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
NIGHT FALLS
Night falls – I call – your memory
Whisper softly – your name
Help me – misery – sweet Jesus
Your kind of love – drive me insane
Take me down by the river
Cleanse me of all my sins
I want to shine like a newborn baby
Let my new world begin
Daybreak – your ache – still with me
Coffee and donuts right down the hall
Drive my car right through red lights
Radio talking – nothing at all
Chorus
Night falls – I crawl – into oblivion
See your face on my cave wall
Take my watch – put it on the top shelf
Save me from myself – nothing at all
Chorus
THE BEST KISS
Church chimes ringing just next store
I was looking for something more
Bells tolling for a broken heart
I must love just to fall apart
That afternoon everything was all right
World was burning up disease and fright
Sitting around lazy as a spoon
And I was waiting for you and the next full moon
The best kiss – I never want to miss
Came from your lying lips – In spite of this
But you know I was long past that
Keeping cool in my panama hat
Lost weekends in the distant sublime
Take my vacation – sunset lavender time
Just one trick and I do it out of habit
Back to the hotel fast as rabbits
I smell the perfume on her tender slim wrist
And I keep telling myself
It don’t get better than this
Chorus
Everybody knows – where the conscience goes
Everybody shows – that’s where the evil grows
Kids upstairs asleep as a mouse
My own worries are too big for this house
Newspapers try to tell me what matters
I’m telling you they’re all as crazy as hatters
I remember the shine of her bottom lip
And the kind of smile that could launch a thousand ships
Sit around nursing my wet memory
Or I could walk upstairs
Where she’d be waiting for me
Chorus
BIG SKY
Big Sky open up for me
I’m climbing high on my family tree
Big Sky home to feathers and planes
Reborn each day – and always the same
We got to live – We got to live
A rage to live – We better live
Isolating lately very late low down le afternoon
I got my chair – I got my very own room
Shadow boxing with my partner the soul of me
Well I can float like a butterfly I can sting like a bee
Big Sky there’s no reason why
I’ve paid my dues – I’ve paid them twice
Big Sky – won’t you give me a break
I’ve been waiting on Godot so long
I don’t think I can make it
Gotta go – I got to go
I better go – I’m gonna go
My cat is pissing all over my couch
He’s playing with me like I was his mouse
His name is Salem – and he’s as black as coal
My name is lightning and I will never grow old
Big Sky with your William Klein blue
I got so esoteric just looking up at you
Big Sky – What more does it take
I’ve got only so much patience I’m not Tom Waits
I got to move – I got to move
Its time to move – Everybody move
I need a lover – somebody half my age
Tinkerbelle is in my pocket – where it’s warm and safe
She says yo Pinocchio – Now should I tell you lies
Well I can feel my nose is growing
Three or four times its natural size
Big Sky – Under the sun
You were blue the day that my life begun
Big Sky – you’ll be there when I’m gone
Don’t be cruel – Let me hang on
One more day – another day
We got today – so seize the day
THE POET AND THE PRIEST
The priest’s voice echoes in a half empty church
Telling a Story that everybody’s heard
They looked at the floor – They looked for their soul
Some found relief – Some an empty hole
The poet’s pen dances
Trying to make the damn words rhyme
Taming rhinoceros – Putting serpents in a line
So easily distracted – girls in hip-hugging jeans
Make the grown men nervous – Bursting at the seams
The Priest looks to heaven for salvation and peace
Tears in the graveyard – Killing fields of grief
The pipe organ bellows – The brass bells chime
Couldn’t death take a holiday just one time?
