Emitt Rhodes RIP...album by album, track by track appreciation, 'bout time!

Emitt Rhodes
Album by Album, track by track




Emitt Lynn Rhodes (February 25, 1950 – July 19, 2020)[1][2] was an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and recording engineer. Rhodes began his career in musical ensembles The Palace Guard as the group's drummer before joining The Merry-Go-Round as a multi-instrumentalist.[3]
-wiki



The Merry-Go-Round had a recording contract with A&M Records when the group disbanded in 1969. Rhodes recorded songs at A&M to fulfill that contract, but A&M decided to not release them at the time. Rhodes then decided to go out on his own and bought equipment to make a recording studio in his parents' garage. Rhodes recorded his first album (Emitt Rhodes) in that home studio. He got a recording contract with ABC/Dunhill Records, which released his album as well as the next two albums he recorded (Mirror and Farewell to Paradise). Rhodes got a $5,000 advance for Emitt Rhodes, which he spent on recording equipment.



His first album was a critical success – Billboard called Rhodes "one of the finest artists on the music scene today" and later called his first album one of the "best albums of the decade". The album reached number 29 on the Billboard charts. The single "Fresh as a Daisy" reached number 54 on the pop chart. Rhodes opened at the Troubadour nightclub on February 9, 1971, concurrent with a large earthquake that struck the Los Angeles area. An ad that ran in Billboard said "That wasn't an earthquake, that was Emitt Rhodes opening at the Troubadour!" Meanwhile, shortly after Emitt Rhodes was released by Dunhill, A&M decided to release their old recordings of The American Dream, which confused record buyers. Mirror was released in 1971 and did reach the top 200 on Billboard's album chart. In 1973 Dunhill released Rhodes' final album, Farewell to Paradise.[4]

Rhodes wrote all of the songs on his albums. On Emitt Rhodes, Mirror, and Farewell to Paradise, he played all of the instruments and sang all of the vocals while recording himself in his home recording studio. He used a four-track recorder for the instruments for Emitt Rhodes and transferred those to an eight-track recorder to add the vocals. He used an eight-track recorder for Mirror and Farewell to Paradise. The mixdown engineer on Farewell to Paradise was Curt Boettcher, the producer and musician who is best remembered for his work on the "soft pop" albums by Sagittarius and The Millennium.[citation needed]

Rhodes' contract with Dunhill called for an album every six months (six albums over three years) – a schedule that was impossible for Rhodes to meet, due to writing all of the songs and recording each instrument and vocal individually by himself.[4] Dunhill sued Rhodes for $250,000 and withheld royalties because of his failure to deliver albums on the timescale required by the contract. Emitt Rhodes took nearly a year to record, the album Mirror took nine months, and Farewell to Paradise took over a year.



After Farewell to Paradise, Rhodes stopped performing and released no more material, except on compilations. He continued to record his songs in his studio, but they were unreleased except for the song "Isn't It So" on Listen, Listen.[4] He worked as a recording engineer and record producer for Elektra Records. In 1980 Rhodes had begun work on a solo album for Elektra Records, but abandoned it after the A&R man he was working with was fired.[5] In 2000 he had completed a solo album for the Rocktopia label, but the label was shut down before they could release it.[5][6]

He ran his own studio for recording other acts. Rhodes' song "Lullabye" (from Emitt Rhodes) was featured in the 2001 Wes Anderson film The Royal Tenenbaums. In January and February 2009, Italian director Cosimo Messeri shot a documentary movie about Emitt Rhodes's vicissitudes: life, past, present, troubles and hopes. The movie, titled The One Man Beatles, was selected for the International Rome Film Festival 2009,[7] and it received standing ovations. In 2010 The One Man Beatles was nominated for David di Donatello Award as Best Documentary of 2010. Its US premiere screening was scheduled for May 29, 2010 at the Rhino Records Pop Up Store in Westwood, California.[8]

 

2010–11 recordings
In 2009, Emitt once again entered the recording studios with a new band and all-new material, joined by the co-founder of The Grass Roots and The Merry-Go-Round drummer Joel Larson, co-founder and former bassist for Counting Crows, Matt Malley, and guitarists Jim Rolfe and Dan Mayer.

