Dillon Neibel
dneibel@lc.edu

I remember the first time I heard this album; I was driving on a Sunday evening, and I know it was a Sunday because I heard it on the radio station KSHE 95. Being a lifetime listener of the station, I knew then that because of the time and day I must be listening to their “7th Day” program. A program in which the station plays 7 albums in their entirety.

Hearing the sounds of what one may describe as a waving siren and an alien spaceship, I immediately recognized the song to be “Threshold”, which is really more of a short instrumental intro that leads into “Jet Airliner”. Once I heard that familiar drum beat come into play and the guitar follow suit to ride so gracefully along beside it, I couldn’t help but find myself driving along rhythm road with the Steve Miller Band. Bouncing in tune with the tunes sitting in my drivers seat I belted along in harmony with my radio, singing “Leavin’ home, out on the road, I’ve been down before…”

Crooning along as if I was a member of the band, lost in the nostalgia of this timeless number, the song faded away. Suddenly, a whirling wind started blowing through my speakers, then a guitar played over it, then a harmonica, and that’s when I knew that it must be “Winter Time”. Could it be another classic ballad to groove and sing to on my Sunday drive? Evidently so.

Harmonizing to the best of my ability as I hummed out the ending of the song, I was left in a brief moment of elevation. A moment that was quickly startled and lifted further by yet another familiar diddy, “Swing Town”. If you’ve ever heard this bopping song, you would know that “diddy” is the only proper way to describe this fifties-esque singalong, hip swaying classic.

Hopping into the next song came one of my absolute favorites, “True Fine Love.” From lines like “I ain’t complainin’ but I’d sure like to find me A true, fine love,” to “So come on get your rocks off, I’m gonna knock your socks off, you’ll see,” I couldn’t help but to think how great of a time it would be to dance along to this album with “Someone another, that’s as sweet as your mother A true, fine love.”

Next, came the first song on the album that I hadn’t actually heard before. Although it was new to me, it was one of those songs that you seem to recognize so subconsciously, that you might actually find yourself singing the lyrics despite having never heard them. That song is called “Wish Upon A Star,” and the song I believe to be the track that defines the entire album.

Eventually I finished the album and actually drove home. With precisely a dozen songs fashioned in complete synchronicity, I got to relisten to other great classics like “Jungle Love” and “The Stake”. I also got to discover new great tunes in the likes of the mystifying jam, “Sacrifice”, accompanied by its intro track “Electro Lux Imbroglio”. With the true Steve Miller fashioned track “My Own Space” paving the way for the folky medieval jam “Babes in the Wood” to finish it out, this album is a true testament to what greatly composed music can be.

I find it worth mentioning that at one point I veered off from my regular path, simply to take the scenic backroads that I’ve become so familiar with over my years living in my rural little town, for no other reason but to enjoy this musical journey further. And, while I can’t say for certain when I heard the DJ name this wonderous album, I am certain that when I heard him say it, I felt a physical level of both agreement and wonder at “Book of Dreams.”