John Murphy (Shoes), Pt. 1

Podcast: Caropop · Mark Caro

Opublikowano: 2026-10-22

Shoes, the now-legendary power-pop band from Zion, Ill., is the most democratic of groups, with each album presenting equal servings of smart, hooky, well-sung songs from brothers John and Jeff Murphy and their childhood friend Gary Klebe. In Part 1 of a two-parter, John Murphy revisits the band’s formation—when none of them played an instrument and he had to learn bass—and tells how Shoes recorded three DIY albums before its first official release, 1977’s Black Vinyl Shoes. For that one John designed the original (and soon replaced) cover art and wrote the first Shoes song to gain wide att...