PREVIEW
Rock Concert: Eddie Money, with Private Lise opening
Time and Date: Saturday at 8 p.m.
Place: Brady Theater, 105 W. Brady St.
Tickets: Tickets are $17.25 plus handling charge at the
Brady and all Carson Attractions outlets
A conversation with Eddie Money is a little like a roller
coaster ride - very fast, with erratic twists and turns.
When it's over you stagger a bit, exhilarated and exhausted
at the same time.
That's just how he is. He runs on hyper-drive, talking in
rapid-fire bursts with that in-your-face Brooklyn accent.
He's the sort of guy who blows off an afternoon lineup
of telephone interviews with the press because he came across
a couple of tickets to a baseball game.
OK...maybe that wasn't the most responsible thing to do.
Maybe the people who manage this bad boy of rock 'n' roll
were frantically calling newspapers around the country explaining
that something suddenly came up. But, hey, he made up the
interviews the next day, and the game was a lot of fun.
That's one thing Eddie Money knows about - having a good
time.
He's been called a "lovable scoundrel." He's been called
lots of other things too, like vibrant, volatile and ingratiating.
When he attended a music college in the early 1970s, Eddie
Mahoney (his real name) was regarded as enthusiastic, if
uneven, student. And while he wanted to learn to play saxophone
better and learn music composition, attendance was, well,
a problem.
At the time he was playing periodically at a Berkeley, Calif.,
nightspot, and one newspaper writer remembers those shows
as "raucous, to say the least."
But somewhere along the line Money learned to write and
select good songs, and that explains his string of hit records
that sometimes vary in mood.
On his recent "Can't Hold Back" album, Money said he was
exploring "the lonliness of being on the outside." But
on his latest LP, "Nothing to Lose," his attitude has
changed. This one "is a testament to redemption through
love."
Money got into rock music by an unusual route. He was a
New York City police officer by day and an entertainer at
night. He finally gave up his dress blues to sing professionally,
moving to California after winning a battle of the bands
in Bill Graham's Winterland club.Graham became his manager,
and in 1977 Money's self-titled debut album was released.
It contained his two smash singles "Baby Hold On" and
"Two Tickets to Paradise" and went platinum.
Over the next few years he continued to crank out albums,
including "Life for the Taking," "Playing for Keeps,"
"No Control" and "Where's the Party?"
After a world tour for that last album, Money took a break.
He produced other artists and continued writing. That sabatical
resulted in the 1986 album "Can't Hold Back," which recharged
his career and produced the hit singles "Take Me Home Tonight,"
"I Wanna Go Back," and "Endless Nights."
And while Money stays busy, touring and making records,
lately this party animal has also been doing some rather
admirable things.
Just before he began his current concert tour, he performed
a benefit concert in Alaska that teamed Money with Soviet
performers. The concert brought together native Aleutians
from the American and Soviet sides of the border.
"We sang "I Just Wanna Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star' and the
Beatles' "Back in the USSR.' They say music is the universal
language and it is," Money said in a recent telephone interview.
"I was real proud of the way the Americans in the crowd
responded...real proud of my country."
And with his career in high gear, Money says his life is
also on a healthier track.
"I had been hanging around with the wrong crowd and drinking
too much." So he dropped out for a while. He overcame his
problem with alcohol, worked on his relationship with his
girlfriend and they had a baby girl. "It was an intense
time, but I'm glad I did it (kicked drugs and alcohol).
With all the money we're spending on trying to stop the
drug problem we could feed the world.
"The thing about drugs is that people try them and then
all of a sudden they find they're addicted. I'm an addictive
person. I tend to go for broke in all things. Now, though,
I do feel a responsibility to leave a better impression.
"I did a song about getting strung out on cocaine. There
was a girl in a rehab clinic and she said she heard that
song and just kept playing it over and over and it helped
her get straight. I felt really good about that.
"You know, you can get strung out on anything - pills,
coffee, cocaine, even another person. You just have to remember
moderation in all things."
But while Money may be exercising moderation in his life,
that hasn't taken the edge off his music. The San Francisco
Examiner reviewed one of the first concerts on his current
tour and handed out high praise: "Money is, on stage, rock
'n' roll personified - he's a club band all by himself.
"When Money sings and prances, shouts and struts, carries
on in the euphoric ecstasy of performance, it may not be
Sutherland and Pavarotti, but it's still good fun and good
music."
And who's music does this performer, who still regards
himself as a blues singer, listen to? "I like Guns 'n'
Roses, INXS, and the old stuff, Jimi Hendrix, James Brown,
Otis Redding. I like some of the things Metallica has done.
Heavy metal is just loud, glorified blues.
"I think music in general is getting better. There's more
room for minorities and more room for different types of
music, like rap, rhythm and blues, and of course the English
are into everything. More doors have also opened up for
dance music. I think people are more open-minded today."
As for the future, Money has several goals. "I'd like to
do some surfing. I like to do a successful tour of the Soviet
Union. But mainly I just want to keep making records that
express something about myself."
