CoronaVinyl Day 37 (New York): No Control by Eddie Money

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Today's CoronaVinyl is New York, and obviously there are a ton of bands and artists from New York -- or at least who went to New York to become famous or formed bands in New York.  To make it easier on myself, I'm limiting this category to people or bands that were actually from New York.

I'm going with the Money Man -- Eddie Money.  Edward Joseph Mahoney was born in Brooklyn and grew up in the Long Island post-war planned community (and archetype for the post-war suburbs) Levittown.  His father, brother, and grandfather were all New York City cops, and Money initially tried to follow suit, but left the training program because he was not allowed to grow his hair long and he wanted to pursue music.  Ironically, his band at the time kicked him out because they didn't want a cop in the group.  He then moved to California to become a musician, changed his name to Money as a reference to being broke while he was trying to make it, played clubs in the Bay Area for several years, and eventually got a record deal, releasing his debut album in 1977.  Every single he released between 1978 and 1991 charted on the Billboard Hot 100.

Produced by legendary producer Tom Dowd, No Control is Money's fourth studio album, released in 1982, and it reached #20 on the Billboard album charts and eventually went platinum in the U.S.  It featured two songs that charted on the Billboard Hot 100 -- "Shakin'" (#63) and "Think I'm In Love" (#16), the latter of which was Money's fourth Top 40 hit in the U.S. and second-highest charting song to that point, behind 1978's "Baby Hold On" (#11).  

As you may know, Money died last September at age 70, from complications relating to esophageal cancer.  He always seemed like a down-to-earth, working-class guy with a good sense of humor -- they kind of guy you'd want to have a beer and a shot with.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Think I'm In Love"
"Think I'm In Love" is my favorite Eddie Money song.  It's a great early '80s rock song about those glorious beginning stages of a relationship, when everything is so new and promising and exciting, before you grow to become annoyed by the little things he or she does that you used to find cute.  It was featured years later in the David Spade/Brittany Daniel vehicle Joe Dirt, which itself featured one of my favorite movie lines of all-time, uttered by Christopher Walken's character (Clem) to Kid Rock's character (Robby):  "Hey! You're talkin' to my guy all wrong.  It's the wrong tone.  Do it again, and I'll stab you in the face with a soldering iron."  That has nothing to do with the song, but any time I can think of Christopher Walken or Brittany Daniel -- or Kid Rock getting stabbed in the face with a soldering iron -- a smile comes to my face.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Drivin' Me Crazy"
This is one of those songs that you hear and it makes you say, "Why wasn't that a single?"  It has everything you'd want from an early '80s rock single.  It's fast-paced, catchy, has a nice guitar solo, and has ambiguous backing vocals that I imagine were sung by Fraggles -- or at least they should have been if there was a music video to this song.