The poet takes a whiskey in the corner café
Writing words on a napkin – So much left to say
The ink is flowing like the blood in his veins
Where he likes to put the needle
To relieve him of his pain
The priest starts crying in the middle of the night
Calling out for God – And praying for the light
Who will be his confessor? Will anyone forgive his sins? Surely not his victims – Maybe the Vatican
And the prostitute smiles as the poet walks by
He stops in his tracks he gives a world-weary sigh
He knows she’s a slave and her smile is just a lie
But he pulls out his money and he walks inside
The police ask the poet the place of his birth
Says same as us all man – Between heaven and earth
They throw him in a cell and say if I were you
I would leave this town whatever you do
So he walks into the church sits down in the pew
When the priest walks by he says I got to talk to you
I’ve lived by life in degradation and shame
I might call my self a poet – But no one even knows even my name – I can feel myself dying – From the inside out
I’ve got no faith to save me – And I’m full doubt
I don’t believe in God but I fear hell too
I don’t even know why I’m talking to you
The priest says come on – let me pour you a drink
You’re closer to God man – Much closer than you think
You see I’m the one who’s lost
You see I’m the one who’s damned
I’ve committed grave sins with my holy hands
I’ve followed temptation – I’ve abandoned my call
I didn’t need the devil to hasten my fall
Why don’t you take my robes? Why don’t you give me your rags? Why don’t you try to be good cause I was born to be bad
Now come Sunday morning the new priest starts to preach
He Keeps himself hidden – his face out of reach
He tells them a story of an addict and a drunk
No one could believe how low this one man had sunk
Selling his own blood to buy a bottle of gin
And deserting his children who never even knew him
He was Stealing from the rich and doing worse to the poor
The only love he ever knew was in the arms of a whore
And he takes out a syringe and holds it high above his head
He says this is my God – And with God’s will I’m dead
And he plunges the needle deep into his arm
The women screaming in fear
The children crying with alarm
And in the back row the real priest he stands
He Says somebody call a doctor – give this man a hand
They say who is this bum? Telling us what to do?
Get out of our church! We’ll call the police on you
And the poet’s face is white – As white as his robe
He can feel himself flying – free of life’s heavy load
Takes a last breath – grabs the priest’s hand
Says life is for the living – let your heaven be damned
And under a bridge – the priest shivers in the cold
Saying his prayers exactly as he was told
LE FUTURE
Guitar deconstructed
Mandolin and Clarinet
Personage Feminine
Picasso and the Elephant man
Trailed conversations
Much fewer dreams
Doctor Seuss is laughing
In headphones and jeans
Wires and wires and wires
Sunken eyes hollowed out
Portals to hell’s mirror
With a death-head design
Bowl-legged musclemen
Flexing in circles
Pregnant women a hundred years old
Robots pushing baby carriages
In spiked head gear
Minefields in the front yard
Skinny legs in big shoes
“Toasted” she said
Pieces of the Berlin Wall
In Yellow and Robins egg blue
Criminals outlined
In black and white chalk
Remove your head before leaving
A Monkeys ass and an infant child
Cats with extended tails
Eating Butterfish
Melancholy fields
Where the poets lie down
Missing someone you will never ever meet
Arrows stuck in mid-air
Proportions diminished
Woken from a bad dream into something worse
Thoughts turned to sand
Dead as a doorman
Overlapping blowjobs
And a smiling owl
Stickmen giving orders to Cut-outs
They’re building Monuments to Monsters
Mindless peace doves and artistic sports
One eyes sculptures wearing Make-up
Jacqueline’s mane missing lips
Wooden toilets
And a white bra strap
TEMPLE BAR
Lizards are crawling across my television set
This pretty witch is talking
She hasn’t gotten to the point yet
And I’m waiting to go on – a long vacation too
I had my chance I missed it once I took it twice
Now I’m down on my knees peeking
Through the keyhole of paradise
Going rat crazy…over you
You were my dream if such a thing exists
Now I’m awake and I’m ready for a long wet kiss
Going up to Dublin down to Temple Bar
I’ll be standing in the gutter but I’ll be strumming my guitar – I’m a misfit darling and I like it that way
My life’s been full of miracles and tragedy
Most of the things I worry about
They don’t happen to me
All in all I can’t complain
You were the nightmare that began as my big thrill
I’m awake and I’m ready – can you give me my pill?
