By Ralph Greco, Jr.
The long-awaited Elliott Murphy film Broken Poet is out now. Initially slated for a premiere this past March, as the opening film of the 2020 New York City International Film Festival, the Corona pandemic halted those plans for this film that Murphy stars in and co-wrote from a short story he penned.
Bruce Springsteen and his Patti Scialfa make cameo appearances in this movie,’ interviewed’ as they are at the beginning by Rolling Stone reporter, “Meg,” played by Marisa Berenson. They give forth convincingly about fictional music legend, “Jake Lion,” whose suicide has always been surrounded in mystery. Meg then skips over to Paris, to find more facts about Lion’s supposed death from jumping into the Seine. Within the ‘City of Lights, scrumptiously shot here, both day and night, Meg meets up with an ex-Lion record company contact, played with subtle aplomb by the always on-point Michael O’Keefe (sporting a British no less).
She also finds “Eric,” Lion, Jake’s brother busking in the Metro. Or is he Eric and not actually Jake? From Eric, played with relish by Murphy, Meg learns all there is about Jake Lions reluctant rise to stardom (something the Springsteen’s tell us of earlier in the film) and his demise. Of course, on returning to New York City, Meg learns things are not all that they seem, and we are left with a mystery.
Murphy’s turn here is quite engaging, the shots of Paris are spectacular, and the music he performs (written with Gaspad Murphy, his son), in the movie and on the soundtrack for the film is top-notch, as one would expect with someone with Murphy’s abilities.
I was lucky enough to speak with Mr. Murphy, who lives in Paris. The veteran rocker and author’s career is more active than ever. He has released over 35 albums, still performs shows all over Europe as well as the U.S. and Japan, and is a prolific writer of fiction. Born to a show business family, Murphy began his music career with a troubadour like odyssey in Europe in 1971 including a bit part in Federico Fellini’s film Roma. Returning to the US he quickly secured a recording contract and following the success of his first album. Aquashow, came Lost Generation, Night Lights (featuring Billy Joel), Just A Story From America (featuring Phil Collins and Mick Taylor), and Selling The Gold (featuring Bruce Springsteen), all the way to his most current releases, produced and mixed by his Gaspard Murphy.
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How are things in Paris these days? I hope you can still get out and get bread and wine.
Yes, and cigarettes the essentials here (laughs). Like everybody else, we’ve been in confinement for the past two months. But the number of reported cases of the virus seems to be on the way down. Hopefully, we’ve turned a corner.
And you have been living in Paris for a while now, right?
Yes, been here for 30 years.
Beyond how beautiful the city is, and yes, the bread and wine, and the women…
I married one of them.
A talented as well as a smart man! But can you pinpoint one reason overall why you like the city so much, how it affected your career specifically?
Speaking personally with the kind of music I do, I would say they look at music more as a part of the culture here than as a part of show business. Because of that, there is more room in the middle. America is much more a feast or famine world when it comes to popular music. In France there’s more a middle, they have cultural centers, which are supported by the government where you can play concerts and just, in general, it’s a more friendly atmosphere for me professionally.
From there, you branch out and cover the rest of Europe?
Pretty much. What happened was that I had an album come out in ’77 on Columbia called Just A Story From America, and there was a song on there called “Anastasia,” which was kind of a hit in France, though I didn’t realize it until a couple of years later. So that kind of opened the door for me here. I played my first concert here in 1979, and I was expecting a little club, a couple hundred people. But it turned out to be a couple thousand people. I got like six encores. So, I said, whoa, this is the second act of Elliot Murphy.
And the music business there as opposed to the U.S.? You just mentioned how music is more culturally accepted, but for you personally, touring, releasing music, have you found that especially hard or easy with respect to where you live?
It was easy for me Ralph because I came here with a reputation — they had heard of me, read about me. Just starting here anew as an American I’d say would be difficult. And the big music business difference is you have all these countries, which pretty much add up to the population of America, and each has its own scene, their own agents. So, when I book a concert now, I will go to a French agent for a concert in France, a Spanish agent for one in Spain, it’s pretty much like that. And I used to license my albums to six or seven different labels over here.
How do you do releases now?
