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

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by lemonade kid, Jul 27, 2020.

  1. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    Was this a complete album? Or just single releases?
     
  2. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    I take it Emitt was no longer at the production helm...? The 1980's ruined many a good song...
     
  3. lukpac

    lukpac Senior Member

    Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
    Produced by Emitt.
     
  4. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    Ok...blame it on the 80's.
     
  5. Vangro

    Vangro Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    Good idea.
     
    lemonade kid likes this.
  6. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    So yes, blame everything on the 80's?! :righton:
     
  7. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    With Emitt's passing, this final effort gets more & more precious with each passing day...

    Rainbow Ends

    [​IMG]

    Rainbow Ends is the fifth and final studio album by Emitt Rhodes. It was released on 26 February 2016, some 43 years after his previous album, Farewell to Paradise.[2]

    Album produced by Chris Price.[3] It features contributions from Roger Joseph Manning, Jr., Jason Falkner, Nels Cline, Aimee Mann, Jon Brion, Richard Thompson, Susanna Hoffs, Bleu and members of Brian Wilson’s band.[2]

    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 in November 2015.[4]

    All songs composed by Emitt Rhodes except when otherwise indicated.

    Tracks
    1. "Dog on a Chain"
    2. "If I Knew Then"
    3. "Isn't It So"
    4. "This Wall Between Us" Rhodes, Dan Mayer, Matt Malley, Jim Rolfe
    5. "Someone Else" Rhodes, Chris Price
    6. "I Can't Tell My Heart"
    7. "Put Some Rhythm to It"
    8. "It's All Behind Us Now"
    9. "What’s a Man to Do" Rhodes, Mayer, Malley, Rolfe
    10. "Friday’s Love"
    11. "Rainbow Ends"

    Release and reception
    Rainbow Ends has received positive reviews. On the aggregate website Metacritic, the album has received a score of 81 out of a possible 100 with five reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[5] Mark Deming of AllMusic says it is "a mature, introspective work from a man looking for answers to the questions of life and love, and it's a brave and genuinely impressive return to the spotlight from a major talent."[1] Hal Horowitz of American Songwriter wrote that the songs on the album are "just a notch below Rhodes’ earlier work and may yet become as well-regarded as those songs."[6] In a 7 out of 10 review for UNCUT (magazine), Rob Hughes writes that the album "Rainbow Ends is an intensely personal vision. Indeed, it feels more like a companion piece to his great ’70s work than it does a postscript ..... if it occasionally lapses into self-pity, there’s also a confessional aspect that feels unnervingly candid"[7]

    Rainbow Ends debuted on the Billboard 200 at #150 for the week of March 19, 2016. It also placed at number 27 on the Independent Albums chart and number 46 on the Top Internet Albums chart. It is Rhodes' first charting album since 1971's Mirror, as his following album, 1973's Farewell To Paradise, never charted.[8] -wiki


    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]


     
    Last edited: Sep 21, 2020
    DaveKFloyd likes this.
  8. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

  9. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

  10. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

  11. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    AllMusic Guide

    What should one expect from an artist who has made his first album in over 40 years? And when you have a fan base that worships the work you made as a pop music prodigy in your teens and twenties, what are they to make of new songs recorded by the same man at the age of 65? If Emitt Rhodes spent much time pondering these questions while he was making Rainbow Ends, the first album he's released since 1973's Farewell to Paradise, you don't hear it in the final product; Rhodes has made an album that reflects the man he is today, not the guy who seemed like the new Paul McCartney on his 1970 solo debut, and it's clear (as it should be) this isn't the work of a young man focused on life's possibilities.


    Rainbow Ends is a set of songs where Rhodes looks back on his life, largely in terms of his relationships, and it most often focuses on the things that went wrong, whether he was the one who walked away ("Dog on a Chain"), he was the partner left alone and abandoned ("What's a Man to Do"), or he's still trying to figure out how it all went wrong ("This Wall Between Us" and "If I Knew Then"). Outside of "Put Some Rhythm to It," a witty tale of his failings as a dancer, Rainbow Ends is a litany of dark nights and broken hearts, and while the melodies often sound like the work of the man who wrote "Fresh as a Daisy" and "Live," these songs chart the path where the boy wonder grew into a rueful and cautious man.

