"Some people call me the space cowboy.
Yeah! Some call me the gangster of love.
Some people call me Maurice
Cause I speak of the Pompatus of love."

Pompatus?

Pompatus.

Steve Miller's "The Joker" borrowed a word from an obscure 1954 R&B hit by the Medallions' vocalist Vernon Green. "You have to remember, I was a very lonely guy at the time. I was only 14 years old, I had just run away from home, and I walked with crutches."

Scraping by singing songs on the streets of Watts, he composed "The Letter", which included the word "puppetutes" (alternately spelled "pulpitudes") meaning: "a secret paper-doll fantasy figure who would be my everything and bear my children...."

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