Gonzo’s Gems: “Shakin’ With Eddie Money”
By Sam “Gonzo” Gonzales
It’s 1982, I’m sitting in a pizzeria waiting for my pizza and I’m listening to Eddie Money’s “Think I’m In Love” on the jukebox for the second time in ten minutes. When the song finished, I considered playing it for a third time. Could I? Would I? What would the pizzeria patrons scattered around the room think of me? Would they think of me as odd? The answer came five minutes later when I dropped the necessary coins into the jukebox, and yes… played it again! The audacity of me!
I looked around the pizzeria and noticed the strange looks. “Keep it up, folks”, I thought to myself. “I’ll play the song again. Do not tempt me.” I did truly love the song and the album that it was on. In fact, it was at that point in time that I decided I would track down all of Eddie Money’s albums. I was on a mission now to search out all of Eddie Money’s music and ended up purchasing all four of his albums. I recorded them to cassette tape so that I could have them in my car… easy access… easy Money.
Eddie Money was born Edward Joseph Mahoney on March 21, 1949 in Brooklyn, New York. During high school, Eddie sang in a rock group called The Grapes Of Wrath. Deciding to follow in his father‘s footsteps he pursued a career in Law Enforcement, but continued singing at night. Eventually, Eddie gave up Law Enforcement and moved to Berkeley, California in search of the rock and roll dream. He changed his name to Eddie Money and began playing Bay Area clubs. Noticed by rock impresario Bill Graham, he was signed to his management company and a record deal with Columbia Records followed.
In 1977, Eddie Money recorded and released his self-titled debut, “Eddie Money”. The album, chock full of great rock songs, had a healthy dose of energy and Eddie racked up his first two hits with “Two Tickets To Paradise“ and “Baby Hold On“. The other standouts were a cover of Smokey Robinson & The Miracles’ “You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me”, the smoldering “So Good To Be In Love Again” and the Gem “Wanna Be A Rock ‘N’ Roll Star”, whose opening lyrics I can totally relate to: “Ever since I was young I’d sing and I’d hum those crazy songs I heard on the radio, rock ‘n’ roll melodies drove me frantically, soon I’d be tappin’ on the table…”.
Next up, 1978’s “Life For The Taking”. Eddie successfully replicated the formula of his debut and “Life For The Taking” spawned the hits, “Can’t Keep A Good Man Down” and “Maybe I’m A Fool”. “Maybe I’m A Fool” has a laidback pop-disco sound to it with Eddie playing some nice sax. My other favorite tracks are the pop-disco “Love The Way You Love Me”, with it’s up-tempo approach, the western-tinged “Gimme Some Water”, a song about an outlaw running from a posse and the Gem “Rock And Roll The Place”. “Rock And Roll The Place“ is a nice little sequel to “Wanna Be A Rock ‘N‘ Star“ from his previous album.
Released in 1980, “Playing For Keeps” is the glossiest sounding Eddie Money album and his weakest. It lacked the energy and drive of his two previous albums and it ended up with no hit singles. But there are a few high points on the album. There’s the reggae-tinged “Running Back”, the pop-drenched “Million Dollar Girl“ and my favorite album cut, the Gary Glitter-sounding rocker “Get A Move On”. Eddie’s popularity was waning around this time and sadly he was about to hit a major roadblock.
Years of rock and roll excess lead to a drug overdose in 1981 when Eddie took Phenitol, a barbiturate, after drinking large amounts of alcohol. Eddie went into a semi-catatonic state and fell asleep on his sciatic nerve. After recovering from his overdose he was physically affected and couldn’t walk for a whole year and remained hospitalized. Eddie worked his way back with intense rehabilitation and eventually made his way back into the studio using a walker to get around. He began working on his next album with gusto and a new lease on life.
Eddie came back strong, releasing one of his most potent albums, 1982’s “No Control”. One listen to the album and you sense a strong autobiographical undercurrent throughout the entire album. The album produced two of his biggest hits, “Shakin’” and the Gem, “Think I’m In Love”. The song “No Control“ is a chilling account of his overdose, “Passing By The Graveyard (Song For John B.)” was a song written about John Belushi after his passing, and “My Friends My Friends” is a gorgeous ballad, soaked with melancholy, about old friendships. It was Eddie’s most personal and hardest rocking album!
So, while I was busy annoying pizzeria patrons with repetitive plays of “Think I’m In Love”, my brother Gilbert was busy discovering Eddie Money for the first time. Gilbert and his friend Eddie were cruising around town in Eddie’s “work in progress”, a gold 1972 Caprice. Eddie popped “No Control” into his cassette player and “Shakin’” blared out of the speakers. “Who’s that?” Gilbert asked. It sounded different. It sounded really good. “Eddie Money.” his friend replied. Gilbert didn‘t know who Eddie Money was. He had been an “oldies” guy up to that point, but that changed quick, he was an Eddie Money fan now.
Eddie Money followed up with 1983‘s, “Where’s The Party?”. “Where’s The Party?” is a noticeably weaker album than his previous effort. This album is lackluster and has less catchy songs than it’s predecessors. Some songs, like “Club Michelle”, “The Big Crash” and “Leave It To Me” standout, but there are no big hits on this album. It was Eddie’s lowest charting album to date.
Eddie bounced back in 1986 with the album, “Can’t Hold Back”. This album went platinum and it featured Eddie’s biggest-selling single, “Take Me Home Tonight (Be My Baby)”, a duet with Ronnie Spector of the famed 60s girl group “The Ronettes”. Ronnie is introduced in the song by Eddie singing, “Just like Ronnie sang…“ and she sings a portion of her Ronette’s hit, “Be My Baby” throughout the song. Also a hit was is the wistful, “I Wanna Go Back”, a song about going back in time to celebrate old glory days. The keyboard laden “Stranger In A Strange Land” is also one of my favorite Eddie Money songs.
