Rock and roll legend Elliott Murphy joins The Paul Leslie Hour!
Are you here? You’re tuned into The Paul Leslie Hour, where the stories come to life.
It’s a thrill to welcome Elliott Murphy—rock poet, singer-songwriter, and expatriate troubadour—to share his journey from Long Island to Paris and beyond.
His latest chapter brings us tales of music, muses, and a life in song. And with that, let’s dive into episode number 1,064 of The Paul Leslie Hour with Elliott Murphy!
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Elliott Murphy Interview Transcript
So what kind of day is it in France today?
For me, it’s been a very special day because one of my best friend’s son got married. So France is different from America in that you have to do an official ceremony in front of your local mayor, and it’s not like America where you just get a marriage license and then you can do it where you want.
Paris is divided into arrondissements, there are 20 of them, and each one has a beautiful mayor’s office, and uh, the service, the ceremony was spectacular. So we went to that this morning, and it’s a nice day here in Paris, and I walked home.
Introduction and Career Overview
Thank you so much for making time to talk to me. I suppose I should formally introduce you to the listeners out there. Elliott Murphy is a singer, songwriter, record producer, novelist.
His newest album, Infinity, is out now. I’ve been enjoying it. It’s a long list of albums that you have recorded. What number is this for you now?
Well, the latest discography that one of my fans put together, this was like number 52.
That is extraordinary.
Although, spoiler alert, they’re not all 52 studio albums with all new songs. They’re probably about 30 like that, 30 studio albums, a bunch of live albums, some best of’s that include unreleased tracks, and a vintage series, 10 vintage series of demos and oddities that were never released. But it is 52.
It’s extraordinary. No matter what way you slice it.
It is. And I’ll tell you, Paul, I opened for a lot of the great bluesmen, you know, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, Albert King, and I used to think they were so old, and they were all in their 50s when I opened for them.
And now I’m 76, as of last week, still at it. Bruce Springsteen’s same age as me, Billy Joel, same age. Mick Jagger’s in his 80s, Bob Dylan’s in his 80s, so I’ve come to believe that nobody quits.
The Meaning Behind “Infinity”
In music, it does seem to be that’s frequently the case. And on that note, what is the significance of the album title, “Infinity”?
Infinity has always been a concept that has just, I don’t know, mesmerized me. And you know, they say that sound waves, because that’s what music is, it’s sound waves.
It doesn’t stop when it hits your ears; it keeps going. So, in theory, all the music that has ever been made keeps going out into space somewhere until it hits something, and then it’ll make a sound. There’s no sound in space because there’s no air.
So, I just, I also, on a lighter note, I got tired of numbering my albums, so I kind of called this one infinite. We’ll see. I don’t know where I go from here.
Where do you go after infinity? That is the question.
Now you’ve put a question to me that’s, we’re gonna have to think about that one.
The Purpose of Art and Songwriting Evolution
Elliott, what has always been the purpose of the art you create?
Well, that’s a good question. Well, I think from the beginning, from my first album Aquashow, which was in 1973, I just wanted to tell my own story as best I could in the context of rock and roll, folk rock, folk, whatever you want to call it. In the context of that genre, back in the day when I started, musicians who made albums were called recording artists.
And so for me, the concept of the album has always been my canvas, you know, and the songs are, maybe it’s like a novel, and the songs are chapters in a novel, but from the beginning, it was, you know, the only way I knew how to express the world according to Elliott Murphy.
And I think that’s what I tried to do in Infinity. I mean, I’m at a certain age now where you tend to look back more than, you know, my early albums, the songs were full of rock and roll dreams. And now I look back at the reality of what’s happened in, you know, the 50 years of my career. And I try and put it in context of the world as I see it.
So I’m not such a, in the beginning, I think I was a pretty geographical songwriter, you know, I wrote about kind of the white middle-class blues. But now it’s gone further than that.
Can you tell us about how your songwriting has changed? Tell us, I mean, I’ve had quite a time. I’ve enjoyed digging through and listening.
Tell us a little bit about your evolution. How do you see things differently now?
