Interview -- Geoffrey Cushing-Murray (Songwriter)
"A Mexican wind blows in
breaking the hold Angelinos
have on their halos."
~ Geoffrey Cushing-Murray ~
Every person has that one song that rings all the bells for them. Has all the right vibes. Checks all the boxes. And you can't explain it. It just does. And for me, that song is "Hot Night In A Cold Town." And what a surprise, while listening to a KSHE playlist one night, I heard "Hot Night In A Cold Town"...not just John Cougar's familiar version which is the one that hooked me in the first place. But a Steppenwolf version that John Kay laid down. And also a version from Uriah Heep. All three artists recorded that song for their own albums. All within the span of a year and a half. And I enjoyed each one. It was written by Geoffrey Cushing-Murray, along with his partner Richard Littlefield. He's written other songs too, of course. Most notably with The Beach Boys. But how cool to hit the trifecta with those classic rock icons. Geoffrey Cushing-Murray. Go get you some.
Geoffrey Cushing-Murray Interview -- January 2025
Geoffrey Cushing-Murray
[The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.]
Casey Chambers: I'd like to talk a bit about the song you wrote called, "Hot Night In A Cold Town."
Geoffrey Cushing-Murray: How did you come by hearing it?
Casey Chambers: Well, first John Cougar's "Nothin' Matters And What If It Did." And then I heard Steppenwolf and Uriah Heep's version on KSHE. It's a great song. Can you take us back to when you were writing that song?
Geoffrey Cushing-Murray: I had a band at the time...Trouble...and we were doing a bunch of demos and stuff like that. I sat down at the piano in my little house and worked it out. It's kind of emotional that we're talking about it now, because the co-writer, Richard Littlefield just passed away a couple of months ago. It would've been nice for him to have partaken in a little bit of this attention too.
I don't usually get to talk much about "Hot Night In A Cold Town." Nobody really seems to care all that much. (laughs) I get more interest from stuff that I did with the Beach Boys. But here's the story of how that song got out. A fellow named Jeff Greenberg owned The Village Sound and it's probably one of the most famous studios in Los Angeles. He was associated with Steppenwolf in the early days back in the late '60s or very early '70s and was also managing the band that I had. And when we used to rehearse, Larry Byrom, a player from Steppenwolf used to sit in and play guitar with us.
When John Kay was starting to put together his band, he wanted Larry Byrom to come play guitar, but Larry was not available. So Greenberg suggested Richard Littlefield. When Littlefield went to do something with John Kay, he played "Hot Night In A Cold Town" from our demo. John Kay really liked it and actually took out a hold on it. He paid like $3000 bucks just to have a hold on that song.
Casey Chambers: So John Kay must've really liked it!
Geoffrey Cushing-Murray: He really liked it, yeah! (laughs) But apparently, John Mellencamp, who was then known as John Cougar, had heard John Kay's demo of the song up in San Jose on some radio station. I don't know how that came about but Cougar decided that he wanted to record it. However, he didn't know who wrote it or anything. They just took the demo. And I don't know whether it was my demo or John Kay's demo that he was listening to...but he cut it without even having the rights to it.
When they finally tracked me down, it was right at the end of the period that John Kay had the hold on it. His hold expired just as the Cougar people were reaching out to get permission to record the song. And of course, try to get the publishing on it. But since they'd already recorded it, and had already determined that it was going to be the...side one-cut one... on his album, "Nothin' Matters And What If It Did" (1980)...I got to keep the publishing on it. (laughs) Holding the publishing was a good thing for a record that sold as many copies as that one did.
"Hot Night In A Cold Town" - John Cougar / "Nothin' Matters And What If It Did" (1980)
Casey Chambers: No doubt. Because that album ended up going platinum, didn't it?
Geoffrey Cushing-Murray: Yeah, that's right. And I really appreciated John Kay. I'm a big fan. When I hear 'Get your motor runnin' or "Magic Carpet Ride"...I can't help but think, 'Geez, somehow or other, I'm associated with that.' (laughs) There are three versions of "Hot Night In A Cold Town" out there.
Casey Chambers: Right, Uriah Heep did that song too on "Abominog." (1982)
Geoffrey Cushing-Murray: I never got a penny from Uriah Heep. Not one red cent. The Steppenwolf version is the one I like the best. Because what Mellencamp did was transcribe the lyrics to the song, right? You know, like listening to the demo and writing down what he thought the words were. And he blew my favorite line in the whole song.
'A Mexican wind blows in
breaking the hold Angelinos have on their halos.'