In 2010, Rhodes, along with Matt Malley, joined Iain Matthews on a new version of "Time Will Show the Wiser", arranged, produced and performed by Nick Vernier Band. This recording, initially released on Nick Vernier Band's Sessions album, marked Emitt's first new release as a featured artist in almost four decades. Both Emitt and Iain recorded this Rhodes original early on in their careers, the song being starting points as well as signature works for The Merry-Go-Round and Fairport Convention respectively. The new version united the two singers in an Indian musical setting. Also in 2010, a tribute album titled Long Time, No See was released. It contained Emitt Rhodes songs recorded by various artists.

On November 3, 2011, Emitt released three new songs on iTunes titled "Just Me And You", "What's A Man to Do" and "This Wall Between Us", featuring backup singing by Vicki and Debbi Peterson of the Bangles and guitar work by Richard Thompson. These were removed from sale shortly after release, by recording facility 201 Studios, due to litigation.[9] 201 Studios made them available again in February 2015.

Rainbow Ends
In 2014, Emitt began work with musician/producer Chris Price on a full album of songs, recorded in his original home studio, intended as a stylistic follow-up to Farewell to Paradise. During these sessions, Emitt recorded a cover of the Bee Gees hit "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" for a tribute album called To Love the Bee Gees, released in November 2015 by 80 Proof Records and Tapes. On April 18, 2015, the recording was released as a limited edition 45 rpm single on red vinyl, as a Record Store Day exclusive. On November 12, 2015, the announcement was made that Emitt's first album in 43 years was to be released on February 26, 2016 through Omnivore Recordings. The album is titled Rainbow Ends and is produced by Price. It features contributions from Roger Joseph Manning, Jr., Jason Falkner, Aimee Mann, Jon Brion, Susanna Hoffs, Nels Cline, Pat Sansone, Taylor Locke, Fernando Perdomo, Joe Seiders, Bleu, Probyn Gregory and Nelson Bragg. The first single, "Dog On A Chain", featuring harmonies by Mann and a solo by Brion, was premiered by the Wall Street Journal's blog Speakeasy.[10] Rainbow Ends was released to favorable reviews, including 4 star reviews from MOJO Magazine,[11] All Music Guide,[12] American Songwriter[13] and a highly favorable review in The Washington Post that said "in a better world [it] would have topped the charts in 1978 or so."[14]

Material loss
On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Emitt Rhodes among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.[15]

Death
Emitt Rhodes died in his sleep on July 19, 2020 in Hawthorne, California.[16] The news was later confirmed by Tony Blass,[17] who produced the film about Rhodes, The One Man Beatles. Blass commented that he was "honoured and blessed to have worked and spent time with him".[1]



Discography
Studio albums

• The Merry-Go-Round (1967, with The Merry-Go-Round) Billboard 200 #190
• The American Dream (1970) #194
• Emitt Rhodes (1970) #29
• Mirror (1971) #182
• Farewell to Paradise (1973)
• Rainbow Ends (2016) #150

 

Not to disregard The Palace Guard...just not something I have heard,
or really care to pursue right off (maybe after everything we can discuss it...)



We'll start with
Merry-Go-Round



The band formed in the Summer of 1966. Emitt Rhodes had left his former band, the Palace Guard, and began jam sessions with Gary Kato and friends. Within weeks, they were joined by Bill Rinehart, formerly of The Leaves and Joel Larson, formerly of The Grass Roots .

Recorded demos resulted in the band being signed by A&M Records. By early 1967, the band released their first single "Live"/"Time Will Show the Wiser". "Live" became a sensation in L.A. and reached number 63 on the Billboard Hot 100.[3] The group's next single, "You're a Very Lovely Woman", highly arranged and orchestrated, only reached number 94.[3] A&M, noticing the disappointing listing, hastily released their debut album before the window of opportunity closed.

