The Steve Miller Band in Rockpalast 1983 was a televised concert which was broadcast widely in Europe. Despite being a Western European production, it was broadcast also in some countries behind the Iron Curtain, most notably in the Soviet Union.
The performance of the band was actually the final act of the Second Open Air Loreley festival, held on 20 August 1983, at the Freilichtbühne Loreley, an amphitheatre located on top of the Lorelei rock in St. Goarshausen, Germany.[1]
The Steve Miller Band had been touring The United States on the strength of their recent US no. 1 hit "Abracadabra", helping to promote their album of the same name to no. 3 on the US charts. They had played arena concerts with the likes of Heart, Foreigner and The Eagles. When the US dates had all been played, the band gave its only concert of that year in Europe in Loreley.[1]
But not only was this the last concert of the year for Steve Miller, and his only concert in Europe that year, it was the last one for five years, even though he released two more albums with his band (Italian X Rays and Living in the 20th Century) and a solo effort (Born 2 B Blue) in the years following this concert. Only in 1988, after having been invited by Les Paul to appear in his Cinemax show and having seen Pink Floyd and the Beach Boys on successive night, was he convinced that he still had something to offer and put together a band and started annual tours again.[2]
The acts of the concert were:[1]
The performance of the Steve Miller Band was televised during the following winter to the following countries, with greetings addressed to audiences in these countries in the following words:[1]
The concert by the Steve Miller Band was a bit of American show biz and Las Vegas at the Loreley. Miller had decided that the only concert in Europe would be a spectacular event, so two tigers appeared on the stage together with a magician who was brought in from America.[1]
The concert can be found in YouTube in eleven parts. (See the links on the table below.)
The line-up of the band was essentially the same as on the Abracadabra album, with the addition of Norton Buffalo on the harmonica.[1] [3]
The setlist contained songs released since 1968, along with some that were released on subsequent albums (in italics) and some that apparently were penned by Miller but never released, (likewise in italics).[1] [4] The unreleased songs include "Honey Hush" and "Somebody Done Hoo Dood The Hoo Doo Man", the latter of which is not the Wesley Wilson song, made popular by the 1940 version of Louis Jordan. (The lyrics begin as follows: “I’m tired of being cool, I wanna get hot…”) One very rare piece in this concert was the song "Macho City", a live recording of which probably can not be found anywhere else.
Steve Miller himself appears to have posted a video of the concert on YouTube, and despite it being described as a "full concert", it leaves out seven songs from the end and renders "Macho City" incomplete.[5]
| Setlist | |||||||||||||
| width=20 style=background:#D3DCFF | Track | width=300 style=background:#D3DCFF | Song | width=60 style=background:#D3DCFF | Length | width=100 style=background:#D3DCFF | Start at | width=125 style=background:#D3DCFF | Writer(s) | width=170 style=background:#D3DCFF | Album | width=60 style=background:#D3DCFF | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | align=left | Swingtown/Guitar solo (Magic Introduction) | 1'48" | 0:00:00 | align=left | S. Miller/McCarty | align=left | 1982/— | |||||
| 2 | align=left | 4'14" | 0:01:28 | align=left | S. Miller | align=left | 1982 | ||||||
| – | align=left | Multillingual Welcome | 0:06:54 | ||||||||||
| 3 | align=left | 2'57" | 0:07:47 | align=left | align=left | 1973 | |||||||
| 4 | align=left | You You You | 2'38" | 0:10:54 | align=left | align=left | Italian X Rays | 1984 | |||||
| 5 | align=left | Out of the Night | 4'17" | 0:13:54 | align=left | align=left | Italian X Rays | 1984 | |||||
| 6 | align=left | Living in the USA | 5'34" | 0:18:31 | align=left | S. Miller | align=left | 1968 | |||||
| 7 | align=left | Somebody Done Hoo Dood The Hoo Doo Man | 2'59" | 0:23:20 | align=left | align=left | unreleased | ||||||
| 8 | align=left | 2'32" | 0:26:21 | align=left | align=left | Let Your Hair Down | 2011 | ||||||
| 9 | align=left | Buffalo's Serenade | 5'55" | 0:29:27 | align=left | align=left | unreleased | ||||||
| 10 | align=left | 3'11" | 0:35:30 | align=left | S. Miller | align=left | 1976 | ||||||
| 11 | align=left | Keeps Me Wondering Why | 4'17" | 0:38:46 | align=left | Mallaber/Lewis | align=left | Abracadabra | 1982 | ||||
| 12 | align=left | 5'17" | 0:43:16 | align=left | S. Miller | align=left | Fly Like an Eagle | 1976 | |||||
| 13 | align=left | Jungle Love | 3'37" | 0:49:07 | align=left | S. Miller | align=left | Book of Dreams | 1977 | ||||
| 14 | align=left | 4'36" | 0:53:24 | align=left | align=left | Book of Dreams | 1977 | ||||||
| 15 | align=left | Macho City | 7'28" | 0:58:57 | align=left | S. Miller | align=left | 1981 | |||||
| 16 | align=left | Honey Hush | 4'26" | Video | align=left | align=left | unreleased | ||||||
| 17 | align=left | My Babe | 3'21" | " | align=left | align=left | Living in the 20th Century | 1986 | |||||
| 18 | align=left | You Know What I Mean | 6'06" | Video | align=left | unreleased | |||||||
| 19 | align=left | 3'05" | " | align=left | James/Sehorn | align=left | Let Your Hair Down | 2011 | |||||
| 20 | align=left | Yonder's Wall reprise | 1'43" | Video | align=left | James/Sehorn | align=left | Let Your Hair Down | 2011 | ||||
| 21 | align=left | Space Cowboy | 2'50" | " | align=left | S. Miller | align=left | 1969 | |||||
| 22 | align=left | Abracadabra | 4'17" | " | align=left | S. Miller | align=left | Abracadabra | 1982 |