The Smiley Smile Message Board

From an interview with Steve Miller:

"A vinyl box set, also with bonus tracks, is being prepared for 2018, along with more touring to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his first two Steve Miller Band albums, Children Of The Future and Sailor. And Miller confirms that his vaults -- which he considered simply throwing out until his wife and some archivists intervened -- are brimming with treasures. "There's a lot of things that Paul (McCartney) and I did, probably eight or nine things that we recorded that I never released," Miller says. "There's some really interesting pieces with Brian Wilson, and there's some great blues stuff that I did with Cannonball Adderly that's more of a blues-jazz project."

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/7957573/steve-miller-band-seasons-ultimate-hits-rarity (http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/7957573/steve-miller-band-seasons-ultimate-hits-rarity)

Now that could be a very interesting collaboration to hear.

Very interesting indeed, I never knew the two ever even met each other! I'm personally hoping that these collaborations were studio recordings made in the '70s, but best not to keep my hopes up.

B. Wilson/S. Miller co-writes:  Ding Dang Pt. II, Ding Dang Pt. II, Ding Dang Pt. IV.  Supposedly the remainder of a Ding Dang suite in conjunction with the original Ding Dang.

Also Shortnin' Bread, Pts. II through XII.

Can't wait to hear 'em....

They shared two gigs in June of 1978, maybe others before or since...

http://esquarterly.com/bellagio/gigs78.html

Hopefully better than the somewhat lifeless version of Help Me Rhonda on Al's solo album. 

I don't think the Steve Miller bit on Al's album is lifeless. It's just a boring selection, more so for Al/BB fans than Miller fans. At least Al changed up the arrangement and didn't do a carbon copy (cough-Do It Again-cough-Mark McGrath-cough). If you're *into* Steve Miller, than his track with Al is solid.

But yeah, I can't imagine what in the world Steve Miller did with Brian, and the era in which it was recorded would go a long way towards determining whether it might be compelling or not. Late 70s? Landy era? Later? Brian just singing on a Miller-penned track, or a collaboration?

Is Steve Miller confusing Brian with Carl?

I'm also curious whether Miller is going to easily get clearances to release tons of tracks with McCartney and Brian Wilson all over them, if in fact they are.

The McCartney tracks with Miller that were released were fine, but the only standout was "Young Boy" which is just classic melodic McCartney on his own with Miller dropping in some backing. "Used to Be Bad" is pretty bad (one of those "it was probably more fun for those guys to record it than it is for us to listen to it" sort of tracks), and the b-side "Broomstick" is textbook b-side status, pleasant but nothing epic.

We'll have to agree to disagree with that one.   I like Al's album, but of the remakes on that album, I like HMR the least. 

Make no mistake, I would have instructed Al to remove all of the covers/remakes and save them for international bonus tracks or online little bonuses or something (ironically, the 2012 re-issue cover of "California Dreamin'" is perhaps the best of them, and that's a re-re-recording). Like I said, from the Al/BB fan perspective the Miller duet on HMR is boring. But Steve Miller fans would probably dig it more.

Possibly.  I consider myself a pretty casual Steve Miller fan.  Although, thanks to overexposure on classic rock radio, I'll probably never play my copy of his Best of 74-78 album again.