Songfacts®:

• David Hepworth places the 1970s smack-dab in the middle of the golden age of rock stars. This time frame is hardly controversial. Why, then, did Murphy choose to title his song "Last of the Rock Stars" in 1973?
  
  "You know," Murphy told Songfacts, "I was travelling all over Europe in 1971 when Jim Morrison died, and his death along with that of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix started me thinking 'rock 'n roll is here to stay but who will be left to play,' and in some way I was trying to gain the confidence to jump in with those immortals with 'Last of the Rock Stars.'"
  
  On top of all that, the song was also "any budding rock musician from my generation, about not being able to study in school when you're obsessed with guitar, about putting your music I front of your relationships and about the epiphany of seeing the Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan Show."
• In talking with Songfacts, Murphy observed, "I still think it's strange that the first song on my first album would being with the word 'last.'"