No Reason to Die

Elliot Murphy : Anastasia

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In February of 1977 "New Dylan" Elliot Murphy released his fourth, and best known album, Just a Story from America. With help from Phil Collins on drums, the album kicks off with "Drive All Night", a song that sounds like something Bruce Springsteen might have just recorded. Live, Murphy would sometimes segue from "Drive All Night" into his old label mate's  "Born To Run".

But the track that got the most attention was "Anastasia", a lovely song about the Russian Czar's lost daughter featuring the Boys Choir of St Paul . The song was a minor hit in France so when Murphy failed to hit the big time in the US, he decamped to Paris where he still lives and performs to this day.

Here's Robert Christgau's C- review of Just A Story From America: 

If anyone can write a rock ballad to a deposed Russian princess made famous by Ingrid Bergman it's Murphy--the image sums up the F. Scott Fitzgerald/Rhett Butler (and Eva Braun?) side of a boy-man who's also heir to the traditional reverence for Jimi Hendrix and James Dean. Instead, the song is the embarrassing epitome of a record on which Murphy sounds spoiled instead of sensitive, presumptuous instead of ambitious, and about as comfortable with rock and roll as Roderick Falconer.

40 Year Itch: And We're All Junkies

Elliot Murphy: You'll Never Know What You're In For

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   By the time Elliot Murphy's third album had come out, most of the critics who gushed about his becoming "the new Dylan" had moved on to fellow Tri-State artists Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith. They might have missed out on Smith's best album, Night Lights. Produced by Steve Katz (Lou Reed) , Murphy recorded with a band made up of former Velvet Underground guitarist Doug Yule, and two former members of the Modern Lovers : bassist Ernie Brooks and future Talking Heads keyboardist Jerry Harrison. Billy Joel plays piano on "Deco Dance".

   The effect was to update Murphy's sound. 

   As for Patti Smith, Murphy doesn't sound like a fan. His song "Lady Stiletto" may be one of the biggest disses in rock history

"Her T-shirt's ripped with a passion/

Her mind's been raped by the Rolling Stones/

She keeps her weight down by fasting/

on Jim Morrison's bones"

Elliott and Bruce in 2005:

40 Year Itch : A Technicolor Carving Knife

Tatum O'Neal and Cher get into Cher's Ferrari. Hollywood, 1975

Elliot Murphy : Hollywood

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   The single and lead off track from Elliot Murphy's second album Lost Generation has the singer-songwriter name-dropping James Dean, Jimi Hendrix, Andy Warhol and Greta Garbo. His debut, Aquashow convinced many rock critics Murphy was the second coming of Bob Dylan. It was one of my favorite albums from 1973. This is more of the same--without the benefit of being a surprise--and record buyers were unconvinced. Murphy's third album, 1976's Night Life, would be even better.

40 Year Itch: Last of the Rock Stars

[Purchase Diamonds By the Yard]

Murphy's Aquashow is easily the best Dylan LP since John Wesley Harding

-Paul Nelson, Rolling Stone

I'll say this upfront: Aquashow will make my year end list of the Top 10 albums of 1973. That I knew nothing of this album until 2013 should embarrass the hell out of me. After all, it was met by critics gushing over the "new Dylan". OK. I'm embarrassed. But it's not like I can buy the album on Amazon. All they offer is Diamonds By The Yard, an Elliot Murphy collection featuring four Aquashow tracks. And , with the exception of "Last of the Rock Stars", not what I would consider the best four either. 

Aquashow is right up my alley. Great songs. Great lyrics. Great playing. As many have noted before me: Murphy sounds like he's doffing a cap to the great mid 60's Dylan era . You've got Murphy's harmonica soloing right at the top and Frank Owens ( who played on Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone") on Hammond B 3 swirling along and lyrics that speak to an entire generation of  suburbanites.

This is my kind of music! So how did I miss it? I can only blame Polydor Records. Maybe they were too busy promoting James Brown and the Bee Gees to realize what they had on their hands. Industry shill Billboard Magazine gave Murphy this kiss off one sentence review:

Good set from newcomer highlighted by simple rock tunes such as "Hangin' Out" and skilled vocals.

(On the same page Burt Reynolds got three sentences in a favorable review for his album --which made 1001Songs Top 5 Worst albums of 1973)

The son of the Elliot Murphy who owned the New York water ballet arena Aqua Show, our hero had the financial stability and talent to go after his artistic dreams. 

From 1939-64, Aqua Show could be seen on the grounds of the World's Fair 

After checking out the world and even appearing in Fellini's Roma, Murphy and his brother Matthew put together a band, Elliot Murphy's Aquashow, part of the same Mercer Arts Center scene that spawned the New York Dolls and Patti Smith. While the album Aquashow was met with mostly critical fervor ( an A- rating from Dean Christgau), US stardom was not to come. Americans had found their new Dylan in a skinny New Jersey songwriter names Bruce.

Murphy and Springsteen

   Murphy moved to Paris. He still lives there. He's recorded 30 albums since Aquashow including Selling the Gold ( 1996) which has cameos from both Bruce Springsteen and the Violent Femmes Gordon Gano. He's got his own website ElliotMurphy.com where he offers free mp3 downloads including an updated, and slower, version of "Last of the Rock Stars"

But that's decades ahead of where we're standing. The Fall of 1973. When a besotted Rolling Stone critic is first hearing an album that will inspire him to label Murphy with the "new Dylan" tag. On his website. Murphy writes:

I never thought I sounded much like Bob Dylan until the famous Rolling Stone Review came out calling me "the new Bob Dylan" and then the shit hit the fan and everybody in the music business wanted to know who I was. My hero Lou Reed came to see me play one night at Max's Kansas City and said I needed a new record company and introduced me to his manager Dennis Katz who arranged for RCA to buy my contract from Polydor for over one hundred thousand dollars. In nine months my life had changed completely and the hopes and dreams I expressed in Last of the Rock Stars had become reality.