In the beginning, I don’t know if it was because of that brilliant youth energy that I was blessed with for a while or I could, the music and the lyrics came hand-in-hand, and you know, I’d be off and running. A lot of songs in my first couple of albums, you know, were written in them in almost minutes, hours, you know.
Now it’s a longer process, but it all still begins, as always, with the guitar usually, sometimes the piano. You know, you get that melody, and then the music gives the words wings, and the words give the music some passion and some meaning, and the two work together.
And if it’s changed, I guess it has been my, all the European music I’ve been exposed to over years. You know, I play quite a bit in Spain. I’m a big fan of flamenco music. You know, Spain is where the guitar began.
And I’ve worked with the same musical partner, guitarist Olivier Durand, who’s French, for over 29 years now. So there’s John Lennon-Paul McCartney, Mick and Keith, and Elliott and Olivier.
Life as an American in Paris
I’m hoping you can tell us about what it’s like being an American living in Paris. What’s it like being an American living in Paris?
I found the French, they are set in their ways, but I’ve never known a people who are so open to other cultures. I played in Paris in 1979, my first show. And I was impressed that popular music, rock and roll, for them, it was a part of culture. And it was to be taken as seriously as any culture.
Whereas in America, it’s more a part of show business. And show business is elusive, and you know, it’s like sand through the fingers, what’s big this year is gone next year, but so there’s a longevity, and I’ve really profited from that. From, you know, it really, when I moved here, when I did my first show here in ’79, things were not going so well for me in America, and the reaction I got at that show was like, well, there’s going to be a second act to my career, and it’s going to take place in France and in Europe in general.
So I mean, I think, and my journey here and living here has been made easier because my wife is French. Françoise has been together for 35 years, so she has certainly made things easier for me, adapting to the system here.
And it’s a very good system for artists who are in the middle, like me. America tends to be a feast-and-famine situation, but here there’s more room in the middle.
But I like the French. I have great admiration for them. I have great admiration for their respect of history. You know, I walk down the street, and it’s just like 30 seconds from where I live, there’s a plaque on the wall of a famous poet named Chenier, who was on the wrong side of the revolution, was taken to the guillotine, you know. I mean, things like this just all over Paris, and I am a history buff. So I really like that. And I got to tell you, Paul, the food is very good.
Yeah. Yeah, I could believe that. Do you find yourself missing the States at all?
I miss being in the cultural melting pot of America sometimes. And I am out of touch with, you know, some of the newest stars on TV and in movies and even in music. I am a little bit out of touch with that. I miss the energy. There’s certainly, in New York, there was a wonderful place to be when I was starting because there was such energy; it was 24/7.
And if you had a dream, you could really make it happen. That’s what happened with me. So in that aspect, I do miss America, and I do miss, you can’t get good Mexican food here in France. That’s the one thing they do not know how to do.
Developing a Unique Voice
How did you develop your voice? You have such a unique singing voice. I’ve really, really come to appreciate it. It’s, you know, like I said, it’s unique. Tell me about how you developed the voice that you have.
Another good question. I never wanted to be a singer. I wanted to be a guitar hero. I mean, in my teens, I just wanted to be the next Eric Clapton or Jeff Beck, or Jimmy Page. I knew I couldn’t be Jimi Hendrix ’cause he was from another planet, but I just wanted to be a blues guitar player.
And then I took a trip here in ’71, and I started writing songs. It was before I ever recorded any music. I’m playing on the streets, and it started, and, you know, there was nobody else to sing my songs but me, and I started singing them, and I remember once I had a conversation with Bruce Springsteen. It was about my son, who was starting a band, and he also wanted to just be the guitar player, and Bruce said, “Oh, sing the songs yourself because nothing’s worse than having to deal with a lead singer.”
So, and my voice, you know, I was never trained. I do take care of my voice. In the ’80s, I was having some vocal problems, and at the time, my brother was working with the Eurythmics, and Annie Lennox turned me onto a vocal teacher in New York named Marty Lawrence. And I still warm up with the exercises he gave me back then.
