Talk:Michael Martin Murphey/Archive 1

=2007–2011=

Gary Nurm or Gary P Nunn?
"Murphey later played at Ronnie Scott's club in London, for a press presentation, and was supported on the occasion by J.D. Souther, Don Henley, Dave Jackson and Gary Nunn"

Gary P. Nunn is a well-known Texas musican, was Nurm a typo? And he has been to London (London Homesick Blues)

Tracking Michael Martin Murphey's Moves
The document is excellent at tracking the artist from Texas to California and back to Texas. What is not mentioned it is a known fact that he "left Texas again and moved to Taos, New Mexico and founded his Rocking 3M Ranch", a cattle operation. He left Taos for reasons unknown and now resides "in southwestern Wisconsin. where the Rocking 3M Ranch is now. He now specializes in breeding specific types of horses. I believe the area is around LaCrosse, Wisconsin. These facts complete the current location changes in residence to the present date. JBretSimmons (talk) 14:36, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Cowboy Songs.jpg
Image:Cowboy Songs.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 19:23, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Addition to Film History Prior to and After Most Noted Hard Country Film
It has been verified that Michael Martin Murphey has starred in films before he starred in and cowrote Hard Country. He began making a series of film acting appearances, starting with Gus Trikonis' Take This Job and Shove It. I am in the process of finding out and verifying the other films he starred in after Take This Job and Shove It and any before and after Hard Country. The location of the films containing acting appearances is very sparse and will only be included if it can be verified. It does follow logically that one must star in films, learning the craft before one can star in, let alone co-write a film. JBretSimmons (talk) 03:25, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

Addition to Album History
In November of 2007, Michael Martin Murphey released his 2007 Cowboy Christmas DVD and Cowboy Acoustic Christmas Carols CD Set. This was added to the discography. I have verified it and I own a copy of this released material. JBretSimmons (talk) 16:37, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Addition of a New DVD Subsection in Discography
In the mid to late 2007, Michael Martin Murphey released 3 DVDs, which carries out the Cowboy Songs Legacy and it includes music from the previously released 5 Cowboy Songs CDs. The only difference, is now he has decided to release the music performed in videos taken on trail rides, cattle drives, and The Annual Christmas Ball. Murphey has never released music videos to DVD before, although he has contributed over 100 performances to YouTube, now a subsidiary of the internet company Google. It becomes doubtful that any of the YouTube performances will ever be released as a DVD medium. Murphey made a good decision to release the music of Cowboy Songs 1-5, performed live at the above events. The 4th DVD contains Christmas Music performed at the last 3 Annual Christmas Balls, as well as the CD with those songs. This marks Murphey's first foray into DVDs, 4 this year alone merits the addition of the DVD subsection in discography. JBretSimmons (talk) 19:14, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Addition to Cowboy Songs
Since Michael Martin Murphey had performed "Wildfire" and "Carolina in the Pines" on the Late Show with David Letterman, 2 major events had prompted additional 2 paragraphs to Cowboy Songs. The paragraphs are pretty much descriptive of the events, which brings us up to the end of 2007.

What is NOT mentioned in the article, which I don't think should, is that he had double hernia surgery on 11/15/2007, which made him miss some of the The Annual Christmas Balls, which went on despite all the pre-planning, ticket sales, etc. Some of the events were outright cancelled. There were a lot of grumblings in the MMM Group (fan website) about it because many people had purchased plane tickets to attend these events. From what happened this year, between the cancelled events, and the no-shows, only half of them MMM was able to perform. This had been reported in many Texas newspapers all over the state. This was a major hiccup as The Annual Christmas Ball had been going on for about 15 years. In Keeping with the Wiki NPOV, I don't know how this impacts the article or maybe put it in another earlier subsection about a sentence or two long detailing his life instead of "diarizing" in the Cowboy Songs section. Feedback please. Thanks. JBretSimmons (talk) 22:36, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

