Eddie Money – Spotify

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It’s hard to write a hit. But from the moment he had one, the critics savaged Eddie Money.

It started with “Baby Hold On.” The lyrics were not intellectual enough for the cognoscenti. But the music was undeniable, you heard it once and got it whereas so much vaunted stuff, then and now, you listen to over and over again and still don’t get.

Then came “Two Tickets To Paradise.”

Now that was a smash right out of the box. Great title, great track, great, emphatic chorus:

I’ve got two tickets to paradise
Won’t you pack your bags, we’ll leave tonight

This was 1978. When airline travel was still expensive. When you didn’t hop on a plane to go to a show or a game, you were stuck at home, dreaming, of what could possibly be, and Eddie Money was opening the top of your brain and filling you with hope, and isn’t that what we all need to get by?

But then people started commenting on his weight. Said he ate too many cheeseburgers. Sure, the cover of Money’s debut was stylized, but it fit right in with the era, which might be one reason disco killed rock and then the whole business imploded until MTV resuscitated it.

And that wiped a lot of acts out.

But not Eddie Money. He made the transition. First came “Think I’m In Love” and “Shakin.” And there’s not a soul alive who was conscious in the eighties who does not know “Shakin’,” the video was all over MTV. Even bigger was “Take Me Home Tonight,” featuring Ronnie Spector, this guy brings back an original and he’s the butt of jokes…why?

Now I bought the debut. Got a promo for two bucks the week it was released, and played it into the ground. It made me feel good.

But not as much as “Unplug It In.”

It was 1992, “Unplugged” was flourishing on the now totally dominant MTV. Not that Eddie Money was cool enough to be featured, but he released his own acoustic live album, that positively ROCKED!

You see in ’92, labels sometimes sent cassettes. At this point vinyl was almost done, in promoland anyway, and I got one of those little Philips creations and pushed it into the Alpine and immediately got into the groove, from the very first note of “Gimme Some Water,” the opening cut. This was an album track from Money’s mostly hitless second LP “Life For The Taking.” Oh, “Maybe I’m A Fool” made it to number 22 on the singles chart, but at this point no one was listening to Top Forty, AOR ruled, and you didn’t need a pop hit to go platinum, as “Life For The Taking” did.

Now the studio take of “Gimme Some Water” was a studio concoction, slick, kinda like Bon Jovi’s “Blaze Of Glory.” You were watching the movie, but in this ’92 acoustic take you were LIVING IT! You felt like you were at the gig, it was immediate, engrossing, it made me feel alive, just after my father died.

That’s a weird thing, a parent passing. My father had terminal cancer, but when he left this mortal coil I still was not prepared. Little music sounded good, but “Unplug It In” did, because it exuded the feeling of being alive, embracing the excitement of the moment, the power of rock and roll.

And track 2, “She Takes My Breath Away,” continued the energy. Originally from Money’s 1991 LP “Right Here,” featuring writers like Mutt Lange and Diane Warren in search of an impact, it did not make one. The end of this live recording amped up the power. The original was the same song, but it was studio intimate. The live version, once again, was for everybody, you know the feel of a singalong.

But the piece-de-resistance was “Trinidad.” A redo of the opening cut of Money’s third LP “Playing for Keeps,” from 1980, the live iteration has a distinct groove that gives the illusion you’re all in a small club together:

She calls my name
To come on back to hold me
Trinidad
Trinidad, Trinidad, Trinidad
Trinidad

The only person I ever knew from Trinidad was Roger Ames. Who went to college in Canada. But we’re all eager to be called back to the good times of yore, those memories call to us, they’re what we think about when we put our head on the pillow.

And I’d have it down. Push the button to flip the cassette. Know how much to hold the fast-forward and reverse buttons to hear these three songs over and over. I distinctly remember listening to them on my ride back from that April day at Mt. Waterman, skiing locally, taking time off, grieving, and now after expending energy on the hill I had the sunroof open and the music blasting and…

I was smiling.

That’s what Eddie Money’s music did, make you smile.

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And then we became friends. He had an AXS show. I asked him to do a podcast. He invited me to his interview and show at the Grammy Museum. He told me what I thought was an anti-Semitic joke, about his wife shopping, and then when I cried foul it turned out he had a Jewish mother, which is something I never expected, but now it made sense, Eddie Money was haimish, you met him and you were immediately his best friend. He whispered in my ear, he’d e-mail me, like we knew each other from way back when. But maybe we did, we both grew up praying to the god of rock and roll. And Eddie was over the hump, the drugs were in the rearview mirror, and then the cancer caught up with him.

