Review Summary: Book Of dreams is a dream come true to any blues rocker.
Steve Millers tenth album “Book of Dreams” was destined to be a hit. Millers last two LPs, “The Joker” (1973) and ‘Fly Like An Eagle’ (1976) had become mainstream hits while showing of Millers country style blues guitar. So anything the band put out was bound to turn the heads of fans, but the magic of “Book of Dreams” is even if it was Millers debut it would have been a hit. By the mid-seventies The Steve Miller Band knew their sound and had become damn good at along the way.
The first side of BOD can be heard every day on any classic rock station anywhere. The songs are more pop oriented and are less experimental than the other side. The album starts off with a spacey synth song called “Threshold”, it’s your typical synth driven song full of spacey effects and sounds of wind blowing. It provides a slow build up to one of the bands biggest hits “Jet Airliner”. A cover of an old blues song by blind musician Paul Pena “Jet Airliner” is one of those songs everyone’s heard and shows off the always underrated guitar work of Steve Miller. A fun thing about this song is you can hear Steve Miller take a breath before singing every line, go ahead listen you can’t miss them.
BOD takes a different direction on “Winter Time”, a slow vocal driven track that features the harmonica work of former Commander Cody member Norton Buffalo. The song itself is slow but melodic and easily recognizable. The albums highlight is the next song “Swingtown”. A slow song with a disco like beat to it this song seems to have it all; excellent guitar twanging, fun lyrics, and good vocals from Miller. “True Fine Love” concludes the first side in an exciting way, showcasing Steve Millers love for the blues this track is heavily influenced by the early Texas blues sound and has the best guitar solo on the album.
The second side of the album is more experimental and lose. Instead of cleverly crafted pop songs Miller jumps from genre to genre with very little consistency. The key tracks on this side are the blues driven “The Stake” and arguably the albums most fun filled song “Jungle Love”. Besides that and maybe the harmonies on “My own Space” the second side consists of filler that follows no real pattern. The songs range from spacey prog-rock sounds (Electro Lux Imbroglio) to Irish sounding instrumentals (Babes in The Wood). The side is hard to follow but worth a listen. As for the album itself I suggest this album to any fan of Steve Millers or electric blues.
