I've owned and loved "Eddie Money" (1977) and "Life For The Taking" (1978) since they were released on Epic back in the day. I bought the US-only crappy 80's CDs of these titles years ago (Eddie Money CK 34909 and Life For The Taking CK 35598 - pictured above) and have been waiting for remasters ever since - in vain.
The reason I say this is that Columbia/Legacy's "Essential" series are all re-masters - as is this - it's just that it misses out badly on his first 2 and most beloved albums. Some in the series are double CDs for a budget price, so why oh why did they scrimp it on this - especially when fans have been bombarded with inferior 'Best Ofs' for years??
I've listed the tracks below and the albums they're off to show you what I mean and also help potential purchasers in knowing what's what:
1. Two Tickets To Paradise (Eddie Money, 1977)
2. Baby Hold On (Eddie Money, 1977)
3. Wanna be A Rock "N' Star (Eddie Money, 1977)
4. Gimme Some Water (Life For The Taking, 1978)
5. Get A Move On (Playing For Keeps, 1980)
6. Trinidad (Playing For Keeps, 1980)
7. Shakin' (No Control, 1982)
8. Think I'm In Love (No Control, 1982)
9. No Control (No Control, 1982)
10. Take Me Home Tonight (Can't Hold Back, 1986)
11. I Wanna Go Back (Can't Hold Back, 1986)
12. Walk On Water (Nothing To Lose, 1988)
13. I'll Get By (Right Here, 1991)
14. Peace In Our Time (Sound Of Mercy, 1989)
15. There Will Never Be Another You (Love & Money, 1995)
As you can see, the 2nd album is ill served with 1 track represented - when there was clearly room for 3 or 4 more! After his 3rd album "Playing For Keeps", I thought his writing went well off the boil. So we get 11 tracks from albums we don't really want, but only 4 from the first two that we do!
Still, what is to treasure on here is the sound - remastered in 2003 - these tracks sound 2 or 3 times better than the original CDs still being sold to this day.
I do wish Legacy would do expanded versions of "Eddie Money" and "Life For The Taking" - US fans in particular have been clamouring for them for years. They really do deserve Rock'n'Roll rediscovery.
To sum up, this is a great sounding re-mastered set for sure, but it's just such a shame that the disc wasn't filled up more fully.
