Abracadabra The Joker Take The Money And Run Steve Miller Band

Abracadabra Album: Abracadabra (1982)
The Joker Album: The Joker (1973)
Take The Money And Run Album: Fly Like An Eagle (1976)
by Steve Miller BandShow more

Abracadabra written entirely by Steve Miller.
Yes, the man who once spoke of the pompatus of love was now rhyming "abracadabra" with "reach out and grab ya."

Of The Joker, the line in this song, "I speak of the pompatus of love," has baffled listeners for some time. The word "Pompatus" does exist in the Oxford English Dictionary, and it means "to act with pomp and splendor." Miller most likely heard the word on a song called "The Letter," released by the Los Angeles doo-wop group The Medallions in 1954. It was written by their lead singer, Vernon Green, who was 16 at the time and crippled with polio. The song is a love letter to the woman of his dreams, and includes these spoken-word lyrics:

Let me whisper sweet words of pizmotality
and discuss the pompatus of love
Put it together and what do you have?
Matrimony

Except "pompatus" is really "puppetutes," according to Green. He defines it as "A secret paper-doll fantasy figure who would be my everything and bear my children." A variation of the word "puppet."

We only know this because there is a 1995 movie directed by Richard Schenkman and starring Jon Cryer called The Pompatus Of Love, titled after the line in "The Joker." In the film, the main characters analyze the line and draw connections to their love lives. They posit that Miller could be singing "pompadours," "impetus," or "prophetess" of love.

Schenkman's friend told him about "The Letter," so Cryer knew it was likely the origin of the phrase "pompatus of love." When Cryer was promoting the movie he appeared on CBS This Morning, where he talked about The Medallions song. Vernon Green was watching and contacted Cryer's publicist, who set up a call. In his memoir So That Happened, Cryer recounts his conversation with Green, where he learned about "puppetutes." Green had never heard "The Joker," so Cryer played it for him over the phone.

As for Miller, he admitted the line came from "an old doo-wop song." Appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in 2019, he said, "It was a different term and I misunderstood it, so I made up the word pompatus."

Miller gave a more oblique expository on the lyric during his 2022 Songwriters Hall of Fame induction ceremony. "'Pompatus of love?' My attorney is here tonight and he will explain what it is and how much it costs when you say it," he said of the line.

Miller got the line at the end, "I really love your peaches want to shake your tree, lovey dovey, lovey dovey..." from "Lovey Dovey," a 1953 song by the R&B group The Clovers. That song's co-writer was Ahmet Ertegun, who later became head of Atlantic Records. Ertegun sued Miller for plagiarism. Miller recalled to Mojo magazine in 2012: "To me, it was an old blues double entendre, but I had to give him credit. I don't mind having Ahmet's name beside mine though."

Miller won a lawsuit against rap group The Geto Boys when they used this without his permission in 1990. In 2000, he let Shaggy use the bass line from this on his hit, "Angel." A year later, Miller let Run-D.M.C. sample "Take The Money And Run."

The line "I'm a midnight toker" is a marijuana reference (as is the "toke" in Brewer & Shipley's hit "One Toke Over The Line" from 1970). Many stoners related to this song, and in 2012, Spin magazine named it the most commercially successful pot song of all time.

Steve Miller told the story of the song in November 2012: "I got this funny, lazy, sexy little tune," he recalled, "but it didn't come together until a party in Novato, north of San Francisco. I sat on the hood of a car under the stars with an acoustic guitar making up lyrics and 'I'm a joker, I'm a smoker, 'I'm a midnight toker' came out. My chorus! The 'some people call me the space cowboy' and 'the gangster of love' referred to earlier songs of mine and so did 'Maurice' and 'the propitious of love.' You don't have to use words. It was just a goof.

Miller wrote Take the Money and Run as a road trip song.

Another characteristic of Miller's road songs is mention of various places - El Paso shows up in this one.

This was the first song Miller let a rap group sample; he let Run-D.M.C. use it in 2001 with Everlast also on vocals. Miller, who had turned down many previous requests to sample his songs, agreed only after hearing the song and liking what they did with it.

The group was only drawing a few thousand fans to their big arena shows, marking the end of their run as a huge concert draw. Miller took six years off from touring, but resumed again in 1988 ("I was just bored to tears," he said). By this time, he had entered the realm of classic rock, and was once again filling arenas. Over the next few decades, he kept a consistent but reasonable touring schedule, playing about 50 shows a year, mostly in the US.