Elliott Murphy Nov 30

On November 30th, Elliott Murphy played an acoustic gig in Zurich’s legendary bar El Internacional. It was, I guess the first gig of a short acoustic tour that will go on for another few gigs in Italy and Germany. He was just phenomenal!!! He played a lot of originals from his whole career as well as a few covers (some of them included in medleys). Van Morrison’s "Gloria" is always a highlight at every Elliott Murphy show. He always gets the audience to sing the "G-L-O-R-I-A- GLOOOOORIA" part.

"Everything I Do (leads me back to you)", the song Elliott recorded together with Bruce Springsteen for his latest studio-album, "Selling The Gold" wasn’t missing last night. Of course, he also played a beautiful version of Springsteens original "Used Cars". Elliott got the inspiration for that song from the alternate take, not from the released version on The River album! That makes it very very special!!! You can find this version on the "One Step Up/Two Steps Back" tribute sampler. It’s worth to listen to!

Photo by Silvio Sidler

My personal highlight was the last song: Rock Ballad (also already played with Bruce Springsteen). In the middle of the song, he started telling a story about the night he heard that Otis Redding died. This was back in ‘67. Following the story, he sang one verse from Otis’ "I’ve been loving you too long" before finishing his own "Rock Ballad". Chapeau!!! Elliott paid tribute to one of the greatest live performers ever!!!

Elliott proved once again that he is worth his money. To me and I guess to everyone at the El Internacional, he also proved that he is a brilliant Singer, Songwriter and live performer! He’s got an excellent voice which stands for itself, he wrote and still writes some fantastic songs and he do knows how to entertain his audience. That’s what it is all about.

There are rumors flying around that Elliott will bring out a new album in the first half of 1998. Another rumor says that he’s coming back to Switzerland in spring.

If you ever have a chance to see him live, check him out! He won’t disappoint you! And if you don’t know his records, check them out! They won’t disappoint you either!