The Bigger Picture

45 Insert: Emitt Rhodes

by Bob Moses

Emitt Rhodes "Fresh As A Daisy" (1970)

When it’s 25 degrees out, you really need a sunny blast of Cali-pop, right? What could be better than a melodic genius imbued with Beatles-level hooks, hailing from Hawthorne, birthplace of the Beach Boys? You need some Emitt Rhodes.

After teen brushes with pop stardom in Merry-Go-Round (whose “You’re a Very Lovely Woman” is a must-hear), Emitt set to work on a solo project, free of demanding band members, pushy label guys, and touring schedules. In fact, free of everything but his instruments and a four-track in a shed behind his parents’ house.
Emitt Rhodes
The result, his 1970 release Emitt Rhodes, has long occupied a treasured place in the hearts of pop obsessives. Yes, there is an undeniable Beatles influence, underlined by Rhodes’s Paul-like looks, voice and fondness for the music hall. But I think there’s more going on. The preternatural gifts for song structure and arrangement expressed at such a young age could only result in more innocent songs, a look back to a reassuring pop craftsmanship. In 1970, The Beatles themselves documented their internal chaos and anxiety on Let It Be and were no more by the end of the year. The world can be forgiven for searching for what they loved in the first wave of Beatlemania and finding it where they may — even insisting that Emmit Rhodes must actually be The Beatles. Check the clip below if you don’t believe that was possible. I bought Emmit Rhodes when it was first released, and clung to it like a lifeline. Just barely a teenager, who needed more confusion and anxiety? And that’s what our battling Beatle heroes offered that year.

Recording Emitt Rhodes was something of a feat, as he describes on his official web site:

"I'd lay down a click track," Emitt says. "A metronome, to keep a constant beat. To set the tempo. Then on top of that I'd play the piano. Then I'd put down, like tambourine and I'd combine that with drums. I'd put down bass and I'd combine that with the rhythm guitar. Then I'd put down the lead." He would have to record one instrument part at a time on the four-track machine — laying down drums on one track, playing guitar on the next, percussion on a third — then mixing them all down to the fourth track so as to free up the first three for new parts. (The Beatles employed the very same technique in the recording of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, among others, though they had the luxury of being four separate musicians and having George Martin and Geoff Emerick to perform the more technical tasks.) For Emitt, wearing all the hats, it was a very time consuming process. "Then after I'd finished all the tracks, I'd transfer them to an eight-track." The eight-track machine was one that he rented and brought back to his studio. After transferring the instruments from the four-track to the eight-track, he would lay down vocals on the eight-track's leftover tracks.

Our 45 Insert, “Fresh As A Daisy” peaked at #54 on the Billboard charts. Emitt Rhodes managed to hit #29 by early 1971, despite A&M Records rushing out a competing disc of Merry-Go-Round demos when “Fresh As A Daisy” picked up radio steam in LA.

Emmit Rhodes quit at 24, after battling record labels and his own early, fresh-faced success. According to his site, Rhodes still has 30 years of unreleased demos and unrecorded songs in his home studio across the street in Hawthorne where he recorded Emitt Rhodes. Maybe someday.

In the meantime, for extra credit, here’s a medley of Merry-Go-Round clips from the Hollywood Palace tv show — complete with a Don Knotts intro!

Previously in 45 Insert: Classics IV

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