So it’s a voice. As Bob Dylan said, you know, the most important thing is to be different. And if you find my voice different, well, I think I’m going to take that as the biggest compliment.
Influences and Inspirations
Yeah. Yeah. We live in a world where there’s so many copies. And so when you find something original, it can be very, very exciting.
I just, I’m going to have to ask artificial intelligence about if they can reproduce Elliott Murphy’s voice. I’m sure they can.
Tell us about your influences.
I think I have musical influences, but then I have literary influences too that really got to my soul.
When I first picked up the guitar, there was a folk boom going on in America. It was the Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul and Mary, people like that. That’s so, and folk music tended to have more interesting lyrics than rock and roll at that time, you know.
I mean, there were murder songs in folk music, whereas rock and roll tended to be, you know, “Doo wa ditty,” kind of things. So my most earliest influences were, I guess, those folk singers.
My sister bought me one Christmas in 1960 Bob Dylan’s first album, and I remember listening to “House of the Rising Sun,” his version of that, and that song really moved me.
A lot of the instrumental groups, the Ventures, people like that, the Astronauts, I loved West Coast music, I loved The Beach Boys, and then folk rock came about, bands like The Lovin’ Spoonful, who I adored, and some of the Long Island bands were very influential to me too, the Vanilla Fudge. I don’t know if you hear that in my music, but that’s there too.
On the literary side, I read The Great Gatsby at a very young age, and because it took place in Long Island, where I was from, and because it was a story of really an American reinventing himself, which has almost been my story.
And then, of course, Kerouac’s On the Road, and you know, and then I think part of the reason I’m here in Paris, you asked earlier what life is like here, I think I tried to follow in the steps of so many of those American expatriates, Fitzgerald and Hemingway and so many painters here, who came and spent their time in Paris.
So I think those are, you know, those are the two, I think the reason I admire painting so much is because that is something I really cannot do. But those are my main two influences, the literature and the music.
Thoughts on Reviews and Criticism
I’ve heard artists say all kinds of things about how they perceive reviews, being reviewed by in a magazine or in a newspaper. What does Elliott Murphy think about reviews, do you read them or?
Well, I did read them. I tend to read them less now because a lot of my reviews are in languages I can’t read. So what they’re saying about me in Spain or in Germany, I can’t really decipher that, but in general, I’ve been blessed.
At the early, in the ’70s, there was a golden age where what critics said really mattered. And it influenced record companies too. And I was fortunate that I was kind of discovered by a guy named Paul Nelson, who was a music critic, who was the head critic for Rolling Stone for a while. He reviewed my first album for Rolling Stone. And that really, when the record company read that, and it was the front-page review in Rolling Stone, I think they said, “Whoa, we better start spending some money and do some advertising for this album.”
So all those critics from the ’70s, Paul Nelson, Robert Christgau, Dave Marsh, Kit Rachlis, Robert Hilburn on the West Coast, they were all very supportive of me in the early days. And I think that enabled me to make the move to Europe because I came here with a certain bona fides, you know, they kind of knew who I was, and they knew I had a certain level of respect among the critics.
I don’t think rock criticism means much anymore. I don’t think people read reviews and they say, “I’m gonna buy that album,” much anymore.
I think people are influencing, you know, Spotify and streaming has changed the whole ballgame now. You know, people can really listen to 10 seconds of something and decide if they like it. They don’t have to go buy the album.
So, but I wish that that golden age would return because I think the fact that those critics were writing about rock and roll in such an intellectual way just helped raise the bar of the whole thing, you know. Sgt. Pepper was taken as seriously as Beethoven at that time.
Tribute to Paul Nelson
Well, I listened to the tribute song that you recorded to Paul Nelson. And he’s somebody who you start reading about him and you start reading some of his work. And yet again, you can get pulled into this whole other world.
Can you tell us a bit about this man, Paul Nelson, who’s no longer with us?
The mystery and the enigma of Paul Nelson.
Paul Nelson was from Minnesota. He went to school at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. He went to school there at the same time as Bob Dylan, who was there, I think, for a few semesters.
