CREPUSCULE
Skies are burning red
The sun drops right on your head three geese flying alone
I wanna go home
This land is as flat as my heart and my plans kept us apart
The master of the universe
He’s crying
Tell me if you can
Am i part of a plan
Will my secrets unfold
When I’m useless and old
When every breath cuts like a knife
And I’m caught in the shortcomings of my life but still in
My heart I am true
Follow the worried child
The hero on his last mile
Signed eternally yours
A note is tacked on your door your lost in a no man’s land
Your words like a desert of sand and your hand in my hand
That’s reality
SONNY
Sonny – its been a long time
But I just couldn’t pick up the phone
I’m still some miles away – from that kinda courage
And I guess finally I preferred to be alone
Well its true – I mighta made a few promises
And you can be sure – I meant to keep ‘em all along
But something happened – don’t know if I can explain it
Just call me the man whose heart turned to stone
A thousand people laughing
And I could not say a word
But in the heat of that last summer
I was flying like a bird
Sonny – you say you don’t recognize me
In fact when I knew you – well I was wearing a beard
But one day I shaved and looked in the mirror
Decided to come out – come right out of there
Well me and your mom – well that was a long night
Can’t say I’m proud – but I ain’t ashamed
Don’t you believe it – Well I ain’t no cave man
We were both willing – but she lived with the blame
Chorus
So when she called – you coulda knocked me over
I thought it was a joke – than my laughter started to fade
So I drove down here – down to this damn prison
The last thing I expected – I see my boy sitting in a cage
So what can I say – give me a call when you want to
You can call me at work – and you can call my place home
I’ll find a way out of this – not sure how I’m gonna do it
But you got a father – you’re not completely alone
Chorus
GREEN RIVER
Lights were dancing
Footsteps of a mouse
On a postage stamp
I saw a picture of our new house
Red roof and magnolias
A field of olive trees
A Green River is rising
Nearly to my knees
Green River – Green River
Green River – Take my soul out to the sea
Raisin bread and honey
Not as sweet as you
If I could tell your fortune
Would I lie or would I tell the truth
Depending if it brought you
To my arms or distant shores
A Green River is rising
Even higher then before
Chorus
Three rings on my fingers
Past, present and fate
One came from Mississippi
The other from a different state
A state of forgiveness
Contradiction and the blues
A Green River is rising
Water filling up my shoes
Chorus
This ship ain’t moving
It’s attached to the land
Last night I slept in a bunk bed
Dreamed I was in prison
With a dangerous man
I Woke up to the river
Who crept past us while we slept
A Green River keeps on rising
Until my eyes are soaking wet
Chorus
OPHELIA
Ophelia i’m at your window – and how beautiful you are
Your eyes – reflect the moonlight
And shine into the dark
I’m so close – that I could touch you
But you’re so fragile – you might fall apart
And imagine for a minute
That you are loved – because you really are
Ophelia the sun is rising – oh and i know how you love the
Dawn you love the newness – you love the freshness
You love the feeling – that you belong
To the cycle – of the changes
That reoccur – in nature’s song
And imagine for a minute
That you are loved – because you really are
Ophelia come to the river – and let us swim under the stars
Let the moonbeams – caress your worries
And let the current – take them far
Can we face the pain of living
Or have we got no more tears to cry
And imagine for a minute
That you are loved – because you really are and I’m floating
Away – and I’m floating away
Ophelia this room is smoky – let’s escape to the cool
Outside let’s take a walk to the all-night grocery
There must be something you want to buy
How about some cookies – how about a yogurt
How about a kiss in the neon aisles
And imagine for a minute
That you are loved – because you really are
Ophelia I always knew you
Even before you were wearing a shroud when you were
Touring with your magicians in Acapulco and talking so loud
Oh and still there was something so special about your
Green eyes and crooked smile and imagine for a minute
That you are loved – because you really are
Ophelia I was such a loser
And I was hanging with a desperate crowd and I found you or you found me
Oh anyway it doesn’t matter now
So come on let’s go to the theatre
Let’s play Hamlet one more time
And imagine for a minute
That you are loved – because Ophelia you really are