The band released their only album, The Merry-Go-Round, in November 1967. It stalled, reaching only number 190 and soon after Rinehart departed. He was replaced by Rick Dey of The Vejtables. Several further singles, including "She Laughed Loud"/"Had to Run Around", "Come Ride, Come Ride"/"She Laughed Loud", "Listen, Listen"/"Missing You" and "'Til the Day After"/"Highway" would be released in 1967 and 1968 but failed to chart. After fan interest in the group dissipated, they decided to disband in 1969.[4] -wiki

A1 LiveWritten-By – Emitt Rhodes 2:32
A2 Time Will Show The WiserWritten-By – Emitt Rhodes 2:25
A3 On Your Way OutWritten-By – Emitt Rhodes 2:29
A4 Gonna Fight The WarWritten-By – Emitt Rhodes 2:00
A5 Had To Run AroundWritten-By – Emitt Rhodes 3:34
A6 We're In LoveWritten-By – Emitt Rhodes 2:22
B1 You're A Very Lovely WomanWritten-By – Emitt Rhodes 2:45
B2 Where Have You Been All Of My LifeWritten-By – Emitt Rhodes 2:14
B3 Early In The MorningWritten-By – Emitt Rhodes 2:05
B4 Low DownWritten-By – Gary Kato 2:57
B5 A Clown's No GoodWritten-By – Emitt Rhodes 2:18
B6 Gonna Leave You AloneWritten-By – Emitt Rhodes, Gary Kato 2:16
Companies, etc.

• Published By – La Brea Music
• Published By – Thirty Four Music

Credits

• Bass Guitar – William Rinehart*
• Design – Peter Whorf Graphics
• Drums – Joel Larson
• Lead Guitar – Gary Kato
• Liner Notes – Dick Moreland
• Producer – Larry Marks
• Rhythm Guitar, Lead Vocals – Emitt Rhodes

 

awesome. What a great -- and still relatively unknown -- musician!

 

AllMusic Review by Tim Sendra



The Merry-Go-Round's self-titled 1967 album is a breathtaking blend of chiming folk-rock guitars, British Invasion harmony vocals, baroque pop arrangements, and pure pop songcraft that sounds daisy fresh in 2005. The Beatles are a huge influence, and there is plenty of McCartney in Emitt Rhodes' sweet vocals and their vocal harmonies.

You can hear the Byrds a bit, some Left Banke (especially on the sweeping orchestral pop gem "You're a Very Lovely Woman"), some L.A. garage on rockers like "Where Have You Been All My Life" and "Lowdown"; the group definitely didn't exist in a vacuum. But there are some songs that are quite unique and original like "Time Will Show the Wiser" with its otherworldly sped up and backward guitars and enchanting melody, the bouncy and warm hit single "Live," and "Had to Run Around," an exquisite ballad whose tender beauty foreshadows Rhodes' classic 1970 Emitt Rhodes album.

These songs, and the overall quality of the songs and the group's loose and earthy playing, help lift the album above the pack and should lead to it being mentioned in the same breath as Love's first album or Buffalo Springfield's first when talking about classic American debut albums of the '60s.

............

Pretty stunning review and well deserved indeed.

 

track 1) Live

All of us Emitt fans here are well aware of this stunning album opener that should have been a huge
hit on top 40 singles radio.




Oh you're the kind of girl who's got theirself wound up in a ball
Oh - you think you live - but how can ya
Locked up in four walls

If you gotta go you better live your life before you pass away
Don't waste a day
All your life's been spent locked in your room
You never had a chance to roam - away from home

So - You're gonna go - Go today - Don't waste any time
For in life a day - Is worth a million - Soon you will find

If you gotta go you better live your life before you pass away
Don't waste a day
All your life's been spent locked in your room
You never had a chance to roam - away from home

Live Live Live Live
Live Live Live Live

Now - Do what you want - Go where you want
It's all up to you
For in life the rule - Is just to do
What you want to do

If you gotta go you better live your life before you pass away
Don't waste a day
All your life's been spent locked in your room
You never had a chance to roam - away from home

If - You don't know now - What life's about
Go on now and live
And if - You don't know how - It's not so hard
Just let go and live

If you gotta go you better live your life before you pass away
Don't waste a day
All your life's been spent locked in your room
You never had a chance to roam - away from home

Live Live Live Live

Songwriters: Emitt Rhodes

 

So I'm gonna savor these Emitt albums and songs...so one track a day..slow and easy.

