Why the Steve Miller Band’s ‘The Joker’ Is Just Awful

The Steve Miller Band’s “The Joker” is one of the most enduring classic rock hits from the 1970s. It’s also pretty bad. In fact, some lines of the song are pretty questionable.

The Steve Miller Band’s ‘The Joker’ isn’t funny and 1 line of it is creepy

The Steve Miller Band’s “The Joker” is a tepid slice of stoner rock. The only notable thing about its flaccid instrumentation is the slide whistle sound effect. It’s a sonic joke that isn’t close to being funny.

Meanwhile, the lyrics of “The Joker” aren’t doing the song any favors. It’s a song where the singer lists a bunch of his titles. He’s a joker, a smoker, a midnight toker, a sinner, a lover, a grinner etc. etc. It’s like Meredith Brooks’ “Bitch” without the lite feminism. Miller also sings that he gets his “lovin’ on the run.” What, is the song about a sex criminal?

Steve Miller said the song made his career on the radio even though he dislikes the radio

During a 2016 interview with Charlie Rose, Miller discussed the song’s impact on his career. “It was like the first time I was on AM radio,” he said. “And I — you know, that was always the goal was to get on AM radio which was very, very tough. And it was kind of like a mafia kind of controlled thing. And I didn’t like that part of it. 

“I didn’t like the payola — and I didn’t like the disk jockeys who wanted to you do free gigs,” he added. “I had a lot of problems with the way the business model worked. And so when I finally got — with ‘The Joker,’ it did what it did then, I didn’t have those problems anymore. I didn’t have to do that.”

Miller said he learned something sleazy about the music industry. “But later, I learned a lesson when the independent promoters and guys came back in the business, you know a bit later,” he said. “I put out an album and I had some guys that would say listen, for $60,000 bucks, man, we can get this song played in L.A.” Miller said he had no interest in paying promoters for radio play.

How ‘The Joker’ and its parent album performed on the charts in the United States

“The Joker” was the Steve Miller Band’s first No. 1 single in the United States. It reached No. 1 in the United States on the Billboard Hot 100 for a single week. The song remained on the chart for a total of 20 weeks. The track appeared on the album The Joker, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200. It lasted on the chart for 38 weeks.

The Steve Miller Band went on to have two more No. 1 singles: “Rock’n Me” and “Abracadabra.” The latter continued the Steve Miller Band’s tradition of releasing terrible singles that never left radio playlists.

“The Joker” is far from a good song but it’ll probably stick around for another few decades.