I was a wet behind the ears music director programming the music for the number one radio station on Cape Cod. I think it was 1988. The traffic director (who is basically like a receptionist, greeter, task assigner, all of the above person) called the production studio to tell me that Eddie Money was on the phone and needed to speak to me. My response to her was, "yeah sure". She said, "he says he's Eddie Money". I said, "fine, patch him though". The voice on the line says, "Davey, this is Eddie, the money man!"
Immediately I knew it was really him. We talked about Richie Zito, who produced his latest album Nothing To Lose. He mentioned that he needed a vacation and was planning to spend time with his wife and his kids. He thanked me profusely for helping the song The Love In Your Eyes climb to #1 on the mainstream rock charts. Admittedly, it's not Eddie's best track, but was a radio staple for us for several weeks. He was as affable and funny as he is on TV and in interviews. He told me he would eventually make it to the Cape for a visit, that it would be a perfect place for his family to spend some time on the beach. He was a working class Joe from New York who was destined to be a cop but he quit and followed his dreams to California.
They don't make them like Eddie Money anymore. He loved R&B music, rock and the blues. He ended up being a constant presence on the radio until the grunge scene killed his radio career. Like all good blue collar workers, he hit the road hard and was there right up until the doctors pulled him off. I'm sitting here cranking all of these Money tunes that meant so much to me then. Today they mean even more to me than they did then.
Rest in peace Edward Joseph Mahoney. You will be missed but thankfully you gave us a lifetime's worth of unforgettable music.
- Davey
Very nice tribute with heartfelt personal connection/sentiment attached
ReplyDeleteto it. Also very astute commentary on the sad state of rock (schlock!)
radio in the modern age. Hopefully his passing will lead to a fitting
reassessment of both his career and his place in the Rock and roll
Pantheon. R.I.P.
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DeleteThanks. I got to thinking as I was writing this...why not Eddie Money in the rock and roll hall of fame? I know why of course. He was too mainstream. He was liked by his peers and especially by the fans. He has at least 20 essential tracks. They've been focus tested down to like 3 or 4 these days.
ReplyDeleteI'm up in Toronto and the situation really isn't much better. Same
ReplyDeletecouple of hundred tracks Ad nauseam. Even E.M.'s various 'hits' packages
tend to leave some of those essential AOR tracks off the track list in
place of inferior 'latter day' tracks/ bonus new songs (relatively speaking, of course!)
You are spot on with your analysis. You could create a killer best of collection with tracks from all the albums up until Ready Eddie. We are really being short changed when we hop in the car to run errands. None of these stations take any chances.
ReplyDeleteThis is what happens when robots and algorithms wind-up making the music
ReplyDeleteprogramming decisions! Guitars, real drums, legit vocals and human-performed bass lines have all largely and sadly gone the way of the Dodo!! Doubtful that we will see a change in this while we're still on the earth, unless the younglings wise up and find themselves some taste and demand to hear some real music on the open airwaves. Sermon
over!!
Amen! My kind of preaching.
ReplyDeleteWell, it sure does beat the "Church of the Poison Mind" so sweetly sung
ReplyDelete'bout by the former George O'Dowd back in the day!!
Just watched yesterday's video regarding "Rock Star Mortality" and to answer your question about CMC Records, they eventually became a part
ReplyDeleteof Roadrunner Records under the Loud and Proud Banner under label founding father Tom Lipsky (see Wiki for more, if you're interested).