 

Emitt Rhodes and Rainbow Ends.

They are so very good, are they not?

 

"Live" is, of course, a wonderful song that did get some airplay on the AM radio station I listened to, though it never cracked the Top 40 nationwide.

I have to confess that I didn't know many of the lyrics of this song until I somehow landed a copy of the sheet music years after the fact. They seem very clear once you have them in front of you, but prior to that, I had a hard time making some of them out.

Great harmonies and fine guitar work on this one. Really should have been a much bigger hit.

 

And, as you probably know, the Bangles did a pretty faithful cover version of "Live".

 

Boy, if you had told me this was a Chilton-Bell song from circa 1971 I would have totally believed you. I think this is more late sixties Kinks than McCartney (who Rhodes is often, perhaps lazily, compared to.) It's interesting to think this is contemporaneous with Something New and Village Green Preservation Society because it sounds rather influenced by them rather than being alongside them: I mean, it sounds like 1970s retro-sixties, when it's actually, well, actually 1967!

This kind of thing wasn't what the American rock scene was all about in the late sixties; it sounds like it might have gone over better in the UK (and Rhodes does sound amusingly English for a middle-class suburban American -- he did have an English mother though, so perhaps the accent is less put on than one would think.)

What I like about the best of Emmit's stuff is how it always comes to me like a breath of spring breeze, that brings with it sunshine, blue skies, singing birds, grass smells, the distant sound of suburban lawn mowers and chain saws; it all seems so effortlessly part of this lovely little world. This one, with it's message of living life to its fullest is no exception. Exquisite.

 

Often compared to? More like incessantly compared to!

 

He is laying the English accent on a bit thick on this track but he was 16 or 17 when he recorded it, amazingly precocious.

 

Nice, this thread will give me a good reason to throw this on tonight. Not that I really needed a reason — but I haven’t put on any Emitt since the terrible news last week. Looking forward to reading everyone’s input!

 

Wow! A reel to reel?!

 

For any who see this rare limited edition...buy it!

Emitt Rhodes-Recordings 1969-1973



AllMusic Review by Tim Sendra

Stacked back to back, the records made by Emitt Rhodes in the short time between 1969 and 1973 stand up as one of the great brief flashes of inspiration and greatness in pop-music history. The Emitt Rhodes Recordings 1969-1973 collects all four albums the singer/songwriter/musical wiz recorded over that period of time and adds one extra track (the 1973 single "Tame the Lion").

The set starts off with the album Rhodes recorded after his band, the Merry-Go-Round, broke up in 1969. The songs are a mix of newly written ones and Merry-Go-Round leftovers recorded with studio pros filling in for the band. Not surprisingly, the record is a little scattered-sounding, with some of the songs sounding like the Baroque pop that the MGR had mastered ("You're a Very Lovely Woman," "The Man He Was"), some are experiments in different styles (the calypso-tinged "Mary Will You Take My Hand," the folky "Textile Ranch"), and quite a few point toward the simple sound he soon crafted on his debut ("Let's All Sing," "Saturday Night," "Pardon Me"). That self-titled record from 1970 is the best of the bunch; in fact, it is one of the best pop records of the '70s, and sounds like what would have happened had Paul McCartney saved up his most emotionally powerful and melodically rich post-Beatles' songs and recorded them with Badfinger as his backing band. Each song sounds like it should have been a hit single, from the heart-breakingly direct "Long Time No See" or the deceptively jubilant breakup song "With My Face on the Floor," to the anthemic George Harrison-esque "Live Till You Die" or the rollicking "Fresh as a Daisy."

The pacing, sound, and feel of the record are as near perfect as you could hope, and the most impressive feat is that Rhodes did everything on the record himself. It's truly a moment of genius that Rhodes found hard to repeat. His next album, 1971's Mirror, repeats the same basic formula as Emitt Rhodes but has fewer knockout songs, and there are some hard rock (on the title track) and blues (on "I'm a Cruiser") influences creeping in around the edges and scuffing up the perfect pop. Still, the album is filled with great songs like the rollicking "Birthday Lady," the rocking "Really Wanted You," and the bleak ballad "Love Will Stone You" that help make the record a solid and highly listenable follow-up.