Twenty minutes from now I’m a gonna stand up
Put on my ruffled shirt with the French cuffs – I’m going out on the town – ‘though most everything is closed
THE LAST STAR OF THE NIGHT
The last star in the sky tonight
Was hanging low but it was shining bright
Fighting against all odds to light the day
Soon the mighty sun would rise
Obliterating everything in our eyes
A fireball of change of a brand new day
Dawn was near and with it came
The death of dreams – the end of the game
The lonesome cowboy long gone fades away
I was restless – I was pure
Pure energy and what’s more
I’d seen the passing ships – I moved aside
A moment had come and relieved my doubts
I lay in bed – I figured it all out
I wrestled infinity down to the circle of life
There would be endings – that was clear
And everything I knew would someday disappear
The sun would burn its course like a hickory match
I’ve lived three lifetimes maybe four
I’ve dined with presidents – I’ve loved a whore
I saw my own wealth rejected by the worst of thieves
I’ve fed on lust and arrogance
I turned my back on my best friends
And still it seems I had no other choice
My fortune is written in the stars
My destiny in the six strings of a guitar
One thing is certain – I never gave up hope
I lived through death and grief so sharp
It left its scars right across my heart
Only birth relieved me of my pain
I’ve collected wives like I’ve collected paintings
Although that’s not really at all the same thing
The canvas may dry but the love I knew still flows
For the ingénue, for the abandoned girl
The farmer’s daughter oh they all knew
The best of me so enraptured by their love charms
The morning sky just a slight shade lighter
The last star is shining even brighter
Oh what a lovely light a poetess might say
Give this young boy half a chance
Fellini’s ghost dances with the duchess of Romance
Pinwheels Cartwheels and stretched in the echoes of time
It’s a dance of Grace then a dance of shame
The couples split – then they come back together again
For a last hurrah – for the shedding of the skin
A young man in a white suit stands
Twenty-one candles he clasps his hands
His brother in black sits behind him wise for his age
Oh my regrets they haunt me tonight
I stand in the field of dreams where I lost the fight
The casualties as stiff as the Civil War
Cling to the wreckage that’s what I’ve been told
Here’s your piece of the pie – Now take good hold
So much more remains at the end of the day
A hundred years – all new faces
Taking up space in the same old places
If memory was bliss now who would carry on
The last time I looked through my window’s foggy glass
The last star was there even more truly the last
A beat of light ceaselessly into the past
DAY IS DONE
Day is done – I’m going home
I kiss the family – And lights on the farm
Say my prayers – sit down to eat
Papa says hey junior stop tapping your feet
I saw a movie in black and white
Everything was perfect and the world looked right
A man had a last chance before he lost it all
Tried jumping in the river
But an angel blocked his fall
And I don’t know which road I’m on
It’s so familiar yet it’s gone
I hope it leads me to your arms
Ring the doorbell – and wipe off your shoes
And say hello to little boy blue
Cats in the corner – Mama’s over the stove
I turn on the TV – its on overload
School marks are down – what am I to do
Better give that boy a good talking to
Don’t follow me it will lead you nowhere
You’ll be living in hotels – You’ll be losing your hair
Chorus
War clouds are looming over my head
Bombs are dropping scatter the dead
Air is infected nothing left to breathe
Life is destroyed down to the very last seed
Somebody wake me – wake me please
Live and let live and live for today
Chances are they won’t blow it all away
Life is short and life can be sweet
If you see yourself in the face of someone you meet
Chorus
FROM ROOM 102
Tell me where do these years go
And my regrets…do they show
In my eyes…in my tears
And you always so near
And you always so near
Tonight the moon is full and low
The cars they pass and then they go
Going home to a lover’s call
And me I’m not going anyplace at all
And me…not going anyplace at all
They say if you’re perfect you can’t be loved
We play it safe – Or we play it rough
Fight it out – try to let go
Try not to be the last one to know
That he who wins today may lose tomorrow
So tell me where do these years go
And if I could do it again…well you know
I’d be more kind – I’d be more true
