ELLIOTT MURPHY : LOST GENERATION

1. Hollywood
2. A Touch Of Mercy
3. History
4. When You Ride
5. Bittersweet
6. Lost Generation
7. Eva Braun
8. Manhattan Rock
9. Visions Of The Night
10. Lookin' Back

Label : RCA

Release Date : January 1975

Length : 37:24

Review (AllMusic) : After his debut album, Aquashow, proved a critical success and a commercial failure, Elliott Murphy switched from Polydor to RCA for Lost Generation, on which Doors producer Paul A. Rothchild and a group of L.A. session musicians gave him a better sound, while his songs seemed like outtakes from the first record. Again, Murphy was endlessly referential, name-checking everyone from Andy Warhol to Ezra Pound, mixing a contemporary New York City milieu with literary, cinematic, musical, and historical allusions in his sometimes whiney sawdust tenor while the band made like Blonde on Blonde. It was the same set of elements that had made Aquashow such a delight, but they weren't blended quite as well this time. Nevertheless, Murphy remained an intriguing songwriter with a nervy cultural sense, and his future seemed promising.

Review (Wikipedia) : Lost Generation was the second major label album by singer-songwriter Elliott Murphy produced by Paul A. Rothchild and recorded at Elektra Studio in Los Angeles and was reviewed by Paul Nelson in Rolling Stone. The album featured an all-star band of top session musicians including drummer Jim Gordon and keyboardist Richard Tee. The cover photo of Murphy standing in front of an open parachute was taken by photographer Ed Caraeff. Paul Nelson's Rolling Stone review called the album "brilliant but extraordinarily difficult" and gave Murphy the Hemingwayesque accolade, "When he's on the street, the sun also rises on one of the best."