C or D: Emitt Rhodes?

Dada(ismus) posted on this very thread the other day. Tom D.

oh wow. that explains so much. love dada / tom's posts

Re. his lyrics, I agree – one of my favorite tunes of his has always been “Live Til You Die,” but it was only this week that I really listened to the lyrics, poss. with an eye toward his innate unhappiness. In retrospect they feel a bit like him shouting into the abyss:

This came through the wormhole:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/2002/01/27/emitt-rhodes-lost-38/bd09f24e-7afd-4575-8ad0-0c0938c433c1/

It's not typing! Google is my co-pilot:

Ever find yourself running, running, running away
Ever find yourself hiding from the things that you feel
Ever hear yourself crying, crying, crying to someone
Won't you look down from Heaven, won't you prove you are real?
Ever lose yourself searching, searching, searching in darkness
With your questions unanswered, never knowing the truth
Ever feel yourself dying, dying, dying a slow death
Heavy laden with burdens that are stealing your youth
Ever find yourself running, running, running away
Ever find yourself hiding from the things that you feel
Ever find yourself running?

And I would agree ... one of the things I love about his lyrics is that they convey really heavy emotions and thoughts with an economy of vocabulary. So when you come across a couplet like "Heavy laden with burdens that are stealing your youth" you almost catch yourself to make sure you heard it right.

Yes indeed.

Wonder which Beatles song(s) he actually sang with The Palace Guard. You see or hear "Michelle," "Yesterday," "Norwegian Wood" and "We Can Work It Out." The last one seems to have be mentioned that enough I'm inclined to believe it.

If you don't like Bim, budo jeru, then you probably won't like this version of "Ever Find Yourself Running," by - wait for it - Marriage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uxorx0OLnzU

Ciao, Paradiso!
https://variety.com/2020/music/news/emitt-rhodes-appreciation-singer-songwriter-john-wirth-1234721593/

That was great. Thanks for sharing!

Yeah, that was really an A+ version of the classic Emitt encounter we've come to expect.

I finally learned that The Merry-Go-Round had a couple of bass players, that Rick Dey replaced Bill Rinehart. I guess I think I knew Joel Larson came and went and there was another drummer at one point, couldn't tell you his name though.

xxpost Great piece! Thanks for sharing it.

Haven’t giving you anything in almost twenty-four hours so here is this little tidbit I have been saving

I was afraid of that, didn’t quite work on the phone. Hang on a sec, please.

think this will work though

Guys, come on over to my new thread

Take us to lunch first.

Ha!

There is a Mexican restaurant up the block that makes a good iced margarita with a nice view of the Empire State Building from the sidewalk seating that I think you will like.

Feel like maybe NTI should give the last album another chance or two. Despite the deepening of the voice, the divorce discussion and the different production, underneath it all there is still his strong melodic sense.

In my mind “Isn’t It So” is getting mixed up with “Nobody Knows” by the Raspberries. Come to think of it, why isn’t Tim Ellison on this thread?

I’ll def. give it another chance – I hadn’t realized this but the supporting cast alone is insane (Hoffs, most of Jellyfish, Aimee Mann – according to a review I saw).

Isn’t It So finally clicked with me a week or so ago – the version I have on the Listen, Listen comp (recorded in 1980) has some questionable sax but a great chorus, and kind of suggests an alternate career as an MOR hitmaker. But the version on Rainbow Ends is nice as well, the strings give it a sadder, more elegiac feel.

Yes, those folks are all on there, although sometimes hard to pick them out of thie mix.

This version, I assume.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jhn_uXhtOn0
Yes, I can see how the sax would be pretty off-putting.

But the vocal is excellent.

Some more stuff from that same period, apparently. Seems to be for some Elektra project, maybe. These really don't sit well with me although the second never reappeared in any other form as far as I know so may be worth giving a try.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG97BYSQ0JQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWIriVsDRXg

Or this. Think this stuff has already been mentioned upthread.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPxbMaXOdoY

This seems an improvement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzs7Crv_3bM

Done a decade or two later.

Oh wow I’m loving the “all synths” Emitt Rhodes. Really cool.

Radio Moskow interview from Thanksgiving 2011. Interview starts about minute 70, music a few minutes before, maybe minute 67. https://echo.msk.ru/sounds/833165.html

Lasts about ten minutes. He's in good spirits.

Some serious ping-pong stereo on The Merry-Go-Round album, thought my earphones were broken for a moment.

As I converge upon the heat death of this thread, remarking that the versions of “You’re A Very Lovely Woman” on The Merry-Go-Round and on the, um zeroth solo album are exactly the same but one is maybe thirty seconds longer.

Some more stuff from that same period, apparently. Seems to be for some Elektra project, maybe. These really don't sit well with me although the second never reappeared in any other form as far as I know so may be worth giving a try.
📹
📹

I read something similar. I even heard that two of the three songs were "Isn't It So" and "More Than A Smile Will Do."

Finally listened to these. The "all synths" Emitt Rhodes is really more like Steely Emitt -- jazzy chords and melodies and heavy, er, Rhodes. "Isn't It So" is probably the best of the lot.

Here's a recent-ish interview that isn't online but the preview is: https://tapeop.com/interviews/33/emitt-rhodes/. Might be pretty interesting.

I'm finally putting on Farewell to Paradise ... will report back but I like some of the Mellotron stuff in the first few tracks.

You have to subscribe to Tape Op to get the rest of that interview (and to find out where they ate).

Speaking of "Steely Emitt", Gary Kato mentioned in the liners to the Merry Go Round comp that in the late '80s his band Bullet backed Rhodes on some "Steely Dan-quality" demos of new compositions.

Can't believe this only emerged within the last several hours. Jackie De Shannon singing "Live Till You DIe" - recorded at American Studios! Yet another dot to connect in my Arthur Alexander, um, "Theory."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMPUQECIiIM

Guess this stuff lay in the vaults until two years ago, Damn you, Emitt!
https://jazzchill.blogspot.com/2018/04/jackie-deshannon-stone-cold-soulthe.html

That cover came out as a bonus on the RPM reissue of Jackie’s “Songs” fifteen years ago or so, for what it’s worth.

Thanks. Saw that a couple of, um, songs, from that session made it onto Songs, maybe they were even re-recorded, didn't know about bonus track reissues in the interim.

So do you guys know where that house is on the self-titled cover?

Also, um, one of Emitt's ex-wives seems to be a member of the Fan Forum.

Definitely her.

that's interesting and also weird. will she tell her story ? will the fans be kind to her ?

the woman who took the photograph on the jackie deshannon album cover was married to composer teiji ito, maya deren's widower, and was the administrator of the deren estate until her death in 1999:

https://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/17/classified/paid-notice-deaths-ito-cherel-winett.html

No to the first question. To the second question, they mostly turn a blind eye if they are aware of it at all. Although one person posted this on a thread she started:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEuiyOcGfz8

His other ex-wife is on there too. I kind of feel unclean knowing this. Now that I have reported it, I will slink away in shame.

...for Mexican Coffees at Red Lobster?

Ha, I saw that coming a few light years away, using my homebrew telescope. Do you know how a telescope works? Do you know what parallax is?