Ten Favorite Steve Miller Band Songs: Jungle Love (#9)

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Last night I decided to count down my ten favorite Steve Miller songs because yesterday (October 5) was Steve’s 75th birthday. His first album came out fifty years ago!!! To celebrate the long career (and the fact that he was one of the acts in my first two rock concerts), here’s another song on that countdown....one you’ll know. #9: Jungle Love And now, a shout-out to Lonnie Turner. Lonnie was a long-time member of the Steve Miller Band, going back to the first album. When the quintet became a trio (Miller, Turner, and drummer Tim Davis), Turner contributed a couple of absolutely hilarious songs to albums (one of the songs is named “The Last Wombat in Mecca,” just to give you a hint). On stage, Lonnie was almost a statue. That means he was probably the craziest one on the tour bus. This song pretty much set Turner up for a good retirement (sadly, he didn’t get to retire, dying at 66 from lung cancer and Alzheimer’s). It was a top 30 hit single from an album that sold three million copies. And, according to Picky Wedia, it popped up a few times in Everybody Loves Raymond. Also according to Wikipedia, Turner and Douglass originally had Dave Mason in mind for this song when they wrote it. Steve Miller heard it first and grabbed it. The rest is history. Jungle Love Written by Lonnie Turner and Greg Douglass From Book of Dreams, 1977 You treat me like I was your ocean (the song’s writers are in the video: Turner on bass and Douglass on guitar):