YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU’RE IN FOR
Getting late they were spaced just a trace
Of the old coming down
Ancient fun one and one he said someday
We’ll leave this town
But magazines glamour scenes in betweens
Had him nailed to the ground
And the sounds still waiting to be found
And we are all junkies, pushers, pimps and hookers
You never know what you’re in to’
And you can shake it, try to forsake it
But you know you’re gonna take it
You never know what you’re in for
By the time he was nine there were signs of an old melody
He tried to list w at he missed just a kiss
Was it real or TV
Find a way make it pay you can say a rehearsed passion play
Everyday, everyday
And we’re all junkies pushers, pimps and hookers
You never know what you’re in for
And you can shake it, try to forsake it
But you know you’re gonna take it
You never know what you’re in for
But anyway he said hey I’m gonna stay Baby Please don’t cry
It’s just rough to stay tough full of lust and Be a walking hi fi
I see you and I’m through with that god
Who demands such a lie
But you gotta get by
And we’ll get by
And we are all junkies, pushers, pimps and pushers
You never know what you’re in for
And you can shake it, try to forsake it
But you know you’re gonna take it
You never know what you’re in for
THE EYES OF THE CHILDREN OF MARIA
You and I we got our problems – you and I we got hope.
And we assume we will be solving them, we got love – and we can cope.
But the lights in the distance – and the fire burning on the shore…
See the eyes of the children of Maria
Look at the eyes of the children of Maria
See the eyes of the children of Maria
Waiting for the coming of a lord.
Everybody wants some saving grace. Lash you back – shave your hair.
But when the angels come to Saint Marks Place
They’re just looking for something hip to wear
And the ships they’re sailing backwards
Full of rags dreams and shades for the
CHORUS
I can’t believe what I heard yesterday
They say the dollar is bound to fall.
But those books they’re written everyday
I say the writing’s on the wall.
Up above there goes a satellite – bouncing TV shows
For good reception man that’s – its what you got
For what you need…heaven knows.
And the pictures of the babies they are frozen forever in my mind. Like the…
CHORUS
LAST OF THE ROCK STARS
Naked telephone poles can’t describe
The way I’m feeling about you tonight
And a feeling on my back like an old brown jacket
Like to stay in school but I just can’t hack it
And I’m out on the street feeling like dirt
I’m afraid to get married because I know its gonna hurt
And I say
Oh oh oh – there’s the last of the rock stars
And me and you
Oh oh oh – rock ‘n roll is here to stay
But who will be left to play
Well I dreamed I saw the king in a fifty three chevy
Had a band on his mind and his hands looked heavy
And he rolled down his window I guess to say hi
I couldn’t see his face ’cause of the purple haze inside
And he was born to be the king – he was born to be the man
And he died though he was holy – although I doubt he’d understand
When I say
(chorus)
Adolescent predrug habit – if it means guitar you gotta have it
And you got your axe and you got your group
And your old man thinks its a waste of loot
And you wait all week for a Sullivan show
And you know that’s just where you wanna go
And you homework now is never complete
You don’t care – cause you have got that beat
So a highdy hi and a heydy hey
And a girls that home on Friday night and a boy that’s out to play
And some of us are masters and some or us are slaves
And than there’s that boy who knows he’s gotta play
And a messy desk drawer full of broken strings
You know these kids and you know of those things
(chorus)
Come on mama please don’t cry
Don’t you know how I feel inside
CHANGE WILL COME
We’re so East Coast – So here’s a toast
So here’s to everything that I wanted the most – the most
And baby now – it’s over now
I’m just sitting here though I’ll stand up somehow – stand up somehow
I’ve got a date with a diamond ring
The tramps in the alley watch her shake that thing
I say its all right mama – Its all right now
I never really wanted any of it anyhow
And Oh Oh – A Change Will Come
Oh Oh – A Change Will Come
We were so New York – a silver spoon a plastic fork
We wanted everything – we wanted a little bit more
Give me some more
Can you see – It’s hard to see
She said I’m looking for a lover
He said don’t take a look at me – Look at me
I’ve got a date with a diamond ring
The tramps in the alley watch her shaking that thing
I say its all right mama – Its all right now
I never really wanted any of it anyhow and
And Oh Oh – A Change Will Come
Oh Oh – A Change Will Come
I say its all right mama – Its all right now
I never really wanted any of it anyhow
I say its all right mama – Its all right now
I just couldn’t stand anymore no how
And Oh Oh – A Change Will Come
Oh Oh – A Change Will Come
ROCK BALLAD
When the moon was just right
We could turn off the light and just listen
And we’d pray to the night
And we’d hold on so tight
You could hear crystal stars as they’d glisten
Lovers in vain
Like to walk in the rain
Like to hear distant trains emotion
And the late radio
We would play it so low
No one must know this devotion
Rock ballad – Rock ballad
You know baby and I used to listen all night long
To the real slow song -Till the tears were gone
And these jobs and these schools
Teach romance is for fools
And the dream always ends upon waking
And we all kept our cool like a hustler shoot pool
And soon your whole life is spent faking
Cause to try is to fail
And as the wind left your sails
All you heard was the sound of their laughter
But I was running so fast
With the wind racing past
