Who the Hell is John Eddie? Well, let old Mott the Dog tell you. John Eddie is a rocker from New Jersey, very much in the mould of Bruce Springstein, John Cougar, or Jon Bon Jovi, who is definitely over the age of forty and has written the ultimate road album. …and here it is for your perusal.
John Eddie spent the first twenty years of his life trying to be a rock icon. He was always respected in the music business but his partying lifestyle was one of legend and always left him with a bad boy reputation to live down. However, it was his rock & roll contemporaries who went on to fame and fortune, playing to the large stadiums while Eddie has yet to make that final step. But I can comfortably predict that this album will change all that.
Eddie has surrounded himself with a bunch of his mates to form a band who fortunately include some of the finest musicians that are available in the United States of America.
Like any road dog, Eddie has had his ups and downs, kicks, scrapes, and formed views on other beings that have crossed his life. So that’s what you get in the songs; a potted history of life, sometimes uplifting, sometimes depressing, or full of sorrow, or just good old outrageously funny. Stretched over the twelve songs on this album you run the full gamut of all these emotions.
The guitars are played by Kenny Vaughn and PK Lavengood, sometimes belting out the licks and at other times laying down sympathetic simple chords to add emotion to Eddie’s thoughts. Jim Dickson does a wonderful job with the keyboard arrangements, keeping it simple while not leaving any holes, and Kenny Aronoff puts the backbone into all the rhythms, whilst on bass guitar is the wonderful Kenny Aaronson, all long sideburns, shades and violently colored jackets who adds his own distinctive style to proceedings.
Welcome to the world according to John Eddie, sometimes interesting, always controversial, heartbreaking if he wants to be, and very irreverent. However, you cannot help but forgive a guy who has written two songs such as “Forty” (although this song was written in 2003 and John admits to being 43 in the song, maybe on the re-issue it should be called “Sixty”) and “Play Some Skynyrd” – the latter being a wonderful anthem to any band that has ever been heckled from a loudmouth in the crowd to play something he knows rather than make an effort to listen to something new. “Forty” will put a wry smile on the lips of anybody who has reached that remarkable milestone (Mott is 329 in dog years, you work it out.)
In “Play Some Skynard” you also get the answer to the meaning of life, what more do you want for your buck? Well, actually you do get a bit more. If you leave your CD on play after the last official song it does not take long for you to discover two extra, hidden, un-credited songs tacked onto the end.
Album Rating: 5 Stars
Track List:
If You’re Here When I Get Back
Let me Down Hard
Jesus Is Coming
Family Tree
Low Life
Everything
Place You Go
Nobody’s Happy
Sh*thole Bar
Forty
Play Some Skynyrd
It Doesn’t Get Better Than This
(Plus two bonus tracks)
Musicians:
John Eddie – vocals and acoustic guitar
Kenny Aronoff – drums
PK Lavengood – guitar
Kenny Vaughn – guitar
Jim Dickson – keyboards
Kenny Aaronson – bass guitar
 |
 |
 |
