Modern Lovers/ Elliott Murphy

Bonjour,

It's funny that someone has precisely mentioned this week Elliott Murphy's Night Lights album, with its stronger than usual Modern Lovers connection. It's funny, because I've just been listening this week to the BMG reissue of Elliott Murphy's Lost Generation/ Night lights albums on one CD, and I intended to tell you about it.

Yes, the Modern Lovers connection at the time of the 1976 Night Lights is strong, because that year the Elliott Murphy band at one point consisted in none other than Ernie Brooks, of course, plus Jerry Harrison and Andy Paley on drums!!! This line-up didn't last long, it toured and recorded 3 of the songs on the original album.

The BMG reissue has one extra track for Lost Generation, and no less than ten for Night Lights. The silly thing is that there is absolutely no information whatsoever as to where these tracks come from. But they are obviously studio outtakes and demos. And what I had been meaning to tell you is that one of these extra tracks, "Night Connection," obviously features, it seems to me, the Brooks/Harrison/Paley line-up(that organ sound...), and moreover, the theme of the song is a not too distant cousin to that of "Roadrunner." So much so that "Night Connection" was rerecorded for the next album, 77's Just a Story from America, under the title "Drive All Night!"

And if you'd like to hear more of this Elliott Murphy band line-up, then you can look for volume two of Elliott Murphy's rarity series: it features a full concert by this version of the band in 1976, including "Night Connection." I found this info on the net while looking for info on Night Lights. The most complete info was on a Spanish site though: Dusty Roses Records.

Livappy!

JC


JC Brochard / Pol Dodu
Vivonzeureux! (en attendant la mort...)
Mareuil-sur-Ay, France
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