All I heard was a voice say “go after her”
CHORUS
And these soul clarinets
And the feelings we get
It’s the songs of regret I remember
And we placed our last bet
On loves long shot request
As they spun the roulette that September
Now let’s all raise our glass
For a drink to the past
And a drink to the last chance taken
And let’s drink once again to our long lost friends
No, we can’t let it end the surf’s breaking
Rock ballad
Rock ballad
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
DRIVE ALL NIGHT
Oh won’t you be my night connection
I’ll give you true highway affection
Please don’t ask where we’re goin’
I’m tryin’ to race the light
And we can drive all night drive all night
We got what’s left and we got what’s right
Drive all night
I never liked where we came from
And I tried to fight
We need development rearrangement
We need some dynamite
But if you’ll be my reflection
We’ll let our memories die
And we can drive all night
Drive all night
We got what’s left and we got what’s right
Drive all night
We’ll hit the coast in a T bird called Teenage
We’re heading out for a psychologically clean age
And if they stop us and ask where you goin’
We’ll tell them we’re going through
Oh won’t you be my night connection drive all night
Oh give me soul map correction drive all night
And if the sun starts to catch us
We’ll paint the windows black
And we can drive all night drive all night
We got what’s left and we got what’s right drive all night
Now you know what it feels like on a hot Sunday night
When you just can’t go home cause things aren’t quite right
So we sneak into your house; but it’s the wrong one
Cause they all look the same; this town’s just no fun
But we finally get it right and if your daddy knew he’d kill
Cause we just stole the key to his brand new Coupe de Ville
And we hit that highway about a hundred and one
And I hear this funny noise, man they’re tryin’ to spoil our fun
Drive all night
HOW’S THE FAMILY
How’s the wife with the husband
Who doesn’t understand
Why she starts to cry each morning
And the coldness in her hands
And the cold cold ballerina
Whose thoughts of love and life
Have split her down the middle
Till she’s cracked like walked on ice
And the prince of fifteen years
With no roof over his life
Cause his parents don’t know of his meaning
Or his needle and his knife
And how’s the family
How’s the family
How’s the tired widowed grandmother
Who has lost half of her life
And the overweight aunt from nowhere
Who can cook but is no wife
And she thinks its so disgusting
About the movies that are made
And she sleeps with just a pillow
And a memory that fades
Of a husband who had tried
To do everything so right
Till his heart screamed and stopped beating
As he made love one last night
And how’s the family
How’s the family
How’s the boy and the girl
And the lives that lie ahead
And from two they join as one
They say we’ll love till we are dead
And the babies come and grow
And the mothers laugh and cry
And the men know who they’re working for
And what’s more they know why
Cause its happy to be said
When tears can laugh at pain
And if you love the thought of love
Your birth will never end and how’s the family – how’s the family
JUST A STORY FROM AMERICA
Just a story from America
He left his job and he looked at her
I’ve had enough he put down his cup
And every time she would fill it up
When she’d say
Get up when they put you down
But like a boxer
You just spin around
Your kind of guy is so very few
Don’t ever let them get the best of you
And so he’s working like a dog each day
And every week there’d be more overtime pay
And pretty soon he’s got a Cadillac car
And on the weekends he would drive so far
And they don’t slow down
America’s such a speedy town
Hot clothes high society
He said it never get the best of me
And then he met a girl with hair like the sun
With social status she was number one
He left it all and he left downtown
A little voice follows him around
And it say
Get up they put you down
And like a boxer
You just spin around
Your kind of guy was so very few
I thought they’d never get the best of you
Just a story of America
Just a story fro in America
Just a story of America
Just a story from America
All Songs by Elliott Murphy – Published by Elliott Murphy
All Songs by Elliott Murphy © Elliott Murphy – Lyrics Reprinted by Permission
Except the following:
6 & 7 © Chris Spedding
8, 9, & 10 © Garland Jeffreys
15 © Bobby Troup
Live Hot Point
New Rose Records
1989
The Band
Elliott Murphy: Acoustic Guitar, Vocal & Harmonica
Ernie Brooks: Bass & Backing Vocals
Art Labriola: Keyboards
Tony Machine: Drums
Special Guests
Chris Spedding: Electric Lead Guitar & Vocals (Tracks 7 & 8)
Garland Jeffreys: Guitar & Vocals (Tracks 9, 10 & 11)
Recorded Live at The Hot Point Festival
Nyon, Switzerland 17 June 1989
Special Thanks to Marc Ridet
Engineered by Jean-Pierre Molliet, Blaise Favre & Pierre Resin for Couleur 3 Radio Suisse Romande
All Photos by Marc Ginot
www.marcginot.com
Record By Record, Murphy By Murphy: Live Hot Point
Originally my special guest guitarist for the Hot Point Festival in Switzerland was going to be Richard Lloyd (Television) but a week before we were to leave he fell off his bicycle and broke his wrist so at the last minute Chris Spedding agreed to fill in. Incredible audience, over 10,000 people, and Spedding’s solos are so well constructed that I can still hear them note for note. We only rehearsed twice and Garland Jeffries was a special guest as well but chose to leave his songs off the album. Hopefully he’ll join us on an upcoming reissue. I once asked Spedding why his hands barely moved when he played guitar and he said that he was a lazy musician so if a note was too far away he didn’t play it. English humor!