By the time of Farewell to Paradise, though, the twin factors of pressure from the record company and Rhodes' increasing perfectionism led to his recording a melancholy, downhearted album that has far less pop and far more introspection in its soul. There is a newfound feeling of pain and hurt that suffuses Rhodes' vocals on songs like "Trust Once More" or "Blue Horizon" that gives the record some real depth, and the less focused and more folky arrangements give the record more of a Van Morrison feel than a McCartney feel. It would be easy to view the record as a disappointment on pure pop terms, but as a statement of Rhodes' disillusionment and frustration, it totally works and actually could be considered a lost treasure of the singer/songwriter era. Hearing it in context of his previous work shows just how much Rhodes had begun to change, and it makes it even more of a loss that Rhodes basically walked away from his career at the age of 24.

The Emitt Rhodes Recordings 1969-1973 is essential to any fan of late-'60s/early-'70s pop music and hats off to Hip-O Select for giving Rhodes the attention he deserves.

 

track 2) Time Will Show The Wiser

Psychedelic pop bluegrass stunner (a bit of Beatles-like effects that was pretty vogue at the time..love it..but The Beatles didn't incorporate it with a bluegrass banjo!)...pretty groundbreaking for 1967.

Fairport Convention and Judy Dyble did a stunning cover of this in 1968.
Also Iain Matthews did a fantastic cover too.



Time Will Show The Wiser - Fairport Convention
My mind keeps on telling me that this is no good
And my heart is aching, that tells me I should
But only time will show the wiser

I've fallen in love with a girl that's not mine
If I take her it will hurt him, a very best friend of mine
But I know that I need someone, to hold, to love
And my mind says I shouldn't but my heart says I should
And I don't know which to go by, my mind or my heart
And this is so confusing, it's tearing me apart
Time, it will show the wiser

Well, I wish someone would help me, this decision is mine
And my morals and emotions are hard to combine
And there is no easy way out to limit the time
That it takes till she finds out for the love that I hide
And I don't know which to go by, my mind or my heart
And this is so confusing, it's tearing me apart

Time, it will show the wiser
Time, it will show the wiser
Time, it will show the wiser

Songwriters: Emitt Rhodes

 

Really, this album should have been as big as Sgt. Peppers or any groundbreaking pop psych of 1967!

I'm just sayin'!

(I missed it myself in 1967. But not so with his debut LP...got that in 1970, already a victim of the cutout bins, and have been a fan ever since!)

 

In memoriam from Goldmine...
https://www.goldminemag.com/fabulous-flip-sides/fabulous-flip-sides-in-memoriam-emitt-rhodes


Fabulous Flip Sides In Memoriam – Emitt Rhodes
Emitt Rhodes of the 1960s California pop rock band The Merry-Go-Round wrote and
sang “You’re a Very Lovely Woman” covered by Linda Ronstadt in the 1970s
and “Live” covered by The Bangles in the 1980s
Warren Kurtz
Jul 21, 2020




Rhino Records’ 1984 release of Nuggets Volume Four, a compilation of lesser known pop and garage rock gems, included the songs “Falling Sugar” and “All Night Long” from The Palace Guard, Emitt Rhodes’ pre-Merry-Go-Round band. The album opened with The Merry-Go-Round’s debut single “Live.” This catchy song, which reached the Top 10 in the quartet’s native Los Angeles in 1967, had been heard by members of The Bangles growing up in the area, and they included their bouncy cover on their full length album debut All Over the Place, in the same year as the Nuggets compilation. In her Goldmine September 2016 interview, The Bangles’ drummer Debbi Peterson said that she loved singing “Live” which includes Emitt’s lyrics, “You better live your life before you pass away. Don’t waste a day,” encouraging listeners to get outside, away from their rooms of “four walls.”





