Month: May 2007

4. Elliott Murphy Remembers

I was remiss in my last journal entry for not linking to Elliott Murphy’s heartfelt eulogy of the man he called mentor, the man he called friend. Written on 7 July 2006, just a few days after Paul’s body was found in his Manhattan apartment, Murphy’s memories — as tough as they are fond and funny — spill forth in a nonstop fashion like so many years gone by. Thirty-four, to be exact.

Corwood 0788

JANDEK

MANHATTAN TUESDAY ____________________________________

AFTERNOON OF INSENSITIVITY

DISC ONE

1. PART ONE (13:04)
2. PART TWO (20:44)
3. PART THREE (9:56)

DISC TWO

1. PART FOUR (11:24)
2. PART FIVE (12:39)
3. PART SIX (7:06)
4. PART SEVEN (18:25)

 

RECORDED LIVE: ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES MANHATTAN NEW YORK
SEPTEMBER 6, 2005

_____________________________________

(C)(P)2007 CORWOOD INDUSTRIES
P.O. BOX 15375
HOUSTON, TEXAS 77220
U.S.A.

 

SLOTH – SLEAZOID ROCK FROM THE GLAM/GRUNGE ERA

A few years ago I picked up a book about a late 1980s San Francisco club called THE CHATTERBOX that I used to go to when I was underage. I wrote a piece about it for my old blog Agony Shorthand – check it out by clicking here. The funny thing about it was just how long-past that era seems now. “Long-haired punkâ€Â, or glammy, grungy metal/punk, or even speed metal are all totally antiquated forms of rock and roll, but in the Chatterbox era, man that was IT. Those were the bands the Chatterbox made their stock in trade – bands that wore scarves, bands that didn’t bathe, bands that drank way too much, bands with tire tracks on their arms, bands that held up JOHNNY THUNDERS as a patron saint, and even East Coast bands like SLOTH.

I saw SLOTH at the Chatterbox, actually. I had purchased their 45 “Fetch The Wedge/Miss Sleazy Underbellyâ€Â on a recommendation alone (this was before Soulseek and mp3 blogs, kids!) and dug it a lot, and they stumbled into town not long after that. I don’t think they wore any scarves – they were more like a bunch of dirty pizza delivery guys with long hair and t-shirts kicking out the motor city jams. Tons of attitude and west coast dissin’, but all in good fun. At least two guitarists – maybe three? Listen to this 45 and you’ll hear THE HEARTBREAKERS, STOOGES, STONES and all the hesher heroes of long-haired punks everywhere. Great record, way OOP as they say.

Play or Download SLOTH – “Fetch The Wedgeâ€Â (A-side)
Play or Download SLOTH – “Miss Sleazy Underbellyâ€Â (B-side)

Notes

Hey, here’s the last minute/last hour notes taken and used during a recent “performanceâ€Â as an MC (some bands played!!!).

-Beale Street Music Fest

-Stooges

-Yoga

-Lou Reed/Yoga/Meditation

-Joy Division Nikes and the idea that they have slippery soles

-Black Eye Joke

-TV Guide….I’m going to read it to you, so you don’t have to burglarize an elderly family

-Powers Booth Q and A

-Battle of the Bands

-The only way I would endure the Beale Street Music Fest is if Yoko Ono promised to decapitate herself before a live audience, or if Tom Waits agreed to a spoken word set in which he apolozies for tricking people into accepting the past 30 years of his music

-Iggy Pop Brick by Brick jokes

-TV Guide My Name is Earl cover…here’s some easy hillbilly humor for the creatively bankrupt in the audience

-The guarantee joke

-â€ÂCan I get more jokes in the monitor please?â€Â

-Make a joke about the jokes that I crossed off of the list

 

3. Elliott Murphy on Paul Nelson

He wrote about rock & roll with a sense of romantic integrity which has inspired me to this day, and his wonderful Rolling Stone review of Aquashow proclaimed a level of artistry for my work that I have tried my best to maintain all these years since.

So wrote Elliott Murphy about Paul Nelson in 1990 in the liner notes to the CD reissue of Aquashow, Murphy’s 1973 debut album. Paul’s rave review heralded the arrival on the scene of a new kind of singer/songwriter, clearly influenced by Bob Dylan but different. People took notice.

“I think it’s hard to imagine today,” Murphy told me when interviewed for the book, “the power of the critics and the way the music business took them seriously. Because it was really still the time where the music was leading the industry, not the industry leading the music like it is today. These critics, these were mysterious people to the music business. You know, who were these guys who knew everything about every record and had these collections and these bootlegs? Who were they, these Jon Landaus and Paul Nelsons and Lester Bangs and everyone else? So they really took them seriously; they thought they knew something they didn’t know. And they did.”

In March, 34 years after Aquashow, Elliott Murphy released Coming Home Again, his 29th album. Not only did his relationship with Paul Nelson serve as a significant chapter in each man’s life, it represents an important chapter in Everything Is an Afterthought, as well.

Copyright 2007 by Kevin Avery. All rights reserved.

3. Elliott Murphy on Paul Nelson

He wrote about rock & roll with a sense of romantic integrity which has inspired me to this day, and his wonderful Rolling Stone review of Aquashow proclaimed a level of artistry for my work that I have tried my best to maintain all these years since.

So wrote Elliott Murphy about Paul Nelson in 1990 in the liner notes to the CD reissue of Aquashow, Murphy’s 1973 debut album. Paul’s rave review heralded the arrival on the scene of a new kind of singer/songwriter, clearly influenced by Bob Dylan but different. People took notice.

“I think it’s hard to imagine today,” Murphy told me when interviewed for the book, “the power of the critics and the way the music business took them seriously. Because it was really still the time where the music was leading the industry, not the industry leading the music like it is today. These critics, these were mysterious people to the music business. You know, who were these guys who knew everything about every record and had these collections and these bootlegs? Who were they, these Jon Landaus and Paul Nelsons and Lester Bangs and everyone else? So they really took them seriously; they thought they knew something they didn’t know. And they did.”

In March, 34 years after Aquashow, Elliott Murphy released Coming Home Again, his 29th album. Not only did his relationship with Paul Nelson serve as a significant chapter in each man’s life, it represents an important chapter in Everything Is an Afterthought, as well.

Copyright 2007 by Kevin Avery. All rights reserved.

3. Elliott Murphy on Paul Nelson

He wrote about rock & roll with a sense of romantic integrity which has inspired me to this day, and his wonderful Rolling Stone review of Aquashow proclaimed a level of artistry for my work that I have tried my best to maintain all these years since.

So wrote Elliott Murphy about Paul Nelson in 1990 in the liner notes to the CD reissue of Aquashow, Murphy’s 1973 debut album. Paul’s rave review heralded the arrival on the scene of a new kind of singer/songwriter, clearly influenced by Bob Dylan but different. People took notice.

“I think it’s hard to imagine today,” Murphy told me when interviewed for the book, “the power of the critics and the way the music business took them seriously. Because it was really still the time where the music was leading the industry, not the industry leading the music like it is today. These critics, these were mysterious people to the music business. You know, who were these guys who knew everything about every record and had these collections and these bootlegs? Who were they, these Jon Landaus and Paul Nelsons and Lester Bangs and everyone else? So they really took them seriously; they thought they knew something they didn’t know. And they did.”

In March, 34 years after Aquashow, Elliott Murphy released Coming Home Again, his 29th album. Not only did his relationship with Paul Nelson serve as a significant chapter in each man’s life, it represents an important chapter in Everything Is an Afterthought, as well.

Copyright 2007 by Kevin Avery. All rights reserved.