I’d do anything I could to please you
I’d do anything I could to please you
A MOUNTAIN OF LOVE
And if I should ever leave here
Well you know…it would take all of my strength
And if I should choose to stay here
Well you know…what I’m up against
A mountain of love – A mountain of love
A mountain of love – oh oh – A mountain of love
Well I was walking right down South Street
Looking for someone who looks like you
To give back all the sweet things that I bought you
Well you think I’m making this up but its true
Chorus
And if I should lose my anger
Well I feel I would lose the essence of me
And if I should drop my sadness
Well you know finally…I’d be…
Chorus
MICK’S DREAM
I could not hold you – Every night to
Sit by your door and – Wait on the floor and
It’s a mistake to – Lower my fences
It’s a mistake I know
Now I got my reasons – To live in this prison
I’m just the victim – That you’ve been kissing
Your kind of love grows – Where every girl knows
I can expect to lose
I look in your eyes
No pity – no compromise
I watch the world watch me cry
I got to go now – I guess I have to
Sit by myself and – Drink something hot too
I’m just a loner – And since you left me
I’m even more…alone
LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI
She takes me here – She takes me there
Passes me around – Pulls m by the hair
She leaves me restless – leaves me clean
Leaves me as empty as a vacuum machine
I pick her up – I buy her clothes
I give her money – to pierce her nose
She gives me static – She gives me grief
Its time to turn over a new leaf
She’s read Lamour – She’s read Thoreau
There ain’t no limit to where her knowledge grows
She’s like a tree – I’m like a seed
She gives me everything this dirt farmer needs
She wakes up – stretches her arms
I think she’s angry – It’s a false alarm
Her teeth are white – so white they shine
She is the erotic Bottom Line
Sex by phone if I had a clone
When I’m through he would renew
Start the games again she is my friend
She is the very living end
She takes me here…she takes me there…
EVERYBODY GOT LUCKY
Everybody got lucky
Then everybody got scared
We started blessing our children
Hoping we’d always be there
We were talking about Elvis
And the way things went wrong
We were down in the Valley
Of the rich and the strong
Moon-glow – what do we know
Fighting in the hedgerows
Falling as the river flows
Falling by the Moon-glow
It’s a big misconception
That the world is still round
I was looking at figures
Let me show you what I found
What goes around never comes back
The circle game is all gone
Ring a ling is for swingers
Who never ever had fun
(Chorus)
Sha la la la la la la…
LOOK AROUND YOU
We hit the bed so slowly
Floating through the air
A pillow just like opium
A purring Frigidaire
Look around you – my baby
Look around you – my dear
All you see is mirrors
So cruelly reflecting
The walls of the madhouse
Bring rise to your fear
And doubts about the present
And your every action
Regrets pollute a past
You can no longer change
Well it’s out of control now
Your fear of the future
You envision an Apocalypse
Beckett’s endgame
A breakdown in order
A tyrant’s arrogance
A total lack of mercy
A mob’s rule
Then a mystical savoir
Appears out of nowhere
The world on its knees
Following a fool…
I need a lot of light
To light my way
But I’m a creature of the night
Who can barely stand the day
Look around you – my baby
Look around you – my dear
There goes another psychopath
A lone assassin
Spoiling the party
Who let him in here
Tyrannosaurus consumer
Well-dressed dinosaurs
The Elephants graveyard
A monkey’s ear
The crap is rising
It’s floating on the surface
And we’re all drowning
In mediocre tears
We’re sitting in the movies
We can’t believe this shit
They’re treating us like idiots
‘Cause that’s what we is
Don’t forget to write
Don’t forget to read
I’m grateful for all that I’ve got (yes I am)
And I hope it’s all I need
Look around you – my baby
Look around you – my dear
I’m a hypocrite
Who doesn’t know when to quit
I’m the judge and the jury
I tie the hangman’s noose
I offer quality closure
Wrap up the ends that are loose
And my politeness
It’s just a trick of the heart
And my enthusiasm
It’s just a false start
I’m just following the spotlight
Or is it following me
I shake the hand of fate
I drink the tea of destiny
And if I’m grounded
It’s because of you
And if I know contentment
It’s because of you too
Though I would never tell you that
At least not to your face
