Where do you go after a 50-year career in music and as many albums? I suppose INFINITY is the answer and thus the title of my 52nd (I think) album, which will be released as a limited edition CD on March 7, just in time for my tour of France/Belgium/Spain, and Italy (via Cruise ship). It’s my first studio album of original songs since Wonder (2023) and in this very recent family of songs, I tried to peer into the future while being grounded in the icons of my youth all wrapped in a diverse genre-defying musicality. Hopefully, it’s a personal collection that will appeal to the universal musical collective consciousness. That’s been my modus operandi since my debut album, Aquashow (1973).
INFINITY was produced, arranged, and mixed by Gaspard Murphy, and all songs (except “Count My Blessings,” co-written by Olivier Durand) were written by me in a surprising flurry of creative activity last year. The album was recorded nearby at Murmure studio in Paris with contributions by my musical partner for 29 years, virtuoso guitarist Olivier Durand, violinist Melissa Cox, and percussionist Alan Fatras with double-bassist Gerard McFadden on one track. Keyboards, electric bass, drum programming, and additional instrumentation were all handled by Gaspard Murphy and myself.
I’m convinced that inspiration comes in unpredictable waves, and there’s no telling when new songs, complete with melodies, rhythm, and lyric fragments, will start crashing onto the shore of my unconsciousness. But the trick is to just get on board when they do and don’t let them loose until done. Last year, I was in the grip of just such a mania and made a decision to write a song a day, which proved impossible, but fortunately, that leveled out to about a song a month, which was well within the capacity of my creative output. In some fashion, INFINITY takes on the form of a novel with songs replacing chapters and characters both past, present, and future, dancing hand in hand with a “ghostly rhythm partner…”
“Granny Takes A Trip” erupted like a psychic volcano and spewed out childhood icons as diverse and nearly forgotten as burlesque queens Lilli St Cyr and Gypsy Rose Lee, who join forces with 60’s era homerun champ Roger Marris and hard-drinking Irish actor Richard Harris all set to a Neil Young Harvest groove.
I can attest to witnessing a mythical “Red Moon Over Paris” from the 5th-floor apartment window on Rue Beauregard (which can be translated as “good view”) in Paris and seeing it as a portent of things to come as Dollar, Yen, Euros, Swiss Francs and English Pounds all make cameo appearances. The unspoken stars of our era.
My generation thought we could change the world before discovering that we’d have to change ourselves first, and thus the message of “Baby Boomers Lament.” Were we on the losing side of the cultural battle? Time will tell. Thanks to Gaspard for a soaring BB King inspired guitar solo.
I recorded music for the legendary photographer Peter Beard when he was setting up his photo exhibit at the ICP gallery on 5th Avenue in NYC in the late 70’s. Peter was a legend among both Manhattan’s high society and the elephants of Kenya. “The Lion in Winter / The End of the Game” is dedicated to his memory and to my future. And yes, like Ceasar, I have crossed the Rubicon so many times, and this is my own personal favorite.
“Fetch Me Water” was inspired by Devil’s Daughters (an American female Rockabilly Band) and puts those stylish frontier gals in Cinderella shoes. On my 1976 Night Lightsalbum, I had the great honor of working with upright bass jazz legend Richard Davis and thought this song deserved something similar in the bass clef. Thanks to Australian double bass player Gerald McFadden, who did a fine job.
What “Three Shadows” are following me? Past, present, and future, I suppose. The Fog of War has now entered into the vernacular as a tragic explanation of misplaced ideals turning to horrific carnage, especially during the Vietnam War. The song ends with a Gold Hat bouncing on Long Island Sound just as The Great Gatsby (my American bible) began.
“Makin’ It Real” could be the most rocking track on Infinity, and Olivier Durand really shines with his brutally beautiful slide guitar solo, a trademark sound of this Le Havre native on so many of my songs, both recorded and live after close to 29 years, of unbroken musical partnership. I’d say that’s a record, wouldn’t you?
“Night Surfing” was the first single off Infinity. My 1967 Garden City High School yearbook labeled me the pioneer surfer of that town. And although my surfing days are behind me, I still can hear the sound of my Gordon & Smith 9’2” board cutting through the water. Olivier’s favorite song on the album, by the way. Let’s go down to the beach …
Olivier Durand and I have written quite a few songs together, and “Count My Blessings” came out of the latest batch. Gaspard wanted to experiment a la Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska mode of recording, so this last track was recorded on an ancient Tascam 4-track cassette recorder so please forgive a bit of tape hiss. The line “Get out of Dodge” refers to the wild west town of Dodge City, Kansas, where Wyatt Earp was once sheriff. Maybe that’s what I did when I settled in France 35 years ago. I had to have harmonica somewhere on this album and voila, here it is.
The world is getting smaller and faster as we move into a future which can only be described as … INFINITY.
INFINITY CDs are available at at the Official Elliott Murphy Online Store. We also have a special price for the Infinity CD + the Wonder-Works vinyl.