Song Lyric of the Day (Elliott Murphy, on ‘Soul Map Correction’)

“Oh won't you be my night connection--drive all night

Oh give me soul map correction--drive all night.”— “Drive All Night,” written and performed by Elliott Murphy, from the Just a Story From America LP (1977)

From 1976 through the first half of 1978, as Bruce Springsteen sought to extricate himself from a legal hell with his former manager-producer, many fans like myself made do with rockers more than a little reminiscent of his sound and persona. Even after he returned, “New  Springsteens” seemed to come out of the woodwork (see John Cafferty and Beaver Brown), the way “New Dylans” once did (see The Boss himself).

In those restless days of waiting for the return of the Once and Future Boss, the New York-born rocker Elliott Murphy emerged with an FM hit, “Drive All Night.” Listen to the words (especially the overriding metaphor: cars) and give into that beat, and you’d swear you were hearing the New Jersey rocker instead—a fact underscored years later in this YouTube video, in which Murphy and his grown son Gaspard play a medley of the song with “Born to Run.”(Indeed, Springsteen and Murphy were born the same year, released their first albums within 24 months of each other and have formed a kind of mutual admiration society over time.)

No matter—as you’ll discover (if you don’t remember it from all those years ago), “Drive All Night” has its own special, exhilarating wonder. And I can’t say enough about an expatriate rock ‘n’ roller who’s also a published fiction writer who has spoken of my literary hero, F. Scott Fitzgerald, as an inspiration. I know what he means when he says, “"Rock 'n’ roll is my addiction and literature is my religion."

For a fine interview with Murphy, see this post from Mick Du Russel’s “The Showbiz Wizard” blog.