If McCartney really wishes he wrote “Just the Way You Are”, that goes a long way to explaining the majority of his solo output.
Rodríguez! There was a lot of hype because of the documentary...and now, as you point out, it's mostly forgotten again. And yes I have the first Emitt Rhodes album and it's nothing special at all
Honestly I've never really got the McCartney comparisons with Emitt Rhodes, it's like one of those things someone said once and people just repeat, parrot fashion, ad nauseum because they can't think of anything else to say. It did his career more harm than good. Emitt Rhodes is not and was not an "unknown artist" by the way, to compare him to Rodriguez is ludicrous.
Too innovative for Wings era McCartney. Godley and Creme created the backing totally with vocals. Not something McCartney was creatively on par with in the Seventies imo. In the Sixties yes. Macca/Wings post 74 sound was probably influenced by 10cc not the other way round.
You could say the same about dozens and dozens of artists who are discussed in this forum. Rodriguez was an artist who was almost literally forgotten and who no-one, outside of South Africa had ever heard of anyway - that's how they managed to get a documentary out of his story. Emitt Rhodes was not unknown in his time and hasn't just recently been rediscovered and "overhyped", the person who claimed so is just displaying their own ignorance.
These days? Try the mid-90s. The Emmitt Rhodes hype was inescapable on the power pop scene then. Or for that matter the early 80s when the paisley underground bands were covering him. He's been a cult hero for ages, not least because he also had the label interference and mental health hooks. So it's nothing new. Personally, his stuff doesn't do it for me. As for Rodriguez, I still hear "I'll Slip Away" at the coffeehouse on the reg, so yeah some people are still playing his records.
Agreed! I quite like Emitt Rhodes but Leo Sayer has been terrific, over the years and has been on an excellent run in recent times. Looing forward to seeing him live in September. Just released Northern Songs, his first all covers album, featuring a selection of Beatles tunes. It's not for me - don't like The Beatles enough - but he'll have done a fine job, no doubt.