Over a lengthy career, Eddie Money, illuminated the charts with a string of top-selling albums and singles. He also had a knack of picking choice tracks to cover, and this latest release (aptly titled The Covers) compiles two EP’s that were released over a period of five months in 2009. Genre-hopping and attention-grabbing, The Covers flows like a regular album, and if you want to hear familiar tunes acting in new ways, The Covers is for you.
When covering a song an artist should endeavour to impart their own personality on a track, there’s no point in producing a facsimile, and if you want a carbon copy why not go straight to the original? Fortunately, the larger-than-life Eddie Money dripped charisma from every pore and his persona shines through on each of these eight tracks. Some of these covers are expected, and some less so, and it’s one of the latter that kicks this set off. Originally released by alternative rock band Train, ‘Drops Of Jupiter (Tell Me)’ has lots of deep meaning hidden in its lyrics, and Eddie brings them to the surface, while simultaneously dancing over a nimble beat. It’s an interesting juxtaposition between lithe and heavy, light and shade, and these opposites will echo throughout The Covers.
Like many of his generation, Eddie Money became enamoured with the Beatles (being born in 1949, it was hard not to be) and the Fab Four get covered not once, but twice. Firstly, with ‘She Came In Through The Bathroom Window’, which sounds strange when pulled from the Abbey Road medley, and even stranger when Eddie furnishes it with a bluesy bar-room swing, which may sound like a strange combination, but it actually works. More pedestrian is his version of ‘Ticket To Ride’, taking on the Beatles at their own game requires a lot of courage, and Eddie’s rendition, full of psychedelic backward masked guitars and sweet harmonies, almost wins.
Eddie Money was always a difficult artist to pigeonhole, and this album doesn’t make that any easier by incorporating everything from 60s beat (Spencer Davis Group) to Motown (The Four Tops) via punk (Green Day). However, if we were forced to place him in one category, it would surely be ‘rock’. By the time these tracks were recorded, Eddie’s voice had evolved into a barrel-aged, vintage whiskey croak, for which The Doors’ ‘Roadhouse Blues’ was the perfect vehicle. Likewise, Eddie has a lot of fun with AC/DC’s ‘It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘N’ Roll)’, and sometimes music doesn’t warrant over-analysis; it’s just a great, great, great rendition.
Clocking in at just over thirty minutes, The Covers is a fairly brief listen, but that in no way negates its power, and true to the old adage, it leaves you hungry for more.
- The Covers is released via Liberation Hall and is available now.
- Official Website
Track List:
- Drops Of Jupiter (Tell Me)
- She Came In Through The Bathroom Window
- It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘N’ Roll)
- Reach Out (I’ll Be There)
- Gimme Some Lovin’
- Roadhouse Blues
- When I Come Around
- Ticket To Ride