First he told me it was gone.

But then it came back.

But he was checking up on me, on my pemphigus. The subject line of his e-mail was “How you feeling?” He was the kind of guy who cared. Oh, he could self-promote, although he had a sense of humor about himself, but I genuinely felt he did care, and to tell you the truth, very few people do, especially rock stars, they tend to be narcissistic and socially awkward, they let the music do their talking.

But not Eddie.

This is what he wrote:

Thanks Bob
Could be better
Esophagus Cancer stage 4
Leaked into my liver n lymph nodes
No pain n hopeing for the best
Glad you like the new material
I’m excited about a second season of “Real Money” AXS tv show ) and releasing the new cd
Kids are good and I’m still doing shows
How is your health
Good , I hope
At the usc Cancer Treatment Center right now ….in God’s hands
Lost 40 pounds
People say I look great
Go figure. .huh Bob
I know you must know how famous your column is ….the power of the pen …. i have people excited we’re communicating
I just hope your in good health
Eddie $

And then, nine days later, on March 13th of this year, Eddie wrote:

Hush on my illness
Please. Feeling pretty good
Doing a pod cast with Louie Anderson
Will announce it like Alex Trubeck
Short , sensitive with a positive vibe
Although ALEX is in worse shape than me
E$

And then he went dark.

I thought about Eddie, figured he was doing well, figured I’d hear from him if it was otherwise, but then Peter Paterno told me the curtain was falling.

And today he passed.

Which is strange, because he was so alive, he was a funny dude, a good hang.

And the music lives on.

And when I first saw the news this AM, it didn’t shock me completely, I knew he was sick. But as the day wore on and the e-mail came in, all I could hear in my mind was “Trinidad,” it kept playing in my head.

God took Eddie Money home tonight. They took him back to Trinidad. The music lives on, but 70 is too damn young.

The Big C knows no bounds. If it can get Steve Jobs, it can get you. Sometimes you beat it, sometimes you don’t. But I know if Eddie were here now, he’d tell you to spin his records and do your best to have fun, that was his goal, to inspire you to grab hold of this rock life, chuck off the straight world, stop being a policeman and cut loose.

Eddie certainly did!

It was boring.

The whole world tuned in…

And then the whole world tuned out.

This is why Roger Ailes succeeded, he knew it was all about showbiz, and the only person on stage who seemed to know this was Julian Castro. Yes, he was the big winner of the night, even though he called out Biden and was half-wrong. You see Castro came to win. A back of the pack softie, Castro demonstrated his fighting spirit, he stood up to Biden, laughed and rolled his eyes when somebody said something he thought was stupid or irrelevant. Now we know who Castro is. He certainly replaced Kamala Harris on the leaderboard.

Never pay heed to the analysts. By attacking Trump and nobody on stage, Harris took herself right out of the picture. She seemed like she really didn’t want to be there, like a prosecutor on Friday who wants to wrap up and get out of court. She’s toast.

As are the rest of the seven dwarves, other than the aforementioned Castro.

Beto O’Rourke, he even said some good stuff, but who cares? He was last year’s flavor, now he’s just another young guy trying to make a name for himself.

Klobuchar? A strict mother who was pissed with the shenanigans who kept telling us she knew better and to trust her, that she could bring the whole country together…huh? Forget plans, just meet me in the middle.

Cory Booker? Okay, you’ve been there and done that, but what have you done for us lately? You didn’t solve the problems in Newark and now you want us to give you the keys to the Oval Office because..? I can’t figure out a reason why.

And Andrew Yang, who triumphed by speaking English as opposed to political-speak, blew his whole candidacy by turning it into a game show. Yup, he was gonna give a grand to ten families every month…and then let’s see what happens? Everybody else laughed. And when he said he knew about doctors because he was Asian, implying that the profession was filled with Asians, he demonstrated that he’s living in a bubble, that he doesn’t know the rules, that there are certain things you can’t say, but he did! Over.

Mayor Pete? He said some good things, he appeared wise, he regained some luster, but not enough to recover from the police problems in his hometown.

Which leaves us with the three real candidates…Joe, Bernie and Elizabeth.

Warren avoided the question. Which was especially bad since Bernie answered it. Will Medicare For All make taxes go up? Of course it will, own it and move on. But she waffled to her detriment. And by time she found her voice again, even spoke, deep into the debate, when she was hitting them over the fence with no problem, nobody was watching.

