Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCLXXXVI--Eddie Money: Baby Hold On

Regular readers (both of you) may remember that I wrote a short obituary for Eddie Money when he died last year.  In it I promised that there would come a day when this week's tune would be featured...and voila! today is that day....

Edward Mahoney was born in New York City and after trying to become a policeman and failing, moved westward to the San Francisco Bay Area, changed his name to Eddie Money (his surname being a play on the fact that he never had any), and in 1974 began his music career in earnest.  He released his debut album in 1977 (which is when I discovered him after seeing him perform on Saturday Night Live) and due to its success was able to carve out a musical career that lasted until his death in 2019.  Money would go on to release 12 studio albums (eight of which would reach the Billboard 200), 4 EPs, three live albums, and six compilations.  He would also release 27 singles, 24 of which would hit the charts, with the best topping out at #4.  Money was nominated for a Grammy Award, wrote songs for four soundtracks, acted on both the silver screen and television, and is a proud member of the Long Island Hall of Fame.  While Money never remotely reached greatness over the course of his 45 years performing, he most certainly had a nice string of success and was at least able to enjoy a taste of fame and fortune.

Fun Fact  Money was at one time a trainee to become a New York City police officer (his grandfather, father, and brother were all policeman), but after a few months decided he didn't want to cut his hair and quit the program to play music.  His Dad was so pissed he tore down a Jimi Hendrix picture from Money's bedroom wall....

"Baby Hold On" was released in 1978 on his first album, entitled, appropriately enough, Eddie Money.  The single would reach #11 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100.  The album was the most commercially successful of his career, eventually selling over two million copies (though it only peaked at #37 on the album charts).

While "Baby Hold On' doesn't make a lot of greatest songs of all-time lists, it's one of the first singles I remember really going crazy over, listening to the album again and again in my room just to hear it, and cranking the radio as high as it would go every time I heard it tooling around Kokomo, Indiana in my parents car.  It's aged very well--it still sounds as good every time I hear it as it did when I was an awkward eighteen year old.  Money gives easily the best performance of his career vocally, and the song is a smorgasbord of emaycee faves:  jangly guitars, hand claps, pulsating bass, driving drums, a catchy chorus, and even an interlude of just vocals, bass, and drums.  It's the kind of song that a young man just getting his feet wet in the mystery that is rock and roll would fall in love with...and still love enough to write a fanboy blog post about some forty odd years later.

Lyric Sheet:  "Hey Baby/You know the future's lookin' brighter/Every morning when I get up/Don't be thinkin' 'bout what's not enough, now baby/Just be thinkin' 'bout what we got..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Where's Gepetto when you need him?

Your typical right wing talking head

Professional racist and editor at the White Nationalist rag Breitbart Milo Yiannopoulos tucked tail and ran yesterday after the University of California said it couldn't guarantee his safety at a speaking engagement there amid violent protests over his planned talk.  As he was wiping his runny nose and changing his pee filled pants, Yiannopolous had the temerity to say that the left--and shame on the media for giving him a forum to further spread his lies--was "absolutely terrified of free speech."

No--what we are is completely sick and tired and utterly pissed off that Yiannopoulos and similar minded folks on the right think that free speech means they can lie without being called out on their lies.  You're free to lie all you want--you're just not free to whine like a baby when people prove you're lying and then call you a fucking liar.

Gepetto put up with Pinocchio's travails because he loved him--I'm pretty sure that 99% of Americans couldn't give a shit less about Milo Yiannopoulos and we aren't about to stand idly by while he gives hate filled speeches.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CIV--Counting Crows: A Long December

As we near the end of a not particularly good year (Hillary, Hillary, Hillary...and the Senate, too and that's not even counting the personal ups and downs), we're featuring a song about a not particularly good year but one in which, like 2016, there is still  "reason to believe maybe this year will be better than the last."  Plus we're like two days from Christmas--gotta offer something hopeful....

Counting Crows were formed in Berkley, CA in 1991 by songwriter and pianist Adam Duritz and guitarist David Bryson (the only two constants in the band's 25 years, though several members have been around for most of the ride).  While they've had a good deal of success with their studio releases, most of it came very early in their career and they've only released 7 studio albums in that time (with sales of over 20 million and counting).  Counting Crows are known for their live performances, and have toured virtually constantly since their formation.  There's not a lot of glory there (though they have been nominated for an Academy Award for best song, "Accidentally in Love" from Shrek 2, which, truth be told, is not one of their better efforts), but if they're still selling records and performing this far down the road, they most certainly must have done something right.  And I have to admit that though they'd never make my top twenty-five favorite bands, I've always had a bit of a sneaking kindness for them and enjoy listening to their greatest hits now and again and again.

While "Mr. Jones" is by far and away their best known and most played song (and a fine tune it is), there's a subtle beauty to the way Duritz melds sorrow to hope in "A Long December" (released in 1996 on their Recovering the Satellites  LP--reached #6, with a bullet!on the Billboard Hot 100).  Duritz has said the song is about a particularly difficult time in his life, when a friend was seriously injured after being hit by a car combined with the stress of trying to make another hit album after the success of their debut, but I've always thought the song epitomized the existential juxtaposition of finding that sliver of hope while still in the throes of depression. There's a wonderful line in the song where Duritz sings "...And the feeling that it's all a lot of oysters but no pearls/All at once you look across a crowded room/To see the way that light attaches to a girl..." and in those three lines are all the hope and possibility you need.  The song is driven by a catchy and stark piano, some seriously honest vocals by Duritz, a nice, though uncomplicated, guitar solo midway through, and closes with a minute or so of "Da da da das" which are interspersed nicely with some well-timed "yeahs."

Ain't it the truth, dept.:  "...It's been so long since I've seen the ocean...I guess I should..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
But have a happy holiday anyway...
emaycee