Some Paul Murphy For You

Two and a half years waiting for a face to face appointment. Three and a half years waiting for care. Buck-passing daily tho'...

'This Is Not Au Revoir' - words and music (c) Paul Murphy / 2024

'This Is Not Au Revoir' - words and music (c) Paul Murphy / 2024

'This Is Not Au Revoir' - words and music (c) Paul Murphy / 2024

'This Is Not "Au Revoir"' - words and music (c) Paul Murphy / 2024

This is Take 4, from the session for the just-written 'This Is Not Au Revoir'. Pax, Me 25 August 2024 'This Is Not Au Revoir' - words and music © Paul Murphy / 2024 - - - Studio recordings 1996-2001 now available to listen to on Patreon - / paul-murphy-to-107439797

Hi. Todays new song. This is Take 4, the final one of the session. By now I wanted to try some alternate vocal nuances and some alternate string cadences - well, the song was 20 minutes old by this point, time to mix it up! - and this is probably close to where I will keep it. Take 3 is similar to this, but with harmonica. Pax, Me 23 August 2024 'Try To Dream Without Seeing Me' - words and music © Paul Murphy / 2024 - - - Studio recordings 1996-2001 now available to listen to on Patreon - / paul-murphy-to-107439797

Hi. Todays new song. This is Take 2, out of 4 recorded at this just-written-let's-record-it session. Pax, Me 23 August 2024 'Try To Dream Without Seeing Me' - words and music © Paul Murphy / 2024 - - - Studio recordings 1996-2001 now available to listen to on Patreon - / paul-murphy-to-107439797

Hi. Todays new song. This is Take 1, the working version of the session. 3 further versions followed, with alternate vocal nuances and some alternate string cadences. Take 4 is probably the 'master', but the others all have a quaility of their own and I didn't want to leave them 'in the vault'. Pax, Me 23 August 2024 'Try To Dream Without Seeing Me' - words and music © Paul Murphy / 2024 - - - Studio recordings 1996-2001 now available to listen to on Patreon - / paul-murphy-to-107439797

Hi. This is about as close I'll get to a version of 'The Ballad of Justice Road'. By dint of the fact the lyrics stretch to 30 verses, the only way to do this is to have the sheets spread out and read as one plays. So, I'm straying off-mic at junctures. The intention was to use the harmonica breaks to recalibrate the eyes and larynx... and the harp reed died mid-song. Some days.... anyway, I know this song has a lot of fans - I'm one of them - and I've done my best to do it justice here, in somewhat - awkward - conditions. Pax, Me 22 August 2024 'The Ballad of Justice Road' - words and music © Paul Murphy / 2024 - - - Studio recordings 1996-2001 now available to listen to on Patreon - / paul-murphy-to-107439797

A revisit. It's a difficult song to record, due to its length and, more hampering, the extent of my MND. I wish it was better, but hey, I don't know anyone who has a comparable song. Light and peace, Me 22 August 2024 'You Must Be Dreaming (If You Think Things Will Ever Change)' - words and music © Paul Murphy / 2024 - - -

Today's new song. This is the first acoustic version, after 6 electric takes. The acoustic versions all have a different chord sequence on the exit line of each verse, to compensate for the lack of the bridging hang chord the electric versions are able to contain. Light and peace, Me 21 August 2024 'You Must Be Dreaming (If You Think Things Will Ever Change)' - words and music © Paul Murphy / 2024 - - -

Today's new song. And almost definitely my final song. This was a difficult one to record, even without my disabilities. It runs 10 pages, so there was no way to pin them all up so oone could stand in one place and view them. It meant using an open mic and performing 'in the (semi)round' - somewhat awkward for a man wearing leg braces to hold him up... As it was, a couple of the pages had to lie on top of each other and be sled away between chords. Add into that the fact the lyric came to me all in one go, as you hear it here, and the 90 minutes it took me to write it took my index finger out of action - well, I'm glad the song has a happy ending, I'd hate to have gone through all that if she'd stayed with the bag guy. Light and peace, Me 20 August 2024 'The Ballad of Justice Road' - words and music © Paul Murphy / 2024 - - - Studio recordings 1996-2001 now available to listen to on Patreon - / paul-murphy-to-107439797 .