And it came out as something about Angelina's hairstyle, like a complete non sequitur. So I actually hated it because it was a really central line to the whole idea of the song. The wind setting people off. Kind of 'breaking the hold Angelinos have on their halos.' I'm a Los Angeles Angels fan, and they're also known as the Halos. So it's something that sticks in my head. That really disappointed me. But, you know, I took the money and I'm happy to have done so.
Casey Chambers: When you found out that Cougar was not only recording the song for his next album, but was going to use it for the opening track, that must have been a great feeling.
Geoffrey Cushing-Murray: Well, I was overjoyed for sure. I was like a starving artist. Well, no, I guess I wasn't quite a starving artist, but it was very nice to get a cover. It's a hard row to hoe. Getting somebody to cover your material. There's the old story about A&R people...if they say no a hundred percent of the time, they're gonna be right 99% of the time. So most stuff gets rejected out of hand. If you don't have some kind of representation or connection you're... Fortunately for me, the connection was Greenberg.
Casey Chambers: Did you know who John Cougar was at this point?
Geoffrey Cushing-Murray: Oh, yeah, I knew who he was. He had that song, and Pat Benatar did it too, called "I Need A Lover." So I already knew who he was.
Casey Chambers: The lyrics are really poetic. When you wrote it, did you have a particular image in your mind of a specific part of town?
Geoffrey Cushing-Murray: I did actually. Well, not really. But like, when I talk about 'amber streetlight'...I was going to a concert, going down some road, and the lights were in a certain way. The idea of the amber streetlight kind of stuck out and went nice with 'ambling.' (laughs) 'Ambling slowly awash in amber streetlight.' And of course, the Sonny character is a streetwalker. And then 'in and out of doorways up and down the stairs'. Well, I grew up in Puerto Rico. And it was a pretty wild and libertine kind of place where I was at. So when I was a teenager, I went up and down stairs where for five bucks you could get a 'sweet ride.' So that's part of my life experience, I guess. (laughs)
Casey Chambers: You mentioned earlier that you didn't receive anything from the version Uriah Heep did. Why was that?
Geoffrey Cushing-Murray: Well, Mellencamp's manager at the time, who was also Rod Stewart's manager, was kind of a crook. He owned the international rights to the song. And when he died everything was kind of lost in all of his garbage. I don't think it would have been a whole lot of money, anyhow. Not that it's a bad version. Some people like it.
Casey Chambers: Oh, yeah. I mean it's a cool song. It's hard to mess it up. All three versions are highlights of whichever album they came from.
"Hot Night In A Cold Town" - John Kay & Steppenwolf / "Wolftracks" (1982)
Geoffrey Cushing-Murray: That's good to hear. (laughs)
Casey Chambers: I know Steppenwolf is especially proud of it because I saw that they're selling Hot Night In A Cold Town Hot Sauce on their website! (laughs)
Geoffrey Cushing-Murray: Are you kidding? I didn't know that. (laughs) I knew Steppenwolf made a video of the song. You can find it on YouTube. It's fun!
Casey Chambers: Maybe they can send you a case of hot sauce. Born to be wild, right?! (laughs) Well, this year is the 45th anniversary of John Cougar's version. And it's the earliest album of his to go platinum.
Geoffrey Cushing-Murray: Is that right? Wow. Cougar's a good songwriter. Let's see, what else was on there? "Ain't Even Done With the Night" was a great song. I liked his material. I did play a gig with Mellencamp.
Casey Chambers: You did? Sweet.
Geoffrey Cushing-Murray: No, it was not so sweet. We were playing at this place in Los Angeles. It was a roller rink, actually. I was playing around town with my band which was called Trouble. We were in the soundcheck, and it was really, really loud. So I was talking to John and said, 'Okay, so, who's gonna do the song?' He pointed at me, and apparently said, 'You're not gonna do it.' Of course, I thought his pointing at me meant that I was gonna do it. Again, the soundcheck was really loud. And so I did the song.
Now, the context...this was the night that John Lennon was killed. And they told us before we went on, 'Don't say anything about it.' So, I didn't. And then another band went on and they mentioned it. 'A good man went down.' And then Mellencamp came on. And of course, his opening number was "Hot Night In A Cold Town." So we both did the song that night. And Mellencamp was really pissed. And he told Greenberg. Told him so. And I always thought, 'Jesus, is that what you...you know...the night John Lennon is killed and you're worried about that?' Kind of put me off a little bit. Of course, the next night I had to play at the Whisky a Go Go and four people showed up. It was the night after John Lennon was killed. And it was pretty much the end of the band.
Casey Chambers: Have you ever crossed paths with Mellencamp since?