RAZZMATAZZ
Traffic’s thick on the highway – deviation on my right
Another sad Sunday – the lights of the city in sight
Everybody’s in a hurry – the last picture show
Am I ready for the country – am I just ready to go
Sitting on my left is my right hand man
I’m standing on a trap door to Disneyland packed in my
Luggage all my sorrows and woes come on Delilah – let’s go
Typewriter trees in the mountain – in rows so perfect and
Straight banana peels and sawdust in an old circus crate
Clowns leading the parade under baby blue-blue skies
Everybody’s laughing but the clowns got tears in their eyes
Sitting on my left is my right hand man
I’m standing on a trap door to Disneyland packed in my
Luggage all my sorrows and woes come on Delilah – let’s go
Oh Margaret rose we sure do get around
The deeper the lake the darker the sound echo so perfect
It will blow your little mind i’m not even sure if its
Daylight savings time
My stress is electric – but you know that
Take care of my click and my clack
They say Divinci he designed this bridge
And you can see the world just like it really is
Sitting on my left is my right hand man
I’m on a trap door to Disneyland
Packed in my luggage all my sorrows and woes come on
Delilah – let’s go
CANARIES IN THE MIND
You say the world is doing fine
Except for the canaries down in the mine
They’re just not singing anymore
They’re lying lifeless on the floor
Some say love is like oxygen
And since you left me baby i’ve been suffering
Round and round like a weathervane i go
And i can’t find which way the wind will blow
In fact this whole thing is a mystery
And i’m feeling less and less free
Locked between the bars of my birth and my death
What my crime was well i can only guess
But you were the light in my darkest night
I was blind and you gave me sight
To see all that was so beautiful
My empty life turned lush lush and full
But your body was my temple of doom
A sanctuary and a living tomb
Where i was buried in two seconds flat
I know you said sometimes love is like that
But all i have left is a lock of your hair
At least i think its yours but baby i don’t care
If you gave me presents i can’t find them now
You said you did but i have my doubts
Because all you told me were sweet sweet lies
I could be one of a thousand guys
Who could never get enough of you
Who were so shocked when their time was through
That’s it for me i’m on my way home
I’m singing the last verse of like a rolling stone
Rest assured i never wanted you to change
Into something manageable or prearranged
Some say the world is doing fine
(and those canaries are just putting in their time)
Except for the canaries in the mind
They’re just not singing anymore
They’re lying lifeless on the floor
SCANDINAVIAN SKIES
Viking forest and white birch trees
Bleach my soul – i’m down on my knees asking for
Forgiveness – pray for strength i keep temptation at a
Good arms length slim armed lady erotic dreams
Gold chains in a limousine
Arctic clouds in the sky above
My old world is empty my new world is young
Don’t feel my power in the barrel of a gun
Everybody’s moving from poor to north
Behold a rider on a pale horse
Come wintertime getting tons of snow driving you home in
My old Volvo
By the time its dark we’ll be in Oslo
My old world is empty my new world is young don’t feel my
Power in the barrel of a gun everybody’s moving from poor
To north behold a rider on a pale horse
Study philosophy for hours a day nobody cares what Socrates say
If there is justice in this old world coulda fooled me – you’re my girl
Gonna get a little red house with a sauna in back jump in
That cold bath get a heart attack
I never say goodbye to Scandinavian skies
My old world is empty my new world is young
Don’t feel my power in the barrel of a gun
Everybody’s moving from poor to north
Behold a rider on a pale horse
THE VALLEY BELOW
Let us cross over the river
And rest in the shade of the trees
Let us gaze upon each other
Let us fall upon our knees
Let us kiss the longest kiss
That would last a thousand years
A century – a lifetime – and my love would still be here
And I tremble at your closeness and the emptiness that lies
Above and in some way i feel protected from this life by your love
So let us stop all this motion
And let us stand forever still with our arms around each
Other and our souls wrapped in our will
Locked inside your walls
And then the rain it come to call now you’re locked inside
My mind and you’ll be there all of the time
So let us cross over the river
And let us rest in the shade of the trees
Let us gaze upon each other
Let us fall upon our knees
