Ebert Did It Better: Gasbag Reviews

Eddie Money is about the strangest excuse for a pop star I have ever encountered.  His singing voice and style perfectly match his face.  He comes from a family of cops, used to be one himself.  Decided that he needed to sing a bunch of songs like an ex-cop.  Its not that he was an ugly guy.  He certainly did not qualify as pretty.  Around the time MTV started up, he really seemed like he was a drunker version of Joe Cocker.  I thought his career was pretty much over by then.  Little did I know.

He hit is peak in the mid-’80’s with the album Can’t Hold Back.  That album had several songs that really spoke to me.  He seemed like Rocky with a microphone, and his song Take Me Home Tonight spoke to me as a music fan.  The video, like the song, is like a loving history of music, complete with Ronnie Spector, looking fantastic, as she sings the refrain from her most famous song Be My Baby.  That song freed her from obscurity as one of her ex-husband Phil’s minions and placed her right in the heart of schmoes like me, and Eddie Money.

He had a few more hits after that, but things went pretty dry in the 90’s.  I had almost forgotten about him by the time I saw him in an inspired Super Bowl ad for Geico, called 2 Tickets to Paradise.

By this point, I suppose his best days are behind him.  I sure hope not, but I just can’t see him walking into the chorus of a Katy Perry song.

Eddie Money’s Best Songs:

1) Take Me Home Tonight – Can’t Hold Back – This song is a legitimate classic and one of the 3 (along with 2 Tickets and Baby Hold On) that most people have heard at one time or another.  I don’t think I have to convince anyone but my wife to like this song.
2) Endless Nights – Can’t Hold Back – Says everything I ever wanted to tell a girl at age 15.  No car.  No license.  No prospects.  Plenty of chores to do around the house during the summer.  This was what I pictured life would be like in my 20’s.  I would have a car, a license, a few prospects, and a girl who I wished would call.
3) Baby Hold On – Eddie Money – I wish I had the passion and the innocence portrayed in this song, which is a more pop ready version of Born to Run.  The lyrics are out of the ’50’s and the propulsive, near disco beat could only happen in the ’70’s.  “I’m gonna give you all I got” is the rallying cry of a poor boy in love.
4) Two Tickets To Paradise – Eddie Money – This song has a whimsical nature that could only exist in pop music.  Everyone wins, and no consequences.  It provides a portal for the audience into what could happen if we just ran away.  If only…
5) We Should Be Sleeping – Can’t Hold Back
6) Think I’m In Love – No Control
7) I Wanna Go Back – Can’t Hold Back

Notable omissions:

1) Shakin’ – No Control – Just look at the video.  I almost hated him at this point, and only because of this dumb video.  Too much access to drugs and video cameras.  Yes, I know that Appollonia was in the video.  I really never cared though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q9Y_jb1pcU
2) Walk On Water – Nothin’ To Lose – This was pleasant-sounding enough to become his second biggest hit.  It wasn’t written by him.  It has the feel of any of the myriad Cher hits that she had in the 2nd chapter of her career.
3) Peace In Our Time – The Sound of Money: Greatest Hits – Another one hired out.  I can barely remember the tune.  Not a bad one, but it could have been done by anyone.