System Crash / Reconnect Resulted in Whole Article Edit Instead of section
I had a system crash XP/SP2 while just editing the external links section of this article. I was adding the notation that WestFest is a trademark that belongs to MMM. When I reconnected, and refreshed the page, Wiki wound up showing me the raw data for the WHOLE ARTICLE. Just made my minor change, preview and saved. Now in hindsight, now that I noticed the tiny letters "cancel", maybe that's what I should have done, then gone back to editing just the external links section and then saving that instead of the whole article. Oy! I am just getting the hang of this thing and a lot of things are not readily apparent until after the fact. My apologies. JBretSimmons (talk) 20:12, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Wiki Wrong about Trademark Symbol
In the Wiki instructions on symbols, it says to use &trade for the trademark symbol. It doesn't translate. Instead, the search engines say to use ALT+0153 on the numeric keypad to produce a proper ™ symbol. This Wiki understands. WestFest™ should be spelled this way since MMM has owned the trademark for this event as well as the name. JBretSimmons (talk) 22:29, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Addition of "Filmography" term to Discography Section
After doing research, the proper industry term for listing of films, movies, and DVDs is "Filmography". The section header name has been changed to reflect that the section is NOT limited to just Discography. The Filmograpy section will have new subsections of TV roles, and movie/film roles below the DVD subsection. The compliance was made with the movie industry standards in the IMDb (Internet Movie Database). After much thought, I decided not to create a new section for it since it is a minor sideline. However, if all the YouTube™ music videos (over 100) were to be included, a separation of Discography and Filmography will be required as digital content continues to evolve. JBretSimmons (talk) 18:07, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Additions To Discography
Added singles information to the discography. All charts in US terms, Pop is for the Billboard Hot 100, C/W for the Country charts, and A/C for the Adult Contemporary charts. All info courtesy of billboard.com and easily found on allmusic.com Also added album chart info and sales. I have found no certification for the 6 albums stated in the article on the RIAA database. Only "Blue Sky-Night Thunder" (certified in 1975) and "Cowboy Songs" (certified in 2002) have apparently went Gold. And "Wildfire" was a Platinum single as of 2002. He has no certifications in Canada. And no UK chart entries.

This articles is amazing! A lot of hard work has paid off, great job! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Puckeylut (talk • contribs) 23:54, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

Due to smackbot, wiki warnings, and DMCA violations, added following to Puckeylut talk page
NOTE: TO PUCKEYLUT, visit your talk/discussion page. You have not read what Wiki has posted. Welcome to the MMM ProjectTexas. Your changes add additional information. However, You did not read the body of the text and what you added to the top title page is redundant, and does not belong at that location. Quoting information from other websites is a copyright violation. It has been flagged by the smackbot. Please consult with me or other MMM ProjectTexas members before jumping in and adding. We have to adhere to the DMCA. Some of your information is opinion and mixed with fact and does not meet NPOV encyclopedic standards. I'm afraid some of it will have to be [undo]ne and it's going to have to come out. However, you bring up a good point of gold and platinum releases. That is a good idea. We want to keep the discography as clean as possible. I think that somewhere around the awards section, probably after it, we can add a section noting which ALBUMS have that status. All of your talk/discussion contributions must be signed by four tildes. Please note the above open task items that need attention. JBretSimmons (talk) 05:28, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

Added discography differentiation, name correction, and missing/renamed albums
There have been multiple releases of certain albums. Newer releases contain additional tracks and in all cases except one, the album artwork has minor changes. Since the artwork cannot be published due to the DMCA ruling, all we can do it have it NOTED by adding a duplicate album ABOVE the original since the list is in date descending order and note the changes for easier identification in user searches.

Later on, we may add two other sections, one listing the discography with all 327+ songs, and the third section with the song cross reference list pointing to the albums that contain it. However, since Wildfire appears many, many times, some are unique different versions. The same is true for other songs as well. There are at least two versions of Carolina in the Pines. One the standard version, and the other a longer extended version. We will have to listen to them all and determine which are uniquely different and which are duplicates.

There was one album American Horse that was specifically made for the American Quarter Horse Association Anniversary only. Which Anniversary is not known at this time, but we are verifying the Anniversary number to replace the ?? in the album line. This special album was renamed Horse Legends. All the tracks remain the same on both albums. The album artwork has changed in the renaming process and released to the general public.

There has been repackaging and re-grouping of gift sets that have been moved to the Compilations Sections if all of them have been previously listed in the albums section. If one album in the set is NEW, then the whole set is considered a new release instead of a compilation.