    This music also has a different personality than Rhodes' classic work of the '70s for a very particular reason: while he multi-tracked himself into a one-man band on those albums, Rhodes does little instrumental work on Rainbow Ends, and while he has an exceptionally good studio crew behind him (including power pop obsessives Jon Brion, Jason Falkner, and Roger Joseph Manning, Jr., as well as Wilco's Nels Cline and backing vocals from Aimee Mann and Susanna Hoffs), this evokes the spirit of Rhodes' salad days but with a decidedly different sonic approach.

    As a songwriter, Rhodes' lyrics on Rainbow Ends are obsessively personal, but these songs rank with the most literate and direct material he's ever offered us, and his melodies have gained a certain sophistication while still sounding like manna for pop fanciers.

    Listeners who were hoping Rainbow Ends would sound or feel like Emitt Rhodes or Mirror were probably fooling themselves, and that's certainly not what the songwriter and his colleagues were aiming for; instead, this is a mature, introspective work from a man looking for answers to the questions of life and love, and it's a brave and genuinely impressive return to the spotlight from a major talent.

    :tiphat: Hats off to a very spot-on and touching review. -LK


    [​IMG]
     
    DaveKFloyd, Calico and MHP like this.
  12. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    I'm gonna take this slow and easy--enjoy everyone!
    ...such a fine fine album that Emitt left for us to ponder, to treasure, to love.

    It almost brings tears every time I hear an older, a wiser, a bit jaded bringing out his best efforts, but still stunningly talented Emitt on Rainbow Ends.

    track 1) Dog On A Chain

    A wonderful opener that foretells all the great tracks to come.




    You ain't no good I hear her say
    Under her breath as she turns away
    I'll take the car i'll take the house
    I'll take the kids and then i'll turn you out

    I was led along like a dog on a chain
    Out in the cold, out in the rain
    I was led along like a dog on a leash
    I did as told while she did as she pleased
    I was led along like a dog on my knees

    She berates me
    Calls me crazy
    Certifiably insane
    Once she praised me
    Now she hates me
    I can't see how I have changed

    I was led along like a dog on a chain
    Out in the cold, out in the rain
    I was led along like a dog on a leash
    I did as told while she did as she pleased I was
    Let along like a dog on my knees

    Love's not easy love's not kind
    It only works when you're half blind
    Don't be the owner want to sacrifice
    Don't be the owner want to compromise

    Standing frozen my mouth open
    Though I did want you say
    Can't consider
    Your believing though it's just as plain as day

    I was led along like a dog on a chain
    Out in the cold, out in the rain
    I was led along like a dog on a leash
    I did as told while she did as she pleased.I was
    Let along like a dog on my knees

     
  13. albabe

    albabe Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Thanx! Much appreciated... and my ADHD thanx you too.
     
    lemonade kid likes this.
  14. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    track 2) If I Knew Then

    More great lyrics with a deeper obvious meaning...if I knew then. Nice bluesy rollin' rock.




    If I knew then what I know now
    The blood would have frozen in my vein
    Every hair on my head would have stood on it
    Every nerve I have in vein


    I found out love and hope and broke
    I could have been so blind
    These days I take a closer look
    Can I read between the lines


    If I knew then what I know now
    I'd make amends I'd change somehow
    Wouldn't give my heart to just anyone
    If I knew then what was to come


    I gave my trust and not to pay
    How could I be so dumb
    I wish I'd live not once but twice
    Let turn tail run


    If I knew then what I know now
    I'd make amends I change somehow
    Wouldn't give my heart to just anyone
    If I knew then what was to come


    Abandoned our hope for you
    Went to here
    The future is dark and the way
    Not clear
    And your faith maybe worsen
    You might feel


    If I knew then what I know now
    I'd make amends I change somehow
    Wouldn't give my heart to just anyone
    If I knew then what was to come
     
  15. rogertheshrubber

    rogertheshrubber Senior Member

    Location:
    Freehold, NJ, USA!
    Is this TWSTW 45 version on any CD?
     
  16. lukpac

    lukpac Senior Member

    Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
    Mono version; the 45 and LP were the same. And yes, it’s on multiple CDs.
     
  17. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    track 3) Isn't It So

    Nice moody tune and sax...melancholy but a somehow soothing vibe. Love it.
    Something soothing about the blues...even the sad tunes are soothing...
    it's the empathy and validation, I guess, we get from them.