The flip side of the original 1967 recording of “Live” was another song from The Merry-Go-Round’s debut album called “Time Will Show the Wiser.” Emitt sang about the conflict of falling in love with his best friend’s girlfriend and the struggles of his mind and his heart. He claimed, “My morals and emotions are hard to combine” and hoped that time would point him in the right direction. The backdrop included a pair of acoustic guitars from Emitt with Gary Kato and a touch of bass from Michael Rice, while Joel Larson kept time with a pair of maracas. Vocal harmonies were another key ingredient.

The second single from The Merry-Go-Round’s album was the moody “You’re a Very Lovely Woman,” supplemented by an orchestral arrangement, and spent three weeks in the Top 100 in September 1967



The following year, a single from the group’s second album was released called “Listen, Listen!” which was an electric guitar driven number, with a sound inspired by The Beatles’ song “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” While this single failed to chart nationally, some radio stations heavily promoted the record. At WIXY 1260 in Cleveland, it reached the No. 6 position in April 1968, surrounded by Simon and Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson” and The Rascals’ “A Beautiful Morning.” It also reached No. 89 for WIXY’s Top 100 Songs of 1968. By the end of the year, The Merry-Go-Round disbanded.

In January 1971, Emitt returned to the Top 100, first as the composer of Linda Ronstadt’s retitled Merry-Go-Round cover “(She’s a) Very Lovely Woman,” which reached No. 70, and second with his sole charting solo single “Fresh as a Daisy,” from Emitt’s self-titled debut album. The song was a pop number in line with what Todd Rundgren as Runt was achieving in the Top 40 at that moment with “We Got to Get You a Woman” and what The Raspberries would soon offer. The single reached No 54.

FABULOUS FLIP SIDESB-SIDESTHE MERRY-GO-ROUNDFLIP SIDESEMITT RHODES
By
Warren Kurtz
Warren Kurtz is a Contributing Editor at Goldmine, writing the In Memoriam, One-Hit Wonders and Fabulous Flip Sides series (now exclusively online at www.goldminemag.com). “Warren’s Fabulous Flip Sides” can be heard most Saturday mornings, in the 9 a.m. hour, Eastern time, as part of “Moments to Remember” at wvcr.com or iHeart Radio – search WVCR. Listeners can email [email protected].

 

The Merry-Go-Round album was basically demos that A&M rushed out when the second single didn't sell, is that right? So, "Time Will Show the Wiser" is a great song, but the album version sounds like a demo, where's the drums? The single version is better.

 

It is...great basslines. Thanks for pointing it out, Vangro.

There's the snare! A richer fuller sound. Is that a harpsichord added too?
The banjo is pushed back for a more contemporary sound for 1967.

I'll have to keep up on the single versions...so often different.




track 2)..single version: Time Will Show The Wiser
.

 

The Fairport version is fantastic. I wonder if it was Joe Boyd who suggested they play it?

 

Production could have been better for sure...but it is still a disarmingly charming, precocious pop psych album from Emitt and the "backing" band (Emitt was 16 or 17 years old?!).

 

Could be.

Makes sense that Joe would know the song...he brought a ton of American sensibilities and music scene knowledge to London, and specifically to Sound Techniques, where as you know, he & John Wood recorded and produced side by side, some of the greatest artists ...ever.

Ian Matthews on lead vocals, Judy, killer Thompson guitar, and Fairport...such a great lineup!
Ian, an old man of 21 or 22, is lookin' pretty psychedelic here .

 

I absolutely LOVE this song, I moved to Southern California when I was 10 in late 1966 and it was on the charts a few months later...oddly enough I pretty much forgot about it until about 1978...by that time I was living in Northern California and there was a really good station here in Sacramento that played "Live" a lot. That's when I started digging the hell out of it (although I had a tough time figuring out the lyrics). I finally found a near mint copy of the 45 in the early 80s...of course I turned the record over and discovered "Time Will Show The Wiser" which is every bit as great. I first heard the Merry Go Round LP at work in the mid-80s when one of my co-workers brought in his copy and played it all the time...I found a copy of the LP myself a year or two later, and got the CD in the early 2000's. Fantastic LP, a California pop/rock classic.