Haha! I knew a time would come when this title would get mentioned. It's such a polarizing mix, that I both love and loathe it.
The music is classic "early" Steve Miller. I consider anything Pre-Fly Like an Eagle to be "early" and everything from Eagle after is "later, more mature" Steve Miller.
The music is chunky, it's funky, it's dirty and it's fun. It's real meat-and-potatoes stuff and it definitely has it's place in early 70's rock n' roll.
The mix? *sigh* Well, I suppose it could be worse. The upside is it is one of very few Capitol titles that is four-corner discrete. The bad news is that the fella at the mixing board really didn't have a clear idea of what equated to "Good" Quad mixing. The biggest problem is he never really figured out what to do with the drum kit and that is the biggest distraction of all. The rest is really not bad, but screams for a little more creativity. Making it a little less discrete might have actually given it that "You are there in the studio" kind of feel to it.
Most songs feature the drum kit situated in both right channels. Mostly to the rear, but many cymbal crashes and mic leakage come from right front. I'm going to assume this came from a 16-track multi, so there should be a minimum of three drum tracks. During "The Joker", left rear features a guitar overdub and, had I mixed this, I would've spread the drum kit across the rear channels instead to avoid having that dead channel until the overdub comes on.
Good , but not great. Funny how this SMB title is uber discrete, while the next one, Eagle, is probably one of the least discrete Quad mixes ever!