    Whenever I'm worried and
    I'm feelin' alone
    When problems are many
    And i'm all alone
    When all the world's troubles
    Are too much to bear
    Well that's when i break down and i wish
    You were here


    Isn't it so Isn't it
    Wouldn't you know
    Wouldn't you
    Isn't it so
    Isn't it
    Oh Isn't it


    I'm still trying to please you
    Even though you're not here
    Still talking to you even though
    You can't hear


    And the more I deny it
    The more that it's true
    There's hardly a moment
    I'm not thinkin' of you


    Isn't it so Isn't it
    Wouldn't you know
    Wouldn't you
    Isn't it so
    Isn't it
    Oh Isn't it


    Just when you think you've lost your heart
    That's when the pain begins to stop


    Isn't it so Isn't it
    Wouldn't you know
    Wouldn't you
    Isn't it so
    Isn't it
    Oh Isn't it so...
     
  18. lukpac

    lukpac Senior Member

    Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
    That's the 1980 recording. This is the Rainbow Ends recording:

     
    DaveKFloyd likes this.
  19. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    Ha! That's what I get for not listening to the youtube play! The 1980 version is pretty good...tho' the Rainbow Ends cut is fantastic.
     
    albabe likes this.
  20. albabe

    albabe Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    I really love that tune... but my old "Best Of" that it appears on, is in Storage... I thought I'd ripped it but... sigh...
     
    lemonade kid likes this.
  21. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    track 4) This Wall Between Us

    A really nice one with some old Emitt vibes and great background vocals.
    Almost a Beach Boys anthem feel, but all Emitt.

    Lovely.





    I'm begging you don't lose it
    I'm reaching out my hand
    Come show me what i'm missing
    Help me understand


    You're given things inside me
    Too quiet too long
    What closed me out of your life
    If i've done wrong


    This wall between us
    What does it hide
    This wall between us
    I'm the other side


    If I could look behind
    Wonder what i'd find
    This wall between us
    What does it hide


    I don't know what you're thinking
    I can't read your mind
    I don't know what you're feeling
    You just say you're fine


    Don't hold back just tell me
    Why shut me up this way
    There's something you're not sayin'
    Day after day


    This wall between us
    What does it hide
    This wall between us
    On the other side


    If I could look behind
    Wonder what i'd find
    This wall between us
    What does it hide (What does it hide)


    This wall between us
    What does it hide
     
  22. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    I am tempted to post the next tune...Someone Else...I love it so.
    But I resist--I really don't want this album by album appreciation to end...

    I know, I know –– rainbows end, but not today.

    [​IMG]
     
  23. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    In the meantime, a beautiful 2016 review of Rainbow Ends, and a well-deserved and lovely tribute to Emitt...
    while he was still with us.

    :edthumbs:


    Emitt Rhodes Returns With Rainbow Ends
    By Mark Smotroff | March 21, 2016 4:53 AM

    Emitt Rhodes Returns With Rainbow Ends


    You know, folks... we've sure lost a whole lot of famous people this year.
    Sad as that has been, there is so much to be grateful for from amazing talents
    still making fine music...


    [​IMG]

    Embracing that glass-half-full attitude, there are many cultural icons we need to support while we're all here... Topping a category I'm calling 'It ain't over 'til its over!' is a man named Emitt Rhodes (an underdog artist I've been a fan of since I was about 9 or 10 years old). Mr. Rhodes is beginning a long awaited comeback this year.

    By "long awaited" I am referring to myself and Emitt's many thousands of fans who have discovered his music over the years (some via the movie The Royal Tennenbaums). I have had Emitt Rhodes' eponymous first album since 1970, the same year I got Paul McCartney's solo debut. Like Macca's album, Emitt's oft-compared record wow'd many with his self-produced genius -- he played all the instruments and sang all the vocals on his first albums. I've given copies of Emitt's debut album to many friends who like all things Beatles, Beach Boys and sunshine infused pop.

    According to the Wiki, the album reached #29 on the Billboard charts -- it was a Top 40 hit! Yet, what should have amounted to an enormous career fell victim to the rough and tumble music industry of the late 60s and early 70s. Emitt's tale is well documented (there is even a film about him -- which I've yet to see -- called "The One Man Beatles"). In short, Emitt Rhodes was a wunderkind of the mid-60s LA pop scene, putting out fine pop-rock recordings, particularly with his band The Merry-Go-Round, and writing songs that would become hits for Fairport Convention and (later) The Bangles. Fast forward to 1970, Emitt secured a high profile but ridiculously demanding recording contract with a then big record label. This is where the ugly industry problems began, resulting in commercial mayhem despite critical acclaim for his debut. Emitt is eventually sued by his label, bows out of his recording career and endures numerous other nasty life woes... And this is just the super abridged sub-Readers Digest version of his story.

