Plain and Fancy: 03/29/25

Saturday, March 29, 2025

Elliott Murphy - Night Lights (1976 us, incredible street rock, 2006 japan remaster and expanded)

Elliott Murphy returned to recording in New York City for his third album, emphasizing the point by posing for the cover in the middle of 42nd Street. Enlisting producer Steve Katz, who had handled the last three Lou Reed albums, Murphy fronted a studio band including former Velvet Underground singer/guitarist Doug Yule and former Modern Lovers Ernie Brooks (bass) and Jerry Harrison (keyboards), who was soon to join Talking Heads. They gave Murphy a more contemporary and diverse rock sound, further distinguished from the first two albums by Murphy's development into a more expressive singer. He had even cut back on the referential nature of his lyrics, relying instead on clever wordplay and evocative free association, though he was still capable of throwing out lines like "Just a ballad of a thin girl," dangerous stuff for anyone who had been tagged a "new Dylan." For the most part, though, Night Lights showed Murphy to be moving beyond his obvious influences, even if his lyrics sometimes seemed in need of a sharper focus.

by William Ruhlmann

Night Lights is a purposefully city-orientated album, with what would become fan-favourite songs “Isadora’s Dancers” (complete with a resplendent fourth graders school choir) and “You Never Know What You’re in For”. The very New York “Deco Dance” has some distinctive piano courtesy of Billy Joel, and “Lady Stiletto” is an elegant homage to Patti Smith. There’s a continuity of themes with Lost Generation, both “Lookin’ for a Hero” and “Never As Old As You” are respectively disenchanted railings against barbarism and failed romance. Murphy’s lyrics were tough and aggressive, but with some substance underneath. This was rebellion with a cause.

However Night Lights has a soft side too. “Diamonds By the Yard” is romantic and brooding, and Murphy seems back in his element in the city, as “the sounds of the night” keep him warm. Perhaps there’s a nod of the hat to Lou Reed with what sounds like a heavy bass guitar intro, but in actual fact was Murphy on the pedals of a Hammond C3.

by Charles Pitter / 13 May 2014

Night Lights is the third major label album by singer-songwriter Elliott Murphy, produced by Steve Katz and recorded at Electric Lady Studio. It was reviewed by Dave Marsh in Rolling Stone where he wrote “In 1973 and 1974 it seemed to many of us in New York that it was a tossup whether Bruce Springsteen, the native poet of the mean streets, or Elliott Murphy, the slumming suburbanite with the ironic eye would became a national hero.” The album featured guest appearances by fellow Long Island native Billy Joel and former Velvet Underground member Doug Yule. The cover photo of Murphy standing in Times Square early one Sunday Morning was taken by photographer Michael Dakota although stylised by Steven Meisel.