Steve Miller Commentary 4

Now we're in the studio at Capitol warming up on "Your Cash Ain't Nothin' But Trash." And you can tell we're really getting into character here. The groove is great, the band's killing it. And then we cut the track. Then, I'm back in the hotel room working on a tune called "Lidi," which we recorded but didn't release. Then back to another hotel room, working on another unreleased tune called "Travelin'." This tune helped find the chords for the chorus for "The Joker." I didn't finish the lyrics for "The Joker" until the night before we recorded it. I was lying on the hood of my GTO, my back against the windshield, looking up at the sky, fooling around the bassline and singing the first verse:

Some people call me the space cowboy

Some call me the gangster of love

Some call me Maurice

Because I speak of the pompatus of love

And then it came to me:

I'm a picker, I'm a grinner

I'm a lover and I'm a sinner

I play my music in the sun

I'm a joker, I'm a smoker

I'm a midnight toker

We were ready to go