Rock singer/songwriter Elliott Murphy says Infinity is his 52nd album, which suggests that he’s not only prolific, but also many years into his career. As such, it’s not surprising that ruminations on aging, mortality, and years gone by permeate this engaging record.
In “The Lion in Winter/The End of the Game,” Murphy sings, “Bones are aching” and, paraphrasing Dylan Thomas, proclaims, “I won’t go gently into that dark night.” In “Three Shadows,” he says, “I try to begin to add up my wins and settle my scores / Make sense of it all…I’ll keep on running ’til my feet leave the ground.” In “Count My Blessings,” meanwhile, he begins, “Well, I thought I’d make a list of everything I missed before arriving at the sweet spot of life…Took a long time getting clear to arrive at the beginning of the end.” And in “Night Surfing,” he sings, “My life is flying by” and suggests a trip to the beach will be “so satisfying, you just won’t think about dying.” Then there’s “Makin’ It Real,” the album’s only hard rocker, where Murphy declares, “Kiss goodbye, boy, that sweet old world / I’m not painting it black, I’m just making it real.”
Not everything on Infinity concerns life’s later years; there are also a few rather straightforward references to current politics: “I see faces of grace getting sprayed with Mace as the empire slams the door,” Murphy sings at one point, “To keep the have-nots out and the middle in doubt as to which side they belong.” And, in “Baby Boomer’s Lament,” he observes that “we were so sure of what was right / with not the faintest idea of how to get there from here” before adding that “maniacs are running this world.” Throughout, Murphy displays the penchant for wordplay – and for name-checking assorted cultural figures and objects – that has characterized all his work.
He wrote eight of the album’s songs and co-wrote the ninth with his longtime associate Olivier Durand, who adds acoustic and electric guitar, mandola, and dulcimer. There are also several other accompanists, including Alan Fatras (percussion), Melissa Cox violin), and Murphy’s son, Gaspard, who produced this and his father’s other recent albums and plays several instruments.
Given the record’s reflective, often melancholy lyrics, it makes sense that much of the music is relatively subdued. There are more than a few sweet-sounding moments, but nothing here is quite as catchy or exuberant as such past standouts as “Irish Eyes,” “Come On, Louann,” or “Drive All Night.” There are also no extended instrumental breaks. (The longest track clocks in at just over four minutes.) That said, virtually everything Murphy does is worth hearing, and Infinity is no exception.
Also Noteworthy
The Move, Message from the Country (Expanded). The Move didn’t attract much attention in the U.S. – at least not until the group changed its name to Electric Light Orchestra. However, it was another story in the band members’ native U.K., where it scored nine Top 20 singles, including three after ELO prime mover Jeff Lynne joined the lineup in 1970.
A new edition of Message from the Country, the Move’s 1971 final studio album, features two of those singles (“California Man” and “Tonight”) among its nine bonus tracks. Also here is the propulsive “Do Ya,” the group’s sole U.S. chart tune, which stalled at No. 93.
The original album’s 10 tracks, which have been remastered for the new release, show how much American audiences were missing but also help explain why we missed it: the record, which contains everything from an ornate acoustic ballad to a nod to Elvis Presley, is a bit quirky and hard to categorize. However, it is inventive and frequently satisfying, as well. Its Lynne-penned title track hints at what would follow in ELO, whose eponymous debut LP was recorded simultaneously. And the whole album is redolent of late-period Beatles. “Jeff, myself, and [Move multi-instrumentalist] Roy [Wood] were all huge Beatles fans and loved ‘Strawberry Fields’ and ‘I Am the Walrus’,” says the band’s Bev Bevan.
Various artists, The 1955 R&B Hits Collection. This four-disc, 104-track anthology collects nearly all the R&B chart hits from 1955 – one of the most pivotal years in the history of popular music. The set is loaded with recordings from legendary blues and R&B artists such as Ray Charles, B.B. King, Little Walter, Dinah Washington, Etta James, Ruth Brown, and Muddy Waters. There’s also lots of classic rock from the likes of Bo Diddley, the Platters, Bill Haley, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, and Little Richard.
Featured, too, are a variety of gems from early doowop vocal groups like the Charms, the Jacks, the Spiders, the Moonglows, the Penguins, the Danderliers, and the Spaniels. The El Dorados’ “At My Front Door” is here, as well, as is the version of that song by Pat Boone, who made a habit of cashing in on black artists’ hits with identically arranged but enervated cover versions.
This anthology, which includes a 36-page booklet with a long essay and notes about every selection, is the place to go if you want a generous taste of the music that ushered in the rock and roll era. Just skip over the Boone track.
Iron City Houserockers, Blood on the Bricks (Expanded Edition). Bruce Springsteen produced and played on American Babylon, a 1995 album from Joe Grushecky and his Houserockers and, as this column noted in a review of an expanded reissue of that CD, it’s easy to understand why: “Grushecky’s anthemic songs recall Bruce, as do his voice and phrasing, and his band sounds a lot like the Born in the USA–era E Street Band…Grushecky’s lyrics, meanwhile, focus largely on social justice and romantic entanglements – the same preoccupations that dominate many of Springsteen’s songs.”
Similar comments apply to Blood on the Bricks, the group’s 1981 third studio album, which also bears comparison to the work of Southside Johnny and Graham Parker. The LP has just been rereleased in an edition that adds seven outtakes and demo recordings and four contemporaneous live tracks. Guest musicians include saxophonist Jim Horn and famed Stax Records guitarist Steve Cropper, who produced the original LP.
It’s an uneven set, and casual fans would probably be better served by Houserocker: A Joe Grushecky Anthology, which came out last year. Still, there are some noteworthy numbers on the original Blood on the Bricks, and the demos and live tracks – some of which outshine the previously released versions – offer additional reasons to pick this up.
Chatham Rabbits, Be Real with Me. Chatham Rabbits are Sarah and Austin McCombie, a husband-and-wife act named for the wild rabbits that reportedly once flourished in their North Carolina home county of Chatham. This affecting collection, which includes six songs by Sarah and three by Austin, suggests that they deserve a wide audience.
You get the sense that the McCombies pour their hearts into this music, which, as Sarah’s liner notes make clear, stems directly from their lives. “The natural arc of these songs took shape as we waded through a long season of heartbreak, transition, and most importantly getting really real with each other,” she writes.
Heartbreak notwithstanding, their material is consistently lilting and beautifully delivered. Austin’s acoustic guitar and Sarah’s banjo predominate in the mix, and he also contributes some electric guitar and percussion. (Other players add a bit of pedal steel, bass, synth, keyboards, fiddle, mandolin, and flute.) Sarah provides most of the lovely lead vocals, which may remind you of Linda Ronstadt in her Stone Poneys days as well as Nanci Griffith.
Jeff Burger’s website, byjeffburger.com, contains five decades’ worth of music reviews, interviews, and commentary. His books include Dylan on Dylan: Interviews and Encounters, Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon, Leonard Cohen on Leonard Cohen: Interviews and Encounters, and Springsteen on Springsteen: Interviews, Speeches, and Encounters.