I might write it in a postcard
From an exotic place
Some place with palm trees
And a pristine beach
Some day we’re gonna live there
So far out of reach…
CUTTING THE CAKE
I was cutting the cake
I was acting the clown
I was making mistakes
You weren’t around
The prince was drawing his lines
Keeping the ocean clean
I was trying to be helpful
He said I was mean
Could we take it one more time me and you
Could we make it fresh – make it new
I was in my car
As a seaside bar
I turned around
I’d gone too far
Walking in the sand
Walking hand and hand
It was all so nice
I remember too
And I could see by the lights in your eyes
That you could see the holes in my disguise
I was cutting the cake
I was wearing the crown
Making so many mistakes
Luckily you weren’t around
I was drawing lines
Those were different times
I was trying to be helpful
And be unkind
(Chorus)
Cutting the cake
Playing the clown
Making mistakes
No one around
You weren’t around…
JET LAG
It’s three in the morning
Christ I thought it was seven
Everything is closed except the 7-11
My heart is in one place my head is in another
Black cat is purring stretched on my bed cover
My favorite hour – I must be crazy
But it’s the only time I don’t feel so lazy
Population is zero – Just me and feline
In our own separate ways doing just fine
In the dead of the night
The spirits start to talk
The minute hand is ticking
I hear my neighbor’s cough
He was dying to give her everything he had
He was out of time and so jet lagged
You can’t be in two places that’s what my sister said
My mother says be grateful for everything you get
My brother is trying to hold on
To his Gingerbread house in the woods
And I’m like Jay Gatsby
Should have – would have – could …
I could write your song and you could sing mine
Or we could be heroes well some other time
Fame and money – A poor celebrities life
In fifteen minutes it’s over
And lightning rarely strikes twice
Chorus
My cat is confused – can’t make up his mind
He knows something is missing
He’ll figure it out in time
And I guess I’ll try to put my head back on the pillow
In another world I’d be crying like a weeping willow
Chorus
MOAN
I can’t stand the way you avoid me
The way you’re never home
Your white lies seems so black to me
But I love the way you moan
I love the way you moan
I love the way you moan
Loving was my addiction
Seeing you got me stoned
Now I got you out of my system
But I miss the way you moan
I miss the way you moan
I miss the way you moan
In your bed we would watch the stars together
Through the universe we would roam
Now my vision’s blocked by stormy weather
But I can see the way you moan
I can see the way you moan
I see the way you moan
I love the way you moan
And I miss the way you moan
I can see the way you moan
O CATARINA
There’s a moon over the prison
As I lean on my window sill
And I’m hoping you’ll come to see me
But I know you never will
Yeah I know you never will
I said O my Catarina
O my brown eyed girl
Don’t you keep me waiting
For your falling curls
If I could sculpt like Donatello
I would shape your silhouette
From the marble of Macedonia
With your skin so soft and so wet
Ah ha with your skin so soft and so wet
(Chorus)
And you know and you know…
I don’t know I don’t know…
And the girl come around…
And I smile for a while…
I got my stallion parked out yonder
Dressed Silver saddles and chains
And I’m waiting on the range in the darkness
So come on Catarina feel my pain
Oh come on Catarina feel my pain
THE RED LIGHTS
Racing right through the red lights of Majorca
Rumanian girls and rock rats who just can’t find a bed
I still remember – I know I ought to
The last words sleepy Snow White said as I left
There’s a full moon tonight and it’s raining
Restaurants are open – you go get something to eat
I said I’m not hungry I’m just empty can’t you see that
Oh you married men get no peace
Can you hear me? Wait while I move my telephone
Can you hear me? Or am I all alone
So I took off my boots knelt down on the prayer rug
I said God I guess you spared me one more time
God said listen up Jack I don’t enforce your regulations
But I’ll catch up with you down the line
My ears are ringing something set my alarm off
What they could steal from me remains my mystery
I give more away then I’m supposed to
Oh the road to sainthood is so slippery
(Chorus)
She said for a man who hates to travel you been around some
I said for a girl who hates to write you sure can talk
Now I’m sitting in the bathroom just like Elvis