“Nothing To Lose“, released in 1988, continued in the same vein as his previous album. Same approach, same sound. “Nothing To Lose” kicks off with “Walk On Water“, another Top 10 hit and Eddie’s last big hit. The two other standout tracks were the poppish “The Love In Your Eyes” and the menacing “Dancing With Mr. Jitters”. “The Love In Your Eyes” is a beautiful and melodic song. I’m very surprised that it was not a hit for Mr. Money. The album finishes off with the daunting “Dancing With Mr. Jitters” and it finds Eddie adding some tasty sax.
Released in 1989, Greatest Hits: Sounds Of Money had all Eddie’s hits with three newly recorded songs. Of the three new songs, “Looking Through The Eyes Of A Child“ and “Peace In Our Time” are the solid tracks. “Looking Through The Eyes Of A Child“ is about unrequited love and is both catchy and beautiful as Eddie sings, “Show me the way to your heart… send me a wise man… or a book about love… my breath has been taken… I’ve been shaken…”. “Peace In Our Time” is a wishful song about building heaven on earth and finding peace in our time. “Peace In Our Time” proved to be Eddie’s last hit.
Sometime in 1994, my brother Gilbert attended an Eddie Money concert at the Hard Rock Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. Gilbert, wanting to hear “Peace In Our Time”, kept shouting for the song over and over throughout the concert. Finally, towards the end of the concert, Eddie Money told the crowd, “We’ve got some maniac out in the crowd who wants to hear a certain song. We’re gonna make everybody happy and play it for you guys.” They broke into “Peace In Our Time” and my brother suddenly realized, “Hey, that maniac was me!”.
Eddie beefed up his sound and unleashed “Right Here” in 1991. The album sounds a little bit forced compared to the easy attitude of his previous albums. Still, there are some choice cuts here. “Heaven In The Back Seat”, originally recorded by the melodic-rock group “Romeo’s Daughter”, starts the album off and it does a decent job of rocking. The second album track, “She Takes My Breath Away” starts off acoustically and then picks up the pace as it injects more energy and attitude less than a minute into the song. And “Things Are Much Better Today” is the hardest rocking tune on the album. Not great, but pretty good.
Four years later, Eddie recorded and released “Love And Money”. The album contains predominately more ballads than rockers. Since I gravitate to the rockers, this album is a little tedious for my taste. Don’t get me wrong, I love a great ballad, but it has to really catch my attention. None of them catch my attention, but the songs that do are “She’s Like A Movie”, “Just No Givin’ Up” and “I’m Comin”. The songs rock with a good amount of energy and they remind me somewhat of Eddie’s earlier stuff.
The hits had stopped coming in the nineties, but it didn’t stop Eddie from steadily touring. I was lucky enough to catch him in concert twice while stationed on the East Coast. In 1997, at a club called JAXX in Springfield, Virginia and in 1998, at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland. The Pavilion concert had Eddie rocking out with other rock acts from his era. On the bill were Pure Prairie League, Foghat, John Kay & Steppenwolf and David Lee Roth. I have to honestly say, that each time I saw Eddie, he delivered the goods. He sang his heart out and what came across was that this was a man who truly loved performing.
In 1999, Eddie recorded and released “Ready Eddie”. This release sounded a little bit more stripped down than his two previous outings. I really want to like this album, but there is a lack of energy on it that stops me from doing so. I’m guessing Eddie’s passion for recording new material was waning by this time of the game. The first three tracks from the album, “Ready To Rock”, “Don’t Say No Tonight” and “So Cold Tonight” are the songs I listen to the most.
In 2007, eight years after his last studio release, “Wanna Go Back”, a CD of 60s songs, was released. All the songs can be traced back to songs Eddie and his band, The Grapes Of Wrath, played during his high school years. First track up, and probably the best song on the CD, is “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”, a duet with his daughter Jesse. Originally performed by Tammi Terrell and Marvin Gaye, Eddie and Jesse do a pretty good job with it here. The other 60s classics that stand out are The Soul Survivors‘ “Expressway To Your Heart” and Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels‘ “Jenny Take A Ride”.
Eddie Money didn’t have a spectacular voice, but he managed to record catchy rock songs that were radio-friendly. He racked up eleven Top 40 hits in his career. After all this time, Eddie is still out there touring on a regular basis. If you get a chance to catch him live, treat yourself to a great rock concert. A quick check of Las Vegas’ entertainment listings show that Eddie is due to bring his blue-collar rock to The Orleans Hotel & Casino on December 18 and 19. I think I’m going to buy two tickets and invite my brother Gilbert to check out Eddie Money with me. And while Gilbert shouts for “Peace In Our Time”, I’ll be shouting, “Think I’m Love”. — Everybody rock and roll the place!”
(CDs) Eddie Money (1977) and No Control (1982)
(Songs) Two Tickets To Paradise, Baby Hold On, So Good To Be In Love Again, Wanna Be A Rock ‘N’ Roll Star, Love The Way You Love Me, Gimme Some Water, Rock And Roll The Place, Get A Move On, Shakin’, Think I’m In Love, Take Me Home Tonight (Be My Baby), Stranger In A Strange Land, Looking Through The Eyes Of A Child, Peace In Our Time, She Takes My Breath Away, She’s Like A Movie, and So Cold Tonight
To Send “Gonzo” A Suggestion For An Article On Your Favorite Musician or Group