Space Cowboy by Steve Miller Band

This 1969 nugget is by far the most famous song from the first incarnation of the Steve Miller Band, when they were more psychedelic than straght-ahead rock.

Miller’s early albums are full of strange exotic sounds, like this tune’s fuzz guitars, spooky double-tracked vocal, and the electronic blips in the instrumental break. Keyboard player Ben Sidran, who wrote this song with Steve Miller, later became a big name in the smooth-jazz world.

This song also introduced Miller’s famous habit of referencing his own songs. The line “I told you about living in the U.S. of A, don’t you know that I’m the Gangster of Love” refers to the titles of two songs from his previous album Sailor.

The 1969 album Brave New World, which included this track, also featured a collaboration with “Paul Ramon”—Paul McCartney under alias. A few years later, a very famous punk group would add an “e” to McCartney’s pseudonym and name themselves after it.

The guitar and bass patterns here are fairly repetitive, but that doesn’t necessarily make them easy. During the main guitar riff, there are two quick HOPOs on blue and green after a yellow. These can be strange if your hand is still positioned with your pointer on green, so anticipate it.

On bass, you don’t want to get too lulled by the repeating riff: There are a couple of sudden pattern changes, including two spots of quick double-neck strum.

The drummer has the hardest job here, however. Practice the solo before taking it to the gig.

Still going strong and touring every summer.