The way I do it now is pretty much an extension of how I did it in the 70s. Because there are so many different labels here, that idea of licensing albums to different labels, in different countries, existed here when it didn’t really exist in America. I found out about it and found if I could produce the albums myself, I could make those deals with those different labels. Now I’m thought of as one of the pioneers of independent rock artists, but at the time, it seemed to be the only way to get my music out.
Survival?
Survival, yeah. And of course, everything’s changed with Spotify and everything else. I have my own little label here, we put out through iTunes, all the various streaming platforms and we do physical product too, even LPs, in that way it hasn’t changed.
Then you make the move to putting the new movie together…but then the pandemic hits, so you don’t get to release it the way you intended.
(Laughs) You know what they say: ‘If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans.’
So true. But in making the movie, what did you find were the big differences between that and making an album?
A lot of it comes down to the financial investment. I mean making a record is a lot less expensive than making films. You can do many takes of a song in a studio and the songs on five minutes long. But when you’re out there with a crew of twenty people, you really have to get it right, right away. And this was an independent film, so there wasn’t a huge budget. There are many exterior factors, especially if you’re shooting outdoors. All of sudden you’re in the middle of a shot and a motorcycle passes and makes a lot of noise. You gotta do it again. It’s a good thing, though. It really makes you be there for the moment because if you screw up, it is expensive and time-consuming…and costly. For me personally, Ralph, this was really my first intense film roll, and I found the hardest thing was learning all the lines. It’s not like learning lyrics to songs, even if you get lost sooner or later a chorus comes along. But once I got the memorization down, it wasn’t so difficult.
How close to the character of “Jake” are you? In the movie, we hear tales of him being quite the erasable guy. And his supposed brother “Eric” is also quite a character.
Well, I never jumped off a bridge (laughs). And unlike Jake Lion in the movie, I was happy to find a level of success in Europe, while not huge, in terms of longevity I have a great public, up until just recently I was performing about a hundred shows a year, it’s now down to about sixty. Jake’s story is a rejection of success, which is very rare in films about rock stars. They generally kill themselves because of success, like A Star Is Born. This film is the anti-A Star Is Born.
There’s so much to like about the movie. How wonderful Paris is shot, your performance, I think, is great.
Well, thank you very much.
And you have one of my favorite actors in the film, Michael O’Keefe.
Michael was very helpful to me, as was my wife, she’s an actress and in the film as well. But Michael really helped me get the emotional component down for my character. Married to Bonnie Raitt as he was for a long time, he knows the music world very well, and it was so helpful to have him around. I have been a fan of his since The Great Santini.
As have I. Seeing as much as you use Paris in the movie, did you find it a hard city to film in, as opposed to say New York City?
Actually, it’s a little less hectic than New York. I recall I shot the cover for my album Night Lights in Times Square 1975 and had to shoot it at six am because it was the only time the police would give us permission to shoot. Paris is very encouraging to filming, lots of movies are shot here. A team came with us when we filmed in The Metro; they were encouraging in showing us where to shoot. It’s ironic; there are few scenes in the front of Notre-Dame before the fire. The main spire has since fallen, and seeing it still standing there in the film adds a historical element.
And beyond the city, your performance, Bruce Springsteen and his wife, Patti Scialfa, have cameos in the film. I don’t think I have even seen them in a film, videos sure, but…
That’s a funny story. About two years ago, there was a documentary made over here called The Second Act of Elliot Murphy, and Bruce very generously and graciously agreed to appear in that and be interviewed, along with Billy Joel. They both said wonderful things about they would never say to my face.
That’s always the way, right?
Definitely. Anyway, when I asked him to be in Broken Poet, he immediately said sure. So, I sent him the script, and I wanted him and Patti to be in it because I wanted two different points of view on the character of Jake Lion. Now Patti stuck to the script, but Bruce played it off the cuff. That line about him and Jake being called the ‘new Dylan’ he made up on the spot.
Which was one of the labels I had heard used about Bruce himself when his first album came out.
Exactly.
And speaking of Bruce, Broken Poet is currently available at the big Bruce Springsteen website, Backstreets.com.
Right, you can go there right now to see it. It will also be brought out across other platforms by the middle of July.
I can’t thank you enough for taking the time, calling in all the way from Paris. I wish you all the best for the film and very best of health to you and yours.
Same to you, Ralph, thank you so much.
