomies just left - she has a Shih tzu dog to groom, I will be off shortly to help a friend with some computer stuff, and to redo her CV. Then home for steak on the BBQ - I love spring!!

Nancy.

Here is a link that might be useful: More Live!!

I vaguely remember the Steve Miller Band music. Don't have any of his LPs as didn't catch on with me either.

When Miller returned from New York, he was disappointed by the state of the Chicago blues scene, so he moved to Texas in hopes finishing his education at the University of Texas at Austin. He was disenchanted with academic politics at the University, so he took a Volkswagen Bus his father had given him and headed to San Francisco. Upon arrival, he used his last $5 to see the Butterfield Blues Band and Jefferson Airplane at the Fillmore Auditorium. Miller fell in love with the vibrant San Francisco music scene and decided to stay. The Steve Miller Band was formed there.

We discussed Jimmy Page a few weeks ago - he plays a similar guitar, named for our first influence. Steve's parents stood up when our first mystery guest married his long-tme companion!! Hmmmmm......any help?

Nancy.

Oh dear, so it isn't PB for the second one?

I think we may be stumped again, Nancy. Steaks on the BBQ would make me happy tonight.I think I am going to end up with Cheerios.

Cynthia

OK, just realized I screwed up the 2nd, so we will concentrate on the 1st. He was one of the pioneers of the solid-body electric guitar, which made the sound of rock and roll possible. He is credited with many recording innovations. Although he was not the first to use the technique, his early experiments with overdubbing (also known as sound on sound), delay effects such as tape delay, phasing effects and multitrack recording were among the first to attract widespread attention.

Any help??

Nancy.

I know less about guitar instruments than you can imagine. Though I am only an average singer I love to sing so was more aware of lyrics as wanted to sing along. When those English guys, Paul, John, Ringo, and George came along I was delighted.

I'm a fan of Gibsons too and own a couple of them. When I think of them, I also think of LP with the one he helped Gibson design and BBK with Lucille. Am I getting warm at all?

TM

I was thinking LP for the first, but I don't think it was BBK. He was/is incredible, though. Saw him in Philadelphia at a little place called The Electric Factory back in the late 60s. I was about 10 feet from him. So cool. Of course, it was a small place. I really thought #2 was PB. His band was the PB Blues band. I guess I mixed them together since I saw them together.Oh, oops, just re-read more carefully and you mentioned Paul Butterfield. :) Sorry. Wrong again.

Cynthia

Wow! so lost.
I watched the closing credits and Don Kirshner was the only name I recognized.
I was thinking Neil Young or Bob Dylan? I'm guessing they might be too young though.
lol just ignore me. I've been doing yard work on and off all day. My brain's fried from the chain saw noise.
:) Laura

Wait!
I just heard a song on the radio!!!
I'm probably off in left field, but Was there a movie made about this person's life? not too long ago?
:) Laura

TM and Cyn - you are Sa-mokin`on the first! Very good. The second, I got my T-bones mixed up and sent you off on a wild goose chase - sorry. This is what happens when I think I know, and then don`t check my notes. No. 2 should have been T-Bone Walker, but I gave you T-Bone Burnett's bio. Sorry. He wrote, among others, Stormy Monday. Chuck Berry named Walker and Louis Jordan as his main influences. B.B. King cites hearing Walker's "Stormy Monday" record as his inspiration for getting an electric guitar. Walker was admired by Jimi Hendrix who imitated Walker's trick of playing the guitar with his teeth.

I love the moon phases on my home page - did you know that tonight is a Waxing Gibbous moon, and that the moon is about 384,403 kilometers ( 238,857 miles) high?

Nancy.

I gave clues in both of the previous postings for one guy. Sounds like TM and Cynthia are thinking of the same person as I am.

Rainy here today with high temp of 51F. Expecting 60s by the weekend after snow again tomorrow.

Mmmmm, could it be Les Paul?

Annette

Well, Laura, if the movie was a documentary named Chasing Sound - you got it too. Bobbie, I was too thick for your clue -sorry.