Bernie killed, but his voice was shot, you couldn’t stop thinking he’d yelled so much that he’d worn himself out. One thing you can say for Bernie, and Elizabeth too, is that they’re passionate. Actually, they were the only two on stage who were. They were convinced what they were saying was true, they uttered it with emphasis, this stuff was important to them. The others? You wondered why they were on stage, because they certainly have no chance.

Other than Joe.

I’ll tell you, he’s from another era, with those teeth. As fake as can be. Bernie’s are yellow, Elizabeth’s imperfect, yet Joe’s look like Jim Carrey’s in “The Mask.” And he’s constantly fake smiling. Hell, that was the playbook in the last century, today we’re looking for authenticity and credibility, and the way Joe acts you just don’t buy it.

And he was creaky. He always seemed on the verge of forgetting something, a name, what he was talking about, it was uncomfortable watching him, you were willing him to get it right.

And he also came from the “trust me” school. Been there, done that, I’m the man. But Castro killed him by pointing out his selective embracement of Obama, saying he was with Barack when it suited him, and distancing himself when it didn’t. You can’t have it both ways. And the truth is Obama’s been out of office nearly three years, and the time has changed. Hell, we all like Obama, except for those who believe he was born in Kenya, but that doesn’t make him a great President. Hell, no one’s been a better ex-President than Jimmy Carter, he’s been on the right side of everything, advocating, unafraid of standing up to those who are wrong, but his term in office? Not so great.

Let’s see, Obama lost both houses of Congress and many governorships and state houses, to the point where he couldn’t get his agenda through. And as soon as he was gone, Trump and the Republicans eradicated/overturned almost all of his policies, clean water just today. But this is the guy we’re advocating and adoring? I don’t think so. Obama’s closer to a boy band. Hell, late twenty and thirtysomethings are going to see the Backstreet Boys, but today’s chart is dominated by Drake and Post Malone. We ain’t going backwards folks.

And after the candidates argued over health care, they became so lovey-dovey, team-like, that the debate was impossible to watch. Once again, the pundits had said not to have a circular firing squad and everybody agreed. The end result? The audience tuned out.

And there were few specifics, other than trumpeting their CVs. That’s why Bernie and Elizabeth stood out, there were some hooks in what they said. I mean when you talk broadly and say you’re gonna throw fifty mil at this or that…no one believes it, it’s too general, it doesn’t affect me if it even happens.

But Warren owned public schools. And someone else, either Yang or Castro, said that charter schools are not better than public ones. And Warren essentially came out against vouchers. Like I said, there was some substance there. But most of it was uttered after the audience had tuned out.

So what it came down to, assuming you watched, was emotion and image. Who was the most likeable, who was the most sincere, who had the best delivery.

Trump pushes the envelope every damn day and tonight everybody but Sanders bunts. Got to give Bernie credit, he stays true to his ethos, he’s always the same guy, it’s appealing, but tonight with his gruff voice he wasn’t.

As for moving the needle?

Not amongst the headliners, the big three, Bernie, Biden and Warren.

Like I said, Kamala is history, she killed her chances tonight, put a stake right through her own heart. Can Castro make hay from his appearance, be the new Harris? Possible, but doubtful.

So what we want is the three leaders on stage, sans kumbaya, a no holds barred cage match that reveals the true identity of these people, who they really are.

Biden will be overwhelmed and fold. He’s not good with direct attacks, he’s too busy going through his mental Rolodex, trying to figure out how to come back.

Sanders will fight hard. But we’ve seen this act before, back in 2016, it’s hard for him to generate heat today, even though so many of his positions are right and he’s got the aforementioned passion.

Which leaves us with Elizabeth Warren. She’s the candidate by default.

We want to be led forward, which Biden certainly won’t do, he’s too much of an insider inured to the past.

Bernie’s Metallica. All rough-edged, delivering his message with emphasis, hammering it home.

But Elizabeth Warren is closer to Ariana Grande. Someone who has a backbone who is the flavor of the moment. Warren’s not Taylor Swift, she’s not that devious and manipulative, she’s playing for her positions, not herself, and that’s appealing.

But this show was not. Makes you want to give up on politics.

One thing’s for sure, Trump was speaking English, he made the debates his own, he owned the stage, he defined the game.

And that appealed to people.

Very little appealed to people tonight.

From the Limeliters to the Smothers Brothers, Kenny Rogers, Lionel Richie, Travis Tritt, Trisha Yearwood and even Gallagher, Ken Kragen is a legendary manager and one of the main drivers behind “We Are The World.” Listen to hear his history, as well as the tale of that legendary charity project.

