It soon became apparent that we liked the same music, films and books and we both agreed that the Velvet Underground’s Loaded album was nearly a perfect record. But by the time I met him he was deep into the current New York rock scene and trying desperately to sign The New York Dolls to his label – he eventually did and it cost him his job! Paul liked my demo although with his dark glasses, tweed cap and Sherman’s cigars it was hard to know what he was thinking. He had gone to school with Bob Dylan out in Minneapolis and started one of the first folk magazines The Little Sandy Review back in the late 50’s when the folk boom was just beginning. Paul Nelson was a legendary figure even before he became a talent scout for Mercury Records. And by an incredible twist of fate I found myself in the office of Paul Nelson who was head of A&R at Mercury Records, ready to play my home-made demo for him with “Last of the rock Stars,” “How’s The Family,” “White Middle Class Blues” and a few other originals already road-tested on the streets of Europe. Of course, the only way to climb the same Mount Olympus where the gods Dylan, Jagger and Lennon lived was to start pounding the pavement around Broadway in New York City where most of the record companies were located. A short detour took me to Rome where I bluffed my way into a Fellini movie but my plan of action was set: I would take my songs back to New York, get a recording contract and become (what else?) a … rock star! I was just like thousands of other so-called hippies looking for adventure but something happened while I was there in Europe for close to a year, some creative force was let loose inside me and I started writing songs while playing on the canals of Amsterdam, the grand place of Brussels and, of course, in the Paris Metro. Luckily, my sister Michelle was a stewardess on Pan Am Airlines (once as well known as Air France and today totally forgotten – a good lesson!) and she managed to get me a cheap ticket and off I flew to Europe with my long hair and a guitar. And I remembered when I first heard the name Bruce Springsteen way back in 1972 …īack in those very distant times I was twenty-one and anxious to escape the white middle class Long Island suburbs where I grew up. After the show Bruce put his arms around Gaspard and said, “Hey Mister Cool! You looked like you do that every night.” And I was thinking about all the nights and days that had led me to this amazing point in my life, up there on stage with Bruce, my son and (what seemed like) half of Paris, my adopted hometown, in front of me. Bruce and I had been friends for over 35 years and this was the greatest gift he could ever give me. Gaspard and Bruce were shoulder to shoulder and in the many photos that fans have sent me since you can see me with this ear-to-ear grin like the proud father I was that evening. There were about 60,000 people in front of me but I was hardly seeing any of them because I was only looking at my 18-year-old son Gaspard Murphy who was standing next to Bruce playing power chords on the Fender Strat that Little Steven had given him. This past June on a beautiful spring night I was standing on stage with Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band at the Parc Des Prince stadium in Paris playing Born to Run.
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