Jeremiah's Music Blog: Who the hell is Emitt Rhodes?

Who the hell is Emitt Rhodes?

It wasn't until I saw this post on Metafilter that I'd realized I was missing an obscure, yet important piece of music history - the Emitt Rhodes story.

I'll leave you to read the MeFi links in your own time, but I can give you (my four regular readers) a Cliff's Notes version of this sordid tale.

36 years ago, the ABC/Dunhill label released Emitt Rhodes self-titled debut album, which had been produced entirely by Rhodes' own hands; he wrote, engineered, and performed all the material. The resulting 12-song album has been hailed by critics for decades as a defining monument of pop production, so far as to have termed the collection "The Lost Paul McCartney Album."

And listening to the samples on a tribute-website, it's easy to figure out why the comparison is made, however, Emitt's work certainly stands on its own - something NO other pop musician can really claim standing next to the Beatles.

But, as most music business stories of misery, failure and burnout go, the Devil's in the details. In this case, a few lines of text in a contract that essentially prevented Rhodes from every getting a fair deal for his work set him in an enviroment hostile to artistic development. A fine crop withered in a careless farmer's field.

If you missed out on Emitt's music the first few times around (like I did), now's a good time to get caught up, and rediscover some great music from an era when great (commercial) music was still possible. "Somebody made for youuuuuuuu, somebody made for meeeee......"

Posted by Jeremiah at October 14, 2006 01:52 AM | Tag This Post | Digg It!