elliott murphy
murphy gets muddy


        

         I was lucky to be born when I was and where I was because it was a very special moment in the history of rock ‘n roll.  I saw Elvis Presley when he appeared on television for the first time and I was in New York when The Beatles and The Rolling Stones first arrived in America.  John Lennon once said: “Before Elvis there was nothing…” and in terms of rock ‘n roll he was probably correct but before Elvis, and before The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, The Blues had been around for most of the 20th Century although few white Americans were even aware of the existence of this music even though it was born directly as a result of the black experience in the same country they were living in.  Thanks to the extensive blues roots of so many of the English bands that came over in the late 60’s young American ears were finally opened to the world of the bluesmen immortal and names like Robert Johnson, Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters, BB King and so many others finally became familiar to us.

   I have been fortunate enough to see so many Blues Masters including BB, Muddy, James Cotton and Albert King (who I opened for on a French tour) in concert and I was always aware of the debt my generation of rock musicians owed to them.  So the idea of doing a “Blues Album” was planted in my brain probably 25 years ago or longer.  It was the music I listened to on the road in my hotel rooms and late at night in my office.  But at that time I didn’t think I was old enough to sing the blues with any authority so I waited until the time was right

 The dream of recording a blues album first started to became a reality some years ago.   After a particularly tiring tour I returned home completely exhausted and asked my wife Françoise when I would finally retire.  She though this over for a few minutes and replied:  “You will never retire, Elliott, because you rock ‘n rollers if you don’t die young then you finally evolve into bluesmen and everyone knows that a bluesman never quits, never retires, just keeps going.”  So, maybe MURPHY GETS MUDDY is the first step in that metamorphosis for this rock ‘n roll survivor.

   The hardest thing was to choose among the hundreds if not thousand of incredible blues songs.  I tried to pick those that would be most familiar to a wide audience.  Songs like “The Thrill is Gone” which was a huge success for BB King or Muddy Waters signature “Mannish Boy” as well as lesser known songs like Slim Harpo’s “Tip On In.”  And once I had the spirit in me I contributed a few of my own blues numbers as well like “Open City” which is I suppose a 21st Century Blues in some fashion.  The musicians on MURPHY GETS MUDDY include Ernie Brooks (Modern Lovers), Kenny Margolis (Willie Deville), Danny Montgomery (Ray Charles) and Patrick Riguelle (Red Harmony).   And features the incredible guitar and Dobro playing of my long time partner Olivier Durand. Engineer Florent Barbier recorded the album in Le Havre, France.

  MURPHY GETS MUDDY is dedicated to the memory of Muddy Waters and all the other incredible bluesmen and blueswomen who struggled against poverty, racism and incredible odds to create this enduring and beautiful American art form. 

 

Elliott Murphy, Paris July 2005