'The Times They Are A-Changin'' - words and music by Bob Dylan , 1963

Today's new song. I managed to get 2 takes down, this is the second. Speaking of seconds - never waste one. Light and peace, Me 19 August 2024 'The Dawn Is A Thousand Yesterdays Away' - words and music © Paul Murphy / 2024 - - -

Today's new song. It was an - uncomfortable write, especially towards the end. There's a lot of pleasure in being a songwriter/storyteller, but there's a lot of pain in it as well. Light and peace, Me 19 August 2024 'The Dawn Is A Thousand Yesterdays Away' - words and music © Paul Murphy / 2024 - - -

Today's new song. It was an - uncomfortable write, especially towards the end. There's a lot of pleasure in being a songwriter/storyteller, but there's a lot of pain in it as well. Even when you're documenting the pain of others, it still rips a layer off your soul sometimes. Add yourself to the mix... and then you have to sing it... This is the first acoustic version, cut a few hours after 4 electric takes. The nuance changes when you swap guitar format, the message doesn't. Light and peace, Me 18 August 2024 'The Rule Of Life' - words and music © Paul Murphy / 2024 - - - Studio recordings 1996-2001 now available to listen to on Patreon - / paul-murphy-to-107439797 .

Today's new song. It was an - uncomfortable write, especially towards the end. There's a lot of pleasure in being a songwriter/storyteller, but there's a lot of pain in it as well. Even when you're documenting the pain of others, it still rips a layer off your soul sometimes. Add yourself to the mix... and then you have to sing it... This is the first acoustic version, cut a few hours after 4 electric takes. The nuance changes when you swap guitar format, the message doesn't. Light and peace, Me 18 August 2024 'The Rule Of Life' - words and music © Paul Murphy / 2024 - - - Studio recordings 1996-2001 now available to listen to on Patreon - / paul-murphy-to-107439797 .

This was intended to be a version of my song 'All That Precious Love Has Gone'. Due to my disabled fingers no longer able to work the intricate arpeggios, I got a bit ... grumpy. and here you have a folk-punk version of Bob Dylan's masterpiece. How does it feel? Felt pretty good, actually. Light and peace, Me 17.08.2024 'Like A Rolling Stone' - words and music by Bob Dylan / 1965; additional lyrics by Paul Murphy / 2024 'All That Precious Love Has Gone' - words and music (c) Paul Murphy / 1996, 2024

Hi. This is an abridged version of 'Juliette' which, by dint of the way the lyrics went, is also able to stand as a self-contained song. The full song runs to 37 minutes, and there is one acoustic version of the complete work as a song, plus there are two recital versions of the lyric. Pax, Me early August 2024 'Juliette' - words and music © Paul Murphy / 2024 - - - Studio recordings 1996-2001 now available to listen to on Patreon - / paul-murphy-to-107439797 .

'Candle' - words and music by Paul Murphy (c) 1982, 2024 'Where Does The Sun Go To At Night?' - words by Emily Murphy and music by Paul Murphy © Emily Murphy, Paul Murphy / 2023, 2024 'Call Me If You're Lost' - words and music by Paul Murphy (c) 1997, 2024

Bob Dylan's 1965 masterpiece, appearing on the majestic "Highway 61 Revisited" album. I took the liberty of realigning the lyric somewhat for this cover, to take into allegorical account, events in the Uk in the last year or so. Light and peace, Me August 2024

A new, slow arrangement for 'Me & The Princess', adjusting the accentuation of the narrative as well. I had to pick up the pace for the last couple of verses, as my fingers were dying, but it seemed to come off pretty well. That led into a follow-on to the original song, the central character looking back on events, exorcising a few ghosts. Light & peace, Me 13.08.2024 'Me & The Princess' - words and music © Paul Murphy / 1989, 2024 'Princess's Coda' - words and music © Paul Murphy / 2024 - - - Studio recordings 1996-2001 now available to listen to on Patreon - / paul-murphy-to-107439797

I returned to 'ToXic' to see if I could get an electric version, at the origination tempo. Due to my disabled fingers and arms, I had to slow the song down, but, I don't think it works too badly. The lyric - I guess some people are going to think this is about one person. It's not, it's wide-range, like most of my social commentary songs. Free speech, by the way, is not free. Many people have paid, and many continue to pay, a heavy price for us to have it. So, maybe for their sacrifice, we could use it ... wisely. I followed 'ToXic' up with a short-n-sweet version of 'Where Does The Sun Go To At Night?', lyric written by my wonderful daughter, 9 at the time. I thought a poem of hope and joy would make a kind of antidote to a song about posts of hate and hurt. Light & peace, Me 13.08.2024 'ToXic' - words and music © Paul Murphy / 2024

'Because I Don't Care' - words and music (c) Paul Murphy / 2024