Jet Airliner (Steve Miller Band song)
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| "Jet Airliner" | ||||
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| Single by Steve Miller Band | ||||
| from the album Book of Dreams | ||||
| Released | April 1977 | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 4:25 (album version) 3:33 (single version) |
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| Label | Capitol Records | |||
| Writer(s) | Paul Pena | |||
| Producer | Steve Miller | |||
| Steve Miller Band singles chronology | ||||
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"Jet Airliner" is a song composed by Paul Pena and popularized by the Steve Miller Band.
Pena wrote and recorded the song in 1973 for his New Train album.[1] However, due to conflicts between Pena and his label, New Train sat unreleased until 2000[2]. Miller decided to record "Jet Airliner" for his band's Book of Dreams album in 1977 after hearing the unreleased album via Ben Sidran, who produced it[3], and who was also formerly in Miller's band. It was concurrently released as a single, and reached #8 on the Billboard chart.
On classic rock radio, "Jet Airliner" is typically played in tandem with "Threshold", the all-synthesizer instrumental piece that precedes it on both Book of Dreams and Greatest Hits.
The song's main guitar riff as played by Miller is reminiscent of (but not identical to) one used by Eric Clapton in Cream's version of Robert Johnson's song "Cross Road Blues" (from Cream's 1968 album Wheels of Fire). Miller's performance of the main riff is in turn slightly different from Pena's original, which has a more funky edge to it.
[edit] Single edit
The single edit of Miller's recording features a truncated version of the guitar intro. In addition, one line of the song's lyric was altered for radio play: instead of "'Cause I don't want to get caught up in that funky shit goin' down in the city", it was changed to "funky kicks goin' down in the city". The single edit was included on the original release of Miller's Greatest Hits 1974–78 compilation, although the full album version has been used for later reissues of the title.
The single edit also had much better-produced Steve Miller vocals. On the album version, one can often hear Miller breathing into the microphone as he begins singing a line. His breathing was mixed out of the single release.
[edit] References
- ^ Webster, Spidra. "Paul "Earthquake" Pena - Biography". Allmusic. http://allmusic.com/artist/paul-earthquake-pena-p2052255/biography. Retrieved May 1, 2011.
- ^ http://paulpena.com/pressrelease.html
- ^ Pena, Paul. New Train (CD). New York: Hybrid Recordings, 2000.
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