We are verifying two other album releases just found, one Warner Label with MMM singing with Looney Tunes characters, and another called Ballad of Calico. They are undergoing verification and subjected to a MMM "purity" test to see if they belong to another biographical group. For example: MMM sang on a 1967 Lewis & Clarke Expedition album. This is considered NOT "pure" since it belongs to a group of that name in Wikipedia. We may, in the future, consider adding a section called "Other Works" showing which other works he has participated in. That way, all the information is self-contained in each section that resolves all ambiguous links. Each section can stand alone by itself without needing further reference lookups. JBretSimmons (talk) 06:10, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

No Changes to be made to MMM Article after 2/20/2008 except by Project Members until further notice.
I have posted the following message that is in effect from 2/20/2008 until further notice. Please read it and it will give you a better understanding that we have finally managed to get a one on one with MMM on the biography contents. MMM himself edited it and provided us with the changes. Those changes must be subjected to Wikipedia encyclopedic standards for inclusion. Not all items will make it, due to the content that he is providing on his own website, based on THIS document (called the BASE DOCUMENT). We are now working hand in hand with MMM. One could not hope for a better source of information to build up this document which has been neglected somewhat from 1990 - 2006. Those LIFE details are not here, and MMM himself has provided such. The followin was posted on the front page for all to see and know that we have finally succeeded. Only Project editors/contributors are editing at this time. If you wish to obtain the MMM BIO document, it is in PDF format. Please leave your full email address on my talk page and request the MMM biography from the cowboy/singer/poet himself. I will email Project members only with the PDF as an attachment. For those who wish to read as we go along editing, please feel free to do so. If you accidentaly enter the edit mode, press your brower's back icon.

'''PLEASE NOTE: THE MICHAEL MARTIN MURPHEY PAGE IS NOW IN LOCKDOWN MODE. DO NOT ADD OR CHANGE ANY INFORMATION FROM 2/20/2008 ONWARDS. ANY AND ALL CHANGES WILL BE DELETED EXCEPT THOSE MADE BY THE PROJECT MEMBERS. HOWEVER, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO READ WHAT IS HERE AT ANY TIME. THE MMM WikiProjectTexas HAS BEEN INFORMED THAT MMM HIMSELF HAS PROVIDED US WITH A 4 PAGE HEAVILY EDITED BIOGRAPHY ON THAT DAY. THE PROJECT MEMBERS NEED TIME TO REVIEW IT AND APPLY THE WIKIPEDIA ENCYCLOPEDIC STANDARDS TO THE LIMITED 4 PAGE BIOGRAPHY DIRECTLY FROM MMM. WE NEED TIME TO BRING THE DOCUMENT UP TO DATE. THE MMM WEBSITE HAS AGREED TO USE OUR DOCUMENT AS A BASELINE FROM WHICH THEY MADE THEIR OWN CHANGES FOR THEIR WEBSITE. THERE ARE OPEN ACTION ITEMS IN THE BASE DOCUMENT THAT NEEDS TO BE FIXED, HERE, AND SINCE THEY ARE USING THIS AS THEIR BASE, THE BASE CHANGES NEED TO BE CARRIED OVER TO MMM HIMSELF. THE BASE DOCUMENTS ARE THE SAME, BUT THE CONTENT IS DIFFERENT. WE NEED TO SELECTIVELY ADD FROM THEIR DOCUMENT THAT THEY PROVIDED US WITH. THERE IS NOTHING BETTER THAN TO GET INFORMATION FROM THE ARTIST HIMSELF DIRECT. THAT HELPS US OUT A LOT PUSHING CLOSER TO COMPLETION. ONLY PROJECT MEMBERS ARE EDITING AT THIS TIME. AFTER WE ARE DONE, THEN THE LOCKDOWN WILL BE LIFTED. WE APPRECIATE YOUR UNDERSTANDING IN THIS MATTER. IT HAS BEEN A DIFFICULT 6 MONTHS AS I HAVE ACTED AS A LAISON BETWEEN PROJECT MEMBERS AND MMM DIRECTLY. WE HAVE FINALLY SUCCEEDED AND IN A FEW WEEKS, OFTER YOU A MUCH BETTER, RICHER VIEWING EXPERIENCE ON THIS TOPIC. NEW WIKIPEDIA MEMBERS WHO WANT TO CHANGE THINGS ARE STONGLY ADVISED TO TAKE THE TUTORIALS PROVIDED TO HELP YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT IS ALLOWED AND WHAT IS NOT.WE HAVE CHARTED A CLEAN PATH TOWARDS COMPLETION. A PREVIOUS NEW USER WENT IN AND CAUSED ALL KINDS OF BOT PROBLEMS, COPYRIGHT VIOLATIONS, ETC. WE ARE TAKING CARE OF THAT NOW. THANK YOU. FEEL FREE TO CONTACT ME ANYTIME. JBRETSIMMONS.''' JBretSimmons (talk) 18:16, 21 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Consider this further notice, then. NO ONE OWNS ARTICLES!!!! You have no right to tell anyone that they can't edit a given article. Brettalan (talk) 00:42, 28 August 2011 (UTC)