Paul was a folk music fan, and him and his friend in their dorm had a lot of Woody Guthrie albums, and Paul Nelson and, was hanging around, Bob Dylan, who was Robert Zimmerman at that time, came up to their room and listened to those albums, and then they all went out for a beer.
Bob Dylan disappeared, and when they got back to their dorm, all those albums were gone. And Bob had borrowed them, and that’s when he first got introduced to Woody Guthrie, so Paul was instrumental in that.
Then Paul started a folk review called the Little Sandy Review, and when Paul went, Bob Dylan went electric at Newport in ’65, that was one of the few serious folk magazines that defended him. Paul moved to New York and got a job as head of A&R for Mercury Records.
That’s when I met him, about 1972. I was knocking on doors in New York, and I knocked on Mercury’s door, and I got an appointment with him, and I played him my five-song demo, and he just loved it, though he wasn’t a very expressive man. He always wore dark glasses, smoked a little cigar.
So if he shook his head about that much, you knew he was really excited about something. And he became my mentor and just started turning me on to a lot of things I wasn’t aware of before in music.
He signed the New York Dolls to Mercury Records. My good friend David Johansen had just passed away a couple of weeks ago, the lead singer in the New York Dolls.
And then he became the head of reviews at Rolling Stone. And when Rolling Stone started with the star system of reviews, I think, one to four stars, that’s when he quit because he didn’t think music should be approached that way.
Paul’s story ended kind of sadly. He could not find a place for him as the music business evolved and the music became less important and the business became more important. And he kind of died tragically. They found him in his apartment. They’re not sure really the cause, but I was very moved.
I always sent him my albums, even when I lived here in France. And he had written some note that of one particular song on the last album I sent to him, he really liked that song. So that’s the story of Paul Nelson.
The “Two Cokes for Paul Nelson.” Every time I ever ate a dinner or lunch with Paul Nelson, he would order two Cokes at once. And I wrote that song with Jonathan Lethem, who you might know, the novelist. And one of his novels, Brooklyn, what was it called, Brooklyn Crime or something, was turned into a movie with Ed Norton. And we wrote that song together for a podcast out of Italy.
It’s very clear you have a lot of reverence for Paul.
I really do because he just, he convinced me that this music I was making and others were making and the films that were being made at that time, you know, and the books, the novels, that this was all part of the same cultural wave, and more importantly, it was important and it was vital. And he really, you know, I follow that credo to this day.
Memorable Compliments and Fan Connection
Has there been a compliment that you’ve received, whether from one of your musical peers or a fan, whoever, that has meant the most to you?
Well, there’s been a lot. I mean, in this documentary, The Second Act of Elliott Murphy, both Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel, who were my, really my peers; we’re all the same age, we all started at the same time, they both said wonderful things about my music, which they probably would never say to my face, but they said wonderful things about music.
I’ll tell you one anecdote which really moved me. Right before I moved to Paris, I was doing a benefit for a radio station. It was for a DJ named Vince Scelsa. I was there, and also Joey Ramone was there. And I sang this song called “Diamonds by the Yard,” which is kind of a ballad.
It’s really a New York City ballad. It’s about looking at the lights of the city at night. And I sang that song. And after I finished, and I didn’t really know Joey Ramone, he came over to me and he said, you know, “I always loved that song.” So that was, I was very touched by that.
Absolutely. How do you perceive your fans? How do you look at the Elliott Murphy fans out there?
Well, I have the greatest fans in the world, absolutely, because no one has convinced them to be my fans for a very long time, you know? I mean, there’s no record company between me and them.
And I have them in Europe; I have fans who come to, you know, 40 shows a year when I would do 40 shows a year, and sometimes I’ll be on stage, and I’ll forget the first line to a song, and they will remember.
But the fans, I always like to say after my family, my fans are my greatest treasure.
Do you have a good number of fans who come, whether they’re on vacation in Paris or whatever, they come out and see one of your shows when you’re in Europe?
I have a lot of fans, French fans, who will come to my shows. Two weeks ago, I did my annual birthday shows at a club in Paris called The New Morning.