Now there was a point in this podcast where my heart started beating faster, where I got excited, when I remembered what once was, when Ken started talking about the seventies and eighties, the glory days, when music drove the culture and a performer was as rich as anybody in America, it’s gone, but it was thrilling.

And Ken started telling his story, about promoting shows at his high school in the fifties, and I was stunned how I didn’t know one of the singers’ names. That’s what seems to happen, you’re famous in your era and then you’re forgotten. The landscape is littered with superstars the younger generations do not know. Hell, once the boomers die, certainly the Gen-X’ers, will anybody remember Johnny Carson? It was kind of like growing up and hearing my mother lionize Sid Caesar, who eventually came back a bit, his old writer Mel Brooks featured him in “Silent Movie,” but you’re here today and gone tomorrow.

Kinda like the business titans too. You’re on top of the world and then a footnote. Ken’s not gone yet, but hearing about his lengthy career it reinforced a recent feeling…that it won’t be long before I’m on the scrapheap too.

P.S. If you’re only interested in “We Are The World,” it’s the last fifteen minutes or so.

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Warren is gonna win the nomination and beat Trump. End of story.

Driving this afternoon I was listening to Danny Wilde on direct connection via my iLX-W650. For newcomers, that’s the Alpine head unit I installed in my car, a 2005 Saab that is really a Subaru. But the installer ran a cable into my glove box so I could plug my iPhone in directly and get CarPlay and superior sound. CarPlay is sort of cool, a direct connection is mind-blowing, you lose something with Bluetooth. Driving on the 10 last night, I heard Karla Bonoff’s “Isn’t It Always Love,” and other stuff I hadn’t heard in a long time. You see music through earbuds just doesn’t cut it. But in the old days, we purchased bigger and better rigs to get closer to the sound, and I was reminded of that yesterday, especially when shuffle revealed the Doobie Brothers’ “Natural Thing.” The band was there, but the producer and engineer tweaked the sound just a bit, to make a great record.

And there are so many great records that never got their due, like Danny Wilde’s “The Boyfriend.” Sure, “Isn’t It Enough” got some MTV love, but he was on Island which at that time just wasn’t powerful enough, then he switched to Geffen and didn’t deliver and then he got back together with his old buddy Phil Solem and became the Rembrandts and they delivered delicious stuff, but then they recorded the “Friends” theme and the act’s image changed, but at least they can still tour on that hit.

But listening to “Isn’t It Enough” I took notice of how long ago that was. 1986, thirty four years ago. So much has changed, people don’t even make records like this anymore.

And our country surely isn’t stuck in the eighties either.

But on the way to a hike tonight, I was touching the screen and changing tracks and I realized I was about to get in a wreck, multiple times, so on the way back home I turned up the news, Howard was repeating what I’d already heard. And what I got was Brian Williams pompously interviewing the usual suspects with their suspect analysis.

You see the Democrats and the media think it’s still 2016. They’re fighting the last war. And these are the people who called it wrong to begin with! They said Trump had no chance. The ball has moved, times have changed, you couldn’t run Danny Wilde up the charts today, that straight ahead rock sound isn’t in style. But somehow Joe Biden is?

So these outlets have to fill space. I don’t understand the people who have TV news on all day long, especially because if you watch it all they do is quote the newspapers and discuss and argue over it, why not read the newspapers to begin with? These channels are cheering squads. Aligned with one party or another. And the people who watch want to feel good, but they’re not the ones who need convincing, it’s those not paying attention who do.

So what we’ve got is the political caste, the insiders, handicapping the election. This is like asking Doug Morris about Napster back in the year 2000. Or paying attention to the idiots who still think physical is gonna come back, that streaming is for losers because you can’t own it. Are these same people angry that they can’t own the shows they stream on Netflix? You’ve got to ignore these people, if you want to know where it’s all going.

So, Trump decided to play by his own rules back in 2016. At first, everybody said he was wrong, both the Republican candidates and the RNC. But then, when it became clear Trump would be the candidate, they all got on board. But somehow, the Democratic nominee for 2020 must play by the rules. Huh? Isn’t this how we got into this mess? Looking at history, viewing today through the past? This is how Apple defeated Microsoft to become the most valuable company on the planet. You skate to where the puck is going, not where it’s been.

So for the last month or so, Trump has gone positively insane, completely off his rocker, do you think people haven’t recognized this? Of course his base is gonna continue to vote for him. It’d be like classic rock fans suddenly embracing hip-hop, not gonna happen.