So the first person/persons was Les Paul and Mary Ford. Steve Miller cited his father's friendship with Les Paul and T-Bone Walker as influences on him at an early age. His father made a wire recording of him 'bashing away on a guitar', and Paul said he might make it someday!! While he was never 'huge', he created a great musical legacy.....
and Les Paul literally changed music as we know it!! His innovative talents extended into his playing style, including licks, trills, chording sequences, fretting techniques and timing, which set him apart from his contemporaries and inspired many guitarists of the present day. He recorded with his wife Mary Ford in the 1950s, and they sold millions of records.
Among his many honors, Paul is one of a handful of artists with a permanent, stand-alone exhibit in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
While living in Wisconsin, he first became interested in music at age eight when he began playing the harmonica. After an attempt at learning the banjo, he began to play the guitar. It was during this time that he invented a neck-worn harmonica holder, which allowed him to play the harmonica hands-free while accompanying himself on the guitar. Paul's device is still manufactured using his basic design. Paul's jazz-guitar style was strongly influenced by the music of Django Reinhardt, whom he greatly admired. Following World War II, Paul sought out and befriended Reinhardt. After Reinhardt's death in 1953, Paul furnished his headstone. One of Paul's prize possessions was a Selmer Maccaferri acoustic guitar given to him by Reinhardt's widow. Paul was dissatisfied with acoustic-electric guitars and began experimenting at his apartment in Queens, NY with a few designs of his own. Famously, he created several versions of "The Log", which was nothing more than a length of common 4x4 lumber with a bridge, guitar neck and pickup attached. For the sake of appearance, he attached the body of an Epiphone hollow-body guitar, sawn lengthwise with The Log in the middle. This solved his two main problems: feedback, as the acoustic body no longer resonated with the amplified sound, and sustain, as the energy of the strings was not dissipated in generating sound through the guitar body. While experimenting in his apartment in 1940, Paul nearly succumbed to electrocution. During two years of recuperation, he relocated to Hollywood, supporting himself by producing radio music and forming a new trio. In 1944, Paul's trio appeared on Bing Crosby's radio show. Crosby went on to sponsor Paul's recording experiments. The two also recorded together several times, including a 1945 number-one hit, "It's Been a Long, Long Time." In addition to backing Crosby, The Andrews Sisters and other artists, Paul's trio also recorded a few albums of their own on the Decca label in the late 1940s. In January 1948, Paul shattered his right arm and elbow in a near-fatal automobile accident on an icy Route 66 just west of Davenport, Oklahoma. Mary Ford was driving the Buick convertible, which rolled several times down a creek bed; they were on their way back from Wisconsin to Los Angeles after performing at the opening of a restaurant owned by Paul's father. Doctors at Oklahoma City's Wesley Presbyterian Hospital told him that they could not rebuild his elbow so that he would regain movement; his arm would remain permanently in whatever position they placed it in. Their other option was amputation. Paul instructed surgeons, brought in from Los Angeles, to set his arm at an angle "just under 90 degrees" that would allow him to cradle and pick the guitar. It took him nearly a year and a half to recover.
Paul approached the Gibson Guitar Corporation with his idea of a solid body electric guitar, but they showed no interest until Fender began marketing its Esquire which later had a second pick-up added and became known as the Broadcaster (Renamed Telecaster in 1952). This continued till 1961, when Gibson unilaterally changed the design. Paul hated it. At Paul's request, Gibson renamed the guitar "Gibson SG", which stands for "Solid Guitar", and it also became one of the company's best sellers. The original Gibson Les Paul-guitar design regained popularity when Eric Clapton began playing the instrument a few years later, although he also played an SG and an ES-335. Paul resumed his relationship with Gibson and endorsed the original Gibson Les Paul guitar from that point onwards.
In 1948, Les Paul was given one of the first Ampex Model 200A reel-to-reel audio tape recording decks by Crosby and went on to use Ampex's eight track "Sel-Sync" machines for Multitrack recording. Capitol Records released a recording that had begun as an experiment in Paul's garage, entitled "Lover (When You're Near Me)", which featured Paul playing eight different parts on electric guitar, some of them recorded at half-speed, hence "double-fast" when played back at normal speed for the master. ("Brazil", similarly recorded, was the B-side.) This was the first time that Les Paul used multitracking in a recording (Paul had been shopping his multitracking technique, unsuccessfully, since the '30s. Much to his dismay, Sidney Bechet used it in 1941 to play half a dozen instruments on "Sheik of Araby"). These recordings were made not with magnetic tape, but with acetate discs. Paul would record a track onto a disk, then record himself playing another part with the first. He built the multitrack recording with overlaid tracks, rather than parallel ones as he did later. By the time he had a result he was satisfied with, he had discarded some five hundred recording disks.
Paul even built his own disc-cutter assembly, based on automobile parts. He favored the flywheel from a Cadillac for its weight and flatness.
In July 2005, a 90th-birthday tribute concert was held at Carnegie Hall in New York City. After performances by Steve Miller, Peter Frampton, Jose Feliciano and a number of other contemporary guitarists and vocalists, Paul was presented with a commemorative guitar from the Gibson Guitar Corporation.

