Monday, September 16, 2013

Video Of The Week: Steve Miller Band

Sometimes your brain does you a favour and forgets the past. My brain loves me, and it enabled me to not remember a shred of evidence of the existence of this 1982 ''hit'' song...

But first things first: Steve Miller Band were huge in the 1970s, and we owe them a bunch of classic rock staples such as The Joker (''I'm a smoker, I'm a midnight toker''), Fly Like An Eagle, Key To The Highway, Take The Money And Run and Rock'n Me. Songs your dad (or grandfather) rode on the highway with his top down to, smoking and drinking while driving. All truck-drivin' songs.

And yet, this is the same band that released Abracadabra, a song so bad and cheesy I thought it was by Hall & Oates. But noooooo...

''Abracadabra'' is usually an incantation that precedes a magic trick's conclusion, and in this case, it worked: all matters of good taste have disappeared into the making of this song, just as your self-respect will disappear listening to it.

The rabbit in the hat is long gone, the assistant has been sowed in half twice, someone from the crowd has a knife stuck in their head and another spectator is missing a hand, and someone else is missing altogether.

This song is the result of everything going wrong. So much so that it probably killed Houdini; for sure it ended David Copperfield's career.


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