So Trump tapped into the frustrations of voters back in 2016, but the media and the DNC say the Democratic candidate can’t tap into the frustrations of voters today. Story is more people hate Trump, they’ll vote for anybody else but him. It’s just a matter of appealing to them and getting out the vote.

But how do the usual suspects appeal to the voters, motivate them to get out? By endorsing Joe Biden whom no one can get excited about. I mean you might as well stay home. We’re not returning to Danny Wilde’s eighties and there’s no way we’re returning to the Obama era. The coordinates have changed, you’ve got to change your course.

But all the experts say no, that you’ve got to stay the course because the risk of Trump winning is just too big. That’s like saying not to put out a new album because it might flop and this will negatively impact sales of catalog. But the truth is if you do nothing, if you stay out of the marketplace completely, catalog sales will tank all by their lonesome. Nothing is forever. You want to see the new “Star Wars,” not the old one.

So the Democrats are all about infighting. Now they’re even attacking Warren for taking big money in the past. She changed her mind, she saw the cash Bernie was raising, she decided to forgo the money of the man in favor of the proletariat. You can’t change your mind anymore? You can’t be impacted by what’s going on?

And the truth is anybody with money is afraid of Warren, not only on the right, but the left. One, they used to control the process, and now they’re losing control. Two, rich people don’t want to sacrifice, they’re afraid of losing, they’ve anointed themselves as an inviolate elite that can’t be challenged. But the last time I checked, there are very few rich people, the middle class, or what’s left of it, and the lower class, far outnumber the wealthy, and it’s one person, one vote.

Which brings us back to the Electoral College. Yes, it comes down to four or five states. But Hillary, coasting in anticipation of her coronation, didn’t do the hard work there, furthermore, she was advised by the same wankers who think they’re still in charge today.

You should listen. The DNC and the talking head class are so afraid of Trump and the Republicans it’s scary. If polls show five candidates beating Trump, it’s too early to trust. You can’t talk about any controversial subject. Yup, they’re all saying to avoid certain topics tonight. It’s like the Republicans are the parents and the Democrats are their children. Time to grow a pair and stand up for what you believe in. But no, you’ve got to chafe at your parents’/the Republicans’ game, you can’t define your own.

So we have a Democratic party in disarray, those making money off of it, the consultants, pollsters, the infrastructure, not wanting to play for what’s right, but what others say is safe, all the while getting paid. It’s positively ridiculous.

It wasn’t industry insiders who moved the music business forward. It was Shawn Fanning. A COLLEGE STUDENT! And then music distribution was overhauled by a Swedish guy no one had ever heard of, Daniel Ek. But somehow in politics we should listen to the establishment? Give credit to music, it keeps moving forward, we blow out the old acts and the old execs, but not in politics, even when confronted with a sea change, i.e. the election of Trump.

Warren is Guns N’ Roses. Or at least Pat Benatar. Meanwhile, Biden is Air Supply, which a few might tolerate but no one believes in. It’s always the envelope-pushing that’s the biggest, but we must play it safe in politics? Look at the movie studios, only making sequels. Now they’re starting to fail in the marketplace, people have seen the trick, they want something new. And most want a whole new paradigm, i.e. streaming TV. So what does the movie industry do? Raise prices to keep their margins. Once again, it’s like no one ever read Clayton Christensen’s “Innovator’s Dilemma.” You superserve the usual suspects at your peril. The new is always denigrated, it’s not mainstream, people don’t need it, and then it puts the old out of business overnight. Remember when Tower Records folded?

So if you want to know what’s going on, don’t watch TV news, read the newspaper, and read editorial and opinion with a grain of salt. You want to know the facts and then come up with your own analysis.

The facts are out there, it’s just the analysis that sucks. It’s like no one is living in present day reality. People hate Trump, their wages are stagnant, graduates owe a ton of money, they can’t afford houses, but because the stock market is gangbusters they’re all gonna vote for Trump? OF COURSE NOT! They don’t have skin in that game. So, Warren appeals to their souls and their pocketbooks, she makes sense, they think she can provide a way out of this mess, that she’s on their team. Neera Tanden is smart, but she’s got it totally wrong. Now it’s about the people, not the fat cats or insiders. That’s how Trump won, and now you’re gonna throw out that playbook?

You learn from the past, and then inject it into the present.

People are disenfranchised. They want to get behind a leader, they want someone to believe in.

And that’s why Warren will win.