Blind as a bat and I’m watching you like a hawk
I miss my true love I always miss her
I miss her when I’m awake – I miss her when I sleep
I try to fill the hole with restless nonsense
Until I put my arms around her when we meet
(Chorus)
All songs by Elliott Murphy ©2003
Except: “The Best Kiss,” “Day Is Done,” “Everybody Got Lucky, “Cutting The Cake,” “O Catarina” & “Ground Zero” by Elliott Murphy & Olivier Durand
P & © Elliott Murphy 2003
Strings Of The Storm
Last Call Records
2003
Produced by Elliott Murphy
Recorded and Mixed by Florent Barbier at Franklin Studio, Le Havre, France 2002-2003
Production Assistance by Olivier Durand
Mastered by: Elliott Murphy
Photos: Vincent Lignier
Design: Chloe
“Green River”
Elliott Murphy: Electric Guitar, Bass, Organ & Vocals
Olivier Durand: Acoustic Lead Guitar & Vocals
Cindy Bullens: Acoustic Guitar & Vocals
Florent Barbier: Drums & Percussion
“Night Falls”
Elliott Murphy: Acoustic Guitar, Vocals
Olivier Durand: Acoustic Lead Guitar
Ernie Brooks: Acoustic Bass
Danny Montgomery: Drums
Thomas Schaettel: Piano
Cindy Bullens: Vocals
“The Best Kiss”
Elliott Murphy: Acoustic Guitar, Vocals, Harmonica
Olivier Durand: Acoustic Guitar & Baritone Guitar
Ernie Brooks: Acoustic Bass
Danny Montgomery: Drums
Thomas Schaettel: Electric Piano & Organ
Cindy Bullens: Vocals
Florent Barbier: Percussion
“Big Sky”
Elliott Murphy: Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Vocals
Olivier Durand: Acoustic Guitar & Electric Slide Guitar
Ernie Brooks: Acoustic Bass
Danny Montgomery: Drums
Thomas Schaettel: Mellotron
Kenny Margolis: Piano
Cindy Bullens: Vocals
Florent Barbier: Percussion
“The Poet And The Priest”
Elliott Murphy: Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Bass & Vocals
Olivier Durand: Acoustic Guitar & Slide Guitar
Kenny Margolis: Moog
Florent Barbier: Drums & Percussion
“Le Future”
Elliott Murphy: Acoustic Guitar, Vocals
Olivier Durand: Acoustic Lead Guitar
Ernie Brooks: Acoustic Bass
Danny Montgomery: Drums
Thomas Schaettel: Electric Piano
“Temple Bar”
Elliott Murphy: Acoustic Guitar, Vocals
Olivier Durand: Vocals
Kenny Margolis: Accordion
Cindy Bullens: Vocals
“The Banks Of The Ohio”
(Traditional, Arrangement: Elliott Murphy, Olivier Durand, Ernie Brooks, Danny Montgomery)
Elliott Murphy: Acoustic Guitar, Vocals
Olivier Durand: Acoustic Lead Guitar, Vocals
Ernie Brooks: Acoustic Bass
Danny Montgomery: Drums
Thomas Schaettel: Organ
Kenny Margolis: Accordion
“The Last Star Of The Night”
Elliott Murphy: Acoustic Guitar, Vocals
Olivier Durand: Acoustic Guitar
Ernie Brooks: Acoustic Bass
Danny Montgomery: Drums
Thomas Schaettel: Piano
Kenny Margolis: Accordion
“Day Is Done”
Elliott Murphy: Acoustic Guitar, Vocals
Olivier Durand: Acoustic Guitar & Baritone Guitar
Ernie Brooks: Acoustic Bass
Danny Montgomery: Drums
Thomas Schaettel: Piano
Kenny Margolis: Accordion
Cindy Bullens: Vocals
“From Room 102”
Elliott Murphy: Acoustic Guitar, Vocals
Olivier Durand: Acoustic Guitar & Baritone Guitar
Ernie Brooks: Acoustic Bass
Danny Montgomery: Drums
Thomas Schaettel: Piano
Kenny Margolis: Accordion
Cindy Bullens: Vocals
“A Mountain Of Love”
Elliott Murphy: Acoustic Guitar, Vocals
Olivier Durand: Acoustic Guitar, Electric Lead Guitar, Vocals
Ernie Brooks: Acoustic Bass
Danny Montgomery: Drums
Thomas Schaettel: Organ
Kenny Margolis: Piano
Cindy Bullens: Vocals
Florent Barbier: Percussion
“Mick’s Dream”
Elliott Murphy: Electric Guitar, Vocals, Bass & Organ
Olivier Durand: Acoustic Guitar, Slide Guitar, Baritone Guitar & Vocals
Danny Montgomery: Drums
Florent Barbier: Glockenspiel
Jerome Soligny: Vocals
“La Belle Dame Sans Merci”
Elliott Murphy: Electric Guitar, Bass, Vocals
Olivier Durand: Acoustic Guitar & Vocals
Danny Montgomery: Drums
Thomas Schaettel: Vocals
Jerome Soligny: Vocals
“Everybody Got Lucky”
Elliott Murphy: Acoustic Guitar, Vocals & Lead Kazoo
Olivier Durand: Mandolin & Vocals
Danny Montgomery: Drums
Thomas Schaettel: Piano
Kenny Margolis: Accordion
Cindy Bullens: Vocals
“Look Around You”
Elliott Murphy: Acoustic Guitar, Vocals
Olivier Durand: Acoustic Guitar & Baritone Guitar
Ernie Brooks: Acoustic Bass
Danny Montgomery: Drums
Thomas Schaettel: Piano
Kenny Margolis: Accordion, Mellotron, Moog
“Cutting The Cake”
Elliott Murphy: Acoustic Guitar, Vocals
Olivier Durand: Acoustic Lead Guitar & Vocals
Ernie Brooks: Acoustic Bass
Danny Montgomery: Drums
Thomas Schaettel: Piano
Kenny Margolis: Accordion
Cindy Bullens: Vocals