This is kind of the oldest, most legendary blues-jazz-rock club here. I mean, Nina Simone played there, Chet Baker played there, Prince, after finishing a show in an arena, then came and jammed there till six o’clock in the morning. So it’s really quite a place.
And every March, because it’s my birthday, I do two nights there, usually sold out. And the fans come out to that show and sing “Happy Birthday” to me.
Wow, that’s got to be special.
It is very special.
Exploring “Infinity” and Its Tracks
Well, working our way back to Infinity, your latest album, is there a song on the album that you feel best represents the album? Not necessarily your favorite, but like if you could present just one song, which one would it be?
I think “The Lion in Winter,” because I guess it really expressed where I felt I was at this point in my career. I did most of the recording of that song at home. I did all the vocals myself, all the backing vocals.
And, you know, as I said, you know, I have a 50-year career, which I’m just so grateful for. And I think that was the one that came closest to expressing my gratitude for that.
If I had to pick a number two, it would be the first song of the album, which is called “Granny Takes a Trip.” And that seems to be the one that’s getting the most listeners on Spotify in places like that. And that song is just full of all the icons of my youth, you know, from, probably you’re too young to remember, probably Richard Harris, Roger Maris, Gypsy Rose Lee. I don’t know if those names mean anything to you.
They do, they do, but probably in a different context.
You know, I want to encourage everybody out there to listen to Infinity, but to listen to it as an album. I always try to encourage people, tune things out and really give yourself the gift of listening.
Just listen and let it play from beginning to end, and you know, we’re at a time right now where people aren’t doing that as much, but sometimes when I said that, people have sent me an email, and they’ve said, “Thank you for saying that because I did that, and I discovered this other thing.”
That’s so true. When I began, and all we had was the album format, you know, the last song on the first side was very important because that had to move people to get up and turn over the record and start on the second side, and the first song on the second side, so I’ve always looked at it in that context, and in Infinity, I also tried to make it about the length of an album.
I mean, it’s 15-something minutes on each side, you know, which was the same amount of time on a lot of Beatles albums, you know. Help! I think was about the same length of time, but I couldn’t agree with you more, an album should be appreciated from start to finish because there is an order to it.
Not to do that would be like picking up a great novel and starting in the middle and then going to the first and then reading the end, you know. So there is some kind of existential, metaphysical order. We put a lot of thought into the order we put those songs on CDs, I do. That’s always the final step in the process is the sequencing of the album.
Well, nonetheless, there are some really extraordinary moments.
And I’m hoping you can tell us about “Night Surfing.”
So, last night I was listening to this, I was exercising at the same time, and there’s something very hypnotic about “Night Surfing.”
And I’m sitting there, and I’m sweating, and I just found myself getting very affected by it. I felt like I was in a trance, and all I could experience was this song, “Night Surfing.” Tell us about that track.
Surfing has always been something special to me. I was a surfer when I was a kid on Long Island, which, Long Island, you got about three months of surfing and then about nine months of watching surfing movies. But it almost became like a spiritual thing back then.
Now it’s become really much more of a sport. But back in those days, there was something, just getting up on that board and the sound of the board cutting through the wave, you really left everything behind you.
And I wrote that song on a ukulele. It was the only song I’ve ever written in my life on a ukulele. My son was doing some project, a fashion project, and they had 40 ukulele players on this project. So he loaned me one, and that song came out very, very quickly from the ukulele.
So it’s kind of like a dream song. And I think there’s something very Zen about it, you know, the chorus, and “there ain’t nothing we can do anyhow, there ain’t nothing we can do.” And for so much of life, that is the truth.
So for somebody who is listening to Infinity, aside from just enjoying the music, is there something you want the listener to get from that experience?
Well, I mean, you want to think, and you want to boogie. I mean, I hope both sides will move listeners, you know?
Of course, in my case, the irony is I perform in a lot of countries of people, English is certainly not the first language, but sometimes it’s almost the sound of the words that can convey the emotional meaning of the words.
