Crucial Track for May 28, 2025

"The Joker" by Steve Miller Band

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What song makes you think of your childhood home?

It’s a bit of a family joke that growing up near Saratoga, NY, required you to love the Dead, Phish or other hippie rock jam bands. I’m absolutely convinced that by the end of my life I’ll be an avid Grateful Dead fan. Full circle! When I was growing up, Steve Miller Band would play SPAC often and in 8th grade I felt like I had freaking arrived when a friend invited me to see them. I was so grown up! Whenever I hear them now, I magically know all the lyrics leading me to believe I heard a lot of Steve Miller Band growing up. I can’t help but imagine my hometown when I hear them, the Grateful Dead or other jam bands of that era.