Let us kiss the longest kiss
That would last a thousand years
A century – a lifetime – and my love would still be here
I crawled the ocean – where everything was mine
I crossed the forest with the daughter of Frankenstein
She was so pretty and I could see
When your daddy’s a monster – its just not so easy
She read the sermon on the mount
I licked the crumbs on her plate we never talked religion or faith
I knew it was a mistake
I called her cupcake – she called me tiramisu
We were so even well I could do everything she could do
No competition – no struggle ‘bout being on top
No alternating love seasons – ‘cause she was cold or she was hot
She read the sermon on the mount
I licked the crumbs on her plate we never talked religion or faith
I knew it was a mistake
I walk on land like a sailor on leave i’m looking for something to eat
I got percussion beating in my ear my routine completely complete
She was dynamic – she made my poor bones ache
I was mis-suited – for this lady from the lake the waitress passed our table
And I pinched her right on her ass
She said where are your manners
I said honey I’m learning fast
She read the sermon on the mount
I licked the crumbs on her plate we never talked religion or faith
I knew it was a mistake
I walk on land like a sailor on leave
I’m looking for something to eat
Percussion is beating in my ear
My routine completely complete
I’m gonna hire myself a cleanup crew
Its a job for three well maybe two
You are the sole object of my desire
You’re gonna meet me in the casino my guns for hire
I crawled the ocean – where everything was mine
I crossed the forest with the daughter of Frankenstein the daughter of Frankenstein
DIAMONDS BY THE YARD
As I lay down with my lady
The sounds of the night keep me warm
I’m living a city life – I’m living maybe
But tonight there’s no reason to be strong
Romantic poets guard the darkness
My my all at such an early age
An old man sheds a tear
He opens a little gold locket
He thought his little girl was lost in an Indian raid
Somewhere in these night lights lies the answer
And you can get diamonds by the yard
A tiffany dream – A porcelain dancer
An old man playing blues guitar
(Chorus:)
Midnight I surrender
I live beneath your ancient spell
You’ve been my lover since I can’t remember
You save my life with the stories you tell
All Songs by Elliott Murphy
© Elliott Murphy
Lyrics Reprinted by Permission
Elliott Murphy Is Alive!
Murphyland Records
2018
Produced by Elliott Murphy
Mixed by Gaspard Murphy
Recorded 7 May 2018 at the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels
Photos: Willie Dumalin, Marcos Cebrián
Mastered by Raphael Jonin
Musicians:
Elliott Murphy – Vocals, Guitars & Harmonica
Olivier Durand – Guitar & Backing Vocals
Record By Record, Murphy By Murphy: Elliott Murphy Is Alive!
While cleaning out my archives I came across this excellent recording of a live duo show from Ancienne Belgique some years ago. Olivier and I were really locked into each other’s guitar playing and I think it’s a fine example of the way we work on stage. And there is our version of the Doors “LA Woman” and my little spoken intro about how Jim Morrison only lasted three months in Paris and I’ve been here thirty years.
Liner Notes
From the Big O
It’s nearly two in the morning and I’m sitting on the train, homeward bound for Le Havre, after a long day’s travel. Last night, Elliott and I played at the Luz Festival before seven-thousand people in A Coruna, Spain, two-thousand kilometers away, with Danny Montgomery, Melissa Cox and Gaspard Murphy (who first played with us when he was sixteen and contributed the guitar solo to “Canaries in the Mind” on Coming Home Again. How did we get here? Well, twenty-two years ago, I walked up five flights of stairs on rue Beauregard in Paris and met with Elliott Murphy for the first time in his apartment; prophetically, the song we played together that day was “Love to America.” Just a few months later, I found myself playing at the huge Printemps de Bourges Festival in France with Elliott and I was pretty stressed, it being my first show with him, a major festival, and knowing that Elliott had played with guitar legends such as Mick Taylor, Chris Spedding and one of my favorites, Sonny Landreth. But the ambiance was pretty cool in the dressing room, so cool that by the time Elliott told the band it was time to go on, my stress had disappeared. But then he said, “I ask you just one thing – no mistakes!” Big silence until he added, “Because I will make more than you!” Big smile on every musician’s face and the concert went really well!
