Everything Is an Afterthought

In January of 1973, a few weeks after Elliott Murphy first played his demos for Paul Nelson, then an A&R guy at Mercury Records, Paul presented him the recently released debut album of another songsmith: Bruce Springsteen's Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. Later that same month, Paul invited Murphy to join him at Max's Kansas City, where Springsteen was playing with a very early incarnation of the E Street Band.

This week over at Wolfgang's Vault—which features free streaming of vintage live concert performances—the featured concert is, with relative certainty, the show in question. Recorded January 31, 1973, after the show Paul introduced Elliott to Bruce, thereby launching a friendship that continues to this day.

Copyright 2008 by Kevin Avery. All rights reserved.

Last night in Paris, France, 35 years after Paul Nelson first introduced the two men to one another at Max's Kansas City, Bruce Springsteen invited Elliott Murphy onstage to perform "Born to Run" with the E Street Band. While this has become something of a tradition—Springsteen, whenever he performs in France, asking Murphy to play along—last night he extended the invitation to the next generation, and Murphy's 17-year-old son Gaspard shared the spotlight.

Later, Springsteen called Elliott back onstage to join in on the last song of the night, "American Land."

Copyright 2008 by Kevin Avery. All rights reserved. 

Over at his website last week, Elliott Murphy delivered a heartfelt paean to the importance of pursuing our dreams and, when our dreams come true, the price we pay trying to live up to them. In the midst of it all, he writes:

Last night I dreamed again about Bob Dylan and he was very nice to me and we were talking about Paul Nelson, the rock-critic who discovered me and passed away a few years ago. In my dream Bob was very quiet when I mentioned Paul's name and asked me what I wanted to know about Paul. Don't know what that means. 

Earlier this year, Murphy released another fine album--his thirtieth--Notes from the Underground. (In a bit of Dostoyoveskian synchronicity, last summer another Paul Nelson protege, Frank Secich, founding member of Blue Ash, the Youngstown, Ohio, band that Paul signed to Mercury Records, released an excellent album with his new group, the Deadbeat Poets, also called Notes from the Underground.)

Copyright 2008 by Kevin Avery. All rights reserved.

"There were a few people who picked up on me very early before my first record, when I was playing solo at Max's Kansas City," Bruce Springsteen said about Paul Nelson, "and he's the one who stands foremost in my mind."



From 1975 to 1982, Paul wrote a series of infrequent but expansive meditations about Springsteen, his music, and his remarkable relationship to a rapidly burgeoning audience. How accurate were Paul's perceptions? "Oh, they could come out right now," Springsteen said, "and they'd be right on the money. That was my job the way that I saw it, and he perceived it. That's quite a connection to make."

I spoke with Springsteen Tuesday afternoon, an interview that, by the time all was said and done, took eight months to arrange. In the interim, Springsteen wrapped up his tour with the Sessions band and released a live album documenting it; recorded a new studio album with the E Street Band, Magic, due out October 2nd; and suffered the death of his longtime friend and assistant, Terry Magovern, who passed away in his sleep on the night of July 30th.

As an interviewee, Springsteen was open, funny, and philosophical without being pretentious. And on the subject of Paul Nelson, he spoke eloquently.

Paul entered Springsteen's life in 1972 when the young singer/songwriter (who was then 22 or 23) would take the bus from New Jersey into New York City to play the opening half of double bills at Max's Kansas City. Paul was impressed enough to keep coming back, bringing with him other writers and artists (including Elliott Murphy) and turning them on, too, to the New Jersey phenom.

Everything Is an Afterthought examines Paul's friendship with Springsteen (mostly in Springsteen's own words) and how the artist's special brand of rock & roll represented for Paul more than just music. The book will reprint all of Paul's articles and reviews about Springsteen, presenting for the first time Paul's preferred texts, based on his original manuscripts. (For instance, Paul's review of The River is considerably different than what got published in 1980 and which can be found online.) 

Documenting Springsteen's early career, Paul's writings reflect not only his fondness for the man but how he had to come to terms with his friend's music when it took turns down alleyways both unexpected and dark.

Copyright 2007 by Kevin Avery. All rights reserved.

I was remiss in my last journal entry for not linking to Elliott Murphy's heartfelt eulogy of the man he called mentor, the man he called friend. Written on 7 July 2006, just a few days after Paul's body was found in his Manhattan apartment, Murphy's memories -- as tough as they are fond and funny -- spill forth in a nonstop fashion like so many years gone by. Thirty-four, to be exact.

Copyright 2007 by Kevin Avery. All rights reserved.

He wrote about rock & roll with a sense of romantic integrity which has inspired me to this day, and his wonderful Rolling Stone review of Aquashow proclaimed a level of artistry for my work that I have tried my best to maintain all these years since.

So wrote Elliott Murphy about Paul Nelson in 1990 in the liner notes to the CD reissue of Aquashow, Murphy's 1973 debut album. Paul's rave review heralded the arrival on the scene of a new kind of singer/songwriter, clearly influenced by Bob Dylan but different. People took notice.

"I think it’s hard to imagine today," Murphy told me when interviewed for the book, "the power of the critics and the way the music business took them seriously. Because it was really still the time where the music was leading the industry, not the industry leading the music like it is today. These critics, these were mysterious people to the music business. You know, who were these guys who knew everything about every record and had these collections and these bootlegs? Who were they, these Jon Landaus and Paul Nelsons and Lester Bangs and everyone else? So they really took them seriously; they thought they knew something they didn’t know. And they did."

In March, 34 years after Aquashow, Elliott Murphy released Coming Home Again, his 29th album. Not only did his relationship with Paul Nelson serve as a significant chapter in each man's life, it represents an important chapter in Everything Is an Afterthought, as well.

Copyright 2007 by Kevin Avery. All rights reserved.