Elliot Murphy, like Garland Jeffreys, continues to put his stream-of-consciousness ideas out into the universe, cyberspace being an interesting avenue for these hard-working street poets. Five of the tracks on the eponymous Elliot Murphy disc (his 35th or something around that incredible mark) are his alone, Olivier Durand co-writing four of the compositions, Iggy Strange-Dahl co-writing two. With song names like “Gone Gone Gone”, “Rock’n Roll ‘N Rock’n Roll” and “Rain Rain Rain” it is almost like a Talking Heads album rife with one-word titles in triplicate…a Ramones-moment for the folk crowd?
The closing track – six minutes and eighteen seconds of “Train Kept A Rolling” has nothing to do with Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page or Aerosmith…it’s more like Ian Hunter going deep into a soul-ful mood, not soul, more introspection, and very good. However the three and a half minute “Maybe You Were Laughing” would be a great cover song FOR Ian Hunter, ….”It’s just me and my monkey, and we’re all nearly the same” sings Murphy and Mott The Hoople could have a field day with it. 11 tracks cover about forty-five minutes and its an impressive effort from a rock & roll soldier that should light up NPR and college radio, and maybe get some traction on adult alternative (does such a format still, really, exist?) with “Maybe You Were Laughing.” Here’s to the next 35…
Joe Viglione is the Chief Film Critic at TMRZoo.com. He was a film critic for Al Aronowitz’s The Blacklisted Journal, has written thousands of reviews and biographies for AllMovie.com, Allmusic.com and produces and hosts Visual Radio. Visual Radio is a fifteen year old variety show on cable TV which has interviewed John Lennon’s Uncle Charlie, Margaret Cho, Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, Felix Cavaliere, Marty Balin, Bill Press and hundreds of other personalities.
