Fly Like an Eagle
by Steve Miller Band
- 99
- BPM
- A minor
- Key
- 8A
- Camelot
- 53
- Danceability
- 63
- Acousticness
"Fly Like an Eagle" started out as a long, loose jam. The Steve Miller Band first played it in 1973 at New York City's Felt Forum, on a bill with the Marshall Tucker Band, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells. That early version was bluesier and less funk-inspired, with the guitar covering the synthesizer parts. Miller described the earlier versions as a 15- or 20-minute thing that went all kinds of places, a product of the freedom of the psychedelic scene.
For the 1976 album of the same name, the studio sessions began with Miller, Gerald Johnson on bass and Gary Mallaber on drums. After failed attempts at Capitol Studios and Wally Heider Studios, they moved to Pacific Union in San Francisco and added Joachim Young on Hammond organ. When a take worked, Miller mixed it down to a portable 3M eight-track machine and did guitar and vocal overdubs at his home studio in Novato, California, with a Fender Stratocaster, a Fender Bassman and an Echoplex. The synthesizer went down in one take after the mix.
He mixed the song three times. He did not want it out until it was right. A tape that had been bulk erased left a repeated beeping in the fade-out. The single reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1977.
Fly Like an Eagle runs at 99 BPM, the tempo of hip-hop, R&B and reggaeton. In classical terms it sits in andante territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 2.42 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 606 ms. It is in A minor, Camelot 8A, which shares its notes with C major and mixes cleanly with D minor and E minor.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.