The Escapist Meaning Behind the Steve Miller Band’s “Fly Like an Eagle”

Steve Miller wrote and recorded the majority of his 1976 album Fly Like An Eagle and 1977 follow-up, Book of Dreams, during the same sessions from 1975 through 1976. By 1976, both albums were finished, but Book of Dreams was held back another year.

The former album boasted the band’s hit title track, written by Miller, which shot to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The Meaning of “Fly Like An Eagle”

Time keeps on slipping away from the narrator in the song. It keeps disappearing, into the future. So the only logical thing to do is turn into an eagle and fly into the future and into freedom.

Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’
Into the future
Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’
Into the future

I want to fly like an eagle
To the sea
Fly like an eagle
Let my spirit carry me
I want to fly like an eagle
‘Til I’m free
Oh, Lord through the revolution

Though the song was often linked to drug use and flying high, “Fly Like An Eagle” is also about the power within people to rise above, and help one another.

Feed the babies
Who don’t have enough to eat
Shoe the children
With no shoes on their feet
House the people
Livin’ in the street
Oh, oh there’s a solution

[RELATED: Steve Miller on Career Longevity and Being Sampled]

Paul McCartney and “My Dark Hour”

The guitar riffs on “Fly Like An Eagle” were pulled from Miller’s 1966 song “My Dark Hour,” which was co-written with and features Paul McCartney. Credited as Paul Ramone — a name he often used to check into hotels and one which also inspired punk pioneers The Ramones — McCartney also added backing vocals, guitar, bass, and drums to the track. The song was released as a single on the Steve Miller Band’s third album Brave New World in 1969.

“There was a big argument and they all went, leaving me at the studio,” said McCartney, who met Miller after a disagreement with John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr over signing a contract with a new financial manager for the Beatles. Still hanging around at Olympic Studios in London after the Beatles spat, McCartney met Miller.

“Steve Miller happened to be around: ‘Hi, how you doing? Is the studio free?’” said Miller, according to McCartney. “I said ‘Well, it looks like it is now, mate.’ He said: ‘Mind if I use it?’ So I ended up drumming on a track of his that night. It was called ‘My Dark Hour,’ a good track actually. He and I made it alone. I had to do something, thrash something, to get it out of my system.”

Seal and its Resurgence

In 1996, Seal revisited the Steve Miller Band classic for the film Space Jam, and his version peaked at No. 10 on the Hot 100.

“It was a time when I really matured as a writer and I started writing much better songs,” said Miller of “Fly Like an Eagle” in 2022. “I was developing my music. Things that I had been working on for a long period all came together. ‘Fly Like an Eagle’ is a combination of electronic music and a really funky groove. I put in some socially conscious lyrics and an inspirational message. At least, I hope people think it’s inspirational.”

Photo: Gijsbert Hanekroot / Courtesy Big Hassle