On January 31, 1974, Rolling Stone reviewed Bruce Springsteen’s latest album, The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle. The headline on the page read, “He’s the Best Dylan Since 1968.”
But the reviewer wasn’t referring to Bruce.
Bruce’s sophomore album shared that page with Elliott Murphy’s debut album, Aquashow, and it was Murphy who received the New Dylan sobriquet that particular day.
The New Dylans were already friends by that point–they’d met the year prior when Murphy caught one of Bruce’s shows at Max’s Kansas City and struck up an instant rapport. Their friendship remained strong over the years that followed, but it would be two decades before they’d first perform together on stage.
That moment came when Bruce’s 1992 world tour arrived in Paris, where Murphy had taken up residence. The two old friends took the opportunity to reconnect, and Bruce suggested they sing something together on stage.
It was Bruce’s idea to play “Rock Ballad,” from Elliott’s 1977 album, Just a Story From America.
An ode to the slow ballads of Murphy’s youth and inspired by artists like Otis Redding and Percy Faith, it’s easy to see why Bruce took a shine to “Rock Ballad.” Bruce and Elliott performed it acoustically late in the second set, with Elliot on lead vocals and Bruce supporting.
“It was an incredible moment for me,” Murphy wrote in a 2008 essay, “and I got to admit I was nervous as hell. When I walked to the stage with Bruce’s late and truly missed assistant Terry Magovern I think I was visibly shaking and Terry put his hand on my shoulder saying ‘Elliott, its just like the old days only more people.’ That calmed me right down and Bruce and I settled into the song in front of 18,000 fans like we were back at Max’s Kansas City. Hearing our voices together was kind of an epiphany – they blended together better then I would have imagined.”
That experience stayed with Murphy. A few years later he wrote another one of those rock ballads he was so fond of, and recalling how well their voices blended, he picked up the phone and asked his friend if he was interested in a true duet.
Bruce accepted, and their recording of “Everything I Do (Leads Me Back to You)” became the only studio recording by the New Dylan class of ’74.
Rock Ballad
First performed: June 30, 1992 (Paris, France)
Last performed: June 30, 1992 (Paris, France)
