A Sort of Homecoming: Elliott Murphy

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IT SEEMS A little strange to send out a clarion call trumpeting the fact that 1970s singer-songwriter Elliott Murphy is back when most of today's music-listening audience might not have known he was ever around in the first place.

The New York-bred musician emerged in 1973 with the album "Aquashow," which showcased his talents as a wordsmith on cuts like the fiery "Last of the Rock Stars" and the ironic "White Middle Class Blues." Back then, writers who used lots of words got lots of comparisons to Bob Dylan, so Murphy found himself saddled with the cumbersome "New Dylan" tag, which also dogged his fellow wordsmith contemporaries like John Prine, Steve Goodman and some Jersey guyBruce.

But none of Murphy's singles ever hit the Billboard Top 100 (or the old Bubbling Under chart, for that matter). So he was consigned to cult status, and throughout the 1970s and 1980s played to a cult that appreciated his literary references and wry sense of humor.

And then he disappeared.

Most of his records went out of print. In underground music circles, he became best known as the author of the thoughtful liner notes to the 1974 album "1969: The Velvet Underground Live." In those notes, Murphy imagined the lives of high school students of the future discovering the music of the Velvet Underground and what effect it would have on them. As a high schooler who discovered those notes years after Murphy penned them, his writing had almost as big an effect on me as the music, since it broached topics that were important to a 17-year-old (i.e., your parents getting frightened by the music you played).

So it came as a total surprise to find that Murphy was — to quote a cliche — alive and well and living in Paris. And that he's returning to the states for his first tour in nearly a decade. Murphy has a well-crafted new album in stores, "Notes From the Underground," and has spent the past two decades being both a songwriter and an author. He took some time to speak with the Express via a trans-Atlantic phone line.

» EXPRESS: Why did you decide to return to the Unites States after an eight-year absence?
» MURPHY: My son went off to college in America. I think the mind follows the heart, and I just got this opportunity by Jann Klose's manager who put this tour together, so I'm psyched about playing for English-speaking audiences. It's like getting back with old friends. I'm really looking forward to it.

» EXPRESS: After 30 albums, do you find it hard to find ideas for songs?
» MURPHY: I'm grateful to say that I don't. I tour quite a bit. I do 100 shows a year, and I found a recording situation here in France where I can go in and out of the studio when I want. So it's kind of like a constant process. I'm constantly writing songs or thinking of ideas for songs. I find live performance really encourages me to write new songs.

» EXPRESS: Some of the new songs, like "What's That?" sound very contemporary. What are you listening to these days?
» MURPHY: I have a son who is 18. I started listening to the music he listens to because that kind of dominates the soundwaves here in my house. He listens to a lot of heavy metal and he likes rap and I listen to that too. I don't know if the Snoop Dogg he was playing influenced "What's That?" but maybe.

» EXPRESS: The new album has a lot of references to famous characters and people: Ophelia, Frankenstein and Robert E. Lee. Was there any reason for that specific imagery?
» MURPHY: I consider myself a little bit like a troubadour, and troubadours used to sing about what was going on in their world at the time. So I like mentioning those cultural icons and things in my songs. Back in the beginning I got a lot of flak for being kind of over literate for a rock and roller. And I remember once Robert Hillburn from the Los Angeles Times called me the first intellectual of punk rock, so I took that as a backhanded compliment. And I think for a long time I maybe tried to hide that part of me. But now I just let it hang out.

» EXPRESS: Do you think the New Dylan tag hampered your career?
» MURPHY: I think it's been a blessing and a curse. A lot of people ask me if it's hurt my career and I always say, "You know, Bruce Springsteen got that same thing and I don't think it hurt his career." But it was a reference and I think almost all new bands and artists are given references — it's just that Bob Dylan is such an icon. His shadow looms so heavy on anyone who gets that comparison, especially on my first album, "Aquashow," which was being compared to "Blonde on Blonde." The burden was most difficult personally, knowing where to go from there and to know who I was.

» EXPRESS: What inspired you to become an author?
» MURPHY: I was a big reader at a young age. It was really a source of escape for me, like TV. I saw the movie "East of Eden" on TV with James Dean when I was like 12, and I went into the library and asked for the book by John Steinbeck. The librarian gave me a funny look, you know, "What's a 12-year-old reading a book like this for?" But it's just always given me a lot of solace. I say that literature is my religion and rock and roll is my addiction. And I need them both. I didn't really go to school — I went to a community college for a year or so just to try and stay out of Vietnam way back when. And then when I was 35 I actually went back to college to get my B.A.

» EXPRESS: Why the decision to move to France?
» MURPHY: I first came to Europe in 1971. I was playing on streets. I lived in Paris, and loved the city. And when I came back to America, began my career. But by the end of the 1980s, I found 80 percent of my touring was here in Europe. I was like moving apartments in New York and spoke to a friend of mine, [singer-songwriter] Garland Jeffreys, and asked him where I should move. He said, "Well, I have a friend who has a place in Paris." So it just really happened like that. But it's a city I really feel comfortable in. I'm still American, to the tips of my toes, that's for sure. It's a very artist-friendly environment here, I would say.

» EXPRESS: How did you come to write liner notes for the live Velvet Underground album?
» MURPHY: That was because of Paul Nelson, who was a working for Mercury Records at the time. He was a very famous rock critic, and he was also writing for Rolling Stone, which at that time you could do. While he was working at Mercury and trying to sign me to the label he got the rights for these Velvet Underground live tapes and just asked me if I'd like to write some liner notes.

I used to go into the city and visit my mother, because I was living out in Long Island and [her number] is the number Paul had for me. And I guess when he showed the notes to Lou Reed, Lou called my mother. I went to her house one day and she said, "Oh, this nice boy Louis Reed just called, I talked to him for a while." I said "Lou Reed!" you know? That's how I got to know Lou. He was really very helpful in getting me onto RCA later on in my career.

» Velvet Lounge, 915 U St. NW; with Jann Klose, Tue., 9 p.m., 21 +, $15; 202-462-3213. (U St.-Cardozo)

Written by Express contributor Tony Sclafani
Photos by Sue Rynshi