    C'mon universe, cut this guy some slack already!

    Fast forward in 2016 and that break seems to be happening finally as we have some incredibly good news to share with you, Dear Readers: the fine folks at Omnivore Records are releasing a brand new Emitt Rhodes record, his first full album since 1973! Beyond the few songs that have burbled up in recent years -- including a Record Store Day-only single release of his fine (and painfully apropos) cover of The Bee Gees' "How Can You Mend A Broken Heart" -- this is the first NEW complete Emitt Rhodes album since his then swan song, Farewell To Paradise.

    [​IMG]

    Now, before listening to this new album -- called Rainbow Ends -- I was momentarily surprised by the press release where, Producer Chris Price is quoted saying: "I view this as a continuation album, meaning it isn't meant to be recreating the sound from his first record, but instead what he might have sounded like after his third album, Farewell To Paradise, if he kept making music in the mid-to-late '70s."

    After considering his comment, I realized this approach to a new Emitt Rhodes album is a stroke of genius because it would be next to impossible to recreate the sound of Emitt's debut. That sound would instantly time-stamp the music as late-60s Beatles-esque -- not a bad thing, but ultimately limiting in its audience appeal. Whereas, aligning the new music as a follow on to the last LP marks a clear transition point where fans old and new can pick up on Emitt's story both thematically and sonically. Also, there is a large audience for mid-70s music these days, what with the whole Yacht Rock phenomenon and resurgent interest in bands like Fleetwood Mac and The Eagles.

    So, you might wonder, what defined the sound of mid-70s MOR (ie. Middle of the Road) pop-rock records? Well, first off there was no auto-tune. There was no Pro Tools digital recording and while multi-track analog tape recording enabled overdubs, mostly records were still mostly made via the time-tested practice of placing the core band together live in the studio -- capturing actual performances.

    Mix wise -- especially on singer-songwriter records -- vocals were king, often times presented fairly "dry," sometimes double tracked for thickness, often without much in the way of processing or special effect. Drums are all readily audible on these records yet they are usually tucked toward the back of the mix, especially cymbals; snare drums are not as in your face and generally the drums sound pure, like live drums -- no looping pre-produced samples back then, folks. If you really wanted to rock out while listening to James Taylor's "Your Smiling Face," you really needed to turn up your amplifier good 'n loud (which a lot of audiophiles did back in the day) to push some air from your speakers.

    Mid 70s bass is mostly centered on the low frequencies -- very little in the way of bouncy finger poppin' on the high strings going on in early to mid-70s pop records. Again, all the parts appear distinct but as a backdrop for the vocals and the artist's primary instruments -- in this case piano and guitars. Out of curiosity I popped on some mid-70s LPs by Seals & Crofts ("Diamond Girl"), Andrew Gold ("Lonely Boy") and Harry Chapin ("WOLD") to spot check if my memory was right with regard to that sound -- those recordings all take that sort of mix approach.

    For the most part, it is a sonic presentation that kinda went out the window for hit-makers by the 1980s. So when you hear Rainbow Ends, remember that it is intentionally picking up -- sonically -- at around 1974 or thereabouts. Its a cool thing and ultimately the result is that Rainbow Ends sounds quite timeless...

    Rainbow Ends is also something of a continuation lyrically. While not really a concept album, there seems to be a sense of Emitt coming full circle in life, putting past challenges in perspective and moving on. Where parts of Farewell To Paradise felt something akin to a message in a bottle tossed from a sinking ship -- consider the startling cries for help like "Holy Jesus things have all gone wrong, Everything is spinning way too fast" ("Shoot The Moon") -- Rainbow Ends finds our hero surviving, crawling up onto the shore, battered but seemingly ready for what comes next.

