Emitt Rhodes died this week. He never made much of an impact on the charts in the UK despite being championed on Alan Freeman’s radio show. It’s still sad to see him go.
There’s a mellotron sound here (I’m a sucker for a bit of mellotron) and echoes of Barclay James Harvest.
Emitt Rhodes: Till the Day After
This one’s a bit more rocky.
Emitt Rhodes: Really Wanted You
Emitt Lynn Rhodes: 25/2/1950 – 19/7/2020. So it goes.
Neither was the group’s biggest hit in the UK – at least according to chart position. They reached no 12 and no 7 respectively. However, as a no 4, their hit She’d Rather Be With Me, which came between those two, was more successful.
Maybe because it’s a kind of happy-go-lucky, cheer you up song.
A nice glimpse of Alan Freeman in this clip form Top of the Pops.
As I mentioned last week DJ Alan “Fluff” Freeman championed Emitt Rhodes (once of the Merry-Go-Round) when his first solo album came out in 1970, but that still didn’t make for much success in the UK.
On that self-titled LP there’s a strong feel of the Beatles feel to most of Rhodes’s songs, with a hint of Gerry Rafferty in the vocals.
Here are Live Till You Die and the more “pop”py Fresh as a Daisy.
I came across this when I was searching for Emitt Rhodes songs. It seems he started out in The Merry-Go-Round. Being a US (minor) hit I hadn’t heard it before or at least didn’t recall it. I do remember Alan Freeman championing Emitt Rhodes when his first solo album came out, in 1970 I think.
There’s a Zombies feel to the introductory guitar and the “strings” sound very like a mellotron to me.
This is probably the track which really switched me on to prog rock. I had been softened up by Procol Harum and had, I think, a few Moody Blues LPs by this time but this was something different.
I heard The Court Of The Crimson King for the first time on Pick of the Pops. Alan Freeman did not just play the top twenty but other more eclectic stuff. I particularly remember the name Rabbi Abraham Feinberg.
Anyway, one day this came on and I thought “Wow. What is that?”
King Crimson: In The Court Of The Crimson King (including “The Return of the Fire Witch” and “The Dance of the Puppets”)
