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Casting himself as the eponymous grinning, sinning, smoking, joker, high on life and whatever he was toking, 'The Joker' to these ears is so achingly seventies and so achingly American post hippy burn-out as to border on parody. In it's good time shuffle and bounce I hear Matthew McConaughey's drug taking, high school girl loving (though old enough to know better-ing) 'David Wooderson' (from Richard Linklatter's own homage to the seventies 'Dazed And Confused') fronting Credence Clearwater Revival in an alternate universe.
Miller's casual drug taking and sexism ("You're the cutest thing that I ever did see I really love your peaches, want to shake your tree") may seem a tad objectionable and/or quaintly offensive to the more conservative, and maybe they are, but there's no malice or evil in his song ("I sure don't want to hurt no one") to raise it to the level of offence. Neither, to be honest, is there any indication that he'd give much of a shit what you thought anyway - 'The Joker' wasn't high art first time round in 1973, it's Miller poking fun at himself and encouraging his fanbase to join in with him at the altar of the Church of Slack, preferably with beer in hand. The recurring guitar wolf whistle is a joke too far maybe, but nobody here is taking anything too seriously and neither should we - it's a guilty pleasure, but not one you should be hanged for liking.
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