Elliott Murphy

In true rock 'n roll fashion Elliott Murphy was born in Mercy Hospital, Rockville Center, New York in 1949 to a successful show business family. Mother Josephine was a former actress while father Elliott Sr. was the well-known impresario whose multi-faceted Aquashow ran all through the 1950's on the site of the 1939 New York World's Fair. The spectacular show was staged in an Art Deco outdoor theatre and featured diving clowns, ballet swimmers, jugglers, comedians and The Duke Ellington Orchestra. Later, Elliott Sr. opened the Sky Club in Roosevelt Field, Long Island not far from where Charles Lindbergh took off for his historic solo flight to Paris. The Sky Club was a politically connected restaurant/private club hosting such famous politicians of the time as Bobby Kennedy and Nelson Rockefeller. But more impressive to the young Elliott were the Sky Club's dance soirees, which featured The Ronettes, Jay and the Americans and The Seeds.



Elliott grew up in nearby Garden City, started playing the guitar at 12 years old and with his band The Rapscallions he won the 1966 New York State Battle of the Bands. In the late 60's and early 70's he began writing songs in his Long Island heavy rock band Bang Zoom and later while singing on the streets of Europe. In 1972 he returned to New York after a brief stay in San Francisco and he and his brother Matthew put together a band along with their Garden City friends George Gates, Jerry Burchard and Greg NIckson. Soon after gigging all over Manhattan they signed on Polydor Records who immediately broke up the band. However, his debut album Aquashow (1973) was a huge critical success landing on many "best of" lists for the year and feature stories on Murphy appeared in Rolling Stone, Newsweek and The New Yorker. Follow up albums Lost Generation (1975), Night Lights (1976) and Just A Story From America (1977) received equal critical acclaim. Special guests included Mick Taylor, Billy Joel and Phil Collins. His music was post-Dylan poetic rock heavily influenced by New York's Velvet Underground and propelled by Murphy's driving electric guitar and harmonica. By both choice and necessity he went independent with the release of the EP Affairs (1980) that sold well in Europe and set the stage for the the second act of the Murphy saga including the very successful album Murph The Surf (1982). In 1985 the Jerry Harrison (Talking Heads) produced album Milwaukee began Murphy's long relationship with New Rose Records in France. By this time Murphy was touring Europe constantly and finally moved to Paris in 1989 where he continues to live. Selling The Gold (1995) featured a duet with Bruce Springsteen, long-time friend, who often has invited him on stage during his European shows.



In addition to his music Murphy has written for Rolling Stone, Spin and various European magazines and has published Cold & Electric, a semi-autobiographical novel, in French, German and Spanish editions as well as three short story collections (The Lion Sleeps Tonight, Where the Women Are Naked And The Men Are Rich) and most recently Café Notes as well as a neo-western novel Poetic Justice. In a recent Spanish TV appearance he declared "Literature is my religion and Rock and Roll is my addiction."



His recent albums Beauregard, Rainy Season, Soul Surfing and La Terre Commune (a duo with Iain Matthews) have marked a renaissance in his recording career with many critics calling his double album Strings Of The Storm his finest to date. With guitar wizard Olivier Durand he tours constantly, playing well over 100 shows a year all over Europe and to sum up their 10 years together is Never Say Never.The Best of 1995-2005 a CD + bonus DVD package of performances, videos and a discography showing all 26 album covers. 2005 also saw the publication in France of Poetic Justice, Elliott's neo-western novel that will soon be translated into Italian and (hopefully) English. The year ended with Murphy Gets Muddy an album of 10 classic blues covers and 5 Murphy blues originals. The exceptiinal Coming Home Again was released in January 2007 and featured the 1 radio hit (Belgium's Classic 21) A Touch of Kindness. While the rest of the music business continues to go downhill Murphy's sales go up. But this Pisces has always swum against the tide .



Notes From The Underground his eagerly awaited new album which features such concert favorites as And General Robert E. Lee and Lost and Lonely will be released in March 2008 all over Europe and on iTunes all over the world.



Create your own visitor map!