Song of the Week: Murphy and the Mob -- Born Loser/Because You Love Me

[Ed note: see comments section for some illumination from the lyricist for Born Loser]

Day three of our Texas Battle of the Garage Bands takes us to a small outpost on the highways of Texas. Somewhere on that asphalt road between Dallas, Texas and Shreveport, Louisiana lived the Murphy brothers. And at some point in 1966, the Murphy brothers, Terry and Dennis, and a friend, walked into Steve Wright Studios in Tyler, Texas to cut their one and only single. The three called themselves Murphy and the Mob. The single they recorded on that day was Because You Love Me/Born Loser.

As is so usual, we'll start with the Flip-Side. Born Loser is a middle-finger of a song about being bullied, ridiculed and generally looked down upon. And their song is über rare and über cool. The lyrics were written by their friend, Stephen Brewerton. To say that not much is known about these anti-hipsters is an understatement. The most we know about this band can now be found in the comments section below where the song's lyricist fills in some great and vital info.

So let's turn our attention to what is known from the cool riffed song: Murphy and the Mob were clearly feeling some angst about being different in tiny Tyler, Texas and were not scared to tell us about that frustration.

I am a loner baby, I swing alone. I've got my own pad and an unlisted phone. A steady job, that's all I need. Just one heart gets fulfilled, baby just one mouth to feed!

But wait, there's a twist. Our lone geek protagonist was not so quietly getting revenge on the jocks and cowboys who looked down their crooked noses at him, shook their head and said "look at him, he's a born loser". Think revenge of the nerds. A nerd with a bitchin' little Danelectro guitar, a Silvertone amp he bought at the Sears and Roebuck in Dallas and a generous heaping of loser bravado.

I got no pals but look who's got the gals. They come to my pad because they want me so bad. I sleep all the day and I swing all night. I'm so cool baby, I'm just out of sight!

Sing it Murph. Sing it for all of us born losers. We're geeky as hell and we won't take it anymore!

The A-Side never gets any play. Unless you subscribe to On The Flip-Side, that is. Because You Love Me is a very different song. It starts off mellow enough, with a cool walking bass line. Murphy is a visionary. He can see in this girl's heart. I'm not so convinced she knows it, but Murphy is going to make sure she gets it. The number takes us on some rollicking good fun. Not a bad A-Side at all.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

Under The Covers: Leaving Here by The Birds and Eddie Holland

The Birds

Leaving Here! This is one of those songs that can be done by just about anybody and it will still sound great. It's just one of those songs. Leaving Here was first recorded by Eddie Holland for Motown in December of 1963. Eddie Holland's name may sound familiar, despite the fact that he had only a brief frontman career for Motown. Eddie was the lyricist for one of THEE most potent songwriting teams ever -- Motown's house composers, Holland-Dozier-Holland. Eddie was the lyricist behind the label's biggest hits such as Heatwave, Baby I Need Your Loving, How Sweet It Is, Stop In The Name Of Love, Baby I Need Your Lovin'....Ah, hell, you get the picture. I could go on and on with the songs he wrote and produced of which you know every frickin' word. But back to one of his lesser known songs....

Leaving Here got picked up early by mod kings, The Who. They recorded it two or three times and did a pretty damn good job of it too. But none of the recordings ever made it to vinyl. From The Who the song was picked up by Ron Wood and his bandmates in his first band, The Birds. (nope, not The Byrds, but The Birds). Ron Wood substantially rearranged the song and turned it into a barre chord burner with a nice 1 and 1/2 step down twist for the lead guitar riff. The band released it on Decca on the 30th of April, 1965. While an obscure recording, The Birds version inspired many other covers of the song by artists as diverse as Motorhead, The Morlocks and The Cracked Jaffers. Pearl Jam, it should be noted, clearly covers The Who version. 

Eddie Holland

Enjoy. We'll see you next time On The Flip-Side!