    [​IMG]

    On Rainbow Ends, Emitt opens up with the biographical "Dog On a Chain" and over the course of the next 35 minutes proceeds to present many life dramas ("If I Knew Then," "Its All Behind Us Now," "Isn't It So," "This Wall Between Us," "Someone Else"). "Put Some Rhythm To It" provides something of a much needed wry comic breather: "If you want to learn to dance, and if you want to find romance, all you got to do is shake your ass, and put some rhythm to it."

    Perhaps the most heartwarming thing about Rainbow Ends is how it sounds so purely like Emitt Rhodes --not his influences. He has fine tuned his own voice (the direction he was going on Farewell to Paradise). Not that those recordings with The Merry Go Round and his first solo album were derivative. No, all those wonderful Beatle-y pop influences he showcased so proudly then are just now more deeply ingrained.

    You all out there in audiophile land should know that I am reviewing this off the advance CD edition of Rainbow Ends. I'm still waiting for the vinyl pressing I pre-ordered via the Pledgemusic program. From a promotional video I saw on the Internet, there are scenes in the studio showing this was probably recorded digitally (on a Mac even).

    This isn't a slam, mind you. Actually, its a complement because this nice mellow singer songwriter-y flavored recording doesn't sound particularly harsh or digital. Even when you turn it up loud, there is a remarkable warmth that comes across. I'll put it this way: when I play this album up loud on my stereo, it doesn't hurt my ears (something that happens with many poorly made/mastered digital recordings).

    [​IMG]

    Surprisingly, and thankfully, it also does not sound particularly like any of the artists who are backing Emitt on it which includes: Roger Joseph Manning Jr. and Jason Faulkner (Jellyfish), Joe Seiders (New Pornographers), Aimee Mann, Susanna Hoffs (Bangles), composer/producer Jon Brion, Nels Cline & Pat Sansone (Wilco) and, from Brian Wilson's band, Probyn Gregory & Nelson Bragg. Nope. Rainbow Ends sounds just right, like an Emitt Rhodes album in 2016 should sound. "This Wall Between Us" is a near epic.


    The final cut and title track is a tear jerker:

    "I wanna be loved no matter what
    Not just for now
    Till better's got
    I wanna be someone's only one
    Not just for now
    Till better comes

    Always chasin' rainbow ends
    Head up in the clouds
    Thought my dreams would never end
    But my eyes they're open now"


    What else can I say? Welcome home Emitt. Your fans and friends have got your back.
    Keep following your dreams.



     
    jricc and DaveKFloyd like this.
  24. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    If you stick around long enough, just like It’s a Wonderful Life, thankfully there is a happy and more positive ending.
    ...while it’s not a happy-clappy tune; the title track "Rainbow Ends" has Rhodes, still with a broken heart,
    continuing to ‘Always chase Rainbow Ends/Head up in the clouds.’

    Which isn’t a bad way to live life, even if the very last line is ‘But my eyes are open now.’


    [​IMG]

    Emitt Rhodes – Rainbow Ends - The Rocking Magpie review

    [​IMG]
     
  25. lemonade kid

    lemonade kid Forever Changing Thread Starter

    track 5) Someone Else

    I really love this one and wish it was 6 minutes long!
    So I'll play it twice!

    As great as any that Emitt ever wrote or recorded...tugs at the heartstrings.
    Lovely.

    Love his "Woah, woah" line...really gets me, what voice.



    When you tell someone you care a lot
    Prepare yourself for a broken heart
    You think you're so strong, you think you're so brave
    You'll feel so small and be so afraid
    Woah, Woah

    You like her so much it makes you sick
    And you just can't make no sense of it
    You can't say yes, but you can't say no
    It's for you to guess, for her to know
    Woah, Woah

    Is there someone else she's thinkin of?
    Will she hold him close, give him her love
    Is there somewhere else she wants to be?
    With someone else, not with me

    I've heard it all before, a thousand lies
    When you're feeling lost you compromise
    I like her so much it makes me ill
    And it makes no sense, and it never will
    Woah, Woah

    Is there someone else she's thinkin of?
    Will she hold him close, give him her love
    Is there somewhere else she wants to be?
    With someone else, not with me

    I wish I may, I wish I might
    I must be wrong, I can't be right
    It's all my fault, it always is
    I must be crazy, shouldn't I know better than this?

    Is there someone else she's thinkin of?
    Will she hold him close, give him her love
    Is there somewhere else she wants to be?
    With someone else, not with me

    Is there someone else, woah
    Is there someone else, woah
     
    DaveKFloyd likes this.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine