Steve Miller Band – "Take the Money and Run" (1976)

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Take the money and run

Something rather remarkable happened to me last Saturday: the universe presented me with a gift at the precise moment that I needed that gift.

Or maybe not.  Maybe the universe was testing my character instead of giving me a gift.

I’ll tell you what happened, and you tell me what you think.  

*     *     *     *     *

Every Saturday morning, I walk to a nearby farmers market.

One of the vendors that’s been selling at that market for years is Coulter Farms, a family-owned producer of milk, cheese, and other dairy products.

Not true!  (Keep reading!)

Coulter Farms makes wonderful chocolate milk.  I have a couple of grandchildren who are addicted to it, so I usually buy a quart for each of them.

These days, I pay for just about everything with plastic.  But Coulter Farms charges a 50-cent fee to customers who use credit cards.  So I pay cash money for my weekly chocolate milk purchases.

*     *     *     *     *

Unfortunately, I found myself with only $2 in cash when it was time to head to the farmers market last Saturday.  So it looked like I was going to have to cough up the extra 50 cents and use a credit card.

By the way, trying to save 50 cents by using cash instead of a credit card does not mean that I am cheap!  I am NOT cheap – but I hate to waste money for no reason.  

(If you still think I’m cheap, let me point out that a quart of Coulter Farms chocolate milk costs $6 – significantly more than the grocery-store stuff.  But I think it’s worth every penny, and I happily pay the premium price.)

*     *     *     *     *

I grabbed a baseball cap from my car before walking to the market, which meant using the elevator that services the parking garage at the 2 or 3 lines world headquarters building. 

Imagine my surprise when I saw two $20 bills lying on the floor in front of that elevator’s doors!

At first, I was hesitant to pick them up.  It seemed too good to be true – the modern-day equivalent of the manna that God provided the Israelites while they wandered in the desert after escaping from their bondage in Egypt.

I looked around carefully before bending down to pick up the cash, but there was no one in sight.

I stuck the two twenties into my pocket and hit the elevator’s “down” button.  But then I took one of the bills and dropped it on the floor where I had found it.

After all, $20 was more than enough to cover my chocolate milk purchases that day.  No sense in being greedy and inviting bad karma – right?

*     *     *     *     *

What would you have done?  

Would you have picked up the twenties and gone on your merry way without a second thought?

(Maybe you agree.)

Would you have left the cash on the ground in hopes that the person who lost it realized what happened and was able to recover it before some other rando snatched it up?

Or would you have pocketed one of the bills and left the other one where it was – which is what I did?

*     *     *     *     *

Steve Miller’s early records were much better than his later ones, but the later ones were much more popular.  Go figure.

Click here to listen to “Take the Money and Run,” which was released on the Steve Miller Band’s 1976 album, Fly Like an Eagle. 

Click here to buy “Take the Money and Run” from Amazon.

Steve Miller Band – "Living in the U.S.A." (1968)

Where are you goin' to?

What are you gonna do? 

[NOTE: Today we welcome “Living in the U.S.A.” into thE 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” ALBUM TRACKS HALL OF FAME.  What follows is a lightly edited version of the original 2 or 3 lines post featuring that recording, which appeared on May 15, 2016.]  

Richard Linklater’s delightful new movie, Everybody Wants Some!! – it’s title is taken from the name of a Van Halen song – has a wonderful soundtrack that includes disco, country, punk, funk, and classic rock songs.  (You can click here to read what I said about that movie in a previous 2 or 3 lines.)

The spiritual predecessor to Everybody Wants Some!! is Linklater's 1993 movie, Dazed and Confused, which was named after the last track on side one of Led Zeppelin’s eponymous debut album – perhaps the greatest rock album from start to finish ever recorded.

The music on the Dazed and Confused soundtrack isn’t as varied.  In that movie, Linklater stuck mostly to artists whose music was popular on album-oriented rock stations in the seventies – Aerosmith, Deep Purple, Alice Cooper, Foghat, ZZ Top, Kiss, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Steve Miller.

*     *     *     *     *

Steve Miller was born in Milwaukee in 1943.  His parents were the best man and maid of honor at Les Paul and Mary Ford’s wedding.  Paul encouraged the very young Miller to continue practicing the guitar.