On November 15, 2008, he received the American Music Masters award through the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at a tribute concert at the State Theater in Cleveland, Ohio. Among the many guest performers were Duane Eddy, Eric Carmen, Lonnie Mack, Jennifer Batten, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, Dennis Coffey, James Burton, Billy Gibbons, Lenny Kaye, Steve Lukather, Barbara Lynn, Katy Moffatt, Alannah Myles, Richie Sambora, The Ventures and Slash.

In February 2009, only months prior to his death, Les Paul sat down with Scott Vollweiler of Broken Records Magazine, in which would be one of Les Paul's final interviews. His candid answers were direct and emotional. Broken Records Magazine had planned to run that cover feature the following month but due to delays was held until the summer. 3 days before the release, Les Paul died. The issue would be his final cover feature of his storied career.

So, for everyone?? I think so.

TM, how is your guitar project coming along? We may need pictures!!

Sorry my mind wandered there for a bit. It has been confirmed that I need hip replacement surgery for my left hip - 3rd joint surgery on that leg. Yea!! I am taking about 6 - 250 mg tab of Naproxen every day now, to control the muscle pain, which is all that it is right now. The waiting list is 3 or 4 months, which is better than if I were in the city, so that is working in my favour. I also like the surgeon - he did my knee, so I know the quality of his work. Hopefully that will be the end of my woes, and I can get on with an active life.

Thanks for playing - I'll see you next week!

Nancy.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chasing Sound

Lots of interesting stuff there about Les Paul, Nancy. Good luck with your hip surgery and I've heard that the recovery is no picnic either. I see a lot of hip patients at the physical therapist where I go to work out, and it's great to see how they all progress and end up so much better than they were. I'm sure that you will too.

My guitar is coming along pretty well, considering who's building it. :) After carefully gluing the top on, I found a flaw in it and had to take it back off --- not easy, but doable. Now I have to make a new top and go from there. Thanks for asking. And thanks for the fun question and answer.

TM

This post was edited by thinman on Mon, Apr 22, 13 at 19:21

Thanks, TM. I have been told that hip surgery is easier than knee replacement, so fingers crossed! ;- ))

Nancy.

Booo! :( no stars for me. I was thinking of Ray Charles.
I've heard the name Les Paul and knew he had something to do with guitars, but I had no idea to what depth. I loved how he mentioned twice his life was like a dream. What a life he had.
Nancy, I will wish good thoughts for you and your surgery. Doesn't sound like fun, but it will make you happy in the long run.
I've known 2 guys who have had their hips replaced and they were very happy and healed pretty quickly too.
The one, "Dave" (not his real name), walked every day around the local food store. He'd do laps up and down each Aisle. I asked him why he was doing that, he told me he just had his hip replaced and it's boring at PT. lol Too many old people complaining. He's in his mid 80's You'd swear he was in his 60's. Great guy!
I didn't get stars, but I had lots of fun. Thanks
:) Laura

Thanks for the stars, Nancy. Glad to hear that you have a plan to relieve your pain and a surgeon that you are comfortable with working.

Thanks for the stars. Did I say I was thinking f Paul Butterfield for the second influence? Ah well.

TM, my brother-in-law took a class on guitar making. It was weeks long, maybe months-can't remember, but he makes some beautiful instruments
these days. You need to post a pic when you finish yours! I am very impressed by talented folks like you!

Nancy, re your hip replacement: Just be sure to follow the doctor's orders and don't do anything you are not supposed to do! I hope they get you in ahead of schedule.

Have a good week everyone.

Cynthia