Geoffrey Cushing-Murray: Yeah, after my songwriting and singing career, I took a job with a limousine company and was working at the Hotel Bel-Air which, at the time, was like the number one hotel in Los Angeles. He just happened to walk in where I was because he was staying at the hotel. They approached me later for stuff for the next album, but I didn't do it. I just couldn't come up with anything that I thought was decent...which was part of my problem with writing songs.
Casey Chambers: Well, as far as your songwriting, we haven't even scratched the surface about the songs you did with The Beach Boys! And thank you for allowing me to just focus in on "Hot Night In A Cold Town". It's a song that's always hit me right and I was always fascinated how three major artists in the span of a year and a half decided to record it. To me, it's always been quality over quantity.
"Hot Night In A Cold Town" - / Uriah Heep / "Abominog" (1982)
Geoffrey Cushing-Murray: Well I like to describe songwriting as doing dentistry on yourself. For me, it's like pulling your own teeth. Giving yourself a root canal. It was hard. And what's heartening about having this conversation with you...for me...is the attention brought to the songs I've written in the past. And stuff I did with the Beach Boys. It comes out that people really liked some of it. They thought it was really good. And I thought it was good, but...
We sometimes talk about imposter syndrome, right? Where we think, 'Oh, it's not good enough.' But it really was good enough. If you are dealing with imposter syndrome, you'll believe every good thing about somebody else...until they say something good about you. And then you say, 'No, you're wrong. It's not that good.' It's not the Beatles. It's not Todd Rundgren. It's not Brian Wilson or anyone you think is a good writer. It's a very weird thing. I mean, I knew stuff was good, but I just didn't believe it was. It's like, "Who am I?"
Casey Chambers: I expect many can relate to that. Imposter syndrome can suck the joy right out of ya. Thanks for sharing that. Before I let you go, off the top of your head, could you offer up a few albums that are special to you?
Geoffrey Cushing-Murray: Well, I'm a big Steely Dan fan. The whole thing. All Steely Dan. Todd Rundgren's "Something/Anything." (1972) That's the one where he did everything. It was a double album and it was great. I'm a big Hall and Oates fan. I'm a big fan of the early Springsteen albums. The one that has "Candy's Room" is my favorite. It's called "Darkness On the Edge of Town." (1978) In fact, I have copies of both Newsweek and Time that had Bruce Springsteen on it. They came out the same week. They're worth money now. I like dark stuff. This morning I had my weekly Pilates thing. So, on the way back, a person was talking about a favorite songwriter and it was Aimee Mann. I love her record called, "The Forgotten Arm." (2005) Just a super, super, songwriting album. Maybe one of the last concept albums that really stands up.
Casey Chambers: I haven't heard that one. I'll have to check it out.
Geoffrey Cushing-Murray: Well, you'll like it. There's no doubt you'll like it.
Casey Chambers: Real quick. Who do you take...Paul or John?
Geoffrey Cushing-Murray: Oh, I'm a Paul guy. (laughs) Not a Lennon guy. I hate "Imagine." I can't stand it. Songs like "Maybe I'm Amazed." That's really a good song. "Hey Jude" is a big one. My favorite...well, I like the "White Album" quite a bit. A lot of great stuff on that. There was a Paul McCartney song I recently discovered. Something like...'You shot an arrow right through me.'
Casey Chambers: Oh, yeah, from "Back To The Egg." (1979)
Geoffrey Cushing-Murray: Oh, is it? (laughs) It came up on my Spotify. I liked that one. I'm just sorry that Richard Littlefield is no longer with us. He would've gotten a kick out of this too. We were on Facebook and still talking about music. He was a regular Aretha Franklin sideman on her studio recordings. He was a fabulous guitar player. The band I had was pretty accomplished.
It's really great to hear that somebody appreciates the work I did all that time ago on an old Knabe piano in the little hovel that I lived in over in North Hollywood. (laughs) Here I am...I'm 78 going on 13...keeping up with my Pilates that I've been doing now for 18 years. I kind of started a little late in deciding I was gonna be a songwriter. I studied English at UCLA after I was in the army. I'm a Vietnam Veteran. I was writing poetry, which is a totally different thing than writing songs, and a friend asked 'Hey, ya wanna be in a band?' And then it just went from there.
Casey Chambers: I'd like to thank you for sharing a bit of classic rock history that you have very much been a part of. And, of course, thank you very, very much for your service as well. It's been a real pleasure hanging out with you today.
Geoffrey Cushing-Murray: Well all right. Thank you. I like to say I did my duty. Thank you, Casey.
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