Rare and valuable recordings by Las Vegas lounge act Murray Rivers have been uncovered in a Sydney garage. The elder statesman of the 1960s ’rat pack’, Rivers would often join Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jnr on stage at the famous Sands Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Now Australian audiences can hear this musical great for probably the first time.
Historic recordings by the star of stage, screen and community radio - often forgotten by the chroniclers of 20th century popular music - were unearthed in Brighton-Le-Sands in February this year. Musicologist Dr Mark Collier, who found the dusty box of tapes in the garage sale of a deceased estate, explains the importance of Rivers’ musical legacy. "He is an enigma - a pioneer of countless musical styles and inspiration for so many show tunes, and yet very few recordings have survived. Some call him avant garde, to others he was nothing more than the laziest man in showbiz."
Dr Collier believes the recordings were brought to Australia by Rivers himself. "Murray emigrated from Brooklyn in New York. He basically found lots of roots in Sydney on a break from Las Vegas and decided to stay." The discovered tapes include recordings of his appearances on the Johnny Carson Show and his farewell show in Carnegie Hall, alongside studio outtakes and songs Dr Collier believes are the final cuts of an unreleased album. And, heard for the first time, is an original recording of "Connie" written for Rivers’ first wife Connie Hildebrand and later "appropriated" by his then good friends George and Ira Gershwin, rewritten as "Swannee."
"He is cited by so many musical greats as their inspiration. You can see elements of Murray in the Yardbirds’ use of feedback. As for Jimmy Page and Robert Plant - their influences are often attributed to blues and mysticism. I think they were influenced by Murray’s ’whole album’ approach. Stairway to Heaven is a classic example - never released as a single and goes on forever - that’s pure Murray," explains Dr Collier. "Kurt Cobain famously called Murray the great grandfather of punk. John Lennon once said that before Elvis there was nothing. That nothing is Murray Rivers." Dr Collier is presiding over a ceremony today to unveil a statue of Murray Rivers on the foreshore at Brighton-Le-Sands, the Sydney suburb where the star is believed to have made his final home. A representative from Rockdale Council is tipped to be present to posthumously award Rivers the keys to the bayside city. |