This is it! This has to be the first item on everyone’s Holiday gift list. Everyone you know needs “A Shot of Love in a Time of Need.” This bluesy rock and roll instant classic brings you right into the soul of what music meant to the West Bank in Minneapolis in the ’70s and what it means to Willie Murphy today. For every aging hipster out there who wants a lifeline back to the promise of youth, you need this shot of love.
Maybe the best cut on the CD is Voice in the Night. It has got to become the anthem of a generation that has lost its way:
“Is there a voice in the night When you’re alone Is there a better thing to do with your life
Than give it to a song -Baby, I don’t know.
“Hey, turn off that TV and pick up your guitar Let confusion out your soul Confusion out your soul and let the wisdom blow Out your brain Pick up that guitar and let your wisdom rain.
“I stood boldly just like you; owned my destiny, too I knew the right way, knew the wrong But in the tremble of an eye twenty years can rumble by And if you still travel the path you started on Life can make you lonely, And make the night so long, But maybe you’ll have found some truth and put it in a song . . .
If that’s true then maybe loneliness won’t matter much to you.”
But most of the CD is about love and being lost and left alone. He subtitles the CD Autobiographical Notes, and he describes the pain in Story of My Love Life:
“Every once in a while I try to settle down Some good woman try to turn me around Then one dark night I’ll awake to the sound Of a train flashing by; it makes me want to cry ‘Cause I know I’ll be gone again.
“Back on the road, all the tears behind me Baby I’m gone, you ain’t ever gonna find me Loneliness is back, but it don’t seem to mind me Down the road I go, where I’m going I don’t know But I’m feeling kinda free again.”
When we all believed in Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll, we all knew sex came first, and it still does for Willie:
“Hello don’t mean I love you
A kiss is not a contract If that’s understood, we might as well try But tomorrow morning, don’t want you to cry ‘Cause a one night stand ain’t no love affair.”
Willie is brutally honest and such a great musician that the words burn into your consciousness. The rhythm takes over your body. You want to dance again. You start hearing that voice you heard years ago that kept pushing you on, and you don’t care anymore about what people say. You begin to believe in yourself again. Willie gives you faith in yourself and hope, but his greatest gift is Love in a Time of Need.
Willie will celebrate the release of “Love in a Time of Need” with a live in-store performance Tuesday, Nov. 10, at the Electric Fetus, 2000 Fourth Ave. S. Fun starts at 6:30. Music starts at 7. Willie has moved Blue Mondays, a blues and rock and roll jam session that has gone on for ages from the Viking (when it closed) to the Eagles Club and now to the Golden Valley Legion at 200 Lilac Drive North in Golden Valley. Every Monday, 7 to 9 p.m. Free.
You can buy Willie Murphy’s CD’s directly from him on his website,
Willie was scheduled to do a CD release party at the Fetus Nov. 10, but he broke his arm and had to cancel. His Blue Mondays moved from The Viking to the Eagles Club and has now moved out to the Golden Valley Legion at 200 Lilac Drive North in Golden Valley. Every Monday, 2 to 9 p.m. Free. But those might be on hold until the arm heals.
GET WELL, BIG FELLAH. THE ROCK DOESN’T ROLL WITHOUT YOU!
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