Billboard 100 Charting Removed due to DMCA Copyright violation
The Billboard 100 Charting system is copyrighted. It was flagged and I had to remove it. Sorry, Puckylut. Rules clearly state that copyrighted items cannot be posted. Yes, it was a good chart, but we have another way to do that without violation of their copyright. We have planned all aspects of doing things without getting botted to death. The comments you put in are unsourced and not verified. Either verify them with references, or take them out before the system does in 7 days. Hint: there is another way this can be done. It's already in the PDF Paper Document I'm holding from MMM. Not all of it can be used due to copyright issues. Charting numbers, counttries, and rank are copyrighted, whether in table form or not. It still belongs to Billboard. All good things come in due time. We planned it that way. JBretSimmons (talk) 21:26, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

Latest News on Michael Martin Murphey to Project members, fans, and all readers/contributors
Just a short note. The MMM WikiProjectTexas was given a NEW abridged biography from Michael Martin Murphey February 20, 2008. That was based on the article we furnished him November 2007. It will take some time to parse it to Wiki Standards and Policy as well as the DMCA. Please allow us a few days to provide more information in this section for an executive summary to be written here that has been our roadmap since 2005. No better honor can be had or compliment for a living artist to use ALL of our biographical information for his NEW abridged biography, completely replacing what he had before. Our article was used as the foundation for his NEW abridged biography. He added even more. Note that key word - abridged. That reflects on the excellent work done by all the last 3 years. Michael Martin Murphey was VERY impressed. He has never seen the Wiki biography article on him prior to November 2007. The New abridged biography has to be parsed before it can be added because of the abridgement. It contains some information we cannot use because it does not meet encyclopedic NPOV standards.

If you have a copy of it from his website, the Project will not use it. Any edits posted prior to the executive summary will be [Undo]. Do not even enter any edits from it. What you have is a copy of it from his website and that is forbidden. The Project was given an original document, legally, in the prescribed manner of Wiki Policy and Standards as well as the DMCA to avoid any conflicts, questions, or doubt. The project did it this way for it to be ORIGINAL from Michael Martin Murphey to meet the required test for originality. Please wait for the executive summary here before proceeding. It will help you maintain those high standards the Project set for ourselves to make this happen. This will guide your in your future edits which will result in a better article for all. Thank You for your cooperation. JBretSimmons (talk) 11:47, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

Michael Martin Murphey article Project DISCOGRAPHY SECTION Guidance
THIS IS NOT AN EXECUTIVE SUMMARY, BUT A NOTICE TO THOSE WITH INTENT ON EDITING/VANDALIZING IT IN IT'S CURRENT FORM. PLEASE DO NOT MODIFY IT. IT IS CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION.

It is mirrored on 4 other websites. An AGREEMENT was reached with MICHAEL MARTIN MURPHEY November 2007 to use our format. This is by design to eliminate a lot of software maintenance for all. The Project, fortunately, has more resources to maintain it than MMM does. The fact that 7 music media changes occurred the last 60 years makes MUSIC MEDIA TYPE IRRELEVANT. What is RELEVANT to encyclopedic standards is the information it contains. The AGREEMENT spells out the year, title, songs under titles, differences between multiple releases of same title, differences between songs of same title ONLY. Charting and ranking is NOT wanted. It is a property that belongs to others, is copyrighted, and is for commercial sale. It does not meet encyclopedic standards. We have received LEGAL ADVICE on that by Project members who are also attorneys in the DMCA/Copyright area for free. Please read the above post. The charting and ranking can be found on MMM's own website now. This is by DESIGN. We have to comply with encyclopedic standards.

