Elliott Murphy at the Thunder Road Convention,
Gent, November 23, 1997
So there we were with my friend professor Esteban form Zarragosa, another all-time fan of Elliott! Driving the A1 highway from Paris up to Gent, a three-hour drive to see Elliott play at the annual Convention organized by Thunder Road, the Bruce Springsteen fan-club in Belgium.
The convention and the show took place in a nice venue with a bar and pool tables. Elliott started his show at 19:30 with a classic rendition of You never know what you’re in for. But soon, at the line "And the sounds, still waiting to…", no more sounds! No electricity! Elliott starts again. No more sound! So he sits down on the stage and starts playing a slowed down, unamplified version of Bruce’s Lucky Town with the help of 200 fans. A good version indeed. Says Elliott: "My friend Shane Fontayne showed me how to play it right. It’s ,not that difficult, but he has played it 1.000 times at least". Back to electricity with You never know….
"It’s funny to play a show where people come for somebody else! Anyway when I tell Bruce that I played at the Thunder Road convention, he’ll ask me: Elliott, sere they selling any… boot…legs… there?" I’ll say, no I didn’t see any Bruce, just a coupla cassettes". Big laughs in the audience.
Sicily with the introduction on the International Rock and roll Congress in Sicily. "The International Congress, that was me and Garland Jeffreys. A whole week in Sicily, answering questions of 16-year old girls. The first question they asked was: "Do you know Madonna"? There was no second question".
A Whole New World. "When I put my son to bed, I ask him if he wants me to sing of my own songs or someone else’s song. It’s always another guy’s song. So I play this one for him every night I’m on a stage."
Next song was Something like Steve MacQueen : "In the 80’s, I was playing every Wednesday nigh at Tramps in New York City. At that time, Bruce was playing stadiums for the Born in the USA Tour. We could not both play stadiums so we made a deal. You play the stadiums and I play the clubs. In year 2000, we’ll do the opposite! So there I was at tramps and it was snowing so there was nobody except for a very beautiful woman. I turned to Ernie, my bass player and said to him: "Look Ernie, this is Ali Mac Graw". Then to the audience: "Do you remember Ali MacGraw? Yes? You Springsteen fans know everything! At the end of the set, she walks to the stage and says: "Hi I’m Ali MacGraw". I said, "I know, I’m Steve MacQueen!"
"When you climb up that mountain…"
Everything I do was another opportunity for Elliott to tell crowd-pleasing stories about Bruce. "We recorded that song together. In fact he was in Los Angeles and I was in Brussels! One day I brought the tape to his place and believe it or not, the only place you can listen to a tape at Bruce’s is in his car! So we went into the car in the pouring rain and listened to the demo. Then later he said to me: "Yeah I can do something on it. I just bought a home studio". "I thought it was a DAT thing like every body. No it was just two digital 48-track decks!"
I try to transcribe all these raps from memory to show you how Elliott was pleased to be there and was feeling comfortable with Bruce’s and also his Belgian fans.
Then came Take your love away, Drive all night, On Elvis Presley’s Birthday (on of my all-time favorites, you just wish he would never stop…).
Between the songs, Elliott often changes harmonicas: "I used to have a rack for my harmonicas. When Bruce came to Paris, I lent it to him and never saw it again…"
Stolen Car. In fact one of you guys gave me the tape with this version of Stolen Car [which in fact is known by Bruce’s fans as Son, you may kiss the Bride]. "I don’t know what he thinks about it".
A new song came next, Small room. "When I was in high school, they were trying to get us educated so we could win over the Russians […] I can remember a 4 short-story book by O’Henry (a great American short-story writer]. I can remember one of these. It was about a poor couple and a painter living in the same old building. One day during the winter, the wife got a strong fever. And she would not feel better. One night there was a terrible storm and the wife said to her husband: "Look that last leaf in the tree outside. When it is taken by the wind, I’ll be dying." So they stayed awake through the night and in the morning, despite the storm, the leaf was still on the tree and the wife soon began to feel better and the fever was gone. While upstairs, the painter was dead." "It was a small room, maybe ten by nine…"
The next song was a rarity, an oldie but goldie: Last Call, requested by a Spanish fan met the night before in Belgium, and a good surprise for long-time fans.
Selling the Gold came after, with the rap on jewel shops on 42nd street, followed by Diamonds by the Yard. "When I signed my first recording contract, I moved down to New York City. I’m from Long Island. Bruce is from New Jersey. That’s maybe why I moved east and he moved west! Anyway, from my window, I could see the light like diamonds on the streets".
"Midnight I surrender
I live beneath your ancient spell
You’ve been my lover
Since I can remember
You saved my life
With the stories you tell"
Last of the Rock Stars came eventually, followed by Elliott’s medley: The Epicenter…, segued into Runaway. "Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh" I just sing this one to know how old the audience is! You Bruce’s fans are still 16 in their hearts!" Then into House of the Rising Sun, and tentatively into Downbound Train "Now I work down at the car wash where all it ever does is rain". He stops. "Waoo. Where-all-it-ever-does-is-rain. That is one of the greatest lines Bruce ever wrote. There are others too!" And then into Gloria "G like Gina Lollobrigida, L like Sophia Loren, O like Brigitte Bardot, R like… Arno [a great Belgian singer often classified as the son of Tom Waits and Jacques Brel] The crowd cheers "The rest is international aiaiaiaiai G-L-O-R-I-AIAIAIAIAIA.
"This is a song by the Morrison brothers. Jim and Van. You did not know they were brothers? You Bruce Springsteen fans know Nils Lofgren’s second cousin but you didn’t know Jim and Van Morrison were brothers!!!…"
End of the show. For the encores, Elliott welcomes Norbert, a Dutch guy who won the competition organized earlier in the afternoon: play a Bruce song, the first and only prize being singing Thunder Road with Elliott. So Norbert jumps on the stage and starts the harmonica part (for guitar fans, they played it in D instead of F but who cares…). Elliott was quite good and Norbert was definitely great, knowing all the lyrics and harmonica parts perfectly. Then The River, where Elliott almost drowned, lost in the chords and lyrics. "I used to have that teleprompter too, but…". But a great moment of fun for everybody. Exit Norbert.
Then came the big surprise for all of us. Not Bruce, you silly Elliottniks! The big surprise was Elliott’s version of Dylan’s Simple Twist of Fate. I hope this one will become a regular song of Elliott’s repertoire. The show ended after two hours of great acoustic rock music with the classic Rock Ballad segued into Otis Redding’s I’ve been loving you too long.
I’ve seen Elliott many times, with or without a band, but I can tell you this show was something great, with a huge presence and a real and deep pleasure of being there.
Thank you Elliott, thank you Peter and Marc at Thunder Road. You all made that Sunday a magic moment.