Steve Miller and Les Paul in 2000

When the family moved to Dallas in 1950, Miller attended the fancy-schmancy St. Mark’s School with Boz Scaggs.  The two attended the University of Wisconsin together and formed a band that played at a few clubs in Madison.

Miller left college without earning a degree and moved to Chicago, where he played with Muddy Waters, Howling’ Wolf, Buddy Guy, and other blues greats.  After stops in New York City and Austin, he loaded up his VW bus and drove to San Francisco, where he hooked up again with Boz Scaggs and formed the Steve Miller Band in 1966.  

*     *     *     *     *

I bought Steve Miller’s Anthology album – which included today’s featured song, “Living in the U.S.A.” – in 1973, when I was a junior in college.  It’s a two-record compilation with tracks from five of Miller’s first seven albums.

After releasing Anthology, Steve Miller took a sharp turn in the direction of Schlocktown.  Over the next five years, he cranked out big radio hits like “The Joker,” “Take the Money and Run,” “Rock’n Me,” “Fly Like an Eagle,” “Jet Airliner,” and “Swingtown.”  Those songs weren’t exactly bad, and they weren’t exactly good.  

What they were exactly were hits.  Everyone of them made it into the top twenty, and two made it all the way to number one.

I’ll stick with “Living in the U.S.A.,” thank you very much.  It’s loose and chaotic and sounds like everyone involved in recording it had a great time.  It opens with a recording of a drag racer’s engine and closes with one of the great random lines of all time: “Somebody give me a cheeseburger!”

Click here to listen to “Living in the U.S.A.”

Click here to buy that recording from Amazon.

Steve Miller Band – "Living in the U.S.A." (1968)

Where are you goin' to?

What are you gonna do? 

(Good questions!)

Richard Linklater’s delightful new movie, Everybody Wants Some!! – it’s title is taken from the name of a Van Halen song – has a wonderful soundtrack that includes disco, country, punk, funk, and classic rock songs.  (You can click here to read what I said about that movie in a previous 2 or 3 lines.)

The spiritual predecessor to Everybody Wants Some!! is Linklater's 1993 movie, Dazed and Confused, which was named after the last track on side one of Led Zeppelin’s eponymous debut album – perhaps the greatest rock album from start to finish ever recorded.

The music on the Dazed and Confused soundtrack isn’t as varied.  In that movie, Linklater stuck mostly to artists whose music was popular on album-oriented rock stations in the seventies – Aerosmith, Deep Purple, Alice Cooper, Foghat, ZZ Top, Kiss, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Steve Miller.

Steve Miller was born in Milwaukee in 1943.  His parents were the best man and maid of honor at Les Paul and Mary Ford’s wedding.  Paul encouraged the very young Miller to continue practicing the guitar.

Steve Miller and Les Paul in 2000

When the family moved to Dallas in 1950, Miller attended the fancy-schmancy St. Mark’s School with Boz Scaggs.  The two attended the University of Wisconsin together and formed a band that played at a few clubs in Madison.

Miller left college without earning a degree and moved to Chicago, where he played with Muddy Waters, Howling’ Wolf, Buddy Guy, and other blues greats.  After stops in New York City and Austin, he loaded up his VW bus and drove to San Francisco, where he hooked up again with Boz Scaggs and formed the Steve Miller Band in 1966.  

I bought Steve Miller’s Anthology album – which included today’s featured song, “Living in the U.S.A.” – in 1973, when I was a junior in college.  It’s a two-record compilation with tracks from five of Miller’s first seven albums.

After releasing Anthology, Steve Miller took a sharp turn in the direction of Schlocktown.  Over the next five years, he cranked out big radio hits like “The Joker,” “Take the Money and Run,” “Rock’n Me,” “Fly Like an Eagle,” “Jet Airliner,” and “Swingtown.”  Those songs weren’t exactly bad, and they weren’t exactly good.  

What they were exactly were hits.  Everyone of them made it into the top twenty, and two made it all the way to number one.

I’ll stick with “Living in the U.S.A.,” thank you very much.  It’s loose and chaotic and sounds like everyone involved in recording it had a great time.  It opens with a recording of a drag racer’s engine and closes with one of the great random lines of all time: “Somebody give me a cheeseburger!”

Click here to listen to “Living in the U.S.A.”

Click here to buy that recording from Amazon.