Rhinofy-Emitt Rhodes

If only this was on Warner Brothers... Then Emitt Rhodes's Dunhill debut would have been considered a masterpiece, he'd be part of the firmament instead of living in the South Bay broke and disillusioned.

But that's the music business...the game is hard, even if you play to win, oftentimes you lose.

Sure, there were hits on Dunhill Records. Like Barry McGuire and the Mamas & the Papas... But the company could not make the transition to the album era, when singles were secondary and airplay on FM was all that mattered.

Furthermore, "Emitt Rhodes" was released before the age of irony, before people admitted they loved the Carpenters, before Axl Rose professed his love of Elton John. In 1971, Jethro Tull was taken seriously. Yes was breaking through. Music was heady and deep, whereas "Emitt Rhodes" was all sunny and bright, it skipped off the atmosphere, only a few people got it, but those who did...

"With My Face On The Floor"

A riff that's instantly memorable, that's only secondary to Emitt's pure voice... "With My Face On The Floor" has everything Paul McCartney was selling, but at the time it wasn't different enough to be given props, even though this album is better than most of Paul's solo stuff. It's got the changes of the Beatles' music, the harmonies... What's not to like? NOTHING!


"Somebody Made For Me"

Kind of like "Dear Prudence" follows "Back In The U.S.S.R." on the White Album, "Somebody Made For Me" is a bit slower, a bit quieter than "With My Face On The Floor," albeit without the haunting quality of "Dear Prudence"... Still, who doesn't dream of someone made for them? And there's even a bridge... Emitt studied, he knew what worked, you tell a kid about including a bridge today and they think it's got something to do with that Led Zeppelin song...


"She's Such A Beauty"

It's the keyboard that entrances. This sounds like a McCartney romp from the aforementioned White Album... An almost meaningless trifle which feels like the best spring morning, makes your problems fade away. And if you're keeping score, and you should, this is three winners in a row! Even in the album era, this was rare, despite all the backward-looking rewriting of history.


"Long Time No See"

This has got that haunting feel. And the sounds are exquisite, from the cymbal to the guitar, still it's Emitt's vocal that truly puts the song over the top. This was my favorite track on the album, because it was not made for the radio, but just for me, the at home listener, in front of the stereo, needing to have my life saved by music.


"Lullabye"

"Martha My Dear"? "Blackbird"? "Rocky Raccoon"?
This is the kind of song McCartney used to throw off effortlessly that now eludes him. Paul's now trying too hard, like with the originals on last year's "Kisses On The Bottom" album. Whereas he used to write not worried about being self-conscious, just like this.


"Fresh As A Daisy"

The piece de resistance! The track that made a bit of a dent, the one we played to try to enchant newcomers.

But either you were on the Emitt Rhodes train or you were not. Even back then, the masses were prisoners of the radio, and if it wasn't blasted over the airwaves, people didn't trust themselves to like something.

It's got the changes, the feel, and an anthemic quality!

You could do nothing but pick up the needle and drop it on the opening cut once again, to hear this masterpiece of a first side over and over again.


The second side is not quite as good...

But be sure to listen to "You Take The Dark Out Of The Night," with the guitar right off of "Beatles VI."

And "You Should Be Ashamed" has that same personal quality as "Long Time No See."

But the absolute winner on the second side is the opening cut, "Live Till You Die."

"I have to say the things I feel
I have to feel the things I say"

That's it. That's what being an artist is all about. A need to express yourself, honestly. It's why I decry the made by committee music of today. Because the artists don't feel the things they say. The late sixties and seventies were the apotheosis because the artists wrote and performed their own material, unfettered by labels. Yup, the label gave you the money, and then you just went off and did it your way. And success was such a big tent, there was little pressure to sound like everybody else, just to be good.

"You must live till you die
You must fight to survive"

And that's much harder than you think. To not check out, to not either commit suicide or become an automaton in a boring job just to get by. Life is a fight. No matter how rich or poor you might be. And it used to be that music helped us in that fight. Sure, the sound empowered us, but the words ran shotgun, kept us company.

I bought "Emitt Rhodes" because of the reviews. I don't do that anymore. Reviewing is no longer an art, but a way to fill up space in a publication. Or else it's so comprehensive, covering so many releases, that your eyes glaze over.

But in the heyday of "Rolling Stone," "Fusion" and "Crawdaddy," the reviewers were searching for truth, we followed them like beacons. And sometimes we discovered stuff like this.

You know what it's like to drop the needle on an album you've heard not a note of and become immediately enamored?

That's what it was like with "Emitt Rhodes."

Sure, he was in a band before, the Merry-Go-Round. But they never made it to the east coast.

And the similarity to McCartney and the lame label tarnished Emitt unfairly. As he moved forward, Emitt separated himself from Paul, on the follow-up, "Mirror," Emitt was definitely his own man.

But it was too late.

Singer-songwriters were making quiet music, akin to folk. Anybody who rocked a bit harder, like the Eagles, was looking to Nashville instead of London, country influences rather than the British Invasion.

I remember getting "Emitt Rhodes" in a box of albums from the Record Club of America. I remember spinning it incessantly that April. Singing the songs in my head as the fraternity tried to get me to join as I drank their Boone's Farm and ogled their girls, with no intention of signing up.

And all these years later, the album doesn't sound dated, kind of like the Beatles' music, it's forever.

Check it out. You'll love it!

P.S. Just like McCartney, Emitt Rhodes played all the instruments, engineered this album himself, producing with Harvey Bruce and assisted by mixdown engineers Keith Olsen and Curt Boettcher... Etched in the inner groove was "Recorded At Home"!

P.P.S. He was cute!


Spotify link: http://spoti.fi/p6HcZ8

Previous Rhinofy playlists: http://www.rhinofy.com/lefsetz


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