Dead Friday at 88. I'd never heard of him before "The Blues Brothers" but he sure could play.
Dead Friday at 88. I'd never heard of him before "The Blues Brothers" but he sure could play.
Such a great guitarist. And part of such an iconic scene. RIP Matt.
Murphy performed as part of the “American Folk Blues Festival” tour in Europe in the early 1960s. Here he is in 1963 playing “Murphy’s Boogie.”
I was gonna say, that scene with him, Aretha, Aykroyd and Belushi is one of my all time favorites, though that's largely because of Aretha channeling the significant other of every musician who gets left behind whenever the musician goes on the road. I love the look she casts at Aykroyd and Belushi as she says "And you ain't sliding around with your white hoodlum friends, either!".
Later in the movie, he has the great line, at the ballroom gig, when they're waiting for Jake and Elwood to show up, sarcastically saying "I always love to perform for angry mobs". There's no angry mobs where he's playing tonight, hopefully jamming with Duck Dunn and all the other greats who went before him.
Best known to me for things like his work on Memphis Slim's 'Steppin' Out', which Clapton did later on that John Mayall 'Beano' album.
Rest in peace.
We're trying to build a monument to show that we were here
It won't be visible through the air
And there won't be any shade to cool the monument to prove that we were here. - Gene Parsons, 1973
Can’t believe he was 88. Watching that one clip shows how good hereally was.
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RIP Murphy made some good records in the past few decades. Way Down South, Lucky Charm, The Blues Don't Bother Me.
In addition to his guitar playing he had a rich bass voice, and a good sense of humor.
Great player. Like many others, I suspect, I first became aware of Murphy's work through the Blues Brothers - a film that seems to have done a great deal to revive the careers of a number of blues and soul legends. RIP.
I tend to agree with you there. I think it's no coincidence that the 80's saw a bit of a revival of R&B and blues music. You saw the rise of Stevie Ray Vaughan, people like Aretha Franklin started having hits again, and the likes of Hall & Oates and George Michael brought "blue eyed soul" back in a big way. I'm not saying that was all because of The Blues Brothers, but I think it helped to push that kind of music back into public view.
"Let's boogie!"
He was a damn fine player, we should all hoist a Blatz in his honor.
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