Taken from Crossroads magazine.
About The Cover – “Richard Lloyd And A Bicycle”
Another short haired photo. Hot Point was a major Swiss festival in Nyon (not far from where Charlie Chaplin lived in nearby Vevey) and I had a few special guests: Chris Spedding and Garland Jeffreys but Garland didn’t want to be on the first edition of this album because he was about to sign a deal with EMI (I think). So there’s just me and Chris Spedding and Ernie Brooks. Chris came on last minute because Richard Lloyd of Television fell off his bicycle and sprained his wrist. The guitar strap I’m wearing was a gift from Brian Ritchie (Violent Femmes) – don’t know where he got it but now he lives in Tasmania!
Liner Notes
“What about some special guests?” asked Marc Ridet. “How about Ernie Brooks?”
“Well…he is very special, but he is not a guest. He’s been playing with me for fifteen years. And he is always the last to leave the hotel.”
“Yes, it can be said that Ernie hates to leave…anything.”
“And yet he plays the bass like a ballet dancer, he is the Nijinsky of the four string.” And so Ernie Brooks came to Hot Point.
“Will there be thunder and lighting this night?” asked Elliott.
“I cannot say for sure,” said Marc. “In Switzerland the weather is kept in secret numbered accounts.”
“Well then we had better bring our own thunder. We must find Tony Machine.”
“Will that be difficult? I hear he is wrestling bears in a Polish circus.”
“And who wins?” asked Marc.
“They say the bears are no longer willing to leave their cages.” And so Tony Machine came to Switzerland.
“And the keyboards? asked Marc Ridet. “You are old enough to have a piano player on stage with you.”
“Mozart is dead,” said Elliott. “But I know of one man who still smiles like an angel and plays like the devil.”
“Then he must be Italian.”
“We must find Art Labriola – we will look for the grand smile of New York.” And so Art Labriola came to Hot Point.
“But there are still missing ingredients,” said Elliott.
“And what are they?” asked Marc.
“Magic,” said Elliott gravely. “And Soul.”
“But in America they have burned all the witches,” said Marc. “And Marvin Gay is long gone.”
“Yes but I know one magician who can fly with an electric guitar, whose solos will still be heard centuries from now; whose hands must have wings and who usually dresses in black.”
“You cannot mean Chris Spedding?” asked Marc. “He is the only musician whose magic is both black and white – rock and roll. But does he have a telephone?”
“He doesn’t need one. He is pure electricity.” And so Chris Spedding came to Hot Point.
“And I know a man from the mean streets of Brooklyn who sings with the soul of Frankie Lyman and the spiritual rhythm of Martin Luther King.”
“This could only be Garland Jeffreys? The Rock ‘n Roll Matador?”
“None other!” And it was truly live and now it will live on forever this labor of love.
In the 1980s, as his career was virtually extinguished in the U.S., Elliott Murphy became a headliner in Europe, an unusual occurrence if only because his wordy songs would have seemed to have too many nuances to be appreciated fully to those for whom English is a second language. In part, though, it was Murphy’s live shows that built his following, and his first live album, not released in the U.S., helps show how. This hour-long performance, which was recorded live at the Hot Point Festival in Lausanne, Switzerland, on June 17, 1989, finds Murphy with his regular rhythm section of Ernie Brooks (bass) and Tony Machine (drums), plus keyboard player Art Labriola, and “special guest” guitarist Chris Spedding, who takes over mid-set for a couple of his own numbers. Murphy cherry-picks the best songs from his back catalog, going back to 1973’s Aquashow (“The Last of the Rock Stars”) and 1977’s Just a Story from America (the title track and “Drive All Night”), as well as including more recent compositions. Since Murphy’s writing and performing style hasn’t changed much over the years, the material is consistent, and the album serves as a live “best of.”
William Ruhlmann – AllMusic
Vinyl LPs
France:
New Rose Records Rose 191
CDs
France:
New Rose Records Rose 191 CD
Last Call Records 3098472
Musidisc 120462 (1996)
Germany:
Blue Rose Records BLU CD0332
Please note: If you have additions or corrections to this discography, please send them to the webmaster.