We did some gigs with that same band (Laurent Jousseaume, Boris Giraud and sometimes with organist Bertrand Bonello who became a famous French movie director), but Elliott always wanted to try the duet format. He had a solo gig in Sete, and I was free that day, so I showed up and we did it! It was the beginning of a new adventure.
When we recorded Beauregard with Ernie Brooks and Mark Kerr (Roger Robindore engineered), I discovered a totally different approach to making records: no big rehearsal, just learning the songs, creating my parts almost as the tape was rolling (at that time, it was digital ADAT days). Innocent as I was, I brought my new mandolin with me although I didn’t really learn to play it before, but Elliott asked me to record with it anyway. For Sonny, that you now find on this album some years later, I was just doing some pentatonic tricks on my guitar when Roger was still working on the sound, Elliott heard me and said, that’s your solo right here, develop it! As you can hear, this solo became a big part of the song on stage, Elliott extended those solo parts, and, as the song says, let me fly like a bird!
That’s just one of many examples of how we worked in the studio, I will always remember recording “Put It Down,” an eleven minute song from Rainy Season with twelve verses, in only one take with Kenny Margolis, Ernie Brooks and Jonathan Kane, in a studio not too far from the Twin Towers, in June 1999. On Soul Surfing my solo on “Eiffel Tower Blue” is totally live. Maybe you’ll be surprised to know that part of the intro of “Pneumonia Alley,” from that same album, was a mistake, Elliott hit a minor chord instead of a major, and we all found that much more interesting and kept that idea; maybe it’s what gives my slide part that memorable George Harrison feel.
Another different approach: one day in Vittoria, Basque Country, Elliott had just written a new song the night before and Jorge Otero, Danny Montgomery and I learned it at soundcheck. As we played it for the first time, I found the guitar riff I needed and that was it. A few days later in le Havre, we would put “Green River” on tape, it was the last song recorded for Strings of the Storm. And “General Robert E Lee,” born during a soundcheck too in Amsterdam’s Paradiso, was finished in Elliott’s office some months later.
That’s still what we do today, not so many rehearsals, and we work on the new year’s set-list every January before our annual Spanish duo tour, bringing old songs back to life, or giving birth to some new ones. Each year, we build a new foundation for the set, and get as tight as possible, (so tight that sometime people hear a full band when we perform duo and think we use playback! We don’t…)
I could tell you so many more funny stories like the young kid deep in La Mancha who thought we travelled with the car on a plane, or the day that Elliott, the late Laurent Pardo, Alan Fatras and myself stood in front of a glass door at a venue loaded down with our gear, wondering why the door wouldn’t open, people inside staring at us, before we realized it was not automatic and we just had to push it.
What I learned from Elliott during those twenty-two years, is some kind of Carpe Diem musical approach. The most important thing is to have your ears, your eyes and your heart wide open and give what is deep inside of you. That’s the key if you want to keep your music alive and interesting, you have to be generous, Elliott is generous, and I try my best to be as well. And we always let the fans record the shows. Because, as Elliott says, after our families, they are our greatest treasure.
This album is from one of those live recordings; one night at the legendary Ancienne Belgique in Brussels, after a songwriting workshop where we discovered among many others, this great singer Selah Sue who is now a Star in Europe. That’s just one of the many duo shows we did, two guitars, two vocals, Elliott’s songs and a great audience. There are some songs from Notes from the Underground which had just come out and proved to be a great success, a few classics and a mighty version of the Doors’ “LA Women.” I know there will be more memorable shows like this to come.
And that’s why Elliott Murphy is Alive!
CDs
France:
Murphyland Records
Please note: If you have additions or corrections to this discography, please send them to the webmaster.