Pleae do not edit the DISCOGRAPHY SECTION of the Michael Martin Murphey article. We are dealing with an individual that insists that our discography match the rest of Wiki music artists. We had legal input that certain information used by other articles is in violation of copyright - especially charting and ranking. It is NOT of Encyclopedic value because it is a dynamic statistic that changes daily as well as the ownership of it is copyrighted for commercial sale by their respective owners.

This section is actually is linked to 4 of Michael Martin Murphey Websites with the WikiProjectTexas as the maintainer of it HERE. The DESIGN is different because the Project has entered into AGREEMENT with Michael Martin Murphey to use it in it's DESIGNED current form, as they had no discography, LOCKING the specific format and requirements of what it contains. This is why it is different from other articles. This section is very active right now as we implement the rest of the Agreement. This reduces software maintenance for 4 of his websites. The fact that we now have the artist actively involved with the Project now and in the future on a regular basis. This applies to the DISCOGRAPHY SECTION ONLY.

It was recognized that all in the Agreement wanted a same look across all 5 websites using it, including Wiki. The Project will repeat, this section is actively under construction as we implement the rest of the Agreement. '''This has been a significant breakthrough having MMM onboard now as an advisor to the Project. The Project still has to maintain a dividing line between our biographical data to encyclopedic standards and his biographical data, which has information in it that doesn't and also to avoid impropriety charges. MMM is NOT allowed to edit his own biography here on Wiki. That was made CLEAR to him to avoid "selective destruction" of important biographical and historical information to encyclopedic NPOV standards. If you read his NEW abridged biography, he omits all information leading up to his college years and some working relationship details with other people. This is important because it is the very foundation his life is built on and the basis for some of his music. His NEW abridged biography reads more like life achievements omitting some of the encyclopedic content that the Project wants to keep.''' His has also added information that is not encyclopedic content NPOV as his business agents biased it to extreme PPOV. He has every right to do that as it's on his own website and he has his own limits and restrictions to his agents on what's in it. The Project has a very different set of limits and restrictions. Yet we share the same base foundation article. So by reading both biographies, one will have an EXTREMELY COMPREHENSIVE information about Michael Martin Murphey that can be had no place else. Yet you will look closely at his, the WikiProjectTexas article on MMM is clearly the very foundation of his. He added more details and deleted some.

With that said, the rest of the article is open to all, provided that it is Original Verifiable Research meeting Wiki Standards and Policy as well as the DMCA. Just because it doesn't include a "singles" section, it is by DESIGN as well as well as the legal feedback we had regarding charting and ranking, which is copyrighted by their respective owners for commercial sale, which have not given the Project formal permission to use it. We follow the Wiki Policy and Standards to the letter with NO exceptions outside the DISCOGRAPHY SECTION.

As noted above, we have an AGREEMENT in place with MMM that spells out what is to be in it and no more. If there are other items you wish to consider in DISCOGRAPHY, please contact me as I am the Project lead right now driving the rest of the Project home to completion after a long 3 year journey. That input will be shared with Project members, discussed, debated, collective input analyzed, subjected to legal tests, shared with MMM, obtained his feedback, then debated again, and if approved, modify it to Wiki NPOV, and put on a TIMELINE for implementation.

The Project operates this way much like a professional working environment because the Project has that range of expertise. Treat it like as if you were actually working for a company. If you do, there are plenty of rewards to be had. The Project is quite large and we have a lot of national exposure. So a lot of what is done is and how it was done is being noticed by others in IT, WikiProjectCountryMustic, and especially Microsoft - Bill Gates commented on it Feb 2008. His comments are on CNET.COM in an interview and included 2 lines about Wikipedia. We also fully comply with the DMCA law. This is done to not bring ANYTHING in the article into question, doubt, or impropriety.

