Bleeding Gums Murphy
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| The Simpsons character | |
 |
|
| "Bleeding Gums" Murphy | |
| Age | 50s (deceased) |
|---|---|
| Gender | Male |
| Hair color | Wavy Black/Brown |
| Job | Jazz musician |
| Relatives | Possible long-lost brother: Julius Hibbert |
| First appearance | "Moaning Lisa" |
| Voice actor | Ron Taylor Daryl L. Coley ("Dancin' Homer" only) |
"Bleeding Gums" Murphy was a fictional character from the cartoon television series The Simpsons, voiced mainly by Ron Taylor. He was a jazz musician, and an idol of Lisa Simpson. He only appeared in the episodes "Moaning Lisa" and "'Round Springfield", as well as brief appearances in "Dancin' Homer", "Old Money" , "Flaming Moe's , "Radio Bart" and "Lisa's Pony".
[edit] Biography
Alto saxophone player and probable long-lost brother of Dr. Julius Hibbert[1], Bleeding Gums was a mentor to Lisa Simpson until his early death.
Bleeding Gums learned his musical skills "at the feet of" "Blind Willie" Witherspoon. Willie wanted to give Bleeding Gums his saxophone, only to be finally told that it wasn't a saxophone and actually an umbrella, meaning that Willie had actually been playing an umbrella for some forty years. Bleeding Gums explained to Willie that no one informed him of the mistake because "we all thought it was funny".
He recorded only one album called Sax on the Beach, which was extremely lucrative, but he soon went broke after spending too much of his money on several Fabergé eggs a day. In "'Round Springfield" he revealed that he had once made a guest appearance on The Cosby Show in 1986 as the Huxtable children's grandfather, as well as appearing on Steve Allen's Tonight Show.
Murphy makes his first appearance playing his saxophone on a bridge in the middle of the night. This is a reference to Sonny Rollins, the great saxophonist, who famously retired from public and was not seen for three years, until a journalist discovered him playing the saxophone alone on the Williamsburg Bridge.
In the episode "Moaning Lisa", he played and vocalized a song written by Lisa.[2] It pleased Lisa to see the performance of her own jazz song in the bar "The Jazz Hole", but not everyone in the family were happy with lyrics, as they criticized several of them.
Bleeding Gums appears in a brief role in the episode "Dancin' Homer". He sings a twenty six minute version of the American National anthem "The Star Spangled Banner" at the Springfield Isotopes game.
He also appears in the episode "Lisa's Pony", where he serves as one of the three judges for the talent show, giving Bart a 10 for his impersonation of Principal Skinner.
He makes his final appearance in "'Round Springfield". [3] When Bart ends up in the hospital after eating a jagged metal Krusty-O, Lisa finds Bleeding Gums in a hospital bed in a nearby ward. They play Carole King's "Jazzman" together entertaining the hospital. He explains about his life, family and work to her as well as giving her advice for her upcoming school performance, lending her his saxophone. When Lisa returns she finds out that Bleeding Gums has died from circumstances that are never revealed. The episode in which Bleeding Gums Murphy dies is strongly based on the movie 'Round Midnight', in which the fictional character of Dale Turner (based on Lester Young and Bud Powell) likewise dies without explanation.
No one, except for Lisa, attends Murphy's funeral. Reverend Lovejoy gets his name wrong, calling him "Blood and Guts Murphy" as well as saying that he was "quite the sousaphone player". This prompts Lisa to buy his album, as the jazz station didn't have it, although she cannot afford it. Bart uses the $500 he got from his court case against "Krusty O's" to buy it for her. She gives it to the jazz station who play it on the radio. The signal isn't strong enough, but a lightning strike boosts the signal so that all of Springfield does hear it.
Then as a parody of "The Lion King", Murphy's face appeared from the clouds, thanking Lisa for her final tribute and performing "Jazzman" one last time with her at the episode finale (to further the parody, other famous characters voiced by James Earl Jones appear as well; Mufasa from The Lion King, Darth Vader from Star Wars and Jones' own CNN narration).
Later, in an episode of Futurama (another Matt Groening creation), Jurassic Bark, the character Fry claimed that his dog had intimate relations with the leg of a wandering saxophonist, a reference to Murphy.
[edit] Creation
Bleeding Gums Murphy is loosely based on Blind Lemon Jefferson. [4] Matt Groening also confirmed this first hand in the DVD commentary for the "'Round Springfield", stating that "he was based on all those old jazz guys with long names, like Blind Lemon Jefferson."
Bleeding Gums gave the origin of his nickname in "Moaning Lisa" as thus: "Well let me put it this way... you ever been to the dentist? Not me. I suppose I should go to one, but I got enough pain in my life as it is."
The voice of Bleeding Gums Murphy was provided by Ron Taylor, while his saxophone playing is provided by Dan Higgins.[5] In the episode "Dancin' Homer" he was voiced by Daryl L. Coley. [6]
Murphy has been a fixture of The Simpsons' opening sequence from Season Two on, even after his death. [7] He even appeared in the live-action format [8], in The Simpsons Sky One commercial, that was also used for the episode "Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife".
In addition to his onscreen appearances, Murphy also appeared on The Simpsons Sing the Blues, an album of rock, and jazz music with vocals performed by characters from the show. On the track "God Bless the Child" (a cover of the Billie Holiday song), performed by Lisa Simpson (Yeardley Smith), Murphy speaks up after the final chorus to praise Lisa for her vocals, after which he and Lisa perform a saxophone duet for the remainder of the song. Murphy was again voiced by Ron Taylor for the song, and his alto saxophone part was performed by Kim Richmond. [9]
[edit] References
- ^ In the lines from "'Round Springfield":
Bleeding Gums: "I don't really have a family, all I had was a little brother who grew up to become a doctor. He used to laugh at the most inappropriate times."
Dr. Hibbert: "Hey I've got an older brother that I'll never see. He's a jazz musician or some such. Oh well, bye, bye." - ^ Moaning Lisa The Simpsons.com. URL accessed on 14 December, 2006
- ^ 'Round Springfield The Simpsons.com. URL accessed on 14 December, 2006
- ^ Moaning Lisa - TV.com TV.com. URL accessed on December 7, 2006
- ^ Dan Higgins Biography Dan Higgins.net. URL accessed on December 15, 2006
- ^ Daryl L. Coley TV.com. URL accessed on December 7, 2006
- ^ Opening Sequence SNPP.
- ^ Real Life Simpsons Intro (He appears after 35 seconds) YouTube. URL accessed on December 14, 2006
- ^ The Simpsons Sing the Blues, liner notes
