Bridey Murphy





Not a whole lot is known about the band of Bridey Murphy, but here's what we know.

Bridey Murphy was a band consisting of Bill Cowsill, Paul Cowsill, Barry Cowsill, and Waddy Wachtel. The Fleetwood Mac site states: "However, were it not for the Cowsills, probably no one would have ever heard of Waddy Wachtel. " Waddy tells the story like this. "I moved here in '68, with a band called, "Twice Nicely." And it's funny, we were playing up in Newport, Rhode Island. And all the sudden people would say to me, have you heard the Cowsills? I went "what?" What kind of word is that? I never heard a word like that in my life! Cowsills? And they said, "Oh, man, that's these four boys, and they are amazing." And I was like, "You gotta be kidding." And they said, "They're babies . . . they're kids." So I went and saw them. And at that time the Cowsills were, like, literally just the four kids: Bobby, Billy, Barry and John. And they were amazing! They did Beatles songs, and they sang beautifully. But their father (William "Bud" Cowsill) was a complete alcoholic monster, who would come to the club we played in and get so drunk. I used to have him thrown out of the club a few times a week. "Get that fucking bum out of here." Then he started telling me, "I want to manage you." And I was like, "Get the fuck away from me." And all the sudden, The Cowsills got a deal. And it was amazing! Now at this point, some time had gone by. When I first met him, and I was still with that band, The Orphans. Then things went down, the band quit, the college thing fell through, and I put together this band called "Twice Nicely." And we were back working in Newport, Rhode Island. Anyhow, Bud would come to this club called "Dorian's," where The Ophans would play, and try to tell me he wanted to manage me, and I told him, "You are out of your mind. Look, when you get a million dollars, then come talk to me." And he was shit-faced drunk and I didn't think it mattered. ... (discusses his draft board problems) ... Yeah. And about two weeks later, we moved to LA, with the Cowsills."

I can't find an exact time/date of when Capitol signed Bridey Murphy, but we know that in 1974 Capitol released one single. "The Time Has Come" [written by Judi Pulver - who had written with Bob and Bill in the past as well as performed on Bill's Nervous Breakthrough album - and Robert "Bob" Wachtel - whom had written for The Cowsills and performed with Bill on Nervous Breakthrough. Judi Pulver and Bob Wachtel also wrote "On My Side"] was the A side with "Be Your Mother's Son" on the B side. I have no info on "Be Your Mother's Son." "The Time Has Come" has a time of 2 minutes and 10 seconds and was produced by Waddy Wachtel. The record's number is Capitol P-3975 (Promo PRO-6989). According to an article in the Sherman Oaks Sun September 2004, Paul Cowsill did all vocals and Waddy Wachtel played all instruments.


Bridey Murphy's - The Time Has Come

If anyone has a copy of "Be Your Mother's Son," I'd love to share it here.





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