This is NOT the executive summary, but it does contain a little bit of it. The Project is trying to deal with one rogue individual who has no real world project expertise or experience and keeps on protesting. That is what prompted this post. More will follow. JBretSimmons (talk) 01:32, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

JBretSimmons (talk) 09:11, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Return from Medical LOA / Gratitude of Thanks / Feedback
I apologize to the project members for having no guidance from 3/5/2008 - 5/5/2008. I unfortunately am still recovering from emergency massive bypass heart surgery. There was no way for me to communicate this to the MMM WikiProjectTexas members, only the MMM fans. Only 2 people were notified of the "emergency" nature. I didn't realize I would have to relearn how to do several things all over again. Things will get better with time and I will stay actively involved and help all who request it.

I noticed several article body improvements. This was needed, but yet the "citation needed" notes are growing again. I will contact the contributors and attempt to get these resolved or removed. Many are not reading the paragraph on ORIGINAL VERIFIABLE RESEARCH.

The day prior to 3/5/2008 I had accumulated massive changes in albums that have yet to be implemented. This is all original verifiable research by the MMM member fan base that is verifiable by album cover scans, ISBN numbers, e-mails, etc. Each change can be VERIFIED.

Just checked, and I am still the laison between MMM WikiProjectTexas, MMM agent(s), and MMM himself. They were notified of what test was being done and nothing beyond that until 3/26/2008 by my best friend. Nobody knew on Wiki until I returned home. I have 475+ inbox well wishes worldwide by those who were reading BOTH the MMM fan site and the MMM WikiTexasProject who are the "helping hands" who are helping keeping the Project going. I didn't know THAT many people were actively relying on our innovative solution to have all MMM information available in minimal sites possible. So I know a "grapevine" exists between the two groups.

I wish to convey my gratitude to to all those who got pre-release ver 4 and 5 of the MAJOR discography releases and kept on checking for more and for more accuracy. Many MMM fans in Google are complaining they do not get this list through the MMM group forum for unknown reasons or ANY news lately. This is the news I have seen the other day. Many of us already know what that the problem is. Sue Davis is running out of real time as MMM gets busier. I MAY have to open up just a MMM discography forum only and for downloading the lists temporarily and get it set up so she gets a "turnkey" function on their website. I will talk to Sue Davis about this and see what she thinks.

I've gotten such positive feedback on this methodology as not to create a rift between the artist(s) and Project members by allowing the separation by starting out with a BASE BIOGRAPHY. Wiki does the encyclopedic approach (NPOV), and the artist(s) uses Adobe Tools to keep the BASE BIOGRAPHY in sync,(omitting and adding here and there) and yet in one step, the artist(s) gets new changes in their format via Adobe Tools for their website - all from one document. It's not there yet. But have done it before in the late 1998's and I know it works. I'm sure Adobe has a document generator that can create any version of a single document including specific changes to each to keep encyclopedic biography and life achievements biography in one document to be minimize overhead (except extra typing...). Thank You. JBretSimmons (talk) 06:53, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Update from MMM WikiTexasProject Leader
I thought I could do more work sooner than expected after heart bypass (see last section). I banked 6 weeks for recovery and would be editing back here in a flash. As Jerry Jeff Walker has said after back surgery, "If you don't have patience for healing, healing will teach you to have patience!". How very true. Here we are, mid-July and I still am recovering. After talking to other folks who have had this procedure, they laughed and said that it would take about a YEAR. I don't have that kind of patience, especially when they are waiting for me to update the Discography Section, which I intend to do in the next 3 weeks. Got the book "Wiki for Dummies". Lots in it that I am going to start using. What a refresher course. Highly recommended. Especially for those who have Information Overload Syndrome... JBretSimmons (talk) 17:01, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

Please Refrain from Personal Attacks and Defamation
In keeping with the Wikipedia Standards, all members editing MUST ENTER A NOTE ON THE DISCUSSION PAGE. Please do not go in and make a change without putting an entry on the discussion page box that will reflect what you did so that it will show up as a short comment on the history section. Please refrain from attacking any member on this article, and use personal email for that reason. This is NOT a place to pick a fight. It's a place to work together nationwide for the betterment of the article. Thank You. JBretSimmons (talk) 09:23, 6 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Um, what "Wikipedia standards" say that all members editing must enter a note on the discussion page? That's simply not true. Users with questions or anyone making potentially controversial changes ought to post here, but that's about it. I just did an edit that removed one word which was obviously not NPOV. There is absolutely no reason that someone couldn't have made that edit without posting here about it. Brettalan (talk) 00:41, 28 August 2011 (UTC)

"What's Forever For" Songwriter
This has to do with a possible factual error.

