JUST A STORY FROM AMERICA – A MEMOIR by Elliott Murphy

Elliott Murphy, legendary rock troubadour and a true pioneer of independent recording artists has finally published his long-awaited memoir, JUST A STORY FROM AMERICA. This rock and roll storyteller, who has been cited by artists as inspirational as Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel and the late Lou Reed, and whose career now spans nearly five decades, was promoted by Columbia Records in 1977 with a full-page ad in Rolling Stone reading, “He could write a book, but he chose rock and roll instead.” The truth is that he has been doing both for years and in the process achieving international success and acclaim. Finally, his amazing story is told.

In 1973 posters were plastered all over New York City’s subway system proclaiming, “Elliott Murphy is going to be a monster,” when his critically-praised debut album, AQUASHOW, was first released. Perhaps his major label career didn’t take off as predicted, but his unique journey did include him becoming a rock star monster, before ultimately finding redemption in Paris, France with a thriving career, loving family and a trove of rock ‘n roll anecdotes and wisdom to fill this unforgettable and highly readable memoir.

In his honest, gripping and often humorous telling, Elliott describes a childhood of show biz affluence, the tragic loss of a famous father, a European sojourn where he encountered Federico Fellini and a love for the old world, and perhaps most provocatively, his journey through the mine-fields of rock stardom in which he fittingly calls true success in the music business as best measured in terms of survival. From the glam world of 1970’s Manhattan and fabled LA recording studios and on to what was left of swinging London before finally finding his home, love and a faithful public in Europe, Elliott Murphy’s memoir is a valuable addition to a growing essential cultural genre that now includes Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run, Patti Smith’s Just Kids and Bob Dylan’s Chronicles.

JUST A STORY FROM AMERICA takes the reader on an insightful journey into the daunting world of the music business from the unique perspective of an internationally acclaimed artist you may never have heard of, even while songs such as Last of the Rock Stars, Drive all Night, and A Touch of Kindness travelled on radio-airwaves all around the world for decades. A moving and not often heard story told from the perspective of an artist who has gone from celebrity to anonymity and back again and lived to tell the tale. 

Elliott Murphy has released over 35 albums of original music since his debut album AQUASHOW (1973) and continues to perform concerts in Europe, Japan, Canada and the USA. He stars in the upcoming feature film, BROKEN POET based upon his 1980’s short story which includes a rare cameo appearance by Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa. The award winning 2016 documentary, THE SECOND ACT OF ELLIOTT MURPHY was selected for the prestigious Stony Brook Film Festival and his journalism has appeared in Rolling Stone (U.S.), Vanity Fair (France), and other international publications. He is the author of three novels, two poetry books, and numerous short-story collections.

In 2015 Elliott Murphy was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture and in 2018, Billy Joel inducted Elliott into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame, stating, “His songs are honest and literate and pure, and those songs have attracted audiences far beyond his country. I’ve long envied his bravery and integrity, and I’ve always admired his lyric skill.”

www.elliottmurphy.com

$ 14.99 paperback / $   9.99 Kindle 

Woodstock 50th Anniversary: Back to Yasgur’s Farm

New Book Offers Front-Row Seat to Greatest Concert in History

STEVENS POINT, WI – The year was 1969. Richard Nixon was in the White House. Neil Armstrong was on the Moon. And revolution was in the air. In that backdrop, 500,000 young people gathered on a mid-August weekend in upstate New York for the promise of three days of peace and music. What they experienced at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair was something far greater. 

Celebrating “the greatest peaceful event in history,” Woodstock 50th Anniversary: Back to Yasgur’s Farm (Krause Publications) offers a dazzling and compelling front-row seat to the most important concert in rock history, an implausible happening filled with trials and triumphs that defined a generation.

Author and Woodstock attendee Mike Greenblatt brilliantly captures the power of music’s greatest performers such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, Santana and the Who, while sharing stories both personal and audacious from the crowd of a half million strong who embraced not only the music but each other.

The book features a Foreword by Country Joe McDonald, whose rousing solo acoustic version of “The Fish Cheer/I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag” was one of the most memorable performances at Woodstock. Readers will enjoy interviews with such rock icons as Graham Nash, Carlos Santana, Joe Cocker, Richie Havens, Country Joe McDonald, Edgar Winter, members of Jefferson Airplane, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Sly & The Family Stone, Canned Heat, Sha Na Na, co-host Chip Monck, fans and countless others. In addition, all 32 performances at the festival are showcased.

Equal parts circus and surreal, Woodstock 50th Anniversary: Back to Yasgur’s Farm tells a transcendent tale of a musical and mythical moment in time. 

Advance Praise for Woodstock 50th Anniversary

“Straight from a long-haired hippie who experienced all that Woodstock had to offer — the beauty, the mud, the music and the cultural eccentricities — Mike Greenblatt has carried Woodstock deep within his soul ever since. Fifty years later, he writes with charming alacrity about that weekend, his memory on fire, lighting up the personal details of what occurred at this once-in-a-lifetime communal concert event. 

— Pat Prince, editor, Goldmine magazine

“Mike Greenblatt’s long-awaited debut book on Woodstock— filled with his own hilarious memories and impressive interviews and research— is fascinating and dazzling. It’s definitely the definitive book on the wild festival fifty years ago that rocked America.”

— Susan Shapiro, New York Times bestselling author of Lighting UpUnhooked and The Byline Bible

About The Author

All Mike Greenblatt has done in life is listen to music and tell people about it, be it as a New York City publicist, editor or freelance journalist. It’s been five decades of chronicling rock ’n’ roll in all of its permutations. Whether sitting front row at Woodstock, flying with Hank Williams, Jr. in his private jet, driving around the Jersey Shore with Bruce Springsteen, getting angrily thrown against a backstage wall by Meat Loaf, or being locked in a dressing room with Jerry Lee Lewis threatening to kill him, Greenblatt’s voice has sung the praises of rock loud and long.

Greenblatt has interviewed Elton John, the Eagles (where he extemporaneously interviewed Joe Walsh at side-by-side urinals deep within the bowels of Giants Stadium), Ian Anderson, Paul McCartney, Blondie, The Allman Brothers, Waylon Jennings and hundreds of others. 

He lives in Easton, Penn., with his music-teacher wife and their two rescue beagles

Woodstock 50th Anniversary: Back to Yasgur’s Farm

By Mike Greenblatt
8 x 8, hardcover, 224 pages
300-plus photographs
ISBN-13: 9781440248900

List Price: $24.99
Krause Publications

Available in July wherever good books are sold