So I like people to pay attention. As you described before, the more intense the listening experience can be is always the better. I think people will get more, deeper, into my music and anyone’s music because there’s a lot there, you know.
If you just listen superficially while you’re doing a lot of other things at the same time, you might miss a lot and just follow the thread of the stories, and I think albums take a few listens to get into.
I remember when the Rolling Stones came out with Exile on Main Street, and I played it the first time, did not get it at all. And now it’s one of my favorite Rolling Stones albums. So, you know, give it a couple of listens.
Future Aspirations and Dream Collaborations
Is there something that you haven’t done yet that you would like to do? Because here you are, you’re a guy, you’ve recorded all these albums, you’ve been the subject of a documentary, you’ve written books. What is left? I mean, is there anything that you would like to do that you haven’t?
Wow. Well, I mean, there’s things in the realm of music I would like to do. I would really like to record a full album with an orchestra. That’s something which is always, and I would also like to record a jazz album, with some jazz players, kind of the opposite ends of the spectrum there.
Well, yeah, I’d like to walk up on stage and accept my Grammy. How’s that?
Yeah, nothing wrong with that. Is there anybody that you’ve dreamt of working with that you haven’t yet?
Yeah, I always wanted to work with Keith Richards, you know. I interviewed him once when he did his first solo album, The Expensive Winos, and he came out to the interview, it was up at his manager’s office, and he said to me, he said, “So they tell me you’re a musician?” I said, “Yes.” I felt about 12 years old. I said, “Yes.” He said, “What do you play?” I said, “The guitar.” And he said, “Oh, that damn thing.” (laughing)
So Keith is certainly someone I would love to work with. I did have Mick Taylor, who was in The Rolling Stones, was on one of my albums, you know.
I mean, I’d love, you know, if dreams, what do they say, if dreams or something, beggars would ride horses.
Of course, Bob Dylan, to do anything with Bob Dylan would just be, he is the Picasso of rock and roll.
Yeah. Those two come to mind right away.
Did you ever meet Dylan?
I never have really met him. I mean, I’ve exchanged like waves because I opened for him once in Italy. And as he was going on stage, it was like a wave, you know, but that’s about as close as I can.
Reflections on Being Elliott Murphy
What is the best thing about being Elliott Murphy?
Wow. I could give you a much longer list of the worst things. Then the best thing. The best thing about being Elliott Murphy, well, I would say the best thing about being Elliott Murphy today is the gratitude I feel for the life I’ve had, for the career I’ve had, for the luck I’ve had, for the musical inspiration I’ve had, and the fact that I’m still kind of in the game and inspired to make new music.
And I’m supposed to go into the studio Monday and record a new song, and I haven’t really even written it yet, but I know I will come up with something by Monday. So I think that’s the best thing is my hunger, which is still there.
It always blows my mind the different places in the world that I will hear from people. You’re in France right now, I’m in the United States, but through the power of the internet, it’s just one of the good things is being able to reach people from all over.
So my last question, wherever that person is in the world, what would you say to anyone who’s tuned in with us, totally open-ended?
If I’ve learned anything from my life in music, the greatest gift I’ve had is that I’ve played all over the world. I played all over Europe, I played all over Japan, all over the US.
This love that we have of music is the same everywhere. And I think there must be some way — we got to bottle that and capture it and hold on to it because that is something that’s going to keep us from destroying each other.
I don’t think if you play music with anyone, I think you’re at peace with them, and that’s how I’ve always felt.
Closing Remarks
Well put. Elliott Murphy, thank you so much for spending time with us. It’s been a treat to do this interview.
Thank you, Paul, me too.
Alright, well, I hope to see you live someday.
Me too.
All right, sir, until next time.
See you down the road.
We thank you and appreciate you dropping in for the Paul Leslie Hour today. You know, you can help the Paul Leslie Hour in our mission to provide independent media content like this by visiting www.thepaulleslie.com/support. We truly thank you. This is your announcer speaking. Performance of the entertainer intro song and “Corina Corina” outro song courtesy of John Primerano. Well, that’s it for today. So until next time, be safe and be good.