I question the validity of the songwriter listed for "What's Forever For" in the Mainstream Success section which says "co written by Mike D'Abo".

This weekend I was looking through my 45 RPM records and came to “Whats Forever For” (Liberty #B-1466 22047). The name below the song title is Rafe VanHoy. I did a search of “Rafe VanHoy What’s Forever For” in Wikipedia and found track listings for three other albums that give What’s Forever For songwriting credit to Rafe VanHoy.

As a check, I did a Google search of "Mike D'Abo" in reference to "What's Forever For". The only find on the internet was the Wayango.Com Michael Martin Murphy bio which DOES CREDIT this Wikipedia bio as its source using a URL link to this article. It appears this misinformation has spread to that site.

THerefore I will correct this.

Iconic?
Lance keeps adding the word "iconic" to the opening sentence. Without any kind of source it seems kind of non-NPOV to me. But I don't want to get into an edit war, so I'll throw it out here for comments. What do people think? Lance, do you have a source? Brettalan (talk) 19:13, 31 October 2011 (UTC)
 * I do not believe the word "iconic" belongs in this Wikipedia article. I think I understand what Lance means to convey, but it is not necessary to include it in this article. Murphey's life and considerable accomplishments speak for themselves. He is a rare and gifted talent. But read the introductions to the Roy Rogers or Gene Autry articles. Both men could have been called "iconic" in the sense of symbolizing a way of life, a form of music, an idea, or even an ideal—but the word is not used. Stay with sourced facts. For example, if a legitimate source called Murphey "an iconic figure in Western music," maybe in the Legacy section add "So-and-so has called Murphey 'an iconic figure in Western music'". Bede735 (talk) 21:25, 31 October 2011 (UTC)


 * After the latest re-write, it appears that "LanceCowenMedia" is working directly for Murphey himself. If you're reading this, sorry, but people aren't supposed to write their own Wikipedia entries, and especially should not be taking out sourced material and rewriting it. I did retain the mentioned support of Carter and Bush because that seemed important. If you think there is something unfair or something that needs to be added, please say so here and provide neutral sources to support it. Thank you. Brettalan (talk) 02:26, 1 November 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, Brettalan. I am Michael's publicist. Thanks for helping guide me through these corrections we feel are needed in Michael's Wikipedia page. Changes to the page we've made have been somewhat modest, but I'm most concerned with the political section, because what's there simply doesn't represent his views. Michael is an independent voter. He has supported both conservative and liberal candidates, Republicans and Democrats, and yes a Tea Party Candidate. We would ask that the information focus on his true political leanings as an "issue oriented" voter and activist. He has approached both political parties to take action on a number of causes and issues — Native American rights, Civil Rights for All, Property Rights, Disaster Relief and Farmers and Ranchers, Justice for People in Agriculture and Environmental issues. We don't care if you list particular candidates he's supported as it might confuse matters, but that's up to you. His interest are in promoting and encouraging Liberty and Freedom. Because he has occasionally supported Republicans, he has been unfairly labeled a Republican. But again, he is not a registered Democrat or Republican. My source on this is directly from Michael. Thanks for any clarity you can offer. — Preceding unsigned comment added by LanceCowanMedia (talk • contribs) 17:46, 10 November 2011 (UTC)
 * I rewrote the Political views section to better reflect Murphey's political activities throughout the course of his career. I removed the "Republican" reference because the source does not explicitly indicate his part affiliation. I also removed references to his support for specific candidates in an effort to keep the focus on his general support of issues over party affiliation or politicians. I kept the Tea Party references and quote because they are his words and are consistent with his general concern with overreaching federal power. Bede735 (talk) 02:03, 11 November 2011 (UTC)