Florent Barbier: Percussion
“Jet-Lag”
Elliott Murphy: Acoustic Guitar, Vocals
Olivier Durand: Acoustic Guitar, Baritone Guitar
Ernie Brooks: Acoustic Bass
Danny Montgomery: Drums
Thomas Schaettel: Electric Piano
Kenny Margolis: Accordion
Florent Barbier: Percussion
“Moan”
Elliott Murphy: Acoustic Guitar, Vocals
Olivier Durand: Acoustic Lead Guitar
Ernie Brooks: Acoustic Bass
Danny Montgomery: Drums
Kenny Margolis: Accordion
“O Catarina”
Elliott Murphy: Acoustic Guitar, Vocals
Olivier Durand: Acoustic Guitar, Slide Guitar, Baritone, Vocals
Ernie Brooks: Acoustic Bass
Danny Montgomery: Drums
Thomas Schaettel: Electric Piano
Kenny Margolis: Accordion
“The Red Lights”
Elliott Murphy: Acoustic Guitar, Vocals, Harmonica
Olivier Durand: Acoustic Guitar, Mandolin
Ernie Brooks: Acoustic Bass
Danny Montgomery: Drums
Thomas Schaettel: Electric Piano
Kenny Margolis: Accordion
Cindy Bullens: Vocals
Record By Record, Murphy By Murphy: Strings Of The Storm
This album was so recent that it’s hard to be objective but I do know that I instinctually wanted to do a double CD even before I had all the songs. Perhaps this is the smoothest recording by “The Rainy Season Band” and it was done in a short time for so many songs – twenty two! Cindy Bullens added so much with her backing vocals and Oliver on the baritone guitar. I am still empty and have hardly written a song since. I think my next album will be a blues album titled Murphy Gets Muddy. You know, if a rock star lives long enough to get honest he becomes a bluesman anyway.
Taken from Crossroads magazine.
At age 54, Elliott Murphy has been recording albums of his original compositions regularly for 30 years, and unlike some musicians who have been at it that long (such as Neil Young, whose raucous, Crazy Horse-style guitar playing is echoed on this album’s leadoff track and whose After the Gold Rush ballad “Birds” is covered under the title “Bird”), he hasn’t changed much about his musical or lyrical approach in that time. The Elliott Murphy of 2003 is not very different from the Elliott Murphy of 1973. He still writes semi-autobiographical songs full of poetic imagery and literary references (The Great Gatsby and Samuel Beckett are favorites), and he still sets them to folk-rock arrangements that call to mind Bob Dylan. If one thing has changed, it is that, for the first several years of his recording career, Murphy worked for major labels that presumably gave him bigger recording budgets and exercised some degree of editorial control over his work. But over the last couple of decades, he has been making his albums for small labels, doubtless recording on a shoestring at times, but pretty much able to do as he liked. The sprawling Strings of the Storm is as good an example of this as any of his albums; in fact, perhaps a better one than most. It is a two-CD studio recording of 21 new original songs (in addition to “Bird,” there is a cover of the traditional song “The Banks of the Ohio,” for a total of 23 tracks), with a running time over an hour and three-quarters. Murphy leads an acoustic band for the most part, playing his guitar and accompanied by lead guitarist Olivier Durand (whose efforts, which also include a handful of co-writing credits and some singing, earn him a featured billing on the album), longtime bassist Ernie Brooks, and drummer Danny Montgomery, with some added percussion and keyboards here and there, notably Kenny Margolis’ accordion, plus frequent harmony vocals by Cindy Bullens. Singing in a gruff conversational voice, Murphy frequently expresses romantic regret, especially in the songs on the second disc, his rueful world-weariness tempered by a lingering, wistful sense of the wonder of romance. This is an album for fans of late-period Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan if they are interested in hearing from another mature, self-reflective musical poet who is hanging in despite life’s disappointments, hoping against hope for the next great love or at least still taking aesthetic pleasure in life’s emotional and philosophical complexities.
William Ruhlmann – AllMusic
Vinyl LPs
Germany:
Blue Rose Records BLU LP0317 (3LPs)
CDs
US:
Big Daddy Records BD22004
France:
Last Call Records 3087792 (2 CDs)
Germany:
Blue Rose Records BLU CD0317 (2 CDs)
Spain:
Dusty Roses Records DR015 (2 CDs)
*Note: Different